Bluetooth GPSr and a cell phone

[+49093]

First, I'm sure a dedicated device will work better for a single defined task than my "swiss army knife" of a cell phone so lets get that out of the way now. I travel a lot for work and often have unexpected time to kill, cell based caching works great for this.

 

I've been using a Crackberry 9930 (employer provided, unlimited data plan, co$ts me nothing) and Cachesense to cache for a few months now. It actually works pretty well but I had thought about adding a bluetooth GPSr to try to improve things. I have never been a "paper" geocacher, yes, I'm spoiled.

 

Anybody doing anything like this now? Does it help?

 

I see a few products out there but am such a newbie I'm not sure how to interpret the specs.

 

The GlobalSat US359 and Dual Electronics XGPS150 Universal Bluetooth GPS Receiver are the two that pop up to the top of a google search.

 

Thanks - 49093

[+Lieblweb]

The only Bluetooth GPS's that I have seen ....are the street units. Like the Nuvi.

 

But that's only really used for 'handsfree' talking on the phone while you drive.

[+user13371]

Yes, you can get certain Bluetooth GPSRs to pair with a smartphone, including Blackberry. Some might give better accuracy than the BB's own GPS, but not by a lot.

 

From a geocacher's point of view, these little external GPS dongles suffer the same problem as these little smartphones -- tiny antenna. They'll give "good enough" if not especially precise positioning, and let you down under more difficult conditions - under tree cover, for example.

Edited December 21, 2012 by user13371

[Andronicus]

First, I'm sure a dedicated device will work better for a single defined task than my "swiss army knife" of a cell phone so lets get that out of the way now. I travel a lot for work and often have unexpected time to kill, cell based caching works great for this.

 

I've been using a Crackberry 9930 (employer provided, unlimited data plan, co$ts me nothing) and Cachesense to cache for a few months now. It actually works pretty well but I had thought about adding a bluetooth GPSr to try to improve things. I have never been a "paper" geocacher, yes, I'm spoiled.

 

Anybody doing anything like this now? Does it help?

 

I see a few products out there but am such a newbie I'm not sure how to interpret the specs.

 

The GlobalSat US359 and Dual Electronics XGPS150 Universal Bluetooth GPS Receiver are the two that pop up to the top of a google search.

 

Thanks - 49093

I used to use a GolbalSat bluetooth GPS with my windows mobile phone. That one fell out of my pocket at a cache though, and I lost it. So I am now using a QStarz BT-818x. It looks much cooler than the GlobalSat. Also, when working, the QStarz be updated with the latest gps almanac, giving a cold lock time of 15 sec. This unit is very sensivite, more so than most stand alone units. This will help in tree cover etc. You can buy these online from gpscity (I think), or other online retailers.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Andronicus

[Andronicus]

Yes, you can get certain Bluetooth GPSRs to pair with a smartphone, including Blackberry. Some might give better accuracy than the BB's own GPS, but not by a lot.

 

From a geocacher's point of view, these little external GPS dongles suffer the same problem as these little smartphones -- tiny antenna. They'll give "good enough" if not especially precise positioning, and let you down under more difficult conditions - under tree cover, for example.

Although it is true that some bluetooth GPSrs has poor sensitivity, there are plenty with better sensitivity than anything Garmin makes. The size of the antenna is really only one factor in its performance. A military grade GPS antenna is only slightly larger than a typical bluetooth GPSr. GPS antenna are not like satalitte dishes where size=gain. And, the antenna is only one factor in the sensitivity of a GPSr.

 

Also, many of these bluetooth GPSrs have accuracy in the sub 3m range (under optimal conditions).

 

Another great thing about using a bluetooth GPS with your smartphone is that your battery life will increase dramaticaly. The GPS in your phone sucks a lot of juice, however, the bluetooth does not. This switch will give you much better performance. If you can make your phone shut of the screen without going to sleep, this can extend your battery life, while activly geocaching, to 6 or 8 hours. Most of the bluetooth GPSrs have a rated 10+h battery life. If you bring a spare battery for both the phone and GPS, this should definatly keep you going all day. (ebay is your friend when looking for batteries for these devices)

[+Driddy]

Depending on your budget, you may wish to consider the Garmin Glo ($99). That is an interesting choice because it simultaneously uses both the American GPS system as well as the Russian Glonass satellites. This supposedly results in better reception in challenging conditions. There was a thread in this forum a few weeks ago regarding this unit but I have not yet seen any really detailed reviews of it's utility for geocaching. I expect to get one within the next week and will share my experiences once I have taken it into the field.

[John E Cache]

First, when I first started geocaching I made a few attempts to find a more accurate GPS and finally concluded that most of the accuracy problems are in the system not the GPS. I have a Bluetooth GPS that I bought for my Palm pilot. It also works on Android, but I needed to install a Bluetooth GPS coordinate provider app so that when Geocaching apps asked for coordinates they would automatically get coordinates via Bluetooth. I have no idea how that work on the Blackberry. Does cachemate use Bluetooth?

[+49093]

Good question, I'll post it on a cachesense forum.