Now that you have received your iGPS360 module, what to do next?
This FAQ is aimed at getting you up and running as quickly as possible
with your new iGPS360 module. If you follow the instructions on this
page, you should be good to go in "no"-time.
- Important notes regarding your iGPS360 module (please read first)
-
The serial number of your iGPS360 module is printed on a removable label
that is attached to the front lower left corner of the module's housing.
Record your serial number and put it in a safe place for your
records. When corresponding with us, please mention the serial
number of your module so that we can easily pull up the test records
for your module.
- The serial number label can be easily removed by gently peeling it from the
front of the housing with your fingernail.
DO NOT use any
sharp object to remove the label as this can damage the plastic
housing. If any glue from the label remains on the housing, it can
be removed by wiping it with a soft tissue and some rubbing
alcohol.
- The housing of the iGPS360 module can also be cleaned by
wiping it with a soft cloth tissue and, if needed, some rubbing
alcohol.
- DO NOT USE AN ACETONE BASED SOLUTION (like nail
polish remover) TO CLEAN THE HOUSING AS THIS WILL PERMANENTLY
DAMAGE THE SURFACE FINISH OF THE HOUSING.
- Make sure to charge your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad through the GPS
module with the included USB cable for at least 16 hours before
first use of the module.
- The USB plug on the module is a normal wear part that is not
covered under the warranty. It is advised to only use the supplied
Orange Gadgets USB cable with the module as third party
manufacturer's compatibility can not be guarantueed. Care needs to
be taken when connecting/disconnecting the USB cable from the
module. Always make sure to press the release button on the USB
cable when connecting/disconnecting the module. Additional USB
cables can be purchased from Orange Gadgets online store.
- The iGPS360 module is now officially supported by Xwaves' xGPS
software. Please visit http://xgps.xwaves.net and
http://xgpsdev.xwaves.net
for documentation, installation, usage and user forums on xGPS.
- Please visit http://iphone-gps.blogspot.com
for the latest technology updates.
- What do you need to get started with the iGPS360 module?
- You will need either a jailbroken iPhone (2G, 3G, 3GS, 4),
jailbroken iPod Touch (first generation 1G, second
generation 2G, third generation 3G, or fourth generation 4G) or a jailbroken
iPad.
All devices up to and including
firmware 4.3.3 can now be jailbroken by redsn0w and
PwnageTool and as such you can install
software that can access the iGPS360 module, e.g. the xGPS
and GPSSerial software.
- Your device should either be running firmware 1.1.x or firmware 2.0,
2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.2.1, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.2, 3.2.1,
4.0, 4.0.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.3, 4.3.1, 4.3.2, 4.3.3.
- You will need to install a GPS application on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad that can access the iGPS360 module (Orange Gadgets
ships only the hardware module).
We recommend the free xGPS
software from Xwaves available
through Cydia, or you can purchase a navigation application like
Navigon or Sygic on the AppStore and use it with the
latest release of GPSSerial.
- Charging the internal battery of your iGPS360 module for
first use
The iGPS360 module has an on-board battery which will store the
last acquired GPS satellite information on-board, enabling a fast
GPS-lock re-acquisition time after the module has temporarily been
switched off.
For optimum on-board battery life and performance, it is advised
that before first use of the module, you charge your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch through the GPS module with the included USB cable for at
least 16 hours. If you wish, you can split the 16 hours up and
charge the on-board battery
for 2-3 days in a row overnight for 6-8 hours while you are
asleep.
To do this, you plug your iGPS360 module into
your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch and the included USB cable into the iGPS360
module. The other end of the USB cable can be plugged into either
the USB port of your PC or a USB wall-outlet charger.
After you plug the iGPS360 module into your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch, the blue
power-on indicator LED of the iGPS360 module should be lit, which means that the iGPS360
module is powered on and the internal battery is charging from the
power supply coming from the dock connector of your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch.
Note: In order for the on-board battery to be charged, the
iGPS360 module needs to be plugged into your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad and
the blue LED should be on.
Note: The wall-outlet charger or your car charger has to
be compatible with your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch. Easiest to use would be Apple's wall-outlet charger, or, if
you leave your PC on overnight, just plug the USB cable into your PC.
Note: while the blue power-on LED is lit, at the same time
the red satellite search LED can be flashing, which means that
the module is searching for satellites. After a satellite lock has
been found, the red LED will stop flashing.
- How to keep the on-board battery charged
The on-board battery, when fully charged, will last about 7 days if
the module is not used at all. This means that all stored satellite
data and custom user data will be maintained for that period of
time.
The on-board battery is directly charged from your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch and as such the USB cable does not necessarily need to be connected
for the battery to charge. For charging for first use, you should
however connect the USB cable in order to avoid that your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch runs out of battery.
Overnight charging (around 6 hours) of your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad through the GPS module
should be done at least once a week in order to maintain the last
satellite data and user settings, unless you use your module very regularly in
which case the battery will remain charged just by having it plugged
into your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad (assuming the blue LED is on).
In order to get the longest possible life-time out of the on-board
battery, it is best to always keep the on-board battery
fully charged or as close as possible to fully charged. As such it is a good
habit to use the iGPS360 module with USB cable to charge your
iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad when they need to be charged. The on-board
battery will then be charged simultaneously when your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad is
being charged.
