GPSOut and ASUS A620 BT

[olive]

Hello,

I'm trying to connect my PDA Asus A620 BT to my PC to use it with FS2004. I saw that a serial cable(COM) was necessary. I can't find this cable for this kind of PDA. Can someone give me a website where I can buy that or is it possible to use GPSOut with an USB cable?

Thanks for your help,

Olive.

[Pete Dowson]

... is it possible to use GPSOut with an USB cable?

GPSout doesn't care what the actual hardware connection really is, provided it looks like a COM port. Some (most?) USB connections actually emulaste a COM port -- look in Control Panel-Hardware-Device Manager and see if it lists it as an extra COM port.

Sometimes the ActiveSync application used to talk to your device takes over the connection permanently in any case -- if so you probably won't see it at all unless you can stop that program. I admit to not having much luck with my Ipaq.

Regards,

Pete

[SDICKENS]

Hi There

I use a usb/serial adaptor from "Belkin" which works okay for Microsoft Autoroute if thats any help :wink:

Stu-184

http://margaritaair.com/

[olive]

Hello Pete,

I tried to connect my Asus A 620 BT using SeeYou mobile software to FS2004 and desktop PC with a USB without any success.

I checked in control panel and the PDA is connected to "USB"

What is the port I'm supposed to declare in "port= ???" in gpsout.ini in that case?

Thanks a lot,

Olive

[Pete Dowson]

I checked in control panel and the PDA is connected to "USB"

What is the port I'm supposed to declare in "port= ???" in gpsout.ini in that case?

Sorry, I've really no idea. GPSout does not handle USB. There is no NMEA specification for the protocols running on anything but a serial connection in any case. Unless your USB connection can be made to look like a serial port then I doubt that it can be done. I certainly couldn't do it here with either a USB Ipaq or USB Garmin GPS.

However, I did have the following for addition to the Text file provided in the GPSout package. I never added it because it didn't work for me, but it may help you. If it does, let me know and I'll add it anyway:

Use with PDAs on a USB connection

=================================

I've received the following information which may help those with only USB connections on their Pocket PC:

[From David Griersom, with thanks]

Replace whatever COM4/COM3/etc entry you have next to Port= in the ini with "\\\WCEUSBSH001", ie,

Port=\\\WCEUSBSH001

Then kill ActiveSync on both the PC and PocketPC, fire up your PocketPC GPS software and select COM9/USB as your GPS reciever from within the PocketPC software. Start up FS and hopefully everything should be working together.

David tried this with a Medion PDA (rebranded Mitac Mio 168) and a friends HP iPAQ without problems, and at baud rates up to 19200 (he can't remember the specific value but it was close to that) using both the Medion Navigator (for cars) software and the PocketFMS software. Apparently both worked particularly well.

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

Hello Pete,

Thanks a lot for your answer, I will try it.

When you say "kill ActiSync", what does it mean because I cannot really close it. The only thing I can do is synchronizing manually to avoid the permanent or auto sync. Is there a way to really close it without uninstalling it?

Thanks,

Olive

[Pete Dowson]

When you say "kill ActiSync", what does it mean because I cannot really close it. The only thing I can do is synchronizing manually to avoid the permanent or auto sync. Is there a way to really close it without uninstalling it?

I assume you can kill it in the Windows task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del, select processes, look for it, select it, kill it ("End Process" bottom right)).

You'd need to re-boot to get it running again of ocurse.

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

Yes, that's a solution, I didn't think of that

Thanks,

Olive.

[olive]

Pete,

I try tonight without any success. It doesn't matter. Thank you very much for your help,

Olive.

[Pete Dowson]

I try tonight without any success. It doesn't matter. Thank you very much for your help

I couldn't get my Ipaq to recognise anything either. I was trying with PocketFMS -- but I couldn't even get that software synchronised with its own PC counterparts. All this PDA stuff is a different world for me I'm afraid, one in which I know virtually nothing and seem to be able to accomplish that much too! :cry:

Besides which, moving maps and so on are far more attractive and readable on another PC, which is what GPSout was designed for. :)

Sorry I can't help further, but maybe others can.

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

Yes you're right it's much more readable on a PC but I use my PDA and GPS for real soaring and I thought I was fun to have the same PDA working with FS2004.

The solution would be to find a cable for my Asus A620 with a sub-D COM connector at the other end but I can't..

Anyway, I would like to thank you for your help Pete !! We tried.

Thanks,

Olive.

[Pete Dowson]

The solution would be to find a cable for my Asus A620 with a sub-D COM connector at the other end but I can't..

Searching the 'net I found this quote on one site:

Not all PDAs are equipped with a RS232 serial port, without which a serial interface cannot be made.

Maybe yours in one of those. This was on http://pc-mobile.net/pdaserial.htm. I'm afraid it looks like you are out of luck. Sorry.

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

I bought that cable at the website you found for me yesterday. Thanks a lot! I will try it as soon as I receive it and let you know, Thanks again,

Olivier.

[Pete Dowson]

I bought that cable at the website you found for me yesterday. Thanks a lot! I will try it as soon as I receive it

You found a true serial cable (not USB?) for your device there? I didn't see that!

