Faulty Fortuna???? Please Help.

[scatter]

In contrast to all the negative info on this subject, my experience is quite positive. Unit came with 2.24UK version, and the serial cable. I had already read quite some stuff on this, so knew I HAD TO upgrade to 2.26.
After some muddling about, I found THE proper document at the fortuna site ( www.fortuna.com.tw/download ) under .......case closed.zip
Also the 2.26s itself and the LATEST forunasync (april, NOT december).
Although I found it VERY quick most of the times to get a FIX, I also found that it has difficulty of getting a fix WHILE MOVING (e.g. in the car). Once it has/had that fix, it reconnects instanly when driving through a tunnel.
Also I found it lasts 3-5 hours with BT on a set of rechargables.
I does everything the manual promises. .....But we want more don't we? If only they could get FortunaSync to works stable/properly. And wouldn't it be really great if they got around to TEXT/ASCII interface for the tracks,marks,and waypoints. That part is still missing.... But not promised in any advertising either ! I really hope they can get a FortunaSync 1.2 out of beta testing that has these features, but in combination with OziExplorer on my iPAQ2210 it already has everything I need.

[roger_fylde]

Its back!!
New unit received from TAIWAN yesterday. Couldn't fix my original unit so they sent me a new one (2.26 firmware).
Got it straight out of the box, inserted 3 ni-mh aaa. Changed time to be GMT+1 and set off in car - driving -
I got a fix - from cold - in less than 30 seconds. WOW!
Been playing for a day - gets a fix all the time, outside, in less than 10 seconds. THIS IS MORE LIKE IT!!
For all those of you with ones that don't do this - upgrade to 2.26 - if it still doesn't work SEND IT BACK - its faulty!!

Roger

[Philip]

OK, I've just upgraded my GPSmart from 2.25 to 2.26 using FortunaSync. Pretty painless procedure, the only issue was getting my laptop to allocate a sensible COM port to the USB/Serial driver.

Two questions:

1) Does anybody know what exactly has changed between 2.25 and 2.26? I can't find release notes anywhere.
2) Is the GPSmart instruction manual available as a PDF?
_________________
Philip

[rafku]

Hi GPS-ers

I just got my GPSmartBT. It has v2.25 and I want to upgrade to 2.26
I have a Win2k laptop and went ahead an installed the profilic USB-Serial drivers. They come up on COM4.

FortunaDEMO works: get my NMEA, Saty's, Position etc constantly fed in.

But I cannot communicate with the GPS in FortunaSync or SIRFdemo.

In fortunaSync I activate the com port -> OK.
I press Link to GPS and it seems OK, EXCEPT that if I wait a few seconds the connection gets lost (the button re-activates)

If I don't wait by try to Download from GPS (I figure better first try that before scary upgrade procedure...), by choosing Download and pressing Execute, the operation fails with Target Not Respond msg.

Can someone tell me what do i need to fix? I tried this on my desktop as well (Win2K again) same result.

One particular question: Some Fortuna Docs suggest that I should have TWO new devises (drivers) loaded: the USB-COM port in Ports section (I have that) and something in USB Controlers section in Device Manager. But I don't have that. Can someone let me know if they see this second device?

Thanks,
rafal

PS: I should say I use original Fortuna USB cable and I set the com port to 38400 in the Device manager menu.

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