Streets & Trips no worky??

OK, something's gone strange with Streets & Trips. I've used S&T 2006 since the winter of, well, 2006, and it's worked great! No GPS issues out of the ordinary (downtown San Francisco, for instance, can cause transient "issues). I've used it literally all over the western half of the US with no problems.

However, since yesterday, just YESTERDAY, mind you, I've found that I can't get any satellite fixes. I've used both my desktop (which is in my van) and also my laptop (the laptop was the first to show a potential problem).

So, I decided to tear the Pharos i300 GPS unit apart. Sure, I found that there's a tiny battery for keeping the SRAM archive data fresh, but everything else appeared fine. And BOTH computers show normal operation of the Pharos receiver.

Oh, I'm currently in Midland, Texas, with NO mountains or anything to block the GPS signals.

I thought, what the hey: it's 3 years old now, maybe I should get S&T 2009, which I did. It comes with a Pharos i500 GPS receiver, which is smaller than the i300.

But guess what? I STILL can't get any GPS signals. Searches on the US Coast Guard and Homeland Security websites for GPS has so far revealed no clue as to why this is happening.

Anybody else SUDDENLY not being able to receive GPS signals?

Steve-o

I've got five satellites and a full 3D position lock with my eTrex Legend HCx sitting in my concrete basement office. (Regina, Saskatchewan .. Canadian prairies at least as flat as around Midland.)

...ken...

A couple of things come to mind. Did you allow time for the 500 to obtain lock the first time? This can take longer. If the 360 battery is dead, it would have to do this every time you used it.

With some laptops, a USB GPS may not work if plugged directly into the USB port. Are you using the extension cable?

Terry

Thanks for responding so fast!

I waited 5 minutes for my 500 to receive signals but, as with the older 300, still nothing. "Cold starts" usually hadn't taken more than 35-60 seconds, in my experience.

As for the USB adapter, I have to use it anyway to connect the receiver to the cable, but the only sense it might make to plug the receiver straight into the side of the laptop is to have the laptop sitting on the dashboard.

I don't think many people actually do it that way, though!

Hi sschaut, and welcome to the forum. Has anything changed in your setup? A new car or truck? A new laptop? A new electronic equipment inside your vehicle that could interfere with the GPS receiver?

Is it possible to place the GPS receiver on the roof of the car, just to test it? Leave it connected for at least 20 minutes, to see if it acquires satellite fix.

Twenty minutes, huh? I guess I was impatient at waiting ten minutes.

With no changes at all in my vehicle, the one thing I hadn't so far tried is mounting the receiver (no problem) to the roof...

...and (yawwwwwwwwwnnn) waiting twenty minutes.

I'll try that with both computers and both receivers (one at a time), and I'll let you know what I find out.

Thanks!

Steve-o

You really need a simple program like GPSView to test the GPS. S&T is not a good program to test with. Do you have something that shows what sattelites you are seeing?

Terry

Speaking of testing, is there some sort of GPS reference transmitter that anyone can access, to at least rule out a malfunctioning receiver?

You would be better off looking for a program that can check if you are really receiving GPS signals. I think we can all attest they are actually there.

Terry

Will wonders never cease: I'm receiving strong GPS signals again!

I don't know if the strong winds we had today blew away some mysterious atmospheric contaminant or what but, as of five minutes ago, I have good reception from both my Pharos 300 and 500 receivers. Still running S&T 2006 though; bought the 2009 version yesterday, but I sure hate it when Microsoft demands to force-feed (esp.) that despicable .NET Framework...prerequisite--along with two other pieces of software crap I didn't know came with the package--to the S&T 2009 installation, and there's no way around it.

I caught a glimpse earlier in the threads here that someone's "disappointed" with S&T 2009. Anybody else have gripes we need to know about?

Anyway, a big triple to those who've responded to my posts. I'm trying to figure out how to use GPS View now, but there are apparently numerous applications bearing the same name (I have two right now, and they both look different to me).

But, great: I have GPS locator again, so I might not get lost tonight trying to find an oil rig near Malaga, NM, to get core samples from.

Now, if only S&T had a feature to scare away all the DEER that bounce about around here!

Steve-o

Sorry, that was GPS Viewer. It is available on the Holux site.

http://www.holux.com/JCore/en/support/downloadCenter.jsp

Terry

Thanks Terry, and I'll give GPS ViewER a try!

Steve-o

Terry,

Followed your link above for GPS Viewer on the Holux website but didn't see it in the displayed list. Am I missing it somewhere or is it no longer available? Thanks for anyone's help!

George

Hi George. Welcome to Laptop GPS World. When you click the link Terry provided above, do a page search (Ctrl+F) for 'gpsviewer'. You will see several links to download the utitily software on that single page.

Thank you, Marvin, for both your reply and your welcome. I was making the error of looking only at the product headings for "GPS Viewer", not the Tools entry under each heading.

It appears that there are 3 different versions: "GPS Viewer" at 93KB and 2 versions of a "Mini GPS Viewer", confusingly listed much larger at 550KB and 693KB. Which version should I be looking at? I'm currently using the older Pharos 360 receiver with S&T 2010. Thanks again.

George