The WinFastNavigator is GPS monitor for Pocket PC, Palm, and Windows laptop. It is used to test and view performance of GPS receiver based on SiRF chipset.

For Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2K, XP

GPSInfo (Freeware)

GPSInfo  is used to test and view performance of GPS receiver.
For Windows

Microsoft Street and Trips 2009 Trial Version

Street and Trips is the best selling GPS software in the US. Microsoft now offers a 60 days trial version.
Download trial version and run it for free for 60 days

Mark 1: 600 MHz
Mark 2: 800 MHz
Mark 3: 1.0 GHz

CPU: CF-28X—–
==================================
E – PII 300Mhz
F – PII 333Mhz
G – PII 366Mhz
J – PIII 400Mhz
K – PIII 450Mhz
L – PIII 500Mhz
M – PIII 600Mhz
N – PIII 700Mhz
P – PIII 800Mhz
Q – PIII 850Mhz
R – PIII 900Mhz
S – PIII 1Ghz

LCD – Keyboard: CF-28*X*****
==================================
B – 12.1″ SVGA Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard
C – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard
E – 12.1″ SVGA Touch Screen w/ Backlit Keyboard (chicklet)
F – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen w/ Backlit Keyboard (chicklet)
G – 12.1″ SVGA Touch Screen w/ Backlit Keyboard (rubber)
H – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen w/ Backlit Keyboard (rubber)
J – 12.1″ SVGA Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard – Blk Cabinet
K – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard – Blk Cabinet
M – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard – Blk Cabinet
R – 12.1″ SVGA Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard
S – 12.1″ SVGA Touch Screen – w/ Backlit Keyboard (chicklet)
T – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen – w/ Std Keyboard
U – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen – w/ Backlit Keyboard (chicklet)
V – 12.1″ SVGA Transflective Touch – w/ Backlit KB (rubber)
W – 13.3″ XGA Touch Screen- w/ Backlit Keyboard (rubber)
3 – 13.3″ XGA Non Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard
4 – 13.3″ XGA Non Touch – w/ Backlit Keyboard (chicklet)
5 – 13.3″ XGA Non Touch – w/ Backlit Keyboard (rubber)

HDD – RAM – Wireless WAN Carrier: CF-28**X****
==================================
A – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – CDMA-Verizon
B – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – CDMA-SprintPCS
C – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – GPRS – Cingular
D – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – GPRS – AT&T
E – 30GB HDD – 256MB GPRS – T-Mobile
F – 20GB HDD – 128MB RAM
J – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM
H – 30GB HDD – 768MB RAM
M – 30GB HDD – 512MB RAM
P – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – CDPD
Q – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – Mobitex
Q – 30GB HDD – 1GB RAM
T – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – Secure
3 – 30GB HDD – 256MB RAM – Hazardous (Skydrol resistant)

Multimedia Pocket – Modem – LAN: CF-28***X***
==================================
A – Floppy Disk Drive – Modem
B – CD ROM Drive – Modem
C – CD ROM Drive – Super Disk Drive Bundle – Modem
D – CDR/W – Modem
E – CDR/W – Super Disk Drive Bundle – Modem
F – DVD – Super Disk Drive Bundle – Modem
G – Floppy Disk Drive – Modem – Ethernet
H – CD ROM Drive – Modem – Ethernet
J – CD ROM Drive – Super Disk Drive – Modem – Ethernet
K – CDR/W – Modem – Ethernet
L – CDR/W+SDD bundle – Modem – Ethernet
M – Floppy Disk Drive – CD ROM Drive – Modem – Ethernet
P – Floppy Disk Drive – Ethernet – 802.11b Wireless LAN
Z-None

Integrated Options: CF-28****X**
==================================
A – CDPD – No Wireless LAN
B – Mobitex – No Wireless LAN
C – CDMA – No Wireless LAN
E – GPS – No Wireless LAN
F – CDPD – GPS – No Wireless LAN
G – Mobitex – GPS – No Wireless LAN
H – CDMA – VoiceKit – No Wireless LAN
J – GPRS – GPS – No Wireless LAN
K – GPRS – No Wireless LAN
L – CDPD – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
M – Mobitex – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
N – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
P – GPRS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
Q – GPRS – GPS -802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
R – CDPD – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
S – Mobitex – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
T – GPRS – VoiceKit – No Wireless LAN
U – CDMA – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Lucent)
V – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN whip antenna (Cisco)
Y – 802.11b Wireless LAN only – (Lucent)
Z – None”11 – CDPD -802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
2 – Mobitex – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
3 – GPRS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
4 – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
5 – CDPD – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
6 – Mobitex – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
7 – GPRS – GPS – 802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
8 – Wireless LAN Antenna -802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
9 – 802.11b Wireless LAN only – (Cisco)

Operating System: CF-28*****X*
==================================
C – Windows NT
D – Windows 2000
E – Windows 98
F – Windows 2000
G – Windows XP Pro
K – Windows XP Pro
N – OS (No install)
P – Dual (NT-2K)
Q – Dual (XP-2K)
Z – Blank (No-License

