Maemo Mapper : GPS devices that work... or not...
 

Hi,

If you are using Maemo Mapper with a buetooth gps, please report about your GPS device.
to make it easier to read, please use the following scheme:

PLEASE KEEP THIS THREAD "CLEAN".
THIS IS ONLY FOR PRODUCT REPORTS.
DON'T POST QUERIES/ANSWERS HERE !!!

--8<------------
BRAND:
MODEL:
TYPE:
Works ?:
Startup Time (avg):
Personal Rating: .../10
Other Comments:
--8<------------


My report:
BRAND: HOLUX
MODEL: GPSlim 236
TYPE: Sirf III
WORKS?: yes
Startup Time (avg): 15~30sec
Personal Rating: 8/10
Other Comments: 10 hour autonomy. Very sensitive. Even works inside a pocket...

I use: Holux GR 231 Bluetooth
7-9h battery life, takes about 10-20 seconds to aquire the signal... and works with maemo-mapper/gpsdrive

http://tinyurl.com/grwrw

Globalsat BT-338
 

BRAND: Globalsat
MODEL: BT-338
TYPE: Sirf III
WORKS?: yes
Startup Time (avg): 45 sec
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments: This model has 15 hours of battery time.
Works well with both Gpsdrive and Maemo-mapper.

Holux GPSlim 236, SIRF III
Works fine, I've never timed battery life or aquisition time.

BRAND: Nokia
MODEL: LD-3W
TYPE:
Works ?: perfectly
Startup Time (avg):60''
Personal Rating: 8/10
Other Comments: expensive, works with gpsdrive too

BRAND:Fortuna
MODEL:Clipon
TYPE: SiRF Star IIe/LP and SiRF XTrac
Works ?: Yes
Startup Time (avg): 45
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments: Works a treat

BRAND: i-Blue
MODEL: High Sensitivity Bluetooth GPS
TYPE: NEMERIX GPS Module V3.7
Works?: Yes
Startup Time (avg): 30 seconds
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments: Excellent Battery Life and also has an MMCX external antenna connector.

This is also the receiver that I own and with which I do all my testing. Because I don't have the resources to acquire and test every bluetooth GPS receiver out there, I apologize if some receivers have a more difficult time working with Maemo Mapper than the i-Blue.

To help me, if your particular GPS receiver does not work with Maemo Mapper, please include the behaviors (crashes, freezes, etc.) that lead you to that conclusion. Also, if you have tried GPS Drive and your receiver worked with it, then that's another useful piece of information.

And, again, thanks for all the feedback.

BRAND: WOXTER (Fortuna)
MODEL:Slim Bluetooh
TYPE:SiRF Star III
Works ?: Yes
Startup Time (avg): 30 seconds
Personal Rating: ...9/10
Other Comments: battery lasts up to 8.5 hours, 12 channels, 20 satellites in view

BRAND: Globalsat
MODEL: BT-338
TYPE: Sirf III
WORKS?: yep
Startup Time (avg): 30-50 sec
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments:---

BRAND: Garmin
MODEL: gps 10
TYPE: got me, certainly not state of the art of anything
Works ?: yes
Startup Time (avg): 2-25
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments: Simply works; built-in rechargable batteries, looks like it's been discontinued.

BRAND: Insmat
MODEL: InsSiRF III
TYPE: Sirf III
WORKS?: no. crashes Maemo-mapper after getting GPS fix. Worked with my preliminary GPSDrive test moths ago (got GPS fix). Works with Nokia 9300 and Navicore
Startup Time (avg): 10...20 sec
Personal Rating: 9.5/10


Correction: works, if GPS enabled after gps fix. No position error

BRAND: Rikaline
MODEL: GPS-6033
TYPE: Sirf III
WORKS?: yep, both GpsDrive and Mapper
Startup Time (avg): 30 sec
Personal Rating:
Other Comments:
Goes nuts just before power ends. Seems to work, but even lights work funny.
It is said to be no good for walking or slow moving and GpsDrive measure didn't work in slow moving, but the track was good!
http://www.davespda.com/reviews/other/rikaline6033.htm

BRAND: Insmat
MODEL: InsSiRF III
TYPE: Sirf III
WORKS?: yes and no. Maemo mapper crashes if
GPS fix is not got before starting Maemo mapper. However, if the GPS has already GPS fix before starting Maemo mapper, it works. Works fine with GPSDrive and with Nokia 7610 and Navicore (no crashes). The problem is in the Maemo mapper most likely, sounds like it would be using NULL pointer for something, in other words, it is a bug.
Startup Time (avg):
Personal Rating:9.5/10 (very nice GPS receiver, gets GPS fix quickly)

BRAND: NaviLock/Globalsat
MODEL: BT-308
TYPE: frog knows
Works ?: yes
Startup Time (avg): 1 minute
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments: Sometimes Maemo Mapper just stops updating the position. I suspect the Bluetooth connection gets wedged. Turning the GPS off and back on, then closing the cover on the Nokia 770 and opening it again causes Maemo Mapper to reconnect to the GPS, and it starts working again.

