Windows 7 Home Premium, Pharos Bluetooth GPS, and Streets & Trips 2009. Has anyone managed to get this combination, or a similar one, working?

I've managed to connect my laptop (an older HP touchscreen) to a Pharos BT II (with the GPS500 receiver), and the Bluetooth Device Manager is reporting the Pharos as being on COM8; I sucessfully [eventually] reset the baud rate to 4800 (I had to go to the device manager screen and adjust the properties on COM8 to do that so it stayed at 4800 though - from the "devices and printers" screen it would revert to 9600 immediately after closing the window.), but even still, Streets and Trips won't find Com8 as a GPS device when I scan.

When I subsequently tried to plug the GPS500 directly into the USB dongle it fired up right away.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong, or not doing right?

I have only helped a friend configure a blue tooth one time, but I might see your problem... I think you are missing a link in the chain... You have the blue tooth talking to the computer on COM8... And, when you plug the gps dongle directly into the computer, you have S&T talking to the GPS (but likely not on COM8... maybe its on COM3or4). The problem, I think, is that S&T is not looking at COM8 when you have the set up blue tooth running. So, I think you have two options:

1) Set up the blue tooth hardware configuration and check that it is operational. Then launch S&T, go into the gps pane and launch the gps configuration option. See if COM8 is available for use (that is, S&T now sees Com8). If so, set Com8 as the default port. If COM8 is not available, take note of what Com# is set as the default and
2) Go into the blue tooth and configure its COM# to be the same as S&T's COM#

Bottom line is that you have to get everything on the same COM#.

You may want to search this forum for the link to "XPORT". It is freeware that lets you feed multiple COM ports from a single source.

Oh yeah... I have read that some higher end GPS units not only need to have the baud rate set to 4800, but also need to have the refresh rate set to once (1) per second... Not likely to be a problem for you, as you had the GPS working with S&T when you had it directly plugged into the computer...

Is xport stable in W7? I had issues with it blocking (and subsequently not releasing) the COM ports used by my USB ports under Vista, even after "uninstall".

Also, in W7 you can apparently reroute the COM ports (just as Xport does) using the Advanced Settings [from the device list, rightclick on selected bluetooth device then choose properties/hardware tab/properties/general tab/Change Settings], so I'm not sure using Xport is strictly necessary.

When I try to Configure GPS and Scan, COM8 isn't listed as an option, and none of the other ports list a GPS device when I'm not using the GPS plugged in with the USB cable. I can't seem to "force" S&T2009 into choosing COM8. I surmise from this that either the bluetooth adapter isn't passing info to S&T on the right COM port [it has two, right? Send & Receive? With Receive just being the "handshake"?], or S&T isn't recognizing the bluetooth link as a viable GPS.

Changing the bit rate of the COM port does not change the GPS bit rate (in fact, it does nothing at all). The Pharos 350 and 500 are already 4800 bps and should work fine with S&T if you have the right USB to serial driver; one is available for Win 7.

I assume the Bluetooth you are speaking of is the BT sled adapter for the Pharos. If you have already discovered it with the Win 7 built-in BT stack, you can right click on the Bluetooth icon in the notification bar and choose 'Show Bluetooth Devices'. From the list, choose your device and click the Properties button and Services tab. If the device is turned on and found, that screen will list the correct COM port.

Terry

How would I check to see if I have the right USB/serial driver?

Yes, it's the BT II sled which Pharos sells as an accessory to the 500-series receiver. [From its product description it seems like it'd be the bee's knees.] I'm pretty eager to get it working.

The Services tab shows it as being on Com 8, but S&T shows nothing on 8, not even usage by another device...

The Prolific driver for Win 7 is here;

Welcome to Prolific

You might want to test the output from Bluetooth with another free program like Earthbridge to see if it is really there. Make sure the Paros 500 is in the sled when you test it.

Earth Bridge - Bridge the gap between Google Earth and your GPS receiver.

Terry

Not clear. Do you mean the Pharos GPS fired up right away? If so, what does that mean? Just that the blue light in it came on?

Or do you mean that Streets&Trips found it and was cheerfully ready to use it? If so, don't waste any time on the USB-to-serial driver that Terry mentioned. That was just to try to help you at least get the USB connection working, if it wasn't. If you've already got Streets working on the USB connection you're golden in that regard. The USB-to-serial driver will have no effect on the Bluetooth issue.

No experience with Xport on Win7. GPSGate works. There's a 14-day free trial if you want to see if it will find the GPS on Bluetooth. Its scanning is about as good as it gets ... if there's a GPS connected and functioning, it will generally find it. It does the same basic stuff as Xport and more but it's not free. Cheap, considering, but not free.

...ken...

Ken - Yes, the GPS receiver worked when used with the USB dongle - it located me in less than 30 seconds. The problem to me seems to be with the Blutetooth interface and S&T.

I've included screenshots to show what I'm getting on my screens - The first two show that S&T isn't seeing Com8, the third shows the Com8 connection through the Bluetooth Device Properties.

I installed Earth Bridge (and the Prolific driver, just in case) to see if I was getting anything from the sled. It gave me raw data on Com 8 (wish I'd gotten a screenshot of that) so I disconnected the GPS from within Earth Bridge and launched S&T. Still no luck. And now Earth Bridge doesn't see the sled anymore (fourth screenshot), although the BT device properties show it as being connected...

Update: Earth bridge is now working - locational fix and everything. Screenshot included -it's at home, so if you're in the neighborhood and want a bad cup of coffee... Still no joy on the S&T front though...

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It sounds like you may want to clean the contacts where the Pharos 500 connects to the BT sled.

Terry

If it's working to Earthbridge, how would that help?

It seems more likely that there's something about the virtual COM port off the Bluetooth stack that S&T doesn't much like but Earthbridge is okay with.

...ken...

The contacts are pretty much pristine - I cleaned them anyway, but no change... I've even tried swapping out the Pharos-branded GPS500 receiver with the Microsoft-branded one I got with the USB dongle (I misread the website when I ordered the sled, and got myself an unintentional spare...) - still no luck.

I can't tell from the Earthbridge screenshot .. what COM port is Earthbridge getting the data from? Or is it grabbing it directly from the Bluetooth stack? Does it tell you on one of the other tabs?

Last time I was in your neck of the woods was for a weekend meeting in the early 80's. That was in Fredricton, which isn't really that close. But it's a lot closer than where I live! I've never eaten lobster since.

...ken...

EB's using Com 8. Um - screenshot!

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