Deluo receiver $89... Is this plug and play with MS Streets?

holden_frost · 10-02-2002, 11:32 PM

For anyone who doesn't track prices like I do, there's $10 off the Deluo receiver right now so it's $89 (until 10-6-2002).

http://www.deluo.com/Merchant2/merch...tegory_Code=GR

I've been tracking GPS receiver prices and that was the lowest I found from what looked like a reputable vendor.

1) I know it works with MS Street, but has anyone else out there used MS Streets with this receiver? Is it just plug and play? Is there any nontrivial setup to it?

2) Does anyone have any experience using this receiver with a software package that talks? I actually got in touch with people who do the software for Destinator, which talks, and they said (contrary to their web advertising) that they DO have a version that works with a receiver other than the one they try to make you buy with it. If you have any experience with that, please share.

Here's what I got from Destinator...

>From: "Destinator Support" <support@destinator1.com>
>To: <holden_frost@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Destinator Tech Support
>Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 10:09:39 -0400
>
>Hello,
>
>In response to your email: we do have a software only version which allows other GPS receivers to use Destinator software. The software has an open protocol which allows NMEA compliant receivers to work with Destinator Software.
>
>If you are interested in purchasing Destinator software please feel free to contact us at 905-764-3701, ext. 248 or 288 and we will gladly assist you with any other questions and process your order for you or order on-line:
>
>http://www.destinator1.com/selcategory.emb
>
>Thank you,
>
>Maria
>

Disclaimer: If any part, subpart, or iota of this post appears in any part or in full in any other post on mp3car.com, and you feel like I'm personally derailing mp3car.com from its worthy mission by clogging the forums with this redundant GPS cholesterol, please be kind and set for stun. I did look.

holden_frost · 10-08-2002, 11:53 PM

1) Yes, it is plug and play

2) Still working on it--if anyone has any experience with it, please post.

zx3chris · 10-14-2002, 11:47 AM

i have the deluo receiver and i am using delorme street atlas 2003, and yes it talks and works fine.. it updates about once per second, and location is pretty accurate, as long as you have atleast 5 satellites.. ive gotten 8 sats at the most with delorme. connect time is <10 seconds.. excellent receiver for the price, and i dont see any reason or justification for spending $100 more on other receviers.. ive looked at the garmin, and the acuracy is the same, as well as speed (9600) and max satellites..

holden_frost · 10-14-2002, 05:07 PM

I'm also pleased with the Deluo GPS. I'd like to do an experiment side by side with Deluo and Garmin receivers using MS streets. I have both available to me in my little world, so when I have a chance to get some side-by-side data, I'll post it here.

Because the Deluo updates fast enough for me, and works in my area, I can't see spending any more than the $89 I paid for mine.

Also, does anyone know why it's got such a strong magnet in it? Is that part of the receiving antenna?

zx3chris · 10-14-2002, 06:57 PM

i think the magnet is for sticking it to your roof.. its meant for laptop use, and up on the roof is sticks well, and the wind wont pull it off..

C4M · 10-15-2002, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by holden_frost
Also, does anyone know why it's got such a strong magnet in it? Is that part of the receiving antenna?

Better to *THWAP* people with? :-)

I ordered two - I'm surprised that it didn't kill the floppies that came with them :-)

C!

holden_frost · 10-17-2002, 12:05 AM

Yeah, I totally didn't get how the floppy worked after getting shipped strapped to the strong magnet in the receiver... Anyway, my floppy worked fine, too. There's gotta be a trick.

I have a new curiosity with the Deluo receiver/MS Streets. I was in my car Monday night (totally clear sky here in NY). I started up MS Streets and did the GPS Tracking thing, and it just stuck on initializing for like 10 minutes. Today I started up MS Streets and got the same behavior. So I'm guessing it's my receiver. Realize this worked just last Friday--the Deluo receiver/MS Street combination worked.

