Android Phone + C:geo + external GPS receiver?

[+burzum793]

Can anyone suggest me a good android mobile phone and an external GPS device, preferably with it's own power source, that will work fine together with the phone and C:geo?

 

Right now I own an ZTE Blade and I recently had a lot problems with the GPS receiver that is built in. It's either because of the latest cyanogen mod or the GPS hardware in the phone is somehow damaged.

[+Arndtwe]

Who is your phone provider? Verizon, ATT, sprint? This is critical as far as suggestions on phones goes... and honestly, most newer phones internal GPS is perfectly suitable for most Geocaching occasions.

[+baloo&bd]

Also, how much are you looking to spend. Common wisdom is buy the most you can because the technology changes so fast. Right now that means either the Samsung G3 (downside is it only comes in touch screen) or the Droid 4. The GPSs in them are quite good and I am not sure how much battery you save using bluetooth over the GPS.

 

With my laptop in the vehicle I use the Garmin 10X, which has proven rock solid for me. When I looked it up now, I saw it for around $100 however I know I have seen it for $50 to $60 in the past. Not sure if the supply is drying up or what but I would look around. Having said this, any bluetooth GPS should work and i know there are many alternatives out there.

[CraftyKel*]

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 after reading that it had GPS and GLONASS thinking it would be good, however, the lowest the accuracy on it has ever been is 6m, but it's normally 8m My old LG GT540 goes down to 4m average lol.

 

Therefore I have just ordered a bluetooth gps receiver from ebay. I did quite a bit of searching and was going to spend £15 on a Globalsat BT-359 which from what I have found is pretty solid. But then I had a stroke of luck I found a new (but opened) BT-368 on auction at 99p(newer version but apparently works the same) and got it for £2.20 + postage, it should arrive middle of next week

 

According to the specs it's meant to get down to about 2.5m using DGPS and 3m without. I don't expect it will be quite that good but it's got to be better than 8m

 

I'll post back once I get it and try it out.

 

Russ

 

P.S. If using a bluetooth gps receiver on an android apparently you need to install a helper app (free) for your other apps to be able to access it.

[CraftyKel*]

A quick update, my parcel arrived today (the BT-368) and I just switched it on and hooked it up to my phone and in my front room I had 1.1m accuracy! Wow! I was worried I might regret my purchase, but accuracy like that for £5 (normally around £15-30) is quite a bargain I feel