Pete

[olive]

I found that (PA6GS) and hope it will work

http://pc-mobile.net/asus.htm

Anyway, that's my last chance

Olive

[Pete Dowson]

I found that (PA6GS) and hope it will work

http://pc-mobile.net/asus.htm

Anyway, that's my last chance

Olive

Ah. That says "for GPS only, not for use with other serial device" and "ends with male DB9 - connect to PC serial cable of your GPS ", so it may just work. Or it may have the read/write connections the wrong way round. If it does you'll still need a crossover ("null modem") cable to link from that to your PC.

But try it first.

The important part of it is the other end anyway -- the plug for your PDA. At the worst it would be possible to snip off the DB9 plug and fit your own with the correct connections. :wink:

Good luck!

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

Hello Pete,

I received the cable last night (from Hong Kong!! Incredible).

I did not hook it up yet because I'm afraid to blow up something if the read/write is reversed...

What do you think?

Thanks,

Olivier.

[Pete Dowson]

... I'm afraid to blow up something if the read/write is reversed...

What do you think?

I don't think those signal lines can do that. If they are the wrong way round nothing gets transferred, that's all.

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

OK I will try tonight. I think I will need the null modem cable as you told me because the DB9 on the cable is male.

Thanks,

Olive

[olive]

Hello Pete,

Here are some news...

I connected my PDA to my computer on COM port. I made a RS232 cable with 3 wires connected:

5: ground

2 and 3 reversed between the 2 connectors

My map software is working fine with FS2004 but....for a few minutes only (apparently about 2 minutes)

I'm using the trial version of SeeYou mobile. I know that some functions disappear after a while if you do not have the serial. In real soaring, I'm using a bluetooth GPS and it's working fine for hours.Here are my parameters for gpsout.ini which worked:

[GPSout]

Port=COM2

Speed=4800

Interval=1000

I also used 9600 for the speed in the beginning because I thought the speed was to high.

For my COM port configuration on my computer, same of course.

for flow control : I tried none or Xon/Xoff

Would you have an idea why comunication stops after a while?

Thanks a lot for your help once again,

Olivier.

[Pete Dowson]

Would you have an idea why comunication stops after a while?

No, sorry. It is unlikely to be stopping from the FS PC end -- there's no flow control in GPSout, it simply keeps sending stuff. You can check that with "portmon" (a free utility obtainable from http://www.systeminternals.com). Run it before FS.

Maybe there's some restriction in the PDA software?

What sentences are you selecting in GPSout? If you have too many selected 1 second may not be enough time between them. The 4800 speed works out to 480 characters per second max. You need a good gap between them, so say 400. With an average sentence length of perhaps 60-80 characters that only allows 6-8 different ones. Even then things might get clogged up in the PDA.

Try (1) increasing the time from 1000 to 2000 or more, and/or (2) only one or two sentences at a time. Do you know which sentences your software is expecting and needing?

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

You know what...there was no ligne about sentences in my GPSOut, I don't know why, sorry, I'm too bad.

I put this one back, the one you recommend:

Sentences=RMC,PGRMZ

It's still the same. It stops after 2.5 minutes

About the sentences, you will find below what I could see into my software:

GPGGA,GPGGL,GPGSA,GPGSV,GPRMC,GPVTG,PFSRA,GPWIN,LXWP0,LXWP1,LXW2...LXWP5,PCAIB,PCAIC,PCAID,W,PBB50PBSER,PGCS,PZAN1,PZAN2,PGRMZ,VMVABD.

I seems that they both have only PGRMZ.

Thanks,

Olivier

[Pete Dowson]

You know what...there was no ligne about sentences in my GPSOut, I don't know why, sorry, I'm too bad.

I put this one back, the one you recommend:

Sentences=RMC,PGRMZ

It's still the same. It stops after 2.5 minutes

That's a real puzzle then. I'm sorry, but I think you have to look to the software in the PDA. Did you prove to yourself that the FS PC end was still sending? That is easy enough with PortMon.

About the sentences, you will find below what I could see into my software:

GPGGA,GPGGL,GPGSA,GPGSV,GPRMC,GPVTG,PFSRA,GPWIN,LXWP0,LXWP1,LXW2...LXWP5,PCAIB,PCAIC,PCAID,W,PBB50PBSER,PGCS,PZAN1,PZAN2,PGRMZ,VMVABD.

I seems that they both have only PGRMZ.

No. My abbreviation "RMC" stands for "GPRMC". The GP ones are all the standard NMEA-defined ones -- I just left off the standard "GP" part in the parameter definition for the INI file.

The "PGRMZ" one stands for "Proprietary Garmin sentence Z". I don't know the prefixes PFSR, LXWP and so on, only the GP ones and a few of the Garmin ones.

Regards,

Pete

[olive]

Hello Pete,

Thanks a lot for your answer.

Yes, I've just checked with Portmon and the PC is still sending some datas (from FS9.exe) to the PDA. OK, I will check the software and may be try with another one.

Have a nice Sunday ! What's the weather like in U.K?

Best regards,

Olivier.

[Pete Dowson]

What's the weather like in U.K?

A bit cold for the time of year, but it looks a bit better this morning. More like April than June though.

Regards,

Pete