Anyone used a CompactFlash GPS card before?

indiegirl_2

I've just got one for my (elderly) iPaq and I'm having trouble picking a signal up on it - it's happy talking to the iPaq and TomTom recognises it, it just refuses to pick up a signal.

Has anyone got a CF GPS card, or have they seen one in action before? I left the damn thing out on my balcony tonight for 15mins to try and get it to pick up a signal - all I achieved was a freezing cold iPaq

Any tips or suggestions would be welcome.

Blacksheep1979

does it have a little socket for an external ariel? Also does it have some kind of diagnostic screen where it says how many satelites it can see and how strong the signal is - if so what kind of readings are you getting?

indiegirl_2

Ta for your reply.

I haven't got an external aerial for it.... yet (that's for later) - I wanted to see how well it'd pick up without one...

I've got a program that came with it (quite naff and called MrGPSReceiver if you've ever heard of it) that shows plenty of, well, pointless info on the screen but doesn't confirm a fix onto a satellite at all.

I'm going to stand outside away from my building for ten minutes later and see if it can pick anything up, otherwise it's external aerial time (sigh)

GreenNotM

Are in one of the Milton Keynes vales/valleys ?

If so then get out higher up on flatter ground, so you have clear line of sight of the whole horizon at a distance.

Blacksheep1979

doesn't tomtom give an idea of how many sattelites and their strength?

indiegirl_2

I think I must be in a 'closed' area. TomTom can only pick one satellite up and only reports 35-40 on the strength, I'm assuming that's the % of signal strength.

I shall wait until the rain stops, then go and stand in the field opposite my flat and wait to see if it can pick any satellites up.

The card doesn't appear to be faulty (as I first thought) as the card found satellites for the first time today, so I will persevere and see if I can get fixed onto any. I just wondered if I was doing something wrong... clearly not!