On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 10:08 PM, Bruce Labitt <bdlab...@gmail.com> wrote: > Doesn't work that way for a car GPS. Usually takes 5 minutes for a cold > start even if moving, iirc.
I just today took possession of a Garmin Nuvi 205W. Previous owner claims to have never used it beyond plugging it in once. He took it out of a metal file cabinet and said it had been in there for weeks. When I took it out to my car and plugged it in, it seemed to be ready to navigate almost immediately. I was still in the previous owner's driveway, presumably the last known location. I played with it a bit today, and when outside, it always seemed to be ready as soon as it finished it's startup/splash screen dance. A couple times I brought it inside and powered it on, and it complained it had no satellite signal. When I brought it back outside it would again be ready quickly. While I hesitate to draw firm conclusions from such meager data, if I had to suppose: It doesn't seem to be dependent on seeing the sky all the time to maintain it's ready state. That is, it does not appear that it is "always on" and watching the sky even when nominally off. If that were the case, I would expect the lack of satellite signal when indoors would cause it later trouble. I think it must either (1) use its last known position as a hint to help it regain its bearings, or (2) be using some other acceleration technique not known to me or discussed on this list. I will test the "last known position" theory by taking it some place "powered off", then powering it on, and seeing if it gets confused or takes longer to become ready. Unrelated to the "My GPS is faster than your GPS" discussion, but relevant to the "Linux friendliness" question: It has an apparently standard USB mini B port on the back, which serves for both power input (to charge the battery) and PC attachment (for software/data updates). One of the first things I did was (of course) plug it into my Linux home PC (Debian 5.0.4, kernel 2.6.26-2). The GPS display showed the Garmin logo and a picture of itself plugged into a computer, but Linux was indifferent. Looking at the kernel log, it appeared the GPS wasn't playing nice. I either saw nothing at all, or just "over-current change on port". I noticed that if I plugged it into the USB hub built-in to my Dell LCD, the hub would apparently reset, as the kernel would re-detect my mouse and flash card reader. Updating the firmware purportedly requires installing some proprietary software from Garmin. MS Windows and Mac OS X are the only offered options. So I rebooted into my Windoze partition (XP Pro, SP3). Again, I saw no evidence that the OS was even seeing it as a valid USB device. The Garmin software also repeatedly refused to acknowledge the GPS's existence (although it did probe my floppy drive repeatedly -- does Garmin sell a GPS in 3.5" diskette form factor?). Garmin also offers a browser plugin (again, 'doze and Apple only, although they at least support Firefox on 'doze). This is purportedly how one updates the maps on the device. However, that was not working either. The plugin appeared to install, but it said it could not find the GPS. I even tried MSIE 8 -- same result. Flailing around Garmin's website, I eventually found something that told me to try downloading and installing some USB drivers. Earlier I had been told this GPS did not need any drivers; it's just a USB mass storage device. But I gave it a shot anyway. Lo and behold, Windows made the "bong-bing" noise it makes when it detects hardware attachment, and then sprouted two new drive letters. One had the volume label "Garmin" and appeared to contain GPS-ish files. The other said no disk; based on the Device Manager name, I'm pretty sure it's for the MMC/SD expansion card slot in the GPS. Anyway, now I was able to run the Garmin software update tool, which updated me from 5.80 to 6.40. When I got back to Linux (ahhhhh), the kernel now sees it as two USB mass storage devices. The internal storage appears as a "vfat" compatible filesystem. I don't know if it was the software update that fixed that, or if my gyrations on the 'doze side just unwedged something, or if the PC reboot did it, or what. So, in conclusion, first impressions: Fast to acquire location (yay!). Software/map updates require an OS from an evil dictatorship (boo!). -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/