Bluetooth GPS

lindona,

I've just got up and running with a BT388 - bluetooth GPS and a PDA running Destinator 6. It works very well with the GPS locking on in about 3 sec (cold start) and almost instantly when 'warm'.

I haven't got around to putting oziexplorer on the PDA yet but will in the near future. I would say it would work very well with a bluetooth compatible laptop.

My GPS isn't solar but I have a powered cradle for the PDA which also cargers the GPS.

BTW - GPS was from ebay - about half price compared to shops.

Tim - Stratford.

This thread has a good rundown on Bluetooth GPS receivers
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Particularly the BT-77 which uses a nokia battery so those with a nokia can swap around and use the phone charger to charge.

Apparently will last about 30hrs continuous operation.

Haven't about the solar type at all.

Any reason you're not going to go USB GPS receivers?

I am hanging by the fingernails waiting for the first reply of substance on topic re a solar powered Bluetooth GPS.

Other than that , the BT 338 is the be all and end all of Bluetooth GPS's Thats it. No other dialogue will be entered into on the subject.

I believe the only solar BT GPS currently available is the SolarBT V5 (V3 also available) from Solarius. Details here ==> " target="EOF" class="lbg">www.semsons.com/sov5mibtgpsr.html No idea about their performance as i haven't heard of them being sold in Australia. Not very popular i guess.

Transystems Inc look like they will be releasing a solar version soon. Check out here ==> www.transystem.com.tw/p-gps-iblue757.htm I only noticed these as i was looking at their BT datalogging version as a future purchase

Andrew

The solar GPSrs on ebay use the SiRF III chipset, which means they are effectively the same as a BT-338 inside.
There are two main chipsets on the market in 'cheap' bluetooth GPSrs at the moment, the SiRF III and the Nemerix. The Nemerix is more sensitive, but the SiRF III has a very powerful correlation engine which gives it the edge over the Nemerix chipset.
The only drawback is that it uses 3x the power of the Nemerix - so if you were looking at a solar powered GPSr, it would make sense to have a Nemerix chipset. In reality, you'd be doing very well to notice a difference between the two chipsets - both will perform very well under leaf canopies and in urban canyons.

The other advantage of the Nemerix chipsets is it has a 'sleep' mode, where 10 minutes without activity and the GPSr will go to sleep, and wake up when you reconnect to it. This is something that the SiRF III can't do - it can go to sleep, but must be manually woken up with a button push. This may or may not be an issue for you, but it's a nice feaure and one less thing to turn on when you get in your vehicle.

The solar GPSrs on ebay don't source much power from the solar panel - the specs say 12 hrs on battery, 15 on battery with solar suppliment. You'd be better off getting a BT-074S (SiRF III) or BT-77 (Nemerix), I think the solar panel is more of a gimmick than anything else, and add to the unit's size.