04-20-2004, 06:00 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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SiRF's Up(dated their GPS firmware)
 A few months ago, I wrote an article about geocaching. This is a fun sport that you can do with a GPS unit and Pocket PC. Until now, there were really two "flavors" of GPS - ST mode, which was great for higher speeds (such as car travel), and XT mode, which was best suited for slower speeds and situations where GPS signals were few and far between. To be more effective with fewer signals, XT mode uses a kind of averaging to work out where the receiver was - a more robust triangulation if you will.
A few GPS hardware companies released units that could utilize both modes, but they required that a switch be flipped, which essentially restarted the GPS unit from a "cold start". A cold start can take a few minutes to get a satellite lock, so while it was handy, it wasn't necessarily ideal. It also couldn't handle very high speeds, making it essentially useless for car navigation.
GPSPassion reports that SiRF has now made an update to their firmware that essentially brings XT mode almost parallel to ST in terms of speed. SiRF calls the upgraded mode "XTrac V2", and "it has nearly all the dynamics of the ST mode with a minimal delay that will no longer confuse navigation software with a high level of sensitivity that will come in handy for use in poor conditions such as urban canyons, heavy foliage or simply if you wear your GPS receiver at your belt." The new mode is "much better [at] "sticking" to the road than Xtrac v1 and improved sensitivity of about 20% (Xtrac v1 was about 30%) over the ST mode."
This is exciting because it may negate the need to make that hardware switch from ST to XT mode - it seems that "XTrac2" mode may be sufficient for all conditions. Be sure to check out the article - gpspassion has posted screenshots showing the effectiveness of the new mode in comparison to the old. 
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04-21-2004, 01:51 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 152
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Love that title of yours (think I'll have to reuse it one day - with due credit of course), and it doesn't hurt that I saw the man sing the song itself in Paris in March as part of the Smile 2004 tour!
The more I use Xtracv2 and the more I like it. There's really none of the annoying v1 delay and sensitivity is really just as good most of the time...can still get a lock in the house withouth the "jumping" around we used to have in v1 and that was potentially a problem for geocaching!
Gotta love technology ;-)
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04-21-2004, 02:12 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 9
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I think I can already guess the answer to the following question but I'll ask it anyway. :?
Is the Xtract firmware upgradeable or do I have throw away my existing Fortuna Clip-On Bluetooth GPS?
Regards,
Britade.
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04-21-2004, 02:19 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 152
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That's a question I've been asking myself and I don't have an anwer at this time, but would recommend you keep an eye on GpsPasSion for any news either way.
There is clearly a risk that in the same way that the iPAQ 3630 was able to run WM2003 with great improvement as mentioned by Jason last year, the existing GPS receivers (ST or XT) will not be eligible for this "brush-up".
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04-22-2004, 01:50 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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Excellent news! I despise the urban canyon effect, particularly because in order to travel from this location to anywhere else by ground it's necessary to pass through at least one actual canyon/valley to get there. In the past week, I made a road trip that passed through four canyons and experienced loss of signals (GPS, CDMA and GPRS) for the entire length of the longest one, around three hours.
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Linear Mode
