Sysonchip CF GPS firmware update

stevep · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 19, 2003 Posts: 5

Please can anyone provide me with a link or actual files required to update my SysonChip CF Plus card to latest firmware? Almost given up with it now due to unaccepatble lag. Returned once to Korea 6 months ago for update which reduced sensitivity but not lag!

Any help appreciated or send PM.

Thanks,

Steve

Mapwalker · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 04, 2004 Posts: 35

The procedure is described in a German Forum and is quite complicated. Take your time to read it and don't forget: you need to insert the Syson in a PCMIA-CF-adapter otherwise it won't work!

http://www.pocketnavigation.biz/board/thread.php?threadid=15803&sid=996c7f51bb9c15d86ec42c1646ae4680&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=&page=12

stevep · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 19, 2003 Posts: 5

The link in the forum to sirf.com is now dead. Do you still have the files you could send me?

Also, reading through the posts is says that the demo Sirf firmware expires in Aug 04, is your card still working?

Thanks,

Steve

Mapwalker · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 04, 2004 Posts: 35

The downloadpage at Sirf.com is dead for more than a week now.
They promised to come up with a version that would work after august as well but they didn't keep their promise.
I have a v2.0 flash-image that works, got it from someone and don't know where he found it.

Send me a pm containing your email-address and I will send you all necessary files. Wink

DavidW · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:50 pm Post subject:

I just want to inject a note of caution into this thread.

SiRF's policy, as I understand it, is not to provide support to end users - that includes the supply of documentation and certainly firmware files.

The page on the German forums referenced, in my quick translation, talks about firmware versions that are rather old. Certainly for standard (GSW2) SiRF firmware version 2.32 is released now, as you can see from the version strings of the ST and XT firmware in my Fortuna Clip On that are in my signature. Those versions are what shipped in my Clip On. I have no idea what SiRF XTrac II release the Fortuna firmware relates to - that's the firmware version string it reports.

My 18 month old Haicom HI-303MMF, which runs standard SiRF firmware, has 231.000.000ES, which I presume to be a very early, maybe Engineering Sample, 2.31 build. Again, that's the version it shipped with.

Very few companies that ship SiRF based GPSes support end-user firmware upgrades; to my knowledge only Fortuna has done this, and even they now appear to have backed away from end user upgrades. I wonder if the XTrac II version string on my Clip On is to show up anyone who's got hold of a Fortuna upgrader and used it on a GPS supplied by another company.

Changing the firmware version on a SiRF based GPS yourself using files not supplied by the GPS manufacturer is, in my opinion, unwise. If the firmware flash goes wrong, you'll almost certainly render the GPS useless. There's also potential licence issues in changing firmware type; I believe SiRF may licence XTrac firmware separately from GSW2 firmware, and loading one on a device licensed for the other may break the licence agreement.

I would certainly expect any warranty to be void on a GPS where the end-user has changed the firmware.

My experience is that XTrac II firmware is fine for in-car navigation use; I don't have anything with original XTrac firmware to try it, so I have no first hand experience of the reported lag. Standard SiRF firmware is also fine.

It would help if those suffering lag problems knew what firmware was on their GPSes - there are ways of getting hold of the version strings, such as starting the GPS with a serial terminal running (SiRF based GPSes spit out the firmware version when they start up). That may give an idea as to the reason for the lag. If, for example, the firmware string is for standard SiRF firmware, it's unlikely that GPS firmware is the issue.

Whilst I appreciate there are delays involved, it would seem best to contact SysOnChip or your dealer and see if you can arrange for either recent standard SiRF or XTrac II firmware to be loaded onto a laggy GPS.

David

Mapwalker · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 04, 2004 Posts: 35

Thanks, David for your reply.

In my opinion I didn't do anything wrong or illegal by flashing my Syson CF plus Xtrac v1 to v2.0. The ROM-image as well as all software required to flash the gps was available on Sirf.com until recently. It just was available for all of us to download along with some other good software like SiRFXTracDemo. It is not available anymore or did I oversee a link?

As a matter of fact they provided a ROM-image that would stop working early august but they also promised to provide a working version before this date would end! I have been looking frequently for this update the last 3 month's but they never put it on their download-page.

Maybe they changed their policy lately and now only provide downloads to registered companies as the download-link is dead for 1-2 weeks now.

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