GNSS GPS for Toughbooks? (GPS troubles)

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SJLPHI
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat May 14, 2022 1:31 am

GNSS GPS for Toughbooks? (GPS troubles)

#1 Post by SJLPHI »

Hello, I am one of the migrants from Notebookreview forums and I recognize some people like Shawn at this forums which is quite nice.

I will say that I have had a CF-19 Mk6 with custom BIOS and earlier this year got a CF-19 Mk 8 (Z) with standard UEFI and surprisingly game with a Sierra WWAN card (Not mentioned in the description when I bought it on ebay, it was an amazing deal).

I was going to post this in CF-19 forums but I think this is more applicable to any CF18/19/30/31 and etc. so I am posting here instead.

So my WWAN card has its own locator which works reasonably well but I still installed a discrete GPS unit just because I want to and my GPS unit is taking a LOT of time getting a fix. Worse yet even a single cloud up in the air seems to prevent it from getting a fix even while my phone (Cat S62 Pro) and Garmin Fenix 5X Plus gets the GPS fix no problem in seconds under the same sky. This was not always the case!

I should first mention that all of these tests are with my Mk 8 with latest UEFI and I am located in the country side of Switzerland very far from tall buildings.

When I first turned on my CF-19 after installing my GPS, I had ~10 satellites in view and fix happened within seconds and this was in the evening. Something odd for me at the time is that I had to use COM6 instead of COM3. In between then and now, I installed a SIM card and Windows 10 properly activated my WWAN card to work with local network (before it was configured for Verizon in the US).

After WWAN card started working properly, I checked GPS Viewer and the COM port and COM6 was not reporting anything and COM3 simply failed to connect.

My device manager gave me a clue that Intel Active managment tech (SOL) was occupying COM 3, I deleted it and the driver and now COM3 started reporting back as if it should as a GPS but no satellite in view! This concided with bad weather so I waited and today iti eventually got a fix during the day but now I lost the fix again. It seems to just come and go.

I did try another GPS unit and even a different W10 installation and consistent results (inconsistent GPS signal). This is driving a bit crazy.

I did not have this inconsistent results with my Mk6. Do you have any suggestions? Aso do you think the GNSS GPS may help solving the problem. I mean by all means Mk6 GPS was pretty awful but not as awful as this.

I am mainly going to stay within civilization so Sierra location sensor will be always useful but I still want a more or less reliable GPS on my CF-19. Is this because I am in Europe? While I was in Seattle a few months ago my Mk6 almost always had a very good fix even in semi-bad weather.

While doing a bit of research I also ran into this (https://www.techtough.com/product-page/ ... book-cf-19) and I asked the company if their GPS unit will solve my problems.

Let me know if you have suggestions. Ideally this is some sort of software problem and either WWAN taking up too much serial port data lines or not enough power being sent to the GPS card or something like that but this is just bad.
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SJLPHI
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat May 14, 2022 1:31 am

Re: GNSS GPS for Toughbooks? (GPS troubles)

#2 Post by SJLPHI »

By the way, my Mk8 came from this (https://www.ebay.ca/itm/175221691106?ss ... 2749.l2649). It was missing a screw, had 2 dead pixels, power port cover ripped, no charger, screen protector scratched to hell, no stylus and etc. but if you have parts or don't mind spending an extra 100 bucks, I recommend it. I had a box of spares from my Mk6 stock.

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