GPS Communication Failure

Doddo · Veteran Member

GPS Communication Failure

Tony Bev · Guru

Hello Doddo

Firstly welcome to the forum, and I am sure that if any members are using your device on Win 10 they will be along and help you out.

I can only give a general answer as I do not have your type of GPS, and am waiting to the bitter end before I get Windows 10

If the Magellan Gold GPS works with XP in the 232 port, and not Windows 10, with the USB to RS-232 adaptor, then it is most probably the lack of a driver in Windows 10, for either the USB adaptor or GPS

Find out who makes your RS-232 to USB adaptor, and go to their web site to see if they have a driver for Win 10, (if one is available)

Go to the Magellan Gold GPS web site to see if they have a driver for Win 10, (if one is available)

If you just go on the Internet and download a generic drivers from a third party, there is always the chance that your computer will be corrupted, with a virus
If you are computer savvy, you could make a restore setting, download a third party driver, and if the computer becomes corrupt, restore back to the original settings, which obviously means that you have also lost the drivers you downloaded.

If no one comes along to help you out, then I suggest you look at either GPS or Win 10 forums

-- Edited by Tony Bev on Wednesday 27th of April 2016 12:08:56 AM

Hylife · Guru

Introduced in 1962, RS232 has not been supported since the replacement of XP by Vista 10 years ago. It is an outdated technology no longer used.

As computers progressively were made without a DB25 (RS232) socket, there developed a market for that USB to RS232 adaptor.
That you can buy a USB to RS232 adaptor is of little use if the underlying operating system doesn't speak the correct way to that device.

Once we used leaded petrol and for a while you could buy both leaded and unleaded but eventually the old tech was pulled from the market.
I think it is probably time to buy a new GPS unit. At less that $100, modern units are sure to provide you with greater features.

dorian · Guru

I would follow up Tony's advice.

Start by identifying your USB-RS232 adapter, particularly its main chip. You can do this by visual inspection of the chip's markings, or you could use tools such as USBDeview or UVCView, or you could examine its properties in Device Manager, or whatever it is called in Win 10.

www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
download.microsoft.com/download/e/b/a/eba1050f-a31d-436b-9281-92cdfeae4b45/UVCView.x64.exe
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_IDs/UVCView.x86.exe

Then I would search for an appropriate driver that matches the chip's Vendor ID and Product ID (VID/PID), assuming you don't already have a driver.

Once the driver is installed, then use a tool such as PuTTY or HyperTerminal to set up a communications session with the virtual COM port.

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty

http://www.hilgraeve.com/hyperterminal/

On the adapter, connect the Tx output to the Rx input, then type characters on your keyboard. If the adapter is working, you should see each typed character being echoed on your screen. This is called a loopback test.

Now that you have confirmed that your setup is OK, choose the correct data format for your GPS, eg 8 data bits, no parity, 1 start bit, 1 stop bit, 38400 baud. Now connect the GPS to the COM port. Hopefully you will see ASCII data corresponding to coordinate information.

The following article has sample data streams from several GPS models:

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/nmea.htm

-- Edited by dorian on Wednesday 27th of April 2016 08:24:34 AM

Doddo · Veteran Member

Thanks for the info and help will try to muddle my way through advice received.

Guess other options are buy new GPS or download to old computer and transfer to new by memory stick.

thanks Doddo

dorian · Guru

The problem appears to be independent of your choice of GPS. Every GPS should support some communications standard. Yours appears to be NMEA compliant.

If you need me to simplify my instructions, please let me know. All I'm asking you to do is to methodically work through each stage of the communications channel. It really isn't that difficult.

BTW, were you connecting to a standard 9-pin COM port on your XP box, and was this directly cabled to your GPS? If so, then your GPS may have a +/-12V RS232 interface, in which case it would not be compatible with an adapter that uses 5V TTL or 3.3V LVTTL logic. Some photos of your setup (XP and Win 10) would help us to understand what you are doing.

Doddo · Veteran Member

My GPS is NEMA compliant and it's connected with a nine pin plug.

Have identified adapter as CH340 VID 1a86 have not been able to identify safe site for driver download.

