Good news for GPSmart BT users

pello · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 6:05 am Post subject: Good news for GPSmart BT users

Although only in beta at this time the "Fortunasync" program allows you to connect to the GPS from your PC using the proprietory USB to Serial cable which incidentally uses a Prolific driver. With this app. you can upload firmware updates, waypoints, routes etc. as well as being able to set all the menu options to configure your GPS. An unpublished fact came from my tinkering though, I managed to switch the unit into SiRF mode by accident & had a problem getting it back to NMEA. I wasn't aware this unit had a SiRF mode, it's not in the specs. or advertising. I wonder if the manufacurers know Question

Dave · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:47 am Post subject:

90% of GPS's use the SiRF chipset, so should be switchable to SiRF.

Philip · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 10:46 pm Post subject:

The specs for the GPSmart on the Fortuna website certainly mentions SiRF.

Where did you get the Fortunasync program from?
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Philip

pello · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 2:32 am Post subject:

Yes you are right, I missed that ref. completely however I was going by the manual that came with my unit & there was no mention there. Also with the advantage of a display & menu opton on the receiver itself it would have been nice to see an option to switch there, perhaps this is an item I could send them for the user wish list?
The "Fortunasyc" can be downloaded from this link.

Peter

Philip · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:24 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the link!

http://www.fortuna.com.tw/Support.htm currently has firmware upgrades (dated "2004/1") for the GPSmart and GPSmart BlueTooth. However (like Fortunasync) they have Beta in their names, so I'm a bit reluctant to load them.

I can't find any mention of what's included/changed in the new firmware - sadly, the Fortuna website is not exactly the most informative in the world :-(

Anybody have any more info? Dave - do you have a contact at Fortuna who could clarify?
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Philip

Dave · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:49 pm Post subject:

Unfortunately not, we've tried to open communication with Fortuna but not received any responses to our emails.

bowser · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 21, 2004 Posts: 1

Does anyone knows how to work with the FortunaSync properly? How can I download all waypoints and tracks? And upload them? All I can do is to change the GPS settings and renaming some Marks, Routes and Waypoints. I also can add a new waypoint but whenever I try to create a new mark I get an “run-time error (6) Overflow” and then FortunaSync crashes… By the way, what’s the difference between Marks and Waypoints?

gpsheppard · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 01, 2004 Posts: 5

Philip · Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:40 pm Post subject:

I have just upgraded my GPSmart from 2.25 to 2.26 and am having problems connecting to my XDA2. I wonder if I am in SiRF mode?

1) How can you tell if you are in SiRF mode?
2) How do you change between SiRF and NMEA?
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Philip

Philip · Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2004 11:07 am Post subject:

Sorry to follow up my own posting, but just in case anybody is searching the archives to find out how to change the GPSmart from SiRF to NMEA (e.g., after using FortunaSync) ...

All you need to do is to remove the batteries for a few minutes and it will reset itself to NMEA.
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Philip

micken · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 05, 2004 Posts: 1

Philip I am a :D xdaII user thinking of buying the Fortuna clip-on and came across this thread. What navigation software are you using and what are your thoughts on it?

I am going to France this summer and I have seen Fortuna/PrymeNav bundled for a very good price.

I might go for this and then upgrade to Co-pilot v.5 when that arrives.

Happy navigating.

gpsheppard · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 01, 2004 Posts: 5

scatter · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 27, 2004 Posts: 3

Anyone having done a firmware upgrade (e.g. 2.24UK to 2.26) should've been aware that Sirf and NMEA modes are available and can be switched. The "Sirf Demo.exe" program provides these facilities.
FortunaSync leaves the GPSmart in Sirf mode, so Sirf Demo it normally used to switch it back.
FortunaSync is still in Beta, and quite erratic (especially on input format checking ... runtime error). It does leave a memory dump file on the PC however, so with some clever program + a data-structure from this dump, the up/download facilities can be made.
The actual up/download is done through the sirfflashcl.exe program.

Currently it seems the people at Fortuna are not being very responsive, I'm not seeing any progress on their end.

DeeJay · Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:14 pm Post subject:

"FortunaSync is still in Beta, and quite erratic (especially on input format checking ... runtime error). It does leave a memory dump file on the PC however, so with some clever program + a data-structure from this dump, the up/download facilities can be made. "

I agree with the observations about FortunaSync crashing with input errors.

I don't think what I have done is particularly clever, and I might have misunderstood some parts of the data-structure (which is not documented by Fortuna) but I HAVE just finished the first phase of a program which is able to extract Waypoint and Trackpoint information from the READFILE.FEC memory image created by the run of SiRFflashCL that is spawned by FortunaSync. The program is a text-console application for Win32, developed under WinXP-Home, but also tested on Win2K-Pro.

The Waypoint and Trackpoint coordinates are written to a simple text file in CSV format, in a form that can be easily read by 'GPS_Utility' - see: www.gspu.co.uk.

I do not feel ready to release this code for use by others yet, but would like to have other copies of READFILE.FEC to examine. (At the moment I have a sample of 2 - my own, and the example shipped with FortunaSync.)

So, if you have installed and run FortunaSync and have a copy of READFILE.FEC containing the memory image of your own GPSmart, and would like a transcript of the Waypoints and Tracks, would you consider zipping it up and emailing it to me, as an attachment, at the email address (suitably modified) in my signature below?
In return I will send you back a copy of the CSV text file with the information that I find in the memory image. I do not intend to use the information you provide for any purpose other than refinement of my code, but if your location or movements are the least bit sensitive I suggest you do not accept this offer.

At a later stage I hope to develop the code further so that routes planned using well-known PC-based GPS applications can be encoded into a new copy of READFILE.FEC for subsequent upload back into the GSPmart - but that depends on, among other things, fully understanding the memory data structures, so may be some time yet!

DeeJay · Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:18 pm Post subject:

Sorry to follow-up on myself, but the setting 'always attach my signature' seems to have been ignored! Hopefully it WILL be on this one?
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DeeJay
Leicester, UK

e: PktGPS ["AT"] DavidRoberts.Org.UK

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