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Article Number: 000134111

Set Up, Use and Troubleshooting GPS Using the Dell Location and GPS Utility

Summary: This article is a guide to the set up, use and troubleshooting of Global Positioning System (GPS) on a Dell Notebook with the appropriate hardware.

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Instructions

Dell Wireless 700 GPS Receiver Mini-PCI Adapter

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Issue I: Introduction to the Dell Wireless 700 GPS Card

Dell Location Service

The Dell Location Service leverages both GPS and Wi-Fi positioning; this hybrid technology is the perfect solution for mobile computer users. The Dell Location Service is much faster than traditional GPS lookups. It can provide location in as little as 1 second. The Dell Location Service is extremely accurate, providing location results within 10m - 20m. Finally, it offers flexibility because it works everywhere-indoors and outdoors.

Wi-Fi Positioning Overview

The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) can determine the location of Wi-Fi enabled devices. All Wi Fi Access Points (APs) broadcast a signal beacon known as a MAC address, notifying nearby devices of their presence. WPS refers to the mapped locations of millions of Wi-Fi MAC addresses to pinpoint the device location. WPS is complimentary to GPS. It works best indoors and in urban areas, the environments where GPS is limited by physical obstructions of ceilings and tall buildings.

GPS Overview

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system developed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). It is made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit. Initially, GPS was developed as a military system to fulfill U.S. military needs. However, it was later made available to civilians, and is now a dual-use system that can be accessed by both military and civilian users. GPS provides continuous positioning and timing information, anywhere in the world under any weather conditions. Because it serves an unlimited number of users and is used for security reasons, GPS is a one-way-ranging (passive) system. That is, users can only receive the satellite signals.

Dell Wireless 700 GPS Card Overview

With a Dell GPS Card in your mobile computer, your location can be determined at anytime and anywhere. The Dell GPS card uses land-based Wi-Fi access points and Long Term Orbits (LTO), A-GPS technology to determine location information. It provides a fast, accurate, and reliable location source to applications and services by leveraging the strength of each underlying position technology. With a Dell GPS Card, your position can be located whether you are indoors or driving in your car. Dell GPS Card is powered by Broadcom's A-GPS and Skyhook's Wi-Fi position solutions.

Issue II: Dell Wireless 700 GPS Card Features

Long Term Orbits (LTO)

Your Dell GPS Location has the latest A-GPS technology called LTO to help the Dell GPS Card quickly compute your position, even in locations where GPS signals are barely detectable. To achieve such optimum GPS performance, the LTO data must be current. Desktop LTO Manager operates by transferring seven days of GPS satellite data from the Internet to your computer, where it is stored in memory. Traditional GPS receivers download this data directly from the GPS satellites, increasing the time it takes to compute your position from seconds to minutes, and limiting operation to open sky conditions. Desktop LTO Manager downloads/updates satellite data when your computer is connected to the Internet. This process occurs in the background, ensuring that the updated satellite data is ready to use at all times. The time it takes for GPS and LTO to locate your position varies with signal reception conditions. In open and nearly-open sky conditions, the Dell GPS Card typically can locate you in just a few seconds. The Dell GPS Card starts searching for signals based on the your most recent position. When traveling to a new location, your computer needs extra time and more open signal conditions to determine your location. After your first fix in the new location, full performance is restored.

Dell Location Utility

The Dell Location Utility displays your location with a list of viewable satellites and wireless access points. The utility shows your current latitude and longitude. In addition, a graphical view shows you how your current location is being determined:

If the source is WPS, your position has been calculated using Wi-Fi access points.

If the source is GPS, your position has been found using GPS satellites.

Loki Web Plug-in

Loki is a browser plug-in that determines the precise location of website visitors. Loki works with websites that are taking advantage of location to improve local search functionality, store finders, social networking, and more. Your Dell computer comes preconfigured with Loki for Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Opera.

Dell Wireless 700 GPS Card Utility

The Dell GPS Card Utility is a software on your computer that you can use to diagnose your GPS Card functionality.

