GPS on available on Aspire One

Hi All

I recently purchased a AA1 with 3G capability. The AA1 3G model in South Africa comes with as standard the Option GTM380 PCI Express MiniCard module. According to the specs on www.option.com website this module has GPS features "Multimode HSUPA / HSDPA / UMTS / EDGE / GPRS module A-GPS / S-GPS Positioning "

http://www.option.com/products/gtm_380.shtml

I phoned Acer SA and they are not aware of this feature, yet the above Option website clearly indicates that the GTM PCI Express card has GPS facilities. I also sent a email to Option Head Office in Belgium and they advised me that they cannot help and i must speak to Acer as Quote "The product has been commercialized and is supported by your local supplier. Please contact your local supplier-support helpdesk. (i.e. Acer)"

Does anyone know how to switch this GPS on? its suprising that Acer SA is not advertising widely that they even have a 3G capable machine, Samsung NC10 is advertised as 3G capable with GPS !!!

Regards

Norman

 

isnt the A-GPS functionality just to help speed up your gps fix using cell stuff, but you actually need a seperate gps reciever to do it?

 

Hi

Don't Know... i cant find definition of s-GPS which according to the option spec stands for "Stand-alone" GPS, which implies it has GPS capabilities or features.

My limited understanding is that with A-GPS mobile phone its able to obtain GPS co-ordinates from the cellular network. Therefore co-ordinates are available for use with maps ... i am guessing thats how the maps on cell phones work. So if this is a feature of the GTM380 PCI card, i would assume that GPS maps should also function the same way on the Aspire One.

I guess we need a GPS expert to explain this to us.

Below is extract from Option Spec regarding the GPS capability of the embedded GTM380 PCI card.

Assisted/Stand-alone GPS

A-GPS and S-GPS modes, as described below:
MS-based, MO of MT
MS-assisted, MO of MT
Stand-alone

Regards
Norman

 

Yes it is. A-GPS capability is actually software supporting GPS receiver. It can download file containing satellites positions so GPS can start using this data while is searching sky to receive full GPS signal... Most of the modern PDA have exactly the same capability. More on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-GPS

 

i bet your X1 has it lool
all Windows Mobiles released post iPhone 3G pretty much have it. Its a good feature, but on some phones fucks it up...
rory

 

Yes it does Like most of my previous PDAs. I never had any problem with this TBH. There was some issue with this on some stage - if you have this capability in your PDA you should use it as GPS w/o this data starts really slooooooooooow.... Most of manufacturers like HTC, HP, Mitac and others uses A-GPS as an advantage in PDA/GPS by the way...

 

Hi, I got my AspireOne with the same 3G adapter, GTM380. I really want to find out about this, if there's some way we can use the GPS-capability of the card.. Let's keep each other updated

 

You not reading. There is no GPS capability - it's A-GPS support - that's two different things...

 

Yeah, I know GPS and A-GPS are two different things, but the spec sheet states:

Assisted/Stand-alone GPS
* A-GPS and S-GPS modes, as described below:
o MS-based, MO of MT
o MS-assisted, MO of MT
o Stand-alone

Unless it's a typo, which of course is a possibility, it should be capable of more than A-GPS. I won't stop looking yet..

Specs: http://www.option.com/docs/datasheets/Z ... _v2_LR.pdf

 

You have stand alone GPS on that card, you do not need to be connected online you just have to make sure the modem and GPS are enabled. The Option Connection Manager (Or whatever they call it, they do make one along with reference drivers that the OEM's use to base theirs on) should be used, there are no GPS options in the Acer manager. Otherwise you have to send the modem some AT codes from a terminal program to enable the GPS .... Globetrotter Connect 3.0 should do the trick for you
http://www.option.com/en/support/softwa ... s/gtm380e/

Contrary to what a couple of people are telling you, you can't have Assisted GPS unless you have stand alone GPS to begin with, as the name clues us in A-GPS has to assist *something* .... How it works is every cell site has a fixed GPS coordinate that is known and never changes. The GPS at the cell site gets a fix, checks it against the known coordinates and sends out a correction signal based on that data. This makes the fix on your unit more accurate and it also helps if you have dropouts on the stand alone GPS because of tall building (canyon affect) or tree cover, etc. as long as you have a cell connection .... It's kind of like what WAAS does except there are a lot more cell sites to work with and once implemented it will be really accurate and we'll be seeing a lot stand alone auto GPS's with that feature probably with A-GPS only network access licensed from a carrier or a group of carriers

Main problem is right now most cell sites don't support A-GPS although most will in the next couple of years because it'll be an additional source of income for the carriers with a relatively low cost to implement (ie. - very profitable in a short time)

 

Internal GPS
With the Sierra Wireless MC8781(MC8782 in Europe) mPCIe HSDPA modem card.

1) You need to unlock the unit first if you desire to have it unlocked. You can use "DC unlocker" to unlock the card, there is a cost.

2) Next download the latest firmware (AC881U_F1_2_3_15ap.exe )
http://www.sierrawireless.com
for the card and update the firmware. (Note - Card will not be able to be unlocked after firmware upgrade). I recommend you also download the "International Scan Tool ", because it is very useful.

3) Finally run the 3G watcher program and select GPS from the menu. You don't need a sim card for the GPS to work. After the card picks up the satellites, start your GPS program.

 

The Option modem should already be unlocked if it was factory installed by ACER

And I wouldn't recommend using another manufacturer's firmware (Sierra) in an model made by Option, you are liable to 'brick' the modem rendering it useless

 

Sierra Wireless software with a Sierra Wireless card, I wrote nothing about a Option card. Only recommending the card which works for GPS, which is made by Sierra Wireless.