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Mio A201 Selfhelp Group


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Hello Everyone!

 

For anyone who has bought a MioA201, this is where we can give plusses and minuses, ask questions etc. Bearing in mind the uk advice line is 35p a minute and staffed it seems by people who seem to think I will be able to plug the unit into the car charger when I am walking on the moor for hours on end, this could save us all a bit of cash!

 

That leads nicely into my first problem.

 

The battery is pants! Seems to last 3hours ish when gps is on. Have purchased an external battery pack which plugs in through the USB cable (http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=3114) , but don't think it is all going to fit into the otterbox ( http://www.otterbox.com/ ) somehow! will figure something out and report back to you. Anyone got any other solutions?

 

I run Fugawi 1:50000 landranger on it and it works fine but i cannot seem to directly upload loc waypoint files. ANy ideas??

 

Other than that, its a great little machine, and i can download the clue photos onto it to aid me in the hunt if i get a little stuck.

 

Still new to geochaching but ohmigod what a great sport!

 

Cheers,

 

Paul, Helen, Hamish the Otterhound.

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ANd!!!!!!!!

 

Sometimes when driving in the car following my location on fugawi, the gps does not seem to be able to keep up!!!!

 

I have to pull over and let the red circle catch up with me!

 

Thats a bit pants too.

 

Anyone have any useful suggestions, apart from driving slower???

 

Cheers.

 

Paul, Helen and Hamish the labrador cross otter.

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Same with Memory-Map, significant lag between real and indicated position when driving. Is it possible to replace battery with one of greater capacity.

 

McKryton,

 

I should be able to give you a brief update tomorrow on the portable power unit, and a more detailed update if I decide not to attend lectures on wednesday and pop out onto the moor.

 

I will give the link again if you have itchy palms and want to give it a go already!

 

www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=3114

 

Maybe the 'lag' is just a dodgy feature and I should use a road navigator to navigate roads.

 

AA navigator seems to never get signal and also has a lag.

 

Praying for the postman to come tomorrow,

 

Paul, Helen and Hamish the postman loving otter.

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3hrs for a PPC operating a GPS seems pretty good to me! I would get a cheap handheld GPS for the moors and use the PPC for the maps when you need them to save the battery.

 

Thankyou oh learned Gerbilly one for your advice.

 

Will let you know the score once I have been up all day on the moor.

 

The guy in the shop said that the person that field tested the external battery for him managed to charge the MIOA201 three times off it, but that it can also run off the external battery too.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul, Helen and Hamish the muddy ottermutt.

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Check ebay for extra capacity batteries, I got a 2400mAh one for my xda for £18,the original was 1300mAh so it's nearly double, also came with another battery cover as it's a lot thicker.

 

Alas, Nellie's Knackers,

 

Mitac just does not sell extra batteries, which is pants, but their public relations advisor in the uk is going to email them to suggest it.

 

An extra battery, or even better an extra capacity battery (internal) would be heaven. In the meantime I shall see how I go with this external beast.

 

I DID google and come up with a site that showed you how to make your own with a 9v battery, a resistor and a mini USB male end but the output was 5v, and I don't think frying the circuits is covered on the warranty.

 

Paul, Helen, and Hamish the submersible.

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If you use a 9v battery/resistor combo to supply 5V to the PDA, the "missing" 4v is going to be dissipated as heat in the resistor thus wasting almost half of the battery power. It's always better to use batteries of the correct voltage because all methods of voltage reduction involve some loss of energy. I was thinking of something like this

 

http://www.addonsworld.co.uk/product.php/26594/3177/

 

or

 

http://www.addonsworld.co.uk/product.php/21360/0/

Edited by McKryton
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If you use a 9v battery/resistor combo to supply 5V to the PDA, the "missing" 4v is going to be dissipated as heat in the resistor thus wasting almost half of the battery power. It's always better to use batteries of the correct voltage because all methods of voltage reduction involve some loss of energy. I was thinking of something like this

 

http://www.addonsworld.co.uk/product.php/26594/3177/

 

or

 

http://www.addonsworld.co.uk/product.php/21360/0/

 

Well, that's a lot cheaper than the £35 i forked out on for the beast that arrived this morning!

 

I cannot squeeze it into my otterbox with the PDA so the wire is dangling out a port and the pda has to go into the otterbox upsidedown. Will test it this afternoon on the moors for a few hours, then give you all a field test report and some piccies.

