Review: Garmin Mobile PC

Sorry, I only have 2007. S&T maps have been so bad, I've been ignoring them.
Terry

lforbes,
Your problem with loss of signal may be loss of power to the USB port on hibernation. See if there is an option to maintain USB power during Hibernation (maybe in the bios). I suspect this is a computer or os issue, so Garmin's product likely wouldn't make it better. I haven't had the opportunity to try GPS programs and hibernation on the UMPC though. I usually use Standby. I could set up a test late Sunday but I don't have a USB GPS unit so it may not help you.

I was going to try it on the laptop which does hibernate (Mobile PC finds the Bluetooth GPS within 30 seconds of a return from hibernation). However it has S&T v11 (2002?/ non GPS) and I don't wish to upgrade it.

I had given up S&T due to the poor Navteq maps with 2005, however the UMPC came with 2006 and a disk for 2007 (supposedly a UMPC-friendly version). I was less than impressed and thought I should miss a year or 2.

Terry

Terry:

I've considered the loss of USB power but that is not the case. I should have also mentioned that sometimes only closing and relaunching S&T is all that's required. I've tried different USB ports for the receiver and other USB peripherals attached such as the mouse, keyboard and speakers don't seem to have an issue. It seems then that the problem lies with S&T or the receiver (which reminds me I should try it with SIRF and see if it has a similar problem). I too usually use Standby (during the day) and it works fine for me BTW.

Marvin has Mobile PC, S&T and a USB GPS on his laptop. maybe he could test that for you.

The option to maintain power to the USB hub is in Device Manager on the Power Management tab associated with the particular USB root hub.

Terry

I misunderstood your previous post - I was concerned with the USB port not being powered up on restart after hibernation. I'm not sure why one would want to maintain USB power while in hibernation as to objective is usually to be able to turn off the power (inverter in my case) as with a normal power down but with faster restart afterward.

In any case, I have tested restart after hibernation with SIRF Demo and it comes up with no problems. As well, if I restart into SIRF Demo and then switch to S&T, S&T also has no problems. I would conclude then that the problem lies with S&T. BTW, I have also found the same problem with another PC and a laptop.

For now then I guess I will simply use shutdown instead of hibernation (when you only have one or two apps loaded, startup is pretty fast anyhow. The only annoying thing about it is that I cannot get S&T to start with the saved map file automatically loaded. S&T Keys can be configured to do that but I cannot get it to work for some reason (maybe I have Keys in the wrong directory?).

I don't mean to hijack the Garmin Mobile thread but never-the-less would like to know if Garmin has or hasn't similar problems.

Laurie Forbes

As Mobile PC does not use a saved map, this is not an issue. All POIs, waypoints, etc are always on the map and it will center on the GPS as that is its primary purpose.

S&T has other functions such as printing and trip planning that Mobile PC cannot do (or S&T does better) but routing and displaying where you are, when to turn and how long to your destination is what Mobile PC does well.

I also suspect it would find your GPS after a Standby, hibernation or restart better than S&T.

Think of Mobile PC as a stand-alone GPS navigator, only on a laptop. Whereas S&T is for trip planning and printing with GPS added as an afterthought.

Terry

I got a reply back from Garmin in regards to the keyboard.

Laurie, start Microsoft Streets & Trips by either pressing the F2-key, or by tapping/clicking the S&T Keys icon on your desktop. It should start the last-used MS Streets & Trips file. If you only click the Streets & Trips shortcut, only the default Streets & Trips template will open.

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Hi chandom,

Welcome to Laptop GPS World.

Thanks much for sharing that piece of info. Since I don't, at the present time, use a touch-screen, I'd like to know from people who do, how big of a shortcoming really is the lack of OSK (on-screen keyboard) in Garmin Mobile PC. Do you think the program would be easier to use for you, or it doesn't really matter, since you can use the OSK than came with your UMPC, TabletPC, etc.

I don't have Mobile PC yet, I do plan on getting it.
For me the reason of wanting an OSK would be size of the keyboard. The one that defaults in XP Tablet is small, think PDA OSK.
Using a PDA running Mobile XT as an example, how would you feel having to use the built in PDA OSK versus the one within Mobile XT.

Perhaps the ideal solution would be to have an option (in Settings) to enable/disable OSK. Everyone would be happy - those who want Garmin OSK, and also those who use their own OSK, or a laptop keyboard.

Good suggestion.

I figured it out. I had long ago configured my GPS-18 to only transmit two NMEA sentences for use with another program. I had neglected to reset and send the default configuration (7 sentences transmitted) to the GPS-18 which Mobile PC apparently requires to function.

Thanks tcassidy for your help!

mstaedt, thanks for that info. My guess would be that Garmin Mobile PC should still recognize your GPS-18, even when it is set to NMEA protocol, as long as you tell it to search for 3rd party receivers (non-Garmin GPS receivers). Did you by any chance try that?

By the way, I just got off the phone with Garmin Technical Support, and I added my one vote for an optional OSK to be added to Garmin Mobile PC. The person I spoke with said that the more people ask for the feature, the higher likelihood the feature may be implemented. I got the feeling they don't know yet that quite a few people do use touch-screens (UMPC users, TabletPC users, and CarPC users).

Maybe I'm missing something but I couldn't even get to use the OSK on my UMPC. It appeared to insist on graphics. I will do some more tests.
Terry

When I installed Mobile PC, I told it that I had a Garmin receiver, which it scanned for but could not find (no doubt because I had the GPS-18 transmitting only GPGGA and GPRMS sentences). I then told it I had a 3rd party receiver, which of course required me to activate the software. Then it found the GPS-18 on COM port 1, but it would not acquire any satellites. Finally after setting the GPS-18 back to it's default of 7 sentences, it functioned perfectly.

I may try installing Mobile PC on a different computer now that I have the GPS-18 correctly configured to see if it recognizes it as a Garmin receiver.

Update>> No dice. Mobile PC still will not see the GPS-18 as a Garmin receiver, even when I manually switch it to "Garmin mode." I suppose it doesn't really matter since it works fine as a 3rd party receiver in NMEA mode.