Lifedrive loses Bluetooth GPS connection

[Guido]

Pathaway 4 works great, but I only have one big problem. When navigating I always lose connection with my gps. This can happen after some minutes or after half an hour. I see then that my position on the map no longer changes ans then I get the message "no response from GPS". When trying to activate the connection, a window appears " Bluetooth Serial Port, preparing ..." and then, after some time, I get the message : "invalid gps device configuration, Err : 780".
When this happens, and it happens nearly each trip, the only thing I can do is a hard reset of my device. After that I can start again ...
This problem (losing connection) does not happen with TomTom or Cetus ...
When closing Pathaway after losing connection, I can start TomTom without problems ...
Is this a bug in Pathaway or what does the error-message tells ??? Is this message (Err : 780) generated by Pathaway or by Palm OS or by ... ?

Thanks in advance,

Guido

[astawowc]

Have exactly same problem on my LifeDrive. There is no problem when using Tungsten T3 or M515. Didn't find a solution yet but suspect that LifeDrive's bluetooth serial port has something to do with this.

Cheers
Andrew

[p_vanderlinden]

Have the same problem as you describes on my Lifedrive. Do not know what the reason is, but I will follow your topic and hope someone will show us the solution. The application is great but the time you can use the application each time is just a couple of minutes.

[Scott]

Some things you can try:
- Set the baud rate to as low as the GPS can handle. Ie. 4800 baud.
- Try the other NMEA settings. NMEA-HOLUX and NMEA-NAVMAN use slightly different techniques.

We are working to figure out the exact problem. It does appear to be a problem with the LifeDrive bluetooth communications.

[Guido]

Thanks, Scott.
I appreciate you takes this problem serious and I look forward to a solution for this problem. PW4 is great (when it works) ans I would use it nearly daily ...

Guido

[p_vanderlinden]

Dear Scott,
Thanks for your suggestions. I changed my settings according your advice. Unfortunately this did not solve the problem.
I really hope you (or your team) could find out the real reason causing this problem. Other suggestions to experiment with are always welcome. Appreciate your efforts.
Kind Regards,
Pieter

[Minjin]

As Guido has asked to me because I don't have the same problem as you. Here are my settings.



Maybe the receiver has a problem !? Try to connect the receiver to another PDA or computer.
Or connect another receiver to your PDA. Ask a friend or a shop to help you.

I hope you'll fixe your problem.

[p_vanderlinden]

Hello Minjin,
Thanks for your suggestion about the baud-setting. I tried this setting, however, it did not solve the problem. After a minute or two the communication is terminated. Do you have special settings for the buffersize, event-timeout or specific Lifedrive Bluetooth parameters ?
The GPS receiver works well with other PDA's, so the problem is the Pathway application or the interaction between Pathway and the Lifedrive PDA.
Hope the forum members together can solve this nasty problem.
Thanks for your efforts anyway.
Kind Regards,
Pieter van der Linden, The Netherlands

[Guido]

Hello,

Also for me, anything has changed.
I followed the suggestions of Scott (variation in nmea-settings) en those of Minjin (changing baud-rate) and each time (after 5 tot max 10 minutes) Pathaway 'hangs' and after some time I get the message 'no response from gps'. The only thing I can do than is a 'reset'.
Inbetween I tried a long trip with TomTom without problems.

Thanks to everyone for the efforts.

Guido

[Minjin]

Maybe have a look around these prefs !
There is nothing in BT pref. just ON/OFF. Isn't ?
I'll try PA soon to be sure it still works fine !



But I think it won't change! If the prefs are wrong it won't works even 5 minutes !!

Good luck !!

Ask if I can do something !!

[p_vanderlinden]

[Minjin]

[p_vanderlinden]

Have downloaded both CotoGPS and CetusGPS. Both applications gave the same problem. I have also used BTSerial, which gives just the raw output from the GPS. Also here the Bluetooth communication did freeze after some minutes.
So, in my opinion, the problem must be the Lifedrive. A couple of months ago I have updated the system of my Lifedrive. Minjin, do you also have this updated system or do you use the original version.
I propose for those users who have the same problem as I have, to continue our search for a solution on the forum of the manufacturer of the Lifedrive. Does someone know where I/we could find this forum or Internet helpdesk ??

[Minjin]

I have the update. It was working well before and after the update. I'm now testing Tomtom and no connection lose.

One thing is possible to test if it is not allready tested.

1) Performe a backup of your life drive (only ram if update 2).
2) Hard reset (ram only if update 2)
3) install the GPS software provided with your receiver
4) test it.

don't reinstall your LD before the test and don't change any parameters !

If this doesn't works :

1) your LD is bad or...
2) your receiver is bad or...
3) LD and receiver doesn't like to work together

So...

1) test another PDA with the receiver
2) test another receiver with your LD

in that way you will know exactly what is wrong !!

I hope that will help you !

[Scott]