 

The unit in question comes equipped with a mirror (wow!) and a changing LED light (double wow!)

 

It also has a voltage switch to enable a choice between 3.7 and 5v.

 

Found my first cache this morning, Hamish rolled in something which smelt suspiciously human. :ph34r::D

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<<Same with Memory-Map, significant lag between real and indicated position when driving. Is it possible to replace battery with one of greater capacity.>>

 

This is probably down to the GPS, not the PDA. Our very old-hat GPS12XL keeps up with our prevcise position no matter what speed we're driving. It may be down to something called "Static Navigation", which causes a lag in GPS updates. Someone who knows what they're talking about will probably help you..

 

We've noticed this phenomena when out caching with cachers who have shiny new models... they always want to keep walking when we've reached the cache because their GPSr takes a short time to catch up. All very bizarre, but annoying (for them)!

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The i-UP3600 charger DOES charge the Mitac A201.

 

But the setting has to be on voltage of 5, not the setting of 3.7 volts.

 

My worry is that the battery is only 3.7v, so will charging it on a 5v setting ruin the battery/PDA?

 

Looking at the PDA when battery is taken out, it specifies the input is 5v 1A which is the same output as the charger. To heck with caution, i will give it a go and see if it explodes, should be right, fingers crossed!

 

To carry and navigate with the units together can be a bit clumsy. I had my PDA in my otterbox 1900, and the charger in a plastic bag strapped to the back of the otterbox. Luckily I didn't go past any military areas or I may have been shot on sight, as it looks like an improvised explosive device!!!

 

Would look less clumsy in a plastic bag or similar, but I like the protection the otterbox gives the PDA.

 

anyone want a picture of the set up, email me, as i cannot seem to attach an image to this post.

 

Cheers. Paul.

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I DID google and come up with a site that showed you how to make your own with a 9v battery, a resistor and a mini USB male end but the output was 5v, and I don't think frying the circuits is covered on the warranty.

No don't power it that way, that would be a sure way to destroy your PDA, if you really want to use a 9 volt battery you need to use a 5 volt Positive regulator such as an LM7805, don't just assume a resistor is good enough for this job.

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I DID google and come up with a site that showed you how to make your own with a 9v battery, a resistor and a mini USB male end but the output was 5v, and I don't think frying the circuits is covered on the warranty.

No don't power it that way, that would be a sure way to destroy your PDA, if you really want to use a 9 volt battery you need to use a 5 volt Positive regulator such as an LM7805, don't just assume a resistor is good enough for this job.

Just done a google and came back with this Homemade PDA Battery

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I DID google and come up with a site that showed you how to make your own with a 9v battery, a resistor and a mini USB male end but the output was 5v, and I don't think frying the circuits is covered on the warranty.

No don't power it that way, that would be a sure way to destroy your PDA, if you really want to use a 9 volt battery you need to use a 5 volt Positive regulator such as an LM7805, don't just assume a resistor is good enough for this job.

Just done a google and came back with this Homemade PDA Battery

 

Good Google Moote, thanks for that.

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Why don't you make up ypur own battery pack with 8 rechargables AAs Nickal metal hidrides. Each will give 1.2v. when charged 8 X 1.2 =12v Put into a battery holder.

Now I asume you have a car charger? Make up a lead with a female car lighter socket, plug the car charger into this and you will have a whole days of power. Make the lead long enough so the pack will go into your bag of other caching bits.

I have made one of these to drive my Ipaq that also has poor battery life.

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Mmmm this is a followup regarding the gps lag..

 

I have started to notice this but only after adding GPSGate to the system.

Seems like the prog shares the signal in more of a 5 to you 5 to me rather than every other card..

I may be wrong but that is how the system seems to respond.

But TT and MM run together so I am still happy.. And with MM giving me 11 sat green light accuracy to .80m i will be using it for cache placements..

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After reading Madyokel's comment above, I placed my mind in motion and remembered that using the GPS type NMEA instead if SiRF, will probably correct many of the lag issues, and that is without using GPSGate.

 

The reason here is that lots of software packages actually inclued SiRF as an option but this was written for older SiRF support, GPSGate actually will support SiRF III and that is why the lag is no longer noticable when being used.

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Windows Mobile 5 supports multi client GPS so apparently no need to install GPSGate. Standard set up in Mio A201 is GPS on Com2 and Com4. If you attach a GPS client to Com2, it will take exclusive ownership of the GPS receiver. You can however atttach several GPS clients to Com4 and each will receive the GPS signal.

