Pharos GPS help!

daspiderboris · 06-05-2006, 07:41 PM

Can anyone provide advise or assistance in resolving this issue:

I have a Pharos i360 gps (came with MS street & trips), bought it in October and all has been fine. This past month, I've started having trouble with the device. Both MS street and trips and Iguidence lose communication with the gps and cannot reconnect.

According to my device manager, the gps still shows up and doesn't have any conflicts or driver issues. I removed the device and reinstalled the driver, which didn't work. I tried disconnecting all of my other usb devices (don't know the final results on this test yet, still in progress). I've tried switching com ports and disabiling modem and other unused devices to free up resources, but I don't know if that's the issue.

Bascially if I restart the machine then either software can connect to the gps but will then lose the connection (with no predictablity so far) while the machine is running or after returning from hibernation.

Next thing I'm going to try is running the reciever with another PC, it's still under 1 year warranty and Pharos will replace it if I know that's what is broken. If the reciever is fine, I'd love to know what happened to cause this.

Please let me know if you can help, or if you need more info on the problem.

thx.
-Boris

daspiderboris · 06-07-2006, 05:58 PM

no one? no ideas? no clues?

Marvin Hlavac · 06-08-2006, 02:57 PM

Are you testing it indoor? GPS receivers need good view of the sky to work.

daspiderboris · 06-21-2006, 06:12 PM

nope testing it in the car (where I originally installed it and had it running for a couple of months with no problems). Plus it's not that I'm losing satalites I'm losing the gps connection to the laptop.

Unplugging all other usb devices did not help, the problem still exists.

daspiderboris · 07-23-2006, 02:12 PM

I spoke with Pharos, and they're having me send the unit back and will send me a replacement.

I asked if they knew what was causing the problem, if it was the reciever or the serial-usb cable, or perhaps a driver issue. He said they weren't sure, but this has been a common problem with their reciever (software loosing communication with the reciever, but windows still showing it in the device manager). He also said that for as many units as they sell, the number of times this issue has come up is pretty small.

I can understand a unit going back, I'm just happy that so far the exchange seems to be going smoothly. There hasn't been a lot of hassle in getting them to let me send mine in for a replacement. Hope the transaction concludes just as well and the new unit doesn't go out on me after my warranty expires.

just an update in case anyone else runs into this. I know I couldn't find anything about it.

Marvin Hlavac · 07-23-2006, 02:55 PM

Cool, as far as I know the iGPS-360 has been discontinued so I wonder if you are going to get lucky enough to get the new iGPS-500 as a replacement! They both look the same, but the sticker on the back will let you know what you have. Let us know ;-)

daspiderboris · 07-23-2006, 06:33 PM

I hadn't even thought about that. My bet is they saved just enough 360's to send me one

But looking at the hardware specs, not a whole lot has changed. Update NMEA protocol, faster aquisition times and racking sensitivity are the thre that seem of any relevance to me. Don't know about any of the other stuff.

Interesting that you're saying they're the same, the dimensions and weight of the two are fairly different.

Marvin Hlavac · 07-23-2006, 08:17 PM

Originally Pharos indeed made a prototype of iGPS-500 much smaller then the older iGPS-360. But when Microsoft recently released their new MS MapPoint 2006 bundle with GPS, the included unit was the new iGPS-500. The dimensions were identical and all the accessories from iGPS-360 nicely fit with the new unit.

There is a considerable advantage to using the new (based on the SiRFstarIII chipset). I think many people on this forum who used any older SiRFstar2 based unit and then switched to any SiRFstarIII based receiver can attest to it.

daspiderboris · 07-24-2006, 03:14 PM

I'll do some digging, very interested in what the advantages are.

daspiderboris · 08-15-2006, 11:37 AM

so I got the gps back from pharos. They said that the unit seems to be ok as is the cable. No new GPS for me

.

I'm back to trying a few new things. I've upgraded to IGV3 and borrowed a second gps reciever from a relative (not pharos) we'll see how that goes.

Pharos was still very helpful and the guy I spoke with wanted me to let him know if I figure out a solution, but they think it's specific to my machine.

daspiderboris · 08-17-2006, 05:04 PM

I'm going nuts here. So I thought I narrowed this down to being a hibernation issue with IG only. Seems that MS S&T doesn't have the same problem (must be the way it communicates with the driver?).

So I thought I'd try Xport v3 and now I'm not getting any errors about losing the gps. In fact, it'll be there when I return from hibernation, but then I notice that xport isn't showing new NMEA data streaming in and IG stops tracking.

I've still got a few things to try, downloaded iserfdemo and will look into that, I'll also try running terminal to log communications with the gps, maybe something there when it loses communicaiton. I also still have the second gps to test.

So I guess I'm mostly venting, but if you have any ideas or thought please let me know. Like is there anything I should look for in the NMEA data that could signify that something is wrong? I think I noticed some garbage in the xport buffer at one point.

crowboy164 · 10-23-2006, 11:52 AM

Hey, I wanted to see if you continue to have these issues, or to find out what your resolution may have been? i've been experiencing very similar issues with IG3 and the pharos 360

daspiderboris · 10-23-2006, 06:33 PM

yeah, I found a work around. The problem is IG does not release either the driver, port or device itself as the machine goes into hibernation. So after resuming, IG thinks the device is gone unless you reset the driver, port or deivce (which you can do by unplugging it or restarting the machine).

Not a problem with MS S&T because when you hibernate the "track" option is turned off and has to be started after resuming. So I do the same thing with IG. Made a macro that switches the Com port in IG to something other than my GPS device. When I resume, I use another macro to have IG switch back to the correct com port.

Not a huge fan of the work around, but it's fairly clean and simple. Best part is it works!

Marvin Hlavac · 10-23-2006, 06:48 PM

I wonder if using GPS Gate in-between your GPS receiver and your iG would do the trick.

daspiderboris · 10-25-2006, 11:51 AM

I haven't used GPS gate, but if it works simliar to Xport it probably wont work. I didn't use xport for very long either because it also had issues. I don't remember if the issue was exactly the same or not, but xport would also lose the device after resuming. Which would mean it's not an IG issue, but is it the driver or the way the OS works with Com Ports?

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