Anyone have any experience with there? I'm planning on using one with my laptop and PDA. The bluetooth eliminates the USB/serial cord in the car, which can be a mess.
Bluetooth GPS
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GlobalSat BT-338. Great battery life; stays on when on external power. Quick and precise enough for hiking when used with resonable software.
I've got the GPS puck that came with MS Streets and Trips..and a bluetooth cradle from Pharos (that made the GPS puck for MS). Works great with my laptop mount, but I now have a dedicated GPS unit that really rocks. I might be selling the GPS puck/bluetooth cradle. Let me know if you're interested.
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Yep, they work great. I bought a generic BT unit from geeks.com (sold out and not stocked now). Was about $60 and came with AC USB adapter and cig lighter USB adapter (USB just for power/charging). It has a li-ion battery (same type common in nokia phones). Runs about 10 - 12 hours off battery or can run from adapter. It uses serial port profiile (SPP) on bluetooth. Make SURE YOU GET ONE WITH THE SIRF III chipset. Best performance at the present time. Very fast lock, gets lock in places other chipsets can't even find satellites.
There's a great software package out there (GPSGATE - google for it) that allows your non-Garmin GPS to "look" like a Garmin - so you can use it with nroute etc (if you have Garmin software etc - like I do). It also allows re-transmitting of GPS data back out of bluetooth so it can be 'shared' with a PDA etc - in case you want to run a laptop & a pda from 1 BT GPS at the same time (not sure why you would do that though...).
cheers,
george.
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The battery on the iBlue and iTrex with the auto-off feature can last for weeks without charging. I wanted the auto off feature as sometimes I forget to turn off the GPS when I leave the car. I haven't found any auto-off BT GPS with the SiRF chipset yet, only the Nemerix chipset which has high praises from the GPS community.
The SiRFS STAR III chipset does have very high sensitivity, as does the Qualcomm and Nemerix. In my limited testing of GPS units, it seems the antenna design affects the GPS signal reception a lot more than the chipsets.
Global Locate just announced their new single chip design that will outperform the SiRF STAR III and take up less real estate on the board along a target price (in volume) of $1
If GL can deliver what they promise, we will see sub-$100 GPS-Navigation units this coming Xmas 
David, thanks for the offer - I am buying this unit for work so I will need to purchase a new unit in order to expense the purchase.
George, thanks for the GPS SW tip. I might need to retransmit the BT GPS signal for my testing.
The SiRFS STAR III chipset does have very high sensitivity, as does the Qualcomm and Nemerix. In my limited testing of GPS units, it seems the antenna design affects the GPS signal reception a lot more than the chipsets.
Global Locate just announced their new single chip design that will outperform the SiRF STAR III and take up less real estate on the board along a target price (in volume) of $1
If GL can deliver what they promise, we will see sub-$100 GPS-Navigation units this coming Xmas David, thanks for the offer - I am buying this unit for work so I will need to purchase a new unit in order to expense the purchase.
George, thanks for the GPS SW tip. I might need to retransmit the BT GPS signal for my testing.
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The BT generic (Sirf III chipset) I bought will turn off automatically after ~10 minutes of losing the BT link. For $60 it was a great buy
cheers,
george.
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The BT generic (Sirf III chipset) I bought will turn off automatically after ~10 minutes of losing the BT link. For $60 it was a great buy
cheers,
george.
That is a great deal! I wish I can find a SiRF with auto off feature.
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http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GPT-801&cat=GPS back in stock. I've bought 2, great price & use the Sirf III chipset, with auto off after about 10 minutes of losing BT connection with the host. Rechargeable li-ion battery, same type as used in many nokia phones (so cheap to replace).
cheers,
george.
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Thanks!
We outfitted all our field agents with DeLorme Blue Logger GPS units.
They have good battery life, 8 hours.
No screen just GPS coordinates via Bluetooth.
They have good battery life, 8 hours.
No screen just GPS coordinates via Bluetooth.