Registered: Jan 2002
Location:
Posts: 1

Magellan GPS trouble with VDX

I have an old visor Deluxe and bought the Magellan GPS for it and I'm rarly able to get a fix. I have upgraded with all the patches for the GPS and the Palm OS v. 3.1.H3. I did the "enter your coordinates in the map trick". If I leave it outside for about 15 or 20 mins it will get a lock but as soon as i move into a car or the garage it looses the fix and won't get another one.
I emailed Handspring support to ask if the RF issue could be a cause of this and here is their response.

"Should I get my older Visor or Visor Deluxe replaced to avoid radio
frequency (RF) issues?
The RF issue noted with older model Visors used with wireless modem modules
does not seem to have any relation to poor reception of GPS signals.
Consumer GPS units use a frequency of 1575.42 MHz which is quite different
from cell phone frequencies. Naturally, GPS modules are subject to the same
RF issues any GPS hardware made by any manufacturer is subject to -- whether
a Visor is involved or not is not particularly relevant."

I wasn't able to find this info on any sites. Is this true? I've read that some people have had better results with newer Visors.
THanks
Keith

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 8

Yes, better results with newer VDx, but read on...

I really was just lurking here. I do not own nor have
I ever used the Magellan module.

I do own the GeoDiscovery Geode GPS module, and
after upgrading my VDx to an RF-enhanced version,
my Geode performed great.

Of course, GeoDiscovery's problems since have
been well documented and I won't go over that
except to say that since the differentiating factors
(GeoDiscovery web-based community for trading the GeoPoints
or whatever they referred to them as, etc.)
are now gone, I threw in the towel and bought
a Garmin GPSMAP 76 with MapSource maps, and
love it. I do miss the idea of trading the waypoints
over the web and building a grass-roots based collection
of these waypoints, but my Garmin unit flat out works.
The Geode GPS module was great, but the execution
on the software and mapping issues, well, killed the
company.

Good luck with your Magellan. Demand an RF-enhanced
VDx. Hurry, though, as Handspring is discontinuing the
VDx.

Later,
Jerry

Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Lake City, PA
Posts: 19

Hi Keith,
I have the Magellan GPS and I love it. It works fine inside my house, on the passenger seat in my car, etc. The first fix is normally a 5 minute or so proposition, but after that it is only a couple of minutes as long as you do not remove the batteries from the GPS. I love this module.

I use a visor neo, but my buddy has an ancient visor deluxe and we have used it in his visor a number of times without any difference. In fact he purchased his own.

I suspect that you have a bad GPS. I have seen this problem posted before and each time the person exchanges the gps the problem goes away. Does anyone you know have a visor you could use the module in to test?

HTH
Gene