Interoperability

At the time of this product release, Dell GPS Location Service is validated to work with the following navigation applications:

ALK Laptop CoPilot

Garmin MobilePC

Issue III: Set Up and Connect to the Navigation Software

To connect the GPS application to the Dell Location Service, follow these instructions :

Open your GPS application (e.g., ALK Laptop CoPilot).
Open the settings panel for the application.
Point to the Dell Location System Tray icon to identify the location service COM port.
In the GPS Application, select the appropriate COM port and set the baud rate to 4800.
Save your settings.
Request your location.

Issue IV: Using the Loki Browser Plug-in

What is Loki?

Loki Requests

When a location-enabled website starts a location lookup, a window appears with the choices:

Selection	Action
Allow	Loki will use Wi-Fi access points to locate you and forwards your location data to the website.
Deny	Loki denies the website access to your location.
Remember my selection	Adds this site and the Allow/Deny permission you select to your profile.
Manage Sites	Displays a list of location enabled sites and permissions for your profile.

Uninstalling or Disabling Loki

Uninstalling

Loki can be uninstalled like any other Windows program. Open the Windows Control Panel and click Add or Remove Programs. Select Loki Browser Plug-in and click Uninstall.

Enabling or Disabling

Loki can be disabled like any other browser plug-in. In any of the supported browsers, use the Add-ons manager to enable or disable Loki.

Issue V: Opening the Dell Location Utility

Click Start.
Click All Programs
Click Dell Wireless.
Click Dell Location and GPS Utility to access the following menu items.

Program	Description
Dell Location Utility	Opens the Dell Location Utility.
Dell GPS Card Utility	Opens the Dell GPS Card Utility..
Dell Location Utility User Guide	Displays the Dell Location and GPS Services User Guide in PDF format.
Readme	Displays the Readme text document.

Issue VI: Using the Dell Location Utility

When you open the Dell Location Utility, three tabs display: Position, Advanced, and About.

Position

Function	Description
Enable Location Services	Indicates whether the Location Service is enabled or disabled on this computer.
Location Source	Reflects the source of the location: GPS satellites. Wi-Fi access points. Combination of GPS and Wi-Fi. No location source.
Position	Displays 'Locked' or 'No Fix'. Green — Your location is locked. Red — Your location cannot be determined. Bars reflect the strength of the fix on your location.
Signals in view	The number of GPS satellites and/or Wi-Fi access points in view. Latitude/Longitude. Latitude and longitude of location.
Altitude	Altitude of location when available.
Error Estimate	Error estimate for your location in ± meters.
Show my location…	Links to a website that will display your current location.
Location aware portal…	Links to Loki Portal website.

Advanced

The Advanced tab displays a split panel. On the left side is the list of visible GPS satellites with their signal strength. On the right side is the list of visible Wi-Fi access points and signal strength.

About

The About tab displays the XPS and GPS software version, copyright information, and Wi-Fi and GPS provider logos.

Issue VII: The Dell Location Service

Enable and Disable GPS

GPS Radio On/Off

The GPS radio is turned off automatically by the system. The GPS is off only when your computer is in one of the following states:

Shut Down
Standby
Hibernation

GPS Feature On/Off

To enable and disable the Location Service feature, right-click the Dell Location System Tray icon and open the Dell Location Utility. Select or clear the Enable Location Services option. When Enable Location Services is cleared, no location information is provided to the applications. In addition, the GPS is off when in standby and hibernation states.

Issue VIII: The Dell Location System Tray

The Dell Location System Tray icon gives an indication of the GPS adapter status.

Icon	Description
	Standby A location service is available. No GPS application is connected to the location service. When you point to the icon, the message "No client is connected to COMx" displays.
	In Use The location service is currently providing location to the COM port. Additional applications can connect to the location COM port. When you point to the icon, the service currently being used to determine your location (GPS or WPS) is displayed.
	No Location The location service is available. The location service cannot locate you based on the current data. When you point to the icon, the message "No location source is available" displays.
	Disabled The location service is disabled. Your location information is not available. When you point to the icon, the message "Location service is disabled" displays.