Has anybody tried installling GPSGate and did it improve matters.

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We have been using our A201 for a few weeks and we are very pleased with it. Must confess to using the old yellow GPS when hunting the cace - uness we feel the need to check the mao. I am very nervous about dropping the PDA and prefer to have it secure in my pocket.

Use tomtom and now also use OSGPS to insert additonal waypoints for multi's.

 

Battery life seems reasonable but the battery is still very new.

 

Peter

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Battery life seems reasonable but the battery is still very new.

Keep the battery as charged as possible i.e. never allow it to fully discharge; the battery is based on Lithium technology which functions far better and lasts longer without full / deep discharging. The same goes for modern mobile phones. So whenever possible pop it on the charger.

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We have been using our A201 for a few weeks and we are very pleased with it. Must confess to using the old yellow GPS when hunting the cace - uness we feel the need to check the mao. I am very nervous about dropping the PDA and prefer to have it secure in my pocket.

Use tomtom and now also use OSGPS to insert additonal waypoints for multi's.

 

Battery life seems reasonable but the battery is still very new.

 

Peter

 

Wigglesworth,

 

For complete armoured protection get your PDA an otterbox at www.otterbox.com

 

It offers shock resistance and is waterproof to a fair bit too!

 

(I've dropped mine in the river to no ill effect).

 

The PDA fits into the otterbox with the antenna in the closed position and I still get good signal strength.

 

They're a bit pricey but well worth it!

 

Paul

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Linked to the A201 topics - just!

 

I use GSAK to maintain my cache data and it supports the downloading of tomtom POIs to the A201.

 

The POIs use the cache name as the index rather than the GC value. I would prefer to use the waypoint name - is this easy to change.

 

Peter

%code outputs the GC code GCxxxx

%name outputs the Cache name

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Windows Mobile 5 supports multi client GPS so apparently no need to install GPSGate. Standard set up in Mio A201 is GPS on Com2 and Com4. If you attach a GPS client to Com2, it will take exclusive ownership of the GPS receiver. You can however atttach several GPS clients to Com4 and each will receive the GPS signal.

Has anybody tried installling GPSGate and did it improve matters.

Ok I have set the system up without GPSGate and will see how I get on with both on com4.

Better I guess as there may not be the on/off lag.. time will tell.. I wonder if accuracy will suffer.

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There are several hints and tips on Mio website FAQ.

 

http://www.mio-tech.be/support/faqs/index....show&cat=349163

 

There is also a link to the tomtom upgrade for running on Mio - but when loaded you have to enter the registration code. I bought tomtom bundled in from superetrader but they have not registered the tomtom sale. So tomtom now does not work - awaiting registration code.

 

Good tip to use com 4 for GPS. Will try this - I used tomtom and memory map. You have to remember to 'exit' memory map otherwise tomtom will not 'see' the gps.

 

Peter

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Has anybody managed to find an aluminium case for the a201, plenty around for the m168

 

...all I can tell you is that I saw some advertised on a UK GPS type website, but it said they were not avilable. As it looked, in the photo, to be identical to the 168 case I emailed and asked if a 201 would fit in a 168 case.

 

The mailed back saying no it wouldn't and they were not going to make a 201 case as Mitac had decided to discontinue it ;)

 

Mitac would not comment to me about this...........

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I bought my a201 from superetrader complete with bundled tomtom. It worked well for a couple of weeks but then crashed and permanantly froze. I reset the complete system and reloaded everything from scratch. Tomtom still does not work. Trader suggetsed I contact tomtom drect. Tomtom informed me that they do not support the a201 and so cannot offer any help.

I will be sending the pda back for superetrader to reload the ystem. My worry is what happens if it crashes again some time later. I have also been running memory map and there are some issues with contention of the gps. Memory map also sems to have issues with large overlays of cache data - eg over 1500 caches.

 

Peter

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I bought my a201 from superetrader complete with bundled tomtom. It worked well for a couple of weeks but then crashed and permanantly froze. I reset the complete system and reloaded everything from scratch. Tomtom still does not work. Trader suggetsed I contact tomtom drect. Tomtom informed me that they do not support the a201 and so cannot offer any help.

