Help with GlobalSat BT-368

[Rhubarbe]

Hi all

I've just bought a BT-368 to 'mess about' with.

One of my intended uses is to link it to a Netbook and use it while touring in the Summer (as a passenger!) with some form of mapping software. I've linked it up with BT on the computer and it shows the current position in Memory Map so the device seems to be working fine.

One problem I have is software to manage the device from Windows XP. The included software (GPSInfo) allows you to view satellites, manage WAAS and PowerSave etc. but is intended for a PDA. Does anyone know of any application (from another GlobalSat product maybe) that would allow the management of these aspects from XP?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers - Andy

[mikealder]

Have a look at VisualGPS by clicking Here there are plenty of other similar applications, but thats the first one I thought of but it will probably only act as a viewer and not offer WAAS/ Power save controls, there is also GPSInfo for XP and a version for Vista available if you got to This page which should do what you want - Mike

[Rhubarbe]

Hi Mike

Thanks for the reply. I'll have a look at VisualGPS, thanks.

The programs you linked to on the GlobalSat UK site seem to be to install the program on a PDA from XP/Vista and are not programs for XP/Vista. When I run them they come up and say that there is no device connected. I get the same response from the program supplied on the disk with the BT-368.

Cheers - Andy

[Rhubarbe]

[Rhubarbe]

Hi again.

I thought I'd record my findings for today in case they help anyone else in the future.

As in my first post, I found that my BT-368 worked perfectly with Memory Map but had problems with GS's own GPS Info program. Having got over my initial stupidity with installing GPS Info I found great difficulty in getting the program to interact with the BT-368. After a couple of attempts when it seemed to connect I ended up with what appeared to be a locked-up BT-368 where the green GPS LED would not come on at all. Switching it off several times and leaving it for periods of up to an hour made no difference, neither did rebooting the laptop and starting GPS Info with a fresh connection.

I'm new to Bluetooth but have read of problems with BT stacks and releasing connections etc. I remembered Franson GPS Gate (which I have on my PDA) and went looking for a similar (cheaper/free) program that would give a single connection to the GPS and then share/redirect it as needed. I found Xport which seemed to be similar to GPS Gate but free so I gave it a whirl.

I installed the applet and set it to connect to the GPS on COM40 and share the connection on COM 2, 4 & 5. I launched MM & GPS Info and set them each to use one of the shared ports and EUREKA, everything worked as it should.

A nice feature of the latest build of Xport (v1.33) is that it has a battery save function which drops the connection to the GPS if nothing is requesting a connection, this makes Xport behave just like a direct connection and allows the BT-368 to time out and switch off if it's not needed.

I'm very impressed with Xport, it seems to be easier to use than the old copy of GPS Gate I have, if I'm still happy next week I'll likely make a donation.

I'm aware that the problems I had/have is probably down to a mis-setting or problem in the BT stack and I'm getting around it by using Xport, maybe when I have time to research and learn about the BT interface I'll sort it out one day.

In the meantime, I'm now a happy bunny with a working GPS/Laptop/Netbook combination.

Cheers - Andy

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