Issue IX: Changing Regional Maps

When updating the CoPilot factory installed maps to add another region it is necessary to remove the factory installed maps completely before installing the new regional maps :

Click the Start Menu.
Click Control Panel.
Click Add/Remove Programs.
Highlight CoPilot from the list of programs.
Click Remove.
The Confirm uninstall window may appear, if so click Yes.
Click the Start Menu.
Click My Computer.
Double-click Local disk (C:).
Double-click Program files.
A message stating these files are hidden may appear, if so click Show hidden files.
Click the folder ALK Technologies.
Press the < Delete > key on the keyboard.
The Confirm Folder Delete window will appear, click Yes.

After the software is uninstalled the You must restart the computer window may appear, if so click Yes.
Click the Start Menu.
Click My Computer.
Click Local disk (C:).
Double-click the Windows folder.
Search for two files "cpl8.dat" or "cpl08.dat".
If found highlight each one separately and press the < Delete > key on the keyboard.
The Confirm File Delete window will appear, click Yes.
Install the new CoPilot maps.

Issue X (A): The Dell Location Utility is Not Installed or Would Not Open

Download and install Dell Location Utility, for more information on how refer to :

How to Use the Drivers and Downloads Website

Note: The drivers and software are located in the Communication category.

Issue X (B): Make Sure That the GPS Receiver can Locate Satellites

The Dell GPS Location Service is validated to work with the following navigation applications :

ALK Laptop CoPilot

Garmin MobilePC

Note:

Before you proceed ensure that you have a clear line of sight to the sky, which means it probably will be necessary to perform these steps outside.
Even though the Dell Location Utility is capable of finding your location from Wi-Fi access points, it is recommended that GPS be the primary means of finding your location.
When the navigation application is not installed it will be necessary to install and configure it to the correct COM port, in order to provide step-by-step driving instructions.

The Dell Location System Tray icon will tell you the COM port that the navigation applications needs to be configured to when you hover the mouse pointer over it with a message of "No client is connected to COMx".

Refer to the The Dell Location Utility is Not Installed or Would Not Open section to download and install the software and drivers.

Click Start.
Click All Programs
Click Dell Wireless.
Click Dell Location and GPS Utility.
Click Dell Location Utility.
Click the Advanced tab.

Note: It may take up to 5 minutes before the GPS receiver acquires any satellites.

Issue X (C): No satellites were found by the GPS receiver

The GPS Card Utility enables you to perform diagnostic tasks on your Dell GPS Card:

Check if the GPS device is detected.
Check if NMEA is detected.
Check if satellites are detected.
Check if position is calculated.
Display the position information of longitude and latitude.
Display the software and firmware versions.

Note: Before you proceed ensure that you have a clear line of sight to the sky, which means it probably will be necessary to perform these steps outside.

Click Start.
Click All Programs
Click Dell Wireless.
Click Dell Location and GPS Utility.
Click Dell GPS Card Utility.
Click Run Test.
In the Prepare for GPS Receiver Test window, click OK.
Click Run Test.

Note: It may take up to 5 minutes before the GPS receiver acquires any satellites.

Note the results for: GPS Device Detected.
1. Make sure the wireless switch is on.
2. Refer to the The Dell Location Utility is Not Installed or Would Not Open section to reload the software and drivers.
The GPS device was detected

The hardware is working correctly.

The GPS device was NOT detected

Note: For more information on where the wireless switch is located for your specific computer, browse to the Online User's Guide. Click the make and model of the computer and the preferred language. Download the Setup Guide or User's Guide and refer to the wireless switch information.

Issue X (D): The GPS Adapter Still Will Not Find any Satellites

Make sure to have performed the following steps listed below :

(For more information on how to perform these step refer to the links above.)

Make sure the wireless switch on the computer is on.
Note: For more information on where the wireless switch is located for your specific computer, browse to the Online User's Guide. Click the make and model of the computer and the preferred language. Download the Setup Guide or User's Guide and refer to the wireless switch information.
Make sure the latest driver is installed, for more information refer to:
How to Use the Drivers and Downloads Website
Run the GPS Card Utility, for more information refer to:
No satellites were found by the GPS receiver.
Make sure to try locating satellites with a clear line of sight to the sky.

After performing the troubleshooting steps outlined above and the GPS receiver still will not find any satellites, Contact Technical Support.