Help! HI-303MMF to PC with PS/II to USB adapting cable

Maxxq · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 22, 2004 Posts: 5

I can not get it to work.
I have HAICOM HI-303 MMF GPS receiver connected to my laptop (WIN XP) with mini-1394 to PS/II and then PS/II to USB adapting cable.
GPS gets power and LED flashing but none of my GPS programs can get connected with that.
Route 66, Destinator 2, Haicom Viewer 1.0, EMTRcvr 2.5.
When I connect to GPS with Hyper Terminal I get just strange symbols.
I have tryed to uninstall and install several times and tryed on another PC with no success.
Have tryed to change COM port both in Device Manager and in my programs.
GPS receiver worked OK when connected thrue Compact Flash reader.

Pictures from my install: http://217.215.35.5/gps

Sorry for my english

DavidW · Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 7:13 pm Post subject:

Your English is great and your web page contains full information, which is close enough to English Windows XP that I think I can recognise everything. If only everyone asking a question would provide such comprehensive information!

It all looks correct, apart from the serial port speed - that should be 4800. What happens with those settings? Do you then get recognisable NMEA sentences (if you're not sure, cut and paste a little of the output, or add a new screen shot to your web page).

David

Maxxq · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Thanks for your response!

I changed speed to 4800 but problem persist. New screen shots on web page:

http://217.215.35.5/gps

DavidW · Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:19 pm Post subject:

The bottom screen shot on the page shows correct NMEA output - though you hadn't left the GPS running long enough with a good view of the sky to get a position lock.

You've got there, for example:

$GPGGA,170946.000,59xx.yyyy,N,017aa.bbbb,E,0,00,50.0,32.5,M,23.4,M,0.0,0000*78

(I've corrupted the exact longitude and latitude with xx.yyyy and aa.bbbb - all of x, y, a and b were digits in the original)

I'm not going to decode everything there, but, reading from the left, at 17:09:46 UTC, the position was 59 degrees xx.yyyy minutes N, 17 degrees aa.bbbb minutes E, position invalid (that next 0 should become a 1 or 2 when you have a fix), 00 satellites being tracked (that should change to at least 3, if not more) - and I'll leave the rest, which is altitude, DGPS and checksum information.

Leave the thing running for half an hour or so with a good view of the sky - then try again with your software. If, in the line that begins $GPGGA (the so called GGA sentence) you have a 1 or 2 after the E, or W, (depending on where you are), you then have a position lock.

It's then a case of seeing up your software to use the same COM port (with 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no handshaking) as you're using in HyperTerminal.

David

Maxxq · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Last two pictures showing GPS connected thru Compact Flash reader (that worked all of the time) but pictures above showing GPS connected to USB and not working. I wont to get it to work thru USB.

DavidW · Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:41 pm Post subject:

OK - I'm with you now - sorry for the confusion. I hope my last post tells you what you're looking for when you get it working.

My Haicom USB cable does work under Windows XP. The serial port speed settings do have to be 4800, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no handshaking.

The cable drivers that I've used that I know work on my setup (HI-303MMF, Haicom USB cable, Windows XP Professional SP1) are the WHQL 2.0.0.18 drivers from Prolific (who make the PL-2303 USB to serial chip that Haicom use in their cable). You can get those from here (I hope that link will keep working - if not, go to http://tech.prolific.com.tw and press the Download button, then USB 1.1 under Smart I/O IC, then PL-2303 USB to Serial bridge controller, then the lower of the two Go buttons, then choose the WHQL driver).

If that doesn't get you going, I'm a bit stumped.

David

Maxxq · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 22, 2004 Posts: 5

When I use driver 2.0.0.18 I get error can not open COM port. Tried to install on second PC but I get the same error. With drivers 1.3.0.0 and 1.5.0.0 I can connect to COM but I get just strange symbols in Hyper Terminal.
I am beginning to wonder if I get a right cable (PS2USB). 303MMF comes from www.buyGPSnow.com but cable from http://www.clover.se/shop/csc_article_details.php?nPos=0&nArticleID=97&VID=ovwlVesnhx10VyTx

DavidW · Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 3:08 pm Post subject:

I'm pretty sure that's the only cable there is - it sounds like the right one. I've got one here - it's about 300mm long, a USB A plug at one end, a 6 pin mini-DIN female at the other, and a small black box in the middle that contains the electronics.

I don't understand why the drivers I recommended won't install - they do work fine for me, though it's possible that Haicom have somehow changed the cable (mine is around a year old).

If you have a hardware problem, I'd think it more likely to be the USB cable than the GPS, as the GPS works correctly in CompactFlash mode, and the serial port in the side connects in between the GPS part and the CompactFlash part.

Unfortunately, though, I can't explain what is happening for you.

David

Maxxq · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 22, 2004 Posts: 5

@David. Thanks for your help. I got a new mini-1394 to PS/II cable from www.buygpsnow.com and now all works fine.

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