TomTom BT GPS Reciever Chipsets

Falkien · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 48

I purchased a TomTom for Palm BT set last March and it's been working well since the last update.
On the bottom of my BT GPS receiver it has a a little E 24 logo - Is this and indication of the GPS chipset it uses?

This week I purchased a new Palm BT set for my Father-in-Law and his BT GPS receiver has a Sirf Xtrac2 logo on the bottom.

The new receiver is much quicker to get a position from cold and is even getting a 4 satelite lock indoors! Whereas mine will not even find one Sat signal
It looks like TomTom have upgraded the chipset used since I bought mine

It's good news for anyone considering the TomTom BT option

Dave

DavidW · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:04 pm Post subject:

The E24 logo, especially if it's circular, is to do with EU approval for in car use.

All the TomTom Bluetooth GPSes are SiRFstar IIe/LP based; yours clearly is running standard SiRF firmware (known as GSW2). Your father's unit is running SiRF XTrac II firmware.

The differences have been mentioned various times in the forums; XTrac will work with poorer signals, but the compromise is that there's a few features in GSW2 that aren't in XTrac II (particularly support for SBAS - WAAS and EGNOS), and some people have found XTrac II firmware gives inaccurate positions in some circumstances, (the one that's been mentioned is when walking when the GPS has a poor view of the sky).

For in-car use, XTrac II seems fine (unlike the original XTrac, which tended to show a position lag in-car).

David

Falkien · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 48

Thanks David

interesting, I guess it's just chance my XTrac reciever couldn't find any signals in the same location that the XtracII found 4 good ones

I don't suppose the firmware is 'downloadable' or reprogramable in any way?

I'm an Electronics Engineer, and I've been itching to take the unit apart since I got it ;-)

Dave

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