Internal and Bluetooth GPS

[ToddSmith]

OK, I've downloaded the "ALMOST OEM 6.1 Sprint Vogue ROM V.2.1" and have it working. After I originally bought the Vogue last November I bought a bluetooth GPS receiver, the GlobalTop G33. In an ideal world, I'd like to be able to switch between the two, use the internal GPS when I don't feel like messing around with the seperate bluetooth unit, or use the bluetooth when I need it's better reception. Anyone have any ideas on how to configure this? Now that I've got the internal GPS working, although it will pair with the bluetooth unit, it doesn't seem to want to use it.

Thanks.

[hideffer]

Originally Posted by ToddSmith

OK, I've downloaded the "ALMOST OEM 6.1 Sprint Vogue ROM V.2.1" and have it working. After I originally bought the Vogue last November I bought a bluetooth GPS receiver, the GlobalTop G33. In an ideal world, I'd like to be able to switch between the two, use the internal GPS when I don't feel like messing around with the seperate bluetooth unit, or use the bluetooth when I need it's better reception. Anyone have any ideas on how to configure this? Now that I've got the internal GPS working, although it will pair with the bluetooth unit, it doesn't seem to want to use it.

Thanks.

Here is what I have done to switch my internal GPS to my external bluetooth GPS receiver for navigation.

I turn on my bluetooth GPS receiver for a couple of minutes for a "cold" start. I then start GPS Viewer which will show that GPS was found (in my case) on COM1 for my BT GPS and COM4 for my internal GPS. I select COM1 for my BT GPS and leave GPS Viewer running in the background.

For TomTom, I make sure TomTom is set to "Other Bluetooth Receiver" and make sure COM1 is selected in my case.

For iGO8, go into Settings, GPS and uncheck "GPS Enabled", then click on the Find GPS icon on the bottom right and let it rescan your ports and in my case, iGO8 will find it on COM1 and you will then be using the BT GPS receiver.

For Garmin Mobile XT, in the main menu, click on the GPS ICON Bars on the top left corner. Ordinarily I have GMXT use the GPS Intermediate Driver but in order to use my BT receiver, I click on Disable, which then brings up another menu and check "Use Bluetooth GPS" and you're done.

Instead of using GPS Viewer, one can also use Franson GPSGate and select the COM port that you want your GPS applications to listen to.

I find that my BT GPS receiver is more accurate when compared to my internal GPS especially when it come to calculating altitude. I live pretty close to sea level and my BT GPS receiver is much more accurate since the internal GPS receiver very frequently gives me a negative value.

Hope that helps.

[ToddSmith]

Thanks, that did it. For some reason I was having difficulty finding which com port the Bluetooth unit was using. I agree with you, the bluetooth unit is much more accurate, and gets much better reception than the internal chip.

[No1ustad]

any way to allow gpstoday find your external receiver as well? I can't seem to figure out how to set this up, it keeps wanting to use the internal receiver

[ToddSmith]

Originally Posted by No1ustad

any way to allow gpstoday find your external receiver as well? I can't seem to figure out how to set this up, it keeps wanting to use the internal receiver

I can't figure it out, either. I was using GPS Viewer to make sure my external was open and had a lock, but GPS Today wouldn't use it. Must be something hardwired in the program, because I couldn't find a setting to allow me to use a different COM port.