Destination Area/Region: CF-28******X
==================================
M – North America
E – UK
G – Germany
F – France
S – Sweden
T – Italy
P – Spain

www.toughwiki.com

MK1 – (first generation) 18B
MK2 – 18D/E
MK3 – 18F/G/H
MK4 – 18K/L
MK5 – (last release) 18N/P

Here is an example extended model number:  CF-18DDAZAMM

CF -
18 – series 18

First character is the CPU & presence of a built-in Wireless card:

B – Pentium 900Mhz (Centrino) / 802.11b+g
C – Pentium 900Mhz Ultra Low Voltage / No wireless
D – Pentium 1.1Ghz ULV (centrino) with builtin B&G wifi
E – Pentium 1.1Ghz ULV / No wifi (Federal Only)
F – Pentium M 733 1.1Ghz (centrino) / 802.11a/b/g
G – Pentium M 733 1.1Ghz /no wifi (Federal Only)
H – Pentium M 733 1.1Ghz (centrino) / 802.11b/g
K – Pentium M 753 1.2Ghz (Centrino) / 802.11a/b/g
L – Pentium M 753 1.2Ghz / no wifi (Federal Only)
N – Pentium M 753 1.2Ghz (Centrino) / 802.11a/b/g + TPM 1.2
P – Pentium M 753 1.2Ghz / no wifi /(Federal Only) / +TPM 1.2

Second character is the screen options:

C – 10.4 XGA high Bright Digitizer / backlit keyboard
D – 10.4 XGA High Bright Digitizer
E – 10.4 XGA digitizer + black cabinet
F – 10.4 XGA tablet (hazardous locations)
H – 10.4 XGA High Bright Touchscreen
J – 10.4 XGA High Bright Touchscreen / backlit keyboard
K – 10.4 XGA High Bright (Hazardous Locations)
T – 10.4 XGA Transflective

Third Character is HDD/RAM options

A – 40GB HDD / 256RAM / dual ant conn
B – 40GB / 256 / dual ant conn
C – 40 / 768
D – 60 / 256 / dual ant conn
H – 60 / 512 / dual ant conn
K – 40 / 256
L – 40 / 512
N – 40 / 256 / dual ant conn / smartcard
Q – 60GB / 512 / dual ant conn / smartcard
1 – 40 / 256 / dual ant conn / haz loc
2 – 60 / 512 / dual ant conn / haz loc

Fourth Character is WWAN (Builtin Broadband) options:

F – GPRS (Cingular)
G – Edge (Cingular) (AT&T GPRS prior to Pent M733)
H – GPRS (T-Mobile)
J – CDMA 1xRTT Verizon (no voice)
K – EVDO (Sprint) (1xRTT prior to Pent M733)
L – GPRS (Cingular)
M – EVDO (Verizon) (1xRTT prior to Pent M733)
Z – none
3 – special order

Fifth Character is extra goodies options:

A – 802.11 + GPS
B – 802.11 + Bluetooth
C – 802.11 +GPS + Bluetooth
X – base model
Z – none
1 – secured HDD Door

Sixth Character is Factory OS Options:

B – XP Pro SP2
D – Win 2k
K – XP Pro
M – XP Pro Tablet PC
R – XP Tablet MUI
V – XP Tablet 2005
X – XP
Z – no license

Seventh and final Character is origin of release:

M – N America
E – not N America
F – ”
G – ”
P – ”
S – ”
T – ”

Source.

There are two types of tablet screens: touch screens and active digitizers. Touch screens respond to the touch of your finger or stylus and the cursor jumps to whatever point is touched on the display.  Active digitizers sense the tip of the stylus as it approaches the screen surface and display a pen/mouse cursor.

The advantage of the touch screen is that you can use your finger or any pen device for data input. The disadvantage is that there is no “cursor tracking” which can make it difficult to work with applications where precise cursor placement is needed. The advantage of the active digitizer is that it makes for very precise cursor placement, but if you lose the pen you’re out of luck as the display does not respond to touch of any kind.

This is why Tablet PC manufacturers are now moving to displays that combine both touch and active digitizer capability. These displays are referred to as Dual Mode screens. They work like a touch screen until they sense the proximity of a digitizer stylus. When the stylus approaches, touch input ceases and and the pen cursor starts. When the pen is pulled away, the screen once again responds to touch.

Active digitizers generally appeal to tablet PC users and those who do a lot of inking because of the palm rejection, smoother quality of the ink, and handwriting recognition. It does require a special pen, as you said, which makes it ideal for note-taking and for people who either prefer stylus-based (vs. finger-based) interfaces or hate fingerprints/smudges on their screens.

A passive/resistive digitizer (aka the common touchscreen), while not as good for inking, is more versatile because just about anything can be used to interact with it. This makes it ideal for use in the car (mounted to the dashboard or something), among other places. (Source.)

======

Which is best?

If most of your data entry needs involves tapping on a check box or selecting a drop down combo box, a touch screen tablet is sufficient.  If  most of your data entry needs involves text entry via the pen stylus and requires the handwriting recognizer to convert your handwriting to text, then the tablet with the active digitizer is the better choice. (Source.)