- Acquiring a satellite lock for the very first time
When you first receive your iGPS360 module, the on-board battery is
discharged and the module has no satellite data stored. Make sure you first
charge the on-board battery of your module according to the
instructions above.
As the iGPS360 module has no stored satellite data upon first use, the module
will have to go from a "cold start", which means that it will need to
search for satellites without having any prior knowledge of where the
satellites might be in the sky. As such, this process can take from
30sec up to several minutes, depending on location, surroundings, sky
conditions, etc.
If after the 16 hours of first time charging (see above) the red
satellite search LED is still flashing, we suggest you go
outside to a clear and open area. Place your iPhone/iPod/iPad on a chair or
a table with its screen facing down
(that is, the bottom of the module facing the sky; that is where the
GPS antenna is). Stay away from enclosed areas, trees and anything
concrete. Just let the module sit for a few minutes by itself.
For clear blue and open sky conditions and surroundings, no trees
nearby, etc., the search for a satellite lock should usually take about 30 seconds. Depending on
your local conditions (weather and surroundings, your body, hands,
etc.) it might take longer, up to minutes, sometimes even more than
that since the module has to start from a cold start on first use.
If
you place the module over the edge of a seat or table or something similar, you can
look at the LED from the bottom after a few minutes to see if the red
satellite search LED has stopped flashing (the LED should be solid
blue now). Solid blue means a satellite lock has been obtained and GPS
sensitivity will increase after that.
Once the module has found a satellite lock, leave to module there a
little longer (a few more minutes) so it can acquire additional
satellite positions which will be stored in memory and maintained by
the on-board battery.
The next time you turn on your module, the satellite lock
will be much faster (and you don't have to go through the procedure
above anymore) as the module already has satellite data in its
memory (unless you let the battery go empty of course or you don't use the module for
a long time and the stored satellite data gets outdated).
- Using the iGPS360 module with the xGPS software from Xwaves
Note: in order to install custom software, your iPhone/iPod/iPad
Touch needs to be jailbroken. If you don't know what that means,
please visit this forum for more information.
Make sure you have the latest version (currently 1.2.10) of xGPS
installed on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. You can install the latest version
through the Cydia installer: open Cydia and do a search for xGPS, then
install the xGPS package.
Also, download some maps for your
area with the
xGPS Manager tool from Xwaves.
For detailed instructions on how to use the xGPS and xGPS
Manager software, please read the related Wiki
articles here.
Also keep an eye on the latest updates from xWaves by checking out
there blog here.
Another step-by-step manual (slightly outdated but still useful) for
installing xGPS on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad can be found here.
After you start the xGPS application on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, go to
the "Settings" menu by clicking on the little wrench in the lower
left corner of the screen. Then click on the header "GPS", press "GPS to
use" and choose the "iGPS360"
option. Return to the "Settings" menu by pressing the "GPS" button in
the left top of the screen and then the "Settings" button. Then return to the the map by pressing the "Map" button.
Once the iGPS360 module has a satellite lock (solid blue LED, see
above), in the
xGPS software, the red GPS satellite indicator in the top right of the
screen will change to green and the blue arrow in the center of the
screen will point at your current location.
Note: The current version of xGPS is based on Google
maptiles. With the xGPS Manager you can download maps in
advance and upload them to your iPhone/iPod/iPad before you leave home. You
can also calculate directions before you leave home (an internet
connection is required to calculate directions as xGPS needs to
connect to Google's servers for that) and store these
directions on the iPhone/iPod/iPad for use on the road. If you don't have
an internet connection on the road, you will not be able to
re-calculate directions on-the-go. You will however be able to use
stored directions and maps for navigation. This limitation will no
longer be present in the next version (2.x) of xGPS which will
be using vector-maps instead of Google maptiles.
- Using the iGPS360 module with AppStore applications
In order to use the iGPS360 module with AppStore applications, you
will need to install a small utility program called GPSSerial
through Cydia installer.
If you can't find it on Cydia, you can always find the latest version
here.
The GPSSerial program has past its beta stages and it is now
compatible with multi-tasking. You can report problems that you encounter
with GPSSerial in a new section of the xGPS forum, which can be found
here.
The GPSSerial project is a work in progress. If you need help, please consult
the community on the forum.
In order to use GPSSerial with the iGPS360 module, open
up the GPSSerial
application from the SpringBoard and select the iGPS360 option
as the GPS to use.
With the new version of GPSSerial, in xGPS
you can either select iGPS360 or iPhone 3G GPS as the
GPS to use under the settings menu. We recommend selecting the
iGPS360 as the GPS to use if you are on a firmware that can not
do multi-tasking. If you use multi-tasking, select the iPhone 3G GPS
option in xGPS. If you change your selection, please
restart the xGPS program for the changes to take effect.
Besides xGPS a lot of other AppStore applications now also work
with the iGPS360 module. Among the ones we have tested are
Navionics, Navigon, TomTom and Sygic. With
the latest version of GPSSerial most applications will work,
even the ones that instance multiple CoreLocation managers!
Congratulations!
You are now good to go and take your iGPS360 module out for a
test drive :-)