TomTom GPS & e800?

[nosmohtac]

I have a serial GPS mouse from TomTom inc. that I used to use with my iPAQ. They used to sell a cable that worked with the e7xx series toshiba, but not the e800. Now it appears that they only make cables for the ipaq.

Here's what I'd like to do; I would like to take the cable that goes to the iPAQ, and cut the connector off, then splice an e800 connector on the end. Does anyone know the pinouts to the ipaq and e800 connectors to make this possible? Would an e800 sync cable work to do this with?

[victore]

If it were only that easy. The e800 (and that includes the e805, but I'm not sure about the e830) does not have a serial port "built-in". What I mean by that is that you can't build a cable and have it hook up to the bottom of your device. What you CAN do is to either purchase the expansion pack or the USB cable and then buy a USB to serial cable and use that to attach you USB mouse GPS to it. I know it's kinda kludgy.

[nosmohtac]

I may have stated that incorrectly. The GPS is the mouse with cable type. The e800 transfers information to and from my desktop computer through the bottom connector, and I was referring to that connection as being serial, not as an actual serial port on a computer. Tom Tom was going to make a cable that worked for the e8xx series, but must have changed their minds.

[victore]

i see. i wanted to try the same thing with a radio shack digitraveller. it came with a cable for my ipaq 3600, so i tried to chop the end off of that cable and splice one to my e750. after much trial and error, i read that it wouldn't be possible to do that w/o the expansion pack and the usb to serial cable.

[nosmohtac]

OK. You may be right. I just thought that it must be possible with this GPS, because TomTom actually had a cable for the e7xx series Toshiba, and although the pinout is different, the connector for the e8xx is the same. If I could get my hands on one of those cables and change the pinout on it, I might have something.

[victore]

it might be possible with the tom tom gps unit, if you do find the pin outs, could you post them here?

[nosmohtac]

Yes. Even if I don't get it working, I will post any info I find here.

[nosmohtac]

Ok, I found a cable for the e800 with an RJ11 port that I think will work for my TomTom GPS. The only problem is, I can't find it available in the US. Here (http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/p2396) is the link to one available in the UK, and I've found them on Australian sites, but no luck in the US. If anyone finds a US dealer, please post here. I'd like to order one and try it out with my GPS and e800.

[victore]

wow, i admire your persistence on this matter. i had totally forgotten about this topic. i'll keep my eye out for a us retailer of this product, but if you get it before i can find it, please post your experiences with it.

[nosmohtac]

wow, i admire your persistence on this matter. i had totally forgotten about this topic. i'll keep my eye out for a us retailer of this product, but if you get it before i can find it, please post your experiences with it.

victore, check out these threads at BH for some more info on what I've been finding.

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=116446
http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?threadid=107316
http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=759320

[i_spock]

That top link is to one of my posts. Nosmohtac even managed to find the original thread that I referenced in that post, too. Good work! FYI I've been happily GPSing with my e805 since installing the drivers referenced in those posts.

[nosmohtac]

Are you Using a USB GPS?
I'm still trying to fing a solution to use my TomTom wired GPS.

I wrote to TomTom support and they answered one of my questions. I will try to remember in the future to submit my questions individually to them, because they only seem to answer the first one. Here's what I wrote along with the response.

I have posted a question about this before, but it was labeled solved. I have new information that would cause that to be false.

On your web page at this link, http://www.tomtom.com/products/accessory.php?ID=49&Product=1
which is for the TomTom wired GPS replacement unit, under the compatability tab it shows that the Toshiba e800BT and e800 Wifi models are supported for this product. Unless this is a recent change of product, I would like to order the cable that goes from the GPS to the e800. The problem is and has been in the past, that even though your website shows that this product supports the e800BT and e800 Wifi, when I go to your online store and select <Buy>, the only devices that show up under Toshiba are the e330, e740, e740BT and e740WiFi. I have searched other online stores that you have listed as carrying your product, and have found nothing for the e800 other than the BT GPS. I own the wired GPS from TomTom and would like to have it work for the e800, instead of spending another $249 or $299 to buy a BT GPS when I already have one. I would greatly appreciate it if you could direct me to where I could purchase a cable for the e800 that will work with the wired GPS, or let me know that your web page is incorrect. If there is not a cable available for the e800, I would be interested in a cable that would allow serial or USB connection to a computer, so I could use the GPS (although not the software) on my laptop.

Thank you,
Clark Thomson

Dear Mr Thomson,

We do apologize for the inconvenience however there was a misprint on the website. The y-cable for the e800 BT has been discontinued. Our software has not been tested to work on the e800 WiFi. We will contact the person(s) in charge of the website immediately.

Kind Regards,

TomTom USA Customer Service

[i_spock]

Yep I'm using a USB GPS. By "wired" do you mean USB or is DB9 or DB25, etc?

[nosmohtac]

Yep I'm using a USB GPS. By "wired" do you mean USB or is DB9 or DB25, etc?

TomTom (and a few other brands I've seen) use a Y cable. There is a connector on the Y cable that connects to the sync port on the PPC, the other part of the Y cable has an RJ11 (phone jack) port that the wired GPS plugs into, then you plug the Y cable into the cigarette lighter and it powers the GPS and the PPC at the same time.

The Y cable looks like this (http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/p2396)

I was going to order one of these, but the company is in the UK, and I wanted to try and find one in the US first.