I also tried gpsdrive on my laptop. It switched the GPS into a different protocol and Maemo Mapper stopped working. I had some fun switching it back into NMEA mode (http://mg.pov.lt/blog/maemo-mapper.html).

BRAND: Nokia

MODEL: LD-1W

TYPE: Bluetooth

Works ?: YES, Maemo Mapper

Startup Time (avg): 60 s

Personal Rating: 9/10

Other Comments: Nice small unit, color and design matches the 770 perfectly; uses standard Nokia batteries and chargers; inexpensive ($129 at CompUSA); connection for external antenna

Brand: Leadtek

Model: GPS 9553 BT Receiver

Type: SiRF III

Works: No (worked with gps-drive in the us - not in europe!?); mapper crashes, shuts down right after gps fix. Any ideas?

Startuptime: ?

Thx!

Brand: Leadtek

Model: GPS 9537 BT Receiver

Type: SiRF STAR II /XTRAC

Works: Yes, but it has positioning error

Startuptime: 60 seg

BRAND: Socket Communication
MODEL: WRLS GPS Receiver Bluetooth
TYPE: Bluetooth
Works : Yes
Startup Time (avg): Bluetooth < 10 sec, GPS < 1 min
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments:

I bought this unit for use specifically with the Nokia 770 and gpsdrive. I have been very happy with it. It connected via bluetooth with no problems at all the first time. Best of all, this unit can be bought sans Windows software rather cheaply. I got it back in February for about $120 US at the time. Still around for about $150. Since I didn't buy the software with it, this doesn't work with my Window's laptop, but I can live with that.

After years of stringing cables to tie my Garin Etrex to my Zaurus in my car, this is a dream come true!

This receiver is £40 (GBP), has anyone tried it with Maemo Mapper?

BRAND: Nokia
MODEL: LD-3W (second opinion)
TYPE: Sirf III
Works ?: NOT with Maemo Mapper
Startup Time (avg):60''
Personal Rating: 8/10
Other Comments: Maemo Mapper exits with segmentation fault after displaying "Establishing GPS fix" -dialog. Works OK with GPS Drive. Could this be position-computational issue as some people are reporting success with LD-3W?

BRAND: Nemerix
MODEL: BT77
TYPE: Sirf III
WORKS?: yes
Startup Time (avg): haven't noticed.
Personal Rating: happy with it so far.
Other Comments:---

BRAND: Belkin
MODEL: Bluetooth GPS Compact Receiver (F8E051EA)
TYPE: Sirf III
Works ?: no, crashes (segmentation fault) while establishing the connection
Startup Time (avg):
Personal Rating: .../10
Other Comments: the

Anyone know where one could buy the Nokia LD-3W GPS module in the USA? All I can seem to find is the older LD-1W - I can't even find the LD-3W on eBay ...

This was posted before...but a second user.

BRAND: Rikaline
MODEL: GPS-6033
TYPE: Sirf III
Works: Yes
Startup Time (avg): 30secs+
Personal Rating: 10/10

BRAND: Solarius
MODEL: V3
TYPE: Sirf III
Works: Yes
Startup Time (avg): 30secs+
Personal Rating: 8/10

This unit has a solar panel built in! While it's not strong enough to stop the battery level from decreasing during use, it does give you much more time in between recharging as long as you keep it in the sun. Also, rather than plug it in to recharge, just leave it out in the sun for a few hours.

I have had bluetooth conflicts sometimes where I can't use my DUN connection on my phone at the same time as gps, but not consistently. So, I don't know if that's a problem with the gps, the nokia, or the software.

BRAND: Emtac
MODEL: BT GPS
TYPE: SiRF Star II LP
WORKS?: yes
Startup Time (avg): 45 sec
Personal Rating: OK
Other Comments: This model was bundled with the Wayfinder service.

royaltek
 

BRAND: royaltek
MODEL: bt gps X-MINI-Xtreme RBT2010
TYPE: Sirf III
Works: Yes, maemo-mapper
Support 20 channel GPS
Battery :17 hr. of operating time
Personal Rating: 10/10

BRAND: (Taiwan)
MODEL: GPT-700
TYPE: Bluetooth GPS receiver
Works ?: yes, with maemo-mapper v0.x
Startup Time (avg): 30 sec.
Personal Rating: 9/10
Other Comments: no brand, approx. $120

I've got one and it works fine. It comes with a USB charger cable and 12V car adapter so you can charge it almost anywhere.

