GPS issues with your Motorola computer?

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Pj
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What radios do you own?: X9000 thru APX

GPS issues with your Motorola computer?

Post by Pj »

After plenty of trial and error, hopefully this will help take some of the aggravation out of trying to get your GPS to play nicely with the MW520, MW800 and ML900 series computers.

The MW520 and the MW800 (F5206 model) uses the Trimble SK8 or SKII GPS. The MW800 (F5207 model), MW810, ML900 and ML910 computers use the Trimble iQ module. Both by default output the GPS information in the Trimble format (TISP). By default this it 9600/8-O-1. This was done as most of the Motorola branded software uses the TISP format.

With the MW800, the CPU manager will let you select NMEA or TISP output, but it never seems to work correctly or its reversed in what you select (at least on all the ones I have come across).

The MW800 F5217 with the dead reckoning GPS does not suffer from the above. It uses a u-blox GPS.

Crux of the problem

Good news and bad news. Bad news: Anytime you remove the power source of the computer (pulling the power cord or the laptop battery) the GPS's power supply is interupted. This results in the GPS reverting back to TISP. Good news: the actual GPS settings tend to remain unchanged, and all you will need to do is tell the GPS how to output back to NMEA.

Trimble Studio Software

Trimble has released the Trimble Studio Software package that appears to work with all of their GPS products. It is a very simple point and click package. Most of the defaults are good to run with.

Download it here: http://trl.trimble.com/dscgi/ds.py/Get/ ... -01-07.zip

Run the software. Click on "Connect to GPS" with the correct COM port number (COM 2 for the MW520, MW800 - COM5 for the ML900).

Check off "automatically detect baud rate" or similar. Let it search for the correct settings even if you know it. When it finds the GPS, it will populate the fields and tell it to switch to the TISP format. Trimble studio operates in the TISP setting. Configure any other settings you wish to play with by clicking on "set" then click on "save configuration".

When you are all finished, go into the "Ports" tab. Choose "Port A" if its not already selected. Change the output to 8/N/1 to make life easier. Leave the input format on TISP and choose NMEA for the output. Click on "set". You will receive a warning message that switching to NMEA is evil and you can no longer communicate with it. Thats all good as you won't need to change any more settings. If you do want to change anything in the future, run the software again as described above (remember it will change it back to TISP when it finds it).

If you lose power and need to change it back, all you need to do is fire up the software and change the port settings back to above.

Exit out of the program and fire up your GPS software to verify operation.

Need more than one COM port for multiple NMEA strings?

I recommend two software packages. One is free, the other is cheap.

xPort: http://www.curioustech.net/xport.html
This will take your NMEA data and spit it out on up to 8 COM ports. Virtually no system resources and disk space. Curious Tech also has some other cool GPS enabled software toys (also free but please donate!) on there to play with.

GPS Gate: http://gpsgate.com/
This will take your NMEA data and also spit it out to many ports, but also will convert the data to Garmin format (if your still using older Garmin software and/or Garmin nRoute), Google Earth settings and the such. It also allows for MUX'ing GPS data and other nifty features. You can also run it as a service so its out of the way.

If you choose to use both (as I do) I offer this advice: Startup Delayer: http://www.r2.com.au/software.php?page= ... startdelay

Let xPort run first and put GPS Gate on a 10sec delay. Sometimes GPS Gate gets weird if it doesn't see the stream as it expects.
Lowband radio. The original and non-complicated wide area interoperable communications system
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Timeport
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Re: GPS issues with your Motorola computer?

Post by Timeport »

Nice tips. But remember, not all GPS modules in ML900s are identical. Some modules need 4800 or 2400 bauds speed, odd parity. Motorola used different Trimble modules, not just iQ/SQ.
free Motorola ML900 drivers: http://motorola-online.com/pages/motoro ... ged-laptop

Motorola ML910 spare parts (incl. HDD caddy): http://www.motorola-online.com/pages/mo ... overs-etc.


Please visit my Motorola collection at http://www.motorola-online.com.

OS on ML900s:
Win XP, SuSE Linux (internal HDD), Slax Linux (USB stick), Windows XP Embedded ( USB HDD inside), Win 7 Professional.

OS on ML910s:
Win XP and Windows 7 Ultimate
User avatar
Pj
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Posts: 5147
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: X9000 thru APX

Re: GPS issues with your Motorola computer?

Post by Pj »

A minor update:

For the units that use the iQ module, Trimble now offers the Condor C2626 module. This is a drop in replacement and outputs only in NMEA formats and is a DGPS.

Essentially, you do not need to work about the power and data issues as the iQ modules. It works out of the box. There are still some settings you can play with but it's ready to go.

You can order one from a distributor and the price is around $20-30 depending on your dealer pricing.
Lowband radio. The original and non-complicated wide area interoperable communications system
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