Bluetooth GPS to MapInfo/Geographic Tracker?
Mats Elfström
I wonder if anyone has tried connecting an external bluetooth GPS
receiver to the Bluemarblegeo tracker delivered with MapInfo? It seems
it only speaks with COM ports?
It's a PalmOne receiver, and I use it for a TomTom Nagivator running
on a Palm LifeDrive.
Now I would like to try and connect it to my laptop as well. But since
that has no bluetooth built in, I must get a a bluetooth UBS dongle
first. But before I do that, I would like to hear if anyone has any
experience in this field?
Regards, Mats.E
Mike Osbourn
I use a BT dongle on my laptop to communicate with a GPS unit. When setting
it up the connection creates a BT serial port. It takes a little while to
determine the correct ports but it works fine.
HTH
Mike Osbourn
Ian Hull
Mats,
I would download the latest version of Geographic Tracker (free special MapInfo edition -version 3.3) from the Blue Marble website which allows more com ports than the version that ships with MapInfo i.e. com ports used by usb/bluetooth.
Regards,
Ian Hull
Systems Team Leader
Greater Manchester Transportation Unit
Salisbury House
Granby Row
Manchester
M1 7AH
Internal Tel: 815 2059
Tel: 0161 455 2059
Fax: 0161 455 2071
E-mail: i.h...@manchester.gov.uk
Website: http://www.gmtu.gov.uk
| "Mike Osbourn" <o...@nc.rr.com>
Sent by: mapi...@googlegroups.com 18/09/2007 10:55
|
To: <mapi...@googlegroups.com> cc: Subject: [MI-L] Re: Bluetooth GPS to MapInfo/Geographic Tracker? |
Martin Hodder
Hi Mats,
I have a bluetooth GPS that connects on COM40 which did not help
I used http://franson.com/ to remap the port to a lower number – it worked well for me.
It is commercial but it is useful
Regards
Martin Hodder
Higher Mapping Solutions
Bob Young
I have tried using Bluetooth on my laptop(s) for a couple of purposes.
One of these was to connect bluetooth GPS units and happy to report that on
a Sony with built in bluetooth, and on a Dell with two different bluetooth
adapters I had no problems. In all cases the bluetooth adapters came with
software drivers that allowed serial devices like the GPS units to be seen.
I think XP service pack 2 is even better as it has built in bluetooth
drivers. However I tried with original XP and with service pack 2 and both
worked fine.
Regards
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mats Elfström" <mats.e...@gmail.com>
To: <mapi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 9:46 AM
Subject: [MI-L] Bluetooth GPS to MapInfo/Geographic Tracker?
>
Bob Young
I should have added that the drivers "see" the GPS unit as a COM port and
you can select which COM port you want to "see" it as. Therefore although I
have not used Geographic Tracker, I would have thought you would not have a
problem.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mats Elfström" <mats.e...@gmail.com>
To: <mapi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 9:46 AM
Subject: [MI-L] Bluetooth GPS to MapInfo/Geographic Tracker?
>
Mats Elfström
Thanks all who have supplied helpful and encouraging advice. I have
eBought a random bluetooth dongle which I will try out and then post
the results.
Regards, Mats.E
2007/9/18, Bob Young <b...@mapsbydesign.co.uk>:
Phil
GPS is by design a serial application so it will always connect to a
serial port and as Bob said (Hi Bob!) bluetooth will create a serial
port to enable the GPS to be used. Geographic tracker has a drop down
list to select the serial port but from memory, it only goes up to
COM8(?) which can be a problem. I have come across this before and
have seen that previous installations of bluetooth GPS' and other
applications can lead to stupidly high COM port numbers. I managed to
get round this by uninstalling everything that seemed relevant then
reinstalling but ultimately, it's a problem with the tracker software
as it should enumerate the available COM ports and show them in the
list.
Regards,
Phil
www.philallen.net
Jones Mal
We use tablet PC's in the field with Bluetooth GPS, and although they
can work reliably, they can also be a little tricky to set up. I found
out the hard way that our GIS software does not recognise COM ports
above about 10. The trick is that if you try to solve a problem by
reinstalling the Bluetooth, Windows keeps on jacking up the port number
rather than re-occupying vacant lower number ports; so pretty soon you
are beyond 10 and it doesn't matter what you do, the link will not work.
It is necessary to go into Control Panel/Admin Tools/Computer
Management/Device Manager/Ports and uninstall the ports. This does not
always work as there are an interesting category called "non present"
(hidden) devices that also need to be shown so they can be deleted as
well. Even after recording about 6000 site observations and 40 000 km
of track logs in the last 12 months, to prove that it can work reliably,
the Bluetooth-Tablet link is still a tricky thing to package up and give
to someone else with little troubleshooting knowledge and have it work
for them. We have Emtac, Haicom, and Garmin Bluetooth GPS's, and I like
to have two with me just in case:)
Cheers
Mal
Mal Jones
Senior Geologist - Remote Sensing
Geological Survey of Queensland
2007 - GSQ's 139th Anniversary
-----Original Message-----
From: mapi...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mapi...@googlegroups.com] On
Regards,
Phil
www.philallen.net
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Gentreau
device manager are COM1 and LPT1.
When I activate a virtual COM port on my in-built Bluetooth card (Dell
D600, Win XP Pro) it gets assigned to COM14 but Geo-tracker can only
see ports 1 to 12.
Any other suggestions ?
Gentreau
> ************************************************************************- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Martin A Spiers
Two possible solutions - I have neither a COM device or the admin rights to try these:
There's an article on M$' Windows XP Professional Documentation site entitled
"Change port - Lists or changes the COM port mappings to be compatible with MS-DOS applications." which uses the command line
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ts_cmd_changeport.mspx?mfr=true
and the following method should enable you to change the COM port using the GUI
1. Open the System Properties window by right-clicking on "My Computer" or simultaneously press the Windows and pause keys.
2. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button to open the Device Manager.
3. Click on the box with the plus next to Ports (COM & LPT) to disclose the installed ports.
4. Select the port
5. Right-click on the port you selected in step four above and select Properties from the contextual menu to display the properties for that port.
6. Click on the Port Settings tab of the properties window.
7. Click on the Advanced button to show the advanced property settings for the port.
8. Select a COM Port Number. If possible, select a port which is NOT marked as "in use" in the COM Port Number menu. You may get an alert when you close the window telling you that the COM port number may be in use by another device and asking if you want to continue.Click "Yes" to continue.
9. Close all windows that you have opened up to this point.
Yours,
Martin Spiers
Senior Engineer
MWH
Kenburgh House,
Manor Row,
Bradford
BD1 4QU
Tel: 01274 718768
Fax: 01274 718799
email: martin....@mwhglobal.com
Jones Mal
I found the following useful for dealing with the Com port issue. Here
is the link to the Microsoft site which provides a solution for "Device
Manager does not display devices that are not connected to the Windows
XP-based computer"; (isn't that a curious piece of English?) You may
need admin rights for this.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539
Cheers
Mal
-----Original Message-----
From: mapi...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mapi...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Gentreau
Sent: Thursday, 20 September 2007 5:21 PM
To: MapInfo-L
Subject: [MI-L] Re: Bluetooth GPS to MapInfo/Geographic Tracker?
Hmm, I just tried that solution, and the only ports which show up in
device manager are COM1 and LPT1.
When I activate a virtual COM port on my in-built Bluetooth card (Dell
D600, Win XP Pro) it gets assigned to COM14 but Geo-tracker can only see
ports 1 to 12.
Any other suggestions ?
Gentreau