Palm GPS Car Kit Cradle

[hadleyr]

I have the GPS Car Kit Cradle with GPS and speakerphone (Model 3262NA-- see store.palm.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2726657&cp=1263670.1957997&parentPage=family).

This is the second unit I have had. The first went back after I spent an hour or so with a Palm support person somewhere in India. He authorized a return after determining that the unit was not working correctly. The replacement, however, works exactly like the original one.

This is the problem: When the cradle is powered up, the blue GPS light flashes for about a second, then no light, and no connection of the TomTom Navigator GPS software. My phone is a Treo 680 which works fine with the Palm Bluetooth GPS unit and TomTom Navigator. In fact, the first cradle I had spontaneously started working for about 5 minutes while I was driving, then shut down again. While it was working, the blue light was lit as it was supposed to be. That unit went back, but the new unit also has the blue light on for about a second, then it shuts down.

It's hard to believe this is a TomTom problem, since the software works with the Bluetooth device and did work for about 5 minutes with the cradle. With the second cradle unit having the same behavior, it seems like it might be something in my phone. Not sure what, though. Not a lot of 3rd party software on board, but I do have a medical pharmacology package installed, along with TCPMP and FileZ. A few other small applications like one for calculating cardiovascular risk.

Is this behavior something that is common? The support person seemed clueless (in general, and especially regarding what would be proper behavior for this cradle unit). It seems like a very simple connection directly to the cradle for talking to the GPS and the hands-free unit (not Bluetooth). I don't see what could go wrong, and Palm support is of no help.

Any suggestions?

UPDATE: I can get this thing to connect if I hit the HotSync on the phone while in the car cradle. This makes no sense to me, since you should not have to HotSync to get the cradle to talk to the phone. Now I wonder if it is a generic HotSync problem that has generated the same problematic behavior.

[reynoma]

I am having the exact same issue.

So far, through trial and error, I've found that the cradle doesn't like the heat (I don't leave in the car during the day).  Also, I have the best luck when I plug in the power cord for the cradle, then (with the screen off), I plug the phone into the cradle.  I leave the screen off for about 30 seconds and then I start to navigate to the Tom Tom Software.  By the time I set up my "Navigate To" request, the blue light is back on and the gps functions are working.  This works about 60% of the time.  Other times, I just repeat this process (up to 3 times) before it works.  Annoying.

I'll have to try the hotsync thing to see if that gives more consistent results.

[esuzuki]

Hi,

I'm having the exact same problem. I just returned the unit to vendor with similar problem (I thought it was due to the unit) and waiting for second one.  In my case, I could only connect to GPS cradle on 1 in 10 trys. When my Treo 680 connects to cradle, it works just fine. Frustrated that it cannot connect every single time.
I have freedom keychain bluetooth GPS with TomTom 6 on my Treo 680 and they work great.

Wiggling Treo in cradle helped only once. I cleaned Hoysync connector with alcohol on both Treo and cradle, but no help.

After reading hadleyr's update connect, I began suspecting issue with cradle's circuit on hotsync connector.
If I recall, 2 pins on hot sync connector are used to detect external device (e.g. modem, cradle, etc). Maybe something wrong in that circuit (could be marginal). Once I get the second unit back and if I have the same issue, I will dig deeper into it.

If you have update on this problem, please let us know.

Thank you