I do have problems with bluetooth dropping out when running maemo-mapper (and GPSdrive), but this is a problem with the 770 driver rather than the GPS. It works perfectly with my centrino laptop running gpsdiag.

The manufacturers webpage is here:
http://ytec.manufacturer.globalsourc...GetProduct.htm

Anyone know if this is going to be fixed in mistral? I still have this problem in the beta and it really makes it unusable. It would be so much more fun to play with if I didn't always get frustrated almost to the point of throw my 770 across the room.

Some have reported that using rfcomm instead of letting Maemo Mapper handle the connection may eliminate the problem. You can specify an rfcomm device (e.g. /dev/rfcomm5) in Maemo Mapper as of v0.2.4 and v1.0, so give it a shot.

For best results, go into root and use rfcomm bind; otherwise, an rfcomm connect is sufficient, but you'll have to do it every time you want to connect to the receiver.

I have never seen a hang in my limited testing with rfcomm-based connection, but then again, I also haven't seen a hang in the hours of continuous without rfcomm in the 2006 OS (I saw the hang a few times in the 2005 OS, but not as much as others have seen it).

Thank you Gnuite. After playing with it briefly, that does seem to work much better.

This problem has been reported in mistral bugzilla and it is thought to be a problem with the bluetooth firmware. So it will require a fix from the BT chipset manufacturer. Still, there's hope we will get a proper fix.

BRAND: Socket
MODEL: Cordless GPS Receiver (8550-00004E) BT
TYPE: NMEA-0183 (v2.30)
Works ?: somewhat (using rfcomm)
Startup Time (avg): 1m
Personal Rating: 6/10
Other Comments: Works great using gpsd and GpsDrive, but Maemo Mapper cannot reliably establish connection. Looking forward to Maemo Mapper version with gpsd support.

UPDATE: Was able to get connection to GPS by doing:
rfcomm connect /dev/ttyS3 00:0E:6D:6B:37:6F 1
in xterm; which resulted in:
Connected /dev/rfcomm0 to 00:0E:6D:6B:37:6F on channel 1
Press CTRL-C for hangup

then entered /dev/rfcomm0 into Maemo Mapper -Thanks Gnuite!

Unfortunately it doesn't work as well as gpsdrive. I often have to quit and relaunch a few times before it starts to work. Also, In my hilly area, I lose fix for a ffew minutes sometimes. When this happens, I have to go through the whole process again. GpsDrive manages to keep running smoothly using gpsd.

Details/Specifications:
DefaultProtocol: NMEA-0183 V2.30
Power Source: Removable rechargeable lithium ion battery
with 5V DC input charging circuit
Operation Time:
8 hrs typical after full charge, continuous
mode, 25°C
Chipset: u-blox ANTARIS®
Frequency: L1, 1.57542 MHz
C/A: 1.023 MHz chip rate
Channels: 16 Channels
Antenna Type: Built-in Ceramic patch
Start-up Times:
Hot start: 5 sec
Cold start: 40-60 sec*
Accuracy (without DGPS):
Position without SA: 2.5 m CEP, 5.0 m SEP
Position aided with SBAS (WAAS, EGNOS,
etc.): 2.0 m CEP, 3.0 m SEP Europe, UK, Australia

Have you tried using rfcomm with Maemo Mapper?

Please Keep This Thread "Clean" !!!
This Is Only For Product Reports.
Don't Post Queries/Answers Here !!!

This post doesn't intend to start a flame war.
It is NOT oriented to anyone in particular.
It's only a call to stop people from deviating from the original thread purpose: SHORT Hardware Reports!
If this thread grows into a >200posts where only a few are actual reports, then the main information gets diluted.
If you believe any post is innacurate, then PM the poster.
He/She can edit it, and make the corrections.

regards.
lmf

Sorry.....

Woops! Did it again... :D

Edit: Seriously, though, I was just trying to help. This isn't epinions.com, it's a message board; and even if it were, I was trying to provide meaningful feedback regarding the Socket GPS Receiver, so that people don't get the impression that Maemo Mapper cannot work with it. If GPSD (which uses rfcomm) works with it, then Maemo Mapper should be able to work with rfcomm-based input. Give it a try, and if it still doesn't work (for some unforeseen reason), then update your post.

Look, lmf, we all understand you are the initiator of this thread and what it is for, but I also believe you should a) be a little more polite about it and b) look a little more closely at whom you're flaming.
After all, gnuite is the creator of the app your thread is all about, so in my book he has every right to offer or ask for information in it, especially if he suspects that something posted here is wrong -- that is not noise, it's actually adding value.
Flame *me* all you want for being OT, because I am, but I thought it needed saying ;-)