Smart ST with Non NAVMAN Bluetooth Receiver.

trooperman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 09, 2004 Posts: 7

Spending hours trying to work out the best way to upgarde from v1.96 to v 3 of Smart ST Pro for the whole of Europe (and most of this time spent on the "Navman Store" pages), I decided that if I purchased a non Navman Bluetooth GPS receiver (such as a Globalsat Bt-338) and then purchased the Pan European Regional CD for GPS4420 complete with V3 software, then I could have Navman V3 working for about £100 less than buying a GPS4420 and then the pan european map unlock.

This would, of course, be a complete waste of money unless Smart ST pro 3 works with non-navman receivers.

Does anyone know whether it would work ?

Thanks,
Mark Question

Tim Buxton · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:56 pm Post subject:

Yes. From V1.96, Navman's software was not tied to its own receivers. I often use SmartST V3 with my Garmin GPS10 receiver.
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Tim

trooperman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 09, 2004 Posts: 7

Thanks for the reply. My next step is to buy the pan european maps with Smart ST Pro V3 software as a package and see if it objects on install to not having installed the Navman GPS4420 with 1 region bundle.

Mark Smile

Tim Buxton · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:14 pm Post subject:

Shouldn't be a problem.
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Tim

trooperman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 09, 2004 Posts: 7

Well, I spent my money and I now have Smart St Pro V3 and a Globalsat BT-338. The receiver is fantastic ! and works great with Fugawi, OziEplorer etc, but Smart ST Pro is another story.

If I start ST Pro3 with the GPS port enabled, it crashes out right away- So I have to shut down Bluetooth, then start Navman, then start Bluetooth, back to ST Pro 3, select the Com port and then it works ! (Plenty of free memory on my Ipaq Rx3715 and a super fast SD Ram card)

I love the imroved Version3, with all the extra features over Version 2, but another Bug has already been encountered-sometimes when it starts a re-route , it crashes out.

With Ver 1 before the service packs, Smart ST was a truly bug-ridden bit of software. I do hope Vesion 3 is not the same.

Can you image St Pro V3 crashing out whilst towing a caravan across europe and having to do all the Bluetooth song and dance routine before I can reboot the unit and resume a route !!!!!!

I have left a message with Navman Tecnical support, but I guess I wont get a reply for a while.

Is there hope for this product. ?

Trooperman Sad

icsys · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 5:17 pm Post subject:

trooperman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 09, 2004 Posts: 7

Thanks for the reply. I managed to get through to Navman and they confirmed the same. However , the Rx3715 used to be compatible. ( I knew I checked the compatibility table, although not recently), but an upgraded firmware by HP caused the problem.

Navman put the problem in HP's court.

Now considering different options to get a reliable set-up ............
8O

icsys · Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:23 pm Post subject:

That seems to ring true.

The very early hx4700 was also compatible until a firmware upgrade. It was assumed this problem was being addressed by HP but it would seem that it has not.

There was a 3rd party patch available specifically for the 3715 and 4700 to address the BlueTooth issue. Although originally aimed at TomTom users it may work for you.

Should you decide to try it the patch is available here
_________________
Ian.
iPAQ 2210 | Navman 4100 BT Receiver
Navman iCN 635
TomTom GO
Anquet OS mapping

trooperman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 09, 2004 Posts: 7

Thanks, for the tip, but I managed to Exchange the RX3715 for 1 that is listed , even today, as compatible - Hx2110. But it has THE SAME PROBLEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot start STPRO 3 with Bluetooth enabled . Advice from Navman is "disable BT, start ST PRO3 and then Start BT" - so the song and dance act is still required, even with a "compatible" ipaq.

That's not too bad when starting-out on a journey, but if you need to reset Navman (which was common with Ver1) then I would have to locate a laybay in order to peform the operation. !!!

:x

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

Oh how this sounds familiar! I have smart ST V3 running on an SPV M2000. Navman say they don't support it. It locks on startup if Active Sync is enabled (whats the point of a PDA without smart sync enabled!). I can only start it out of the cradle then put it back in which is a 2 handed operation. It loses Northern England every time I start it which requires a map reload (i live in...... you've guessed it..... Northern England!). And I regularly tow a 25ft twin axle caravan on unknown roads. The dream of hitting that satnav button and navigating across continents is long gone! I always have a guage for new technology: If I gave it to my mum, could she use it? With this software I think the answer is no.

I installed Tom Tom Navigator 5 on the exact same hardware. it ran straight away. Its smooth and the user interface is simple. The map detail is nowhere near as good as Navman but it does the job better. Doesn't impress your passengers as much but thats a sad reason to buy nav software anyway.

As Smart ST V3 is unsupported on my device I'm asking my retailer for a switch to Tom Tom. Won't hold my breath though.

Trouble is you buy the dream and inherit the reality! Trooperman I feel your pain :-)

londonstone · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 02, 2005 Posts: 12

I'm not sure if this will help you guys or not, as I believe the HP PDA's you are referring to are both PocketPC and not PalmOS devices.

But there is a PalmOS application that enables you to turn Bluetooth on an off at the push of one of the PDA buttons (any one you assign it to).

I reckon that if you could find a similar application for the PDA's you own, it would make life easier.

londonstone · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 02, 2005 Posts: 12

I had a quick look and found this PocketPC program, that should allow you to turn BT on and off at the push of a button....

http://www.vitotechnology.com/en/products/buttonmapper.html

If the BT function isn't directly supported, tt allows you to record stylus stroke macros, which should mean you can do anything you normally have to pull into a layby to do, whilst still driving.

Let me know if you try it and if it works.

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

In order to keep things straight, I did go away from Navman but the ActiveSync issue is with my holux cradle and NOT Navman. Although I still have issues with the NavMan software i think its only fair to correct an incorrect post. For what its worth the issue involves dismantling your Holux CR 100 and atacking it with a craft knife....... the joys of GPS!!! Details are in the discussions following the review if you need to check it. http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=69106#69106

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