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Connecting BT PDA to GPS of BT Cellphone


BigGP

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Just a shot in the dark on this. Has anyone attempted to connect their bluetooth enabled PDA to their Bluetooth enabled cellphone to access the cellphone's GPS reciever? The combo I'm specifically working with is a Palm m500 with a TDK blueM Bluetooth adapter and a Sanyo Katana.

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Just a shot in the dark on this. Has anyone attempted to connect their bluetooth enabled PDA to their Bluetooth enabled cellphone to access the cellphone's GPS reciever? The combo I'm specifically working with is a Palm m500 with a TDK blueM Bluetooth adapter and a Sanyo Katana.

 

It happens that I've been doing a lot of research into Bluetooth connectivity and GPS options of late (see story elsewhere on this forum or in my sig link below.) I would say that it is unlikely that the phone manufacturer "exposes" the internal GPS in the cell phone via the Bluetooth connectivity of the cell phone in a way that you could access it with your TDK. It's possible but I haven't seen that much creativity in the cell phone manufacturers. I do have access to a lot of developer technical data on cell phones and if you pass along your cell phone model I can see what I can find.

 

I'm currently using my Sony-Ericsson W810i as a GPS display connecting via Bluetooth to a Wintec WBT-100 GPSR. There are a number of these little BT GPSR's out there. I've got my eye on a $70 model (the I-767) at buygpsnow.com that looks pretty good. All of them emit the standard NMEA GPS strings that should work with any software that runs on your Palm. My "gig" is Java programming and I haven't done any Palm OS stuff. If your palm can run J2ME Java applications/games I'd be glad to have you try out my creation but I don't think Palm devices can run J2ME (Jave 2 Micro Edition) applications. But the up side is that there seem to be a large number of Palm offerings for GPS related software. Since your TDK effectively gives you a Palm serial port connection via Bluetooth to a Bluetooth device, you should be able to use any of these little hockey puck receivers for navigation.

 

I just attach mine to my cap where it gets the best sky view and go caching with my phone. You could do the same with your PDA.

 

Also, you'll probably find that any of the little GPSR's will be MUCH more sensitive than the GPS built into the cell phone. I've heard that the built in units are not nearly as sensitive as dedicated units. But I don't have any hard data on that.

Edited by dpbabcock
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It happens that I've been doing a lot of research into Bluetooth connectivity and GPS options of late (see story elsewhere on this forum or in my sig link below.) I would say that it is unlikely that the phone manufacturer "exposes" the internal GPS in the cell phone via the Bluetooth connectivity of the cell phone in a way that you could access it with your TDK. It's possible but I haven't seen that much creativity in the cell phone manufacturers. I do have access to a lot of developer technical data on cell phones and if you pass along your cell phone model I can see what I can find.

 

I'm currently using my Sony-Ericsson W810i as a GPS display connecting via Bluetooth to a Wintec WBT-100 GPSR. There are a number of these little BT GPSR's out there. I've got my eye on a $70 model (the I-767) at buygpsnow.com that looks pretty good. All of them emit the standard NMEA GPS strings that should work with any software that runs on your Palm. My "gig" is Java programming and I haven't done any Palm OS stuff. If your palm can run J2ME Java applications/games I'd be glad to have you try out my creation but I don't think Palm devices can run J2ME (Jave 2 Micro Edition) applications. But the up side is that there seem to be a large number of Palm offerings for GPS related software. Since your TDK effectively gives you a Palm serial port connection via Bluetooth to a Bluetooth device, you should be able to use any of these little hockey puck receivers for navigation.

 

I just attach mine to my cap where it gets the best sky view and go caching with my phone. You could do the same with your PDA.

 

Also, you'll probably find that any of the little GPSR's will be MUCH more sensitive than the GPS built into the cell phone. I've heard that the built in units are not nearly as sensitive as dedicated units. But I don't have any hard data on that.

 

The Katana is the SCP-6600. I don't believe my PDA will do J2ME, but my Katana does. Feel free to send it out to me.

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Palms definitely run J2ME - the Palm website offers the runtime they licensed from IBM. You install the runtime on your Palm, and then can run java apps, of which few seem to exist, at least any worthwhile. I removed the java runtime from my Palm, because it just took up space for no good purpose. One app that does use it is Opera mini, a web browser, but since I don't have wifi, or want it on my Palm, I don't need a browser.

 

I can connect my phone to my Palm, but I get no GPS information. I can transfer files, such as mp3 and pictures, but I don't do it that often.

Edited by NightPilot
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Palms definitely run J2ME - the Palm website offers the runtime they licensed from IBM. You install the runtime on your Palm, and then can run java apps, of which few seem to exist, at least any worthwhile. I removed the java runtime from my Palm, because it just took up space for no good purpose. One app that does use it is Opera mini, a web browser, but since I don't have wifi, or want it on my Palm, I don't need a browser.

 

I can connect my phone to my Palm, but I get no GPS information. I can transfer files, such as mp3 and pictures, but I don't do it that often.

 

Yep. Most of the Bluetooth stuff I'm finding has more consumer oriented connectivity - swapping pix, contacts, messaging, etc. Like I said, I would be really surprised to find that the cell phone manufacturer exposed the NMEA output from the GPS built into the phone. It's possible technically but they just wouldn't conceive of anyone wanting to do that and so wouldn't build it in. At least that's my take on the "gestalt" which seems to accompany most of the phone designs I've seen.

 

Even if you had the Java stuff on your Palm, the critical issue is whether it supports JSR 82, the J2ME Bluetooth API spec. I have a RAZR (old V3) that has Bluetooth built in for things like a hands free headset but as it turns out, they kept it proprietary in that model and the J2ME firmware on that phone DOES NOT support the J2ME Bluetooth "stack." Ironically, Motorola was one of the first big contributors/proponents of JSR 82 but they've been more tardy than some other manufacturers in actually getting it into their phones. At least that's my understanding from the surfing that I've done on the matter. That's the reason I went to the W810i. I'm not really into "Walkman" capable phones but this little gem was one of the few phones available for upgrade by my carrier that had a rather thorough J2ME JSRxxx suport stack. You generally have to look on the manufacturer's website for that kind of info. It typically is NOT something your local office will even know.

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