I will be sending the pda back for superetrader to reload the ystem. My worry is what happens if it crashes again some time later. I have also been running memory map and there are some issues with contention of the gps. Memory map also sems to have issues with large overlays of cache data - eg over 1500 caches.

 

Peter

Backup your PDA using ActiveSync on the PC, if it crashes you can recover it from the backup

 

Tools >> Backup/Restore......

 

Memory Map functions slower with large overlays

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I have found that four 2300mAHC batteries (NiMh) installed into this thing

 

http://www.addonsworld.co.uk/product.php/21360/0/

 

hold sufficient power to recharge the Mio a201 twice.

 

(I ran the Mio until the first battery warning appeared then rechanged until the Mio status LED turned green).

 

Note: When the battery status LED on the Mio flashes orange, the externally supplied voltage has fallen to the point where it is no longer sufficient to charge the unit.

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Update on our a201.

 

After getting tomtom to 'freeze' I reset the complete macine and reloaded the original tomtom card when I got home and all is fine.

 

Also have MM version 4.4.3 loaded and all seems well.

 

Loaded GPS sonar but the loading the caches crashed the system - I guess the program uses too much of the RAM memory rather than the storage card. At the moment I use the MM cache detail after exporting MM with descriptions from geocacheUK. The layout isn't that clear but the data is present.

 

Sometimes there is a strong urge to prnt out a cache description on paper!!

 

Peter

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Update on our a201.

 

After getting tomtom to 'freeze' I reset the complete macine and reloaded the original tomtom card when I got home and all is fine.

 

Also have MM version 4.4.3 loaded and all seems well.

 

Loaded GPS sonar but the loading the caches crashed the system - I guess the program uses too much of the RAM memory rather than the storage card. At the moment I use the MM cache detail after exporting MM with descriptions from geocacheUK. The layout isn't that clear but the data is present.

 

Sometimes there is a strong urge to prnt out a cache description on paper!!

 

Peter

 

Ok Here we go.. How to get lots running without "Simulated Delay Mode"

TT/MM/Sonar

Hard reset.

Load your working patched TT to sd and insert.

Cancel the autorun when the card is inserted.

Run all the cab files on the SD card in folder 2577, ttn last and install all files on the device.

Setup tt and select com 4 option other nmea device and allow to settle in..

If the device does not capture within 10 mins change to com2 to make sure the gps is working then return to com4.

Install MM and save to the device load your maps and setup to com 4and run.when captured soft reset.

Load TT in a good coverage area and allow to aquire.

Load MM and allow to aquire. If mm gives a track with blue "I" and sim mode play with the settings to com2 and back untill it latches.

Now you should have tt and mm running together.. I tend to never shut these down, just turning off the machine and leaving these in the background.

Now install GPXSonar to the storage card.

This works for me and leaving the progs running seems to end the port sharing blues.

Have fun

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[quote name='Nellies Knackers' date='May 6 2006, 10:15 AM' post='2196042'

Try cachemate instead as it's a far better program.

 

Yup, totally agree, am currently running CacheMate and MM, double click on a cache icon on MM and CacheMate opens up the corresponding cache page.

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[quote name='Nellies Knackers' date='May 6 2006, 10:15 AM' post='2196042'

Try cachemate instead as it's a far better program.

 

Yup, totally agree, am currently running CacheMate and MM, double click on a cache icon on MM and CacheMate opens up the corresponding cache page.

Cheers folks will give it a try.. The double click has more than tempted me.

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Many thanks for the ideas - will try the joint running of tt and mm soon.

 

We now use GSAK to abstract the caches of interest and download from there to tt. We also use it to download cache pointers and descriptions so that we can double click on the MM icon and get description. This way we do not use any other software. Thanks to Clyde for the pointer to the gsak forum where we received instructions.

http://www.gsak.net/board/

 

We really appreciate this exchange of info and ideas.

 

Peter :laughing:

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[quote name='Nellies Knackers' date='May 6 2006, 10:15 AM' post='2196042'

Try cachemate instead as it's a far better program.

 

Yup, totally agree, am currently running CacheMate and MM, double click on a cache icon on MM and CacheMate opens up the corresponding cache page.

Cheers folks will give it a try.. The double click has more than tempted me.

To get the double click function you will need to use Roolku's excellent script for your export to MM, and it must have this bit in it:

 <xsl:value-of select="gpx:name"/>
<xsl:text>", "</xsl:text>
<xsl:text>\cmate:</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="gpx:name"/>

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