I take my Deluo receiver over to a nearby MP3car nut (who's got a Garmin receiver). We fire up his MS Streets and with my Deluo receiver and same behavior. Then he takes out my receiver and puts his Garmin in. Same behavior for the Garmin. Neither appears to get a signal. Then we go get a free GPS software tool on the net, install it, and put my Deluo receiver back in and take his out. The Deluo gets a signal and tracks on this map. Then we take out my receiver and put his Garmin in. It gets a signal and tracks on the map.

So it appears that MS Street is the issue... What's going on? Has this happened to anyone else?

First chance I get, I'll do a side by side Garmin/Deluo comparison. With no data, I'm personally a fan of the Deluo because it's cheaper, smaller and magnetic.

moahdib · 10-17-2002, 12:48 AM

does this also work with copilot by any chance?

zx3chris · 10-17-2002, 05:46 AM

ive noticed with my usb receiver that sometimes it gets assigned differnt com ports.. its not consistent. if you open a prog and it cant find any satellites, go into settings and make sure its on the right com port..

novalis · 10-17-2002, 08:25 AM

"nearby MP3car nut" here...

Streets was definately configured to look at the right COM, his Deluo is a USB, and always shows up as COM3, and my Garmin is RS232 on COM1. When using his Deluo, Streets admitted that it was talking to the GPS (the tracking window came up and had a "last fix" time and a "status" message of "initializing"). When using my Garmin it also brought up the tracking window, but *everyhting* was greyed out. If memory serves, Streets won't even open the window but instead gives you an error pop up if it can't talk to the GPS at all...

Now, I analyzed the data my Garmin is putting out, and it is still set to the factory defaults. It is transmitting all the default messages at the default baud rate (4800). So what gives? Nothing has changed on either of our systems since the last time both of these GPS worked on both computers!

zx3chris · 10-17-2002, 11:25 AM

hmm yeah. i use delorme sa 2003 and it has a similiar setup -- it wil tell u when it recognizes a gps, if it sees sats, and which are tracking,.. no idea why it wouldnt be working tho, mine has worked flawlessly so far.. goodluck

Skraggy_uk · 10-22-2002, 07:01 AM

I bought a Delou, and had them ship to the UK.
Picked up from the postoffice at the weekend.

Only tried it with GPSS (free software). Works OK, software isn't great, and only gave maps down to regional level, but found my GPS location approx OK, enough to get me in the general area of anywhere I would need to travel to.

Need to find some better software, or use Linux. Does the Delou work with linux, and would I need any support built into the kernel as a module?

Probably planning to use the latest Mandrake available at the install time.

zx3chris · 10-22-2002, 09:07 AM

a friend of mine is trying to get his deluo to work with linux, (he has the usb version, so he needs to make a usb-serial bridge), if he is successful i will post on here..

Skraggy_uk · 10-22-2002, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by zx3chris
a friend of mine is trying to get his deluo to work with linux, (he has the usb version, so he needs to make a usb-serial bridge), if he is successful i will post on here..

I would be glad of the info, because I have the USB version too.

holden_frost · 10-22-2002, 06:57 PM

Here's my experience with MS Streets and using it with any receiver--it's flaky. Sometimes with my receiver it hangs on "initializing". Sometimes it gets a location. I can't figure out any rhyme or reason as to when it does or doesn't work. If anyone else has any experience, please let me know.

I took a 6 hour trip last Friday. When I first fired up MS Streets, it hung on initializing--that's after I go to Tools and select GPS track position. Then later after refueling a ways away it plotted my position and seemed to work (tracked position). Then later it hung on initializing and then later it seemed to work again. My question is really, if MS Streets is talking to the receiver, and the receiver actually can't get a satellite signal, does MS Streets know how to tell that to me, or does it always live in some GPS limbo where I MAY have a signal, but MS Streets won't tell me where I am for some unknown reason (which is what the experiment above seems to indicate) or is MS Streets is talking to the GPS but has no signal--if I wrote that software, I'd have this be one of the messages--"I can talk to your GPS, but it doesn't have a satellite signal"?