Disappointed with Emtac Sleeve

[Alun]

I have just bought an Emtac Sleeve after suffering long TTFF with the Navman 3000. The Emtac sleeve does have a much faster TTFF than the Navman normally only a few seconds but when using it in the car it struggles to hold a lock on more than 2 sats. I have once seen 5 sats but that did not last for more than a minute, this makes using it in car almost impossible. I am using TTN 2.05, with an iPAQ 3630, using a vent mount in a VW Passat. The Navman would nearly always see a minimum of 4 sats in the car and on occasion would hit 9, this is in the same car with the same mount.



Do I need an external antenna or should I just ditch the Emtac and stick with the slow TTFF of the Navman ?

[Dave]

It sounds to me that you probably need a re-rad antenna. Check by getting a fix outside the car and see how many sats you have, then move inside the car, and see if it drops substantially. If it does, then you probably need a re-rad.

[Alun]

Thanks, what are the pros and cons of a re rad versus the active antenna that that I can attach directly to the jacket.

[Dave]

Personally I would go with an antenna if you have the option. The difference is a power boost, but in most cases it's not required. The Re-Rad's require an accessory socket to power the active antenna and to re-radiate the GPS signal. Most active antenna's will work perfectly okay.



It does depends on whether you have a heat reflective windscreen though.

[JimC]

I had an emtac sleeve for a short while and had problems with it obtaining a fix and sometimes very long TTFFs, but once locked on it would hold onto 5 or so satellites while travelling on the front seat of my car (2001 Mondeo).



In discussion with the supplier about the struggle to get fixes they thought it might be faulty so offered an exchange, but I chose to go for the emtac BT rather than try a second sleeve, so can't say if another one would have been better.
_________________
Jim

[johnmar]

Alun, I am using an EMTAC Sleeve on an iPAQ 3830 with TTN2. Although I have suffered instability and lockup problems in the past with the set-up (now seems to be resolved), I have always been pleased with the performance of the EMTAC.



I am also using v2.05 (main program & GPS driver) and have certainly noticed that the new driver does now re-acquire a good fix after the system has been turned off and on for a short period. What settings are you using for the GPS driver? This may be affecting the situation.



The number of sats does of course vary according to conditions, but I get up to 9 sometimes reducing to 1. Signal re-acquisition is fast after passing through tunnels etc.



If you were successfully using the Navman inside the same car etc. then reception shouldn't be a problem. There may be a fault with your sleeve.



Hope this helps.
_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[Alun]

John, What settings have you set the sleeve to I have done nothing special and just selected Emtac GPSJAC as the GPS unit and GPSJAC as the com port in TTN 2.05, I agree the signal reaquisition is fast but it looses it so often it is really unusable. This is in the same car in the sane position that the Navman was and worked successfully but with long TTFF's.



The supplier has offered to change the unit but I just want to prove its not the car or iPAQ setup first before I have to post it back to them.

[johnmar]

Alun, I am basically using the same settings as you, EMTAC GPSJAQ and CoPilotiJacket_GPS, which is how it is recognised in my 3800 series, it uses a different Com port from 3600, 3700 etc.



The reason I asked was because there is a an EMTAC Crux driver option which I don't think is as good.



By the way, have you tried installing and using the CruxView driver which came with the sleeve in order to set-up and test the unit. If you just run that without Tom Tom you should be able to determine whether the sleeve is working, without being influenced by TTN2.



I don't know whether this is relevant, but I power the system when in the car via the EMTAC socket rather than through the iPAQ. It shouldn't make any difference, but it might help to indicate whether there is a hardware problem, with the sleeve possibly connected with its ability to hold data???




_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[ColinS]

Alun, I've been running an external antenna on mine for several months and about 15,000 miles. I did lose the lock once but that was in the Dartford Tunnel.



My advice is don't think twice about it. Go buy an antenna.



Colin

[Alun]

Colin, I now have an external antenna and it has transformed the performance of the sleeve, almost instant locks and had 11 sats yesterday, this is with the antenna inside the car on the dashboard. All I can say about the reviews saying the Emtac sleeve is great in car, it may have worked in your car but it does not work in the, 2002 model, VW Passat or Golf.

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