Required hardware

#00 Philips screwdriver

There are three major parts to the CF-29 HD caddy

• Metal caddy
• Plastic & foam HD carrier, “damper”
• Heater and HD connector strip

Four screws hold the top (Panasonic part DFHE5025XA.) Three on the connector side and one on the rear side with the plastic pull-tab. Remove the top cover and the HD assembly should come out easily.
On the end opposite the copper flashing, there is a plastic flap under two foam blocks with adhesive holding it closed on either side. Carefully open the plastic HD carrier flap and slide the hard drive out.

Unwrap the heater coil from the HD and unplug the PATA connector. Reverse for HD installation. My cable was not keyed for install direction, so just remember the HD ribbon faces the bottom of the drive as in the picture.

The caddy connector has two tabs that go into the metal caddy to hold it in place. Make sure both tabs are in before closing the caddy up.

Close the caddy up by putting the cover on and screw in the four screws previously removed.

Source: ToughWiki.com

In order to make a smooth upgrade it will be handy to have an external USB hard drive enclosure kit (around $8) and Power Quest Drive Image 7.0 or higher CopyWipe freeware program. There are many similar programs available.

First, connect new HDD using USB enclosure kit. Once recognized by Windows, go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management. The new hard drive will be shown as an unallocated space with approximately 232GB of space available.

Right click->Create new partition-> Follow wizard prompts.

I made 2 primary partitions 120GB each. One for operating system, another one for data.

Now it’s time to launch CopyWipe. I used Window version. The interface is very simple. Choose drive to copy, destination drive but don’t forget to pick “Copy MBR” at the last screen.

It took 60 minutes to copy a 60GB HDD.

Note: I also had success with Western Digital 320GB HDD, man. part number WD320BEVE.

HDD Caddy. Connector side.

Finished assembly.

Buy CF-18 caddy with 320GB hard drive form Tough Depot.

Disclaimer. ToughbookCentral.com is not responsible for any potential damage to your equipment. Follow instructions below at your own risk.

We have used Western Digital ATA-6 250 and 320GB hard drives (WD2500BEVE, WD3200BEVE). Other ATA-6 drives should be compatible as well.

Bend pins 41 and 44.

Important! Make sure this hole is not covered!

Put some thermal grease on CPU

And keyboard heatsink

1. Go into device manager.
2. Click on the plus(+) sign next to the Mouse and Other pointing devices entry.
3. Highlight the PS/2 device and right mouse click on it, then chose update driver (if not present, select Properties and then Update driver).
4. When the Update driver wizard opens, it may open to a screen asking you to connect to Windows update, select No, not this time and select next.
5. At the next screen, select install from a list or specific
   location, and select next.
6. At this screen select, don’t search. I will choose the driver to
   install, and select next.
7. At the Show compatible hardware screen, highlight the PS/2
   compatible mouse entry and click on the have disk button.
8. At the Install form Disk screen, select browse, and at the locate file window, find the location where you unpacked the touchscreen drivers. Highlight the file and select Open. After you select open, it will
   take you back to the Install from Disk box and now the location of the
   file you have selected will be in the space marked, Copy manufacture’s
   file from, at this screen select OK. This will take you back to the
   Show compatible hardware, where now it should say touchscreen/
   touchpad. If there are more than 1 entry, just highlight one of the
   entries and select next. Files should start to transfer and you may
   get a message about the driver not being approved, just select Continue anyway.
9. This will complete the install. Reboot the unit and when it powers back on and you sign into windows, the touchscreen should work.

IMPORTANT! This is not a manual. If you decide to follow these instructions, do it at your own risk!
The kit was ordered form Heartland Inc., which provides warranty service for Panasonic computers in United States.

Cost: $354

This is what we have got:

We were warned, that kit comes with neither technical information, nor support from Heartland. “No problem” we replied. We can disassemble and assemble back Panasonic laptop in a complete darkness in 5 minutes.  So, GPS kit… How hard that could be?

Here is the content of the bag:

After sorting all parts out we got hope that almost no parts will be left behind.

To get inside, we needed to remove Dimm Cover and Bottom Cover. First removed four screws marked blue. Disconnected a speaker cable, removed RAM module.

CF-18 dimm cover

Now we have removed 13 screws marked red and carefully remove the Bottom Cover.

CF-18 Bottom Cover Removed

Assembling antenna

Antenna assembly includes parts #5, 8, 10 and one #13 pad.

CF-18 GPS antenna place is located on the right side.

Remove plastic cover

Insert antenna cable.

One more pad #13. Antenna assembly attached by two screws, part #14.

Antenna installed

Board and receiver with cables attached.

Together.

GPS kit installed

Activation in BIOS

GPS Monitor v1.0

Once GPS was installed, System Manager showed new COM5 port (can be different in your configuration). We used GPS Monitor v1.0 for initial tests. Cold start took about 2 minutes outdoors.  Than we went back inside.  The screen shot above was taken indoors. The reception is exceptional.

That’s it. Microsoft Street and Trips 2008 worked very well. Unlike GPS Monitor, it automatically picked correct COM port with GPS data stream.

WinFast Navigator and many more useful GPS programs: http://www.semsons.com/support.html

Last updated: Nov. 26, 2009