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Friday, June 20, 2008

Board and chipset update

This is a brief note to give you an update on the board assembly that I started last week.

It turned out that the problem of the GPS chip not sending data was not in the GPS chip itself but caused by my own mistake (:-o). I was trying to get the module together quickly to test the new board, and in the hurry, I didn't solder one of the components onto the board, which left part of the GPS chip disconnected. After a very helpful phone conversation with the chip vendor, we traced the problem down in 5 minutes.

I guess sometimes it is indeed good to take a brief break from everything and let things come to peace; after I soldered the missing component onto the board, everything worked flawlessly :)

And I have another update for you: the next chip-sets that I ordered will be A-GPS enabled!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you have any ideal of a ROUGH release date?

I mean is it like a couple of weeks away? or couple of months? or more than a year?

I'd really just like to have a rough estimate just to know if it is worth waiting.

Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

oh typo in the first line.
idea of course.

Unknown said...

@GPS : Didn't had time to comment the previous post about AGPS (which was crystal clear, thanks !) that you come back with more news and AGPS enabled... This project is great !!!!!!!
Can't wait for the pre-order. Looks like we haave more people interested here in Spain ! I hope I'll be able to organize a bulk order and reduce shipping costs... ;-)

@andi (and to help GPS who answered this question in other post), here is the answer : Regarding the release date, I am getting setup with the paperwork for the CM. It looks like everything is going to take a little more time then anticipated: chip manufacturing takes 4 weeks + preparations + board assembly and I am still working on the housing so it will likely be in August. But it is definitely worth the wait: you will get an A-GPS enabled chip now and I doubt anyone will be able to beat the form factor without compromising performance. In the meantime I will also be setting up the website for pre-ordering! But if you really can't wait, just drop me an email with your contact info :)

Anonymous said...

by august I guess gomite & iGo r expected to come out with wifi based gps & voice guided sf!!! from what I understand I will be able to use that wifi based gps with any other phone in future also!! Main thing would be the pricing so let's c.... g/l!!!

Anonymous said...

thanks vincent. I can wait 'til August :)

I have another question.
I read that I can charge the phone when the module is connected.
quote from GPS: "@zhou: as Alban says, the iPhone can be charged through the USB connector on the module."

Does that mean that it has a the same connector that the phone it self has on the bottom?

because my car charger has that connector.

Thanks in advance.

Unknown said...

@andi : The connector used is micro USB (or mini?) as far as I remember... It is not the typical iPhone plug.
This was a design decision in order to reduce the size of the GPS module.
Dont know if exists any micro-USB>iPhone plug adaptador ?!

Anonymous said...

Like someone said : I just can't wait to have my hands on one of those babies :)

I'll do the round trip around my friends, colleagues etc to see if there is more people interrested in a gps module for their v1 iPhones. :)

Continue the good work. Take your time and build us a fine gps module for our iphone.

Hi'5 from Paris !

Unknown said...

Any chance of also having the line-out jack on the connector? That'd definitely kick ass :)

GPS said...

@andi: planned release date is in August (note that I need to take care of quite some things so all dates mentioned are preliminary). The good news is, starting next week I will have a LOT more time to work on this.

@vincent: the connector for USB charging/syncing is a micro USB connector which will plug into any regular computer or car charger with USB output and that is suited for charging Apple equipment.

@alban: thanks for the encouragement, and yes, please spread the word.

@evinyatar: Please check some of the older posts on this issue. Audio is available through the headphone jack on both the iPhone and iTouch. There is no space for a full dock connector if we want a nicely sized small module.