Will take photo's to help.

thanks.

-- Edited by Doddo on Wednesday 27th of April 2016 12:23:52 PM

-- Edited by Doddo on Wednesday 27th of April 2016 12:27:12 PM

-- Edited by Doddo on Wednesday 27th of April 2016 12:28:33 PM

03_Troopy · Guru

Google popped this up at the top of the list. Dunno how secure and safe the site is, but there are a heap more results to choose from.

Driver

dorian · Guru

FWIW, I found a Microsoft tech note that states that Windows 10 incorporates native support (Usbser.sys) for those USB-serial devices that comply with the "USB communications device class (or USB CDC) specification".

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn707976(v%3Dvs.85).aspx

Perhaps the CH340 is one of these? I would look in Device Manager for a likely Port, then examine its Properties. Maybe it's already there.

The adapter appears to be the +/-12V type, in which case the physical interface would be compatible with your GPS. You could perform a loopback test (with PuTTY) by shorting pins 2 and 3 (Tx and Rx) with a bent paperclip or similar. I have an ancient Uniden GPS with a similar interface and I recall using it with HyperTerminal through a standard COM port.

Hylife · Guru

Oh so much hassle for an ancient (15+ years old) GPS unit with 16MB of memory (expandable to whopping 256MB).
$700 when new but I really think it is time you let the moths out and opened up your wallet and splashed out for a nice new unit.

Pop down to a JB HiFi store and see what you can get for $100 these days.
Large pretty colour screens instead of tiny brown dot matrix lines, voice directions, lifetime map upgrades, some even have integration with Google maps for plotting a course or reviewing your journey.

And they use USB. Yep, that's right, that backwards compatible new interface that came out in 1996, instead of that old outdated interface that hasn't been supported for the last decade (since Vista 2006).

Hey, here's a thought.
Have you considered one of those new fangled devices called a Smart Phone?
You can make calls, listen to music, (hands free from a modern car with bluetooth), surf the web, play games, check your email, take hi-res photos with the camera, and, you know that most of them have a real Satellite GPS unit built in and you get free maps updates for the life of the product for any country anywhere on the planet.

Sorry for taking the p!ss, but that thing of yours is like comparing a crystal set radio to WiFi.

dorian · Guru

Virustotal didn't find any malware.

https://virustotal.com/en/file/0f4b7f47e39d846f503cfa0279a3dfe28a4e613884f90643bc11e67d4e141b4a/analysis/1461784596/

SHA256:            0f4b7f47e39d846f503cfa0279a3dfe28a4e613884f90643bc11e67d4e141b4a
File name:         USB-SERIAL-CH340-wch_cn-wch_cn-32-bits64-bits.exe
Detection ratio:   0 / 56
Analysis date:     2016-04-27 19:16:36 UTC

Doddo · Veteran Member

Hi All .
Thanks for the advice sorry its taken so long to reply I have been doing the Gibb River road for last 4 weeks.
No service till now will be able to try and sort out over next few days.
Doddo

Nooms · Member

DriverMax (link supplied by Troopy) is a great source for drivers. You will probably find Magellan offer you a trade-in deal on the old GPS for a new one, too which would probably be worth it in the long run.
Just my $0.02 worth :)

OutbackMK · Senior Member

Ok Problem is USB to RS232 adapter drivers (Prolific is the most common) it usually says that the 8.1 driver or new windows 10 one will work but it doesn't.
I had to go backwards to an older driver. The website below is one of many that describe the problem, often the new driver only supports the latest adapter chipset. (trying to stop people selling clone chips.)
Once you have the older driver installed check Devices to find out what port it is installed to, it could be COM5 or even COM10 not the original COM1 or 2 that it worked on previously. Then use OZI to search for port.

www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Drivers.php
If you get stuck I can send you the driver I use with Windows 10 via a PM.
Cheers,
Brian

Doddo · Veteran Member

Brian.

I would appreciate it if you could P M the driver you use.Have just got to place with reception to view your post.

Bruce.

Doddo · Veteran Member

Thanks to all for help have now been able to download driver and all works well.
Bruce