Unsure whether to buy a USB or a
Bluetooth GPS receiver? Why not get one that can do both, USB and Bluetooth!
The following three GPS receivers offer you the option to use them wirelessly via Bluetooth, or via USB cable connection:
i.Trek M7 (click the link for picture & description) is shown on the above picture along with my new HP tx2000 series convertible TabletPC. I don't yet have a suitable vehicle mount for the computer, that's the reason for the picture being taken in my house.
Note that i.Trek M7 doesn't require any special cable to connect to a laptop PC. It uses the common cable used for most digital cameras - the regular (large) USB plug on one end, and the mini USB plug on the other end of the cable. The
included USB cable, as shown on the above photo, is about 2 feet long. If you need a longer one, you may already have one at home, or your friendly local computer, office supplies, or photo store will most certainly have them in stock.
When i.Trek M7, or any other dual (USB/Bluetooth) GPS receiver, is used as a
USB GPS receiver, it doesn't require an external power source, because it uses the power from your laptop PC via the USB cable (included in package). When used as a Bluetooth GPS receiver, it can use the
included car charger (shown on the above picture), or it can use its internal battery. The
battery is rated for 15 hours (I got over 17 hours of continuous use on one charge).
An interesting feature of i.Trek M7 is that it allows users to set the refresh rate of the GPS receiver. It can be set to
1, 2, 3, 4, or 5Hz (refreshes per one second). As of today (May 2008) I'm not aware of a consumer mapping software that would actually refresh its map more frequently just because a GPS receiver is able to provide location info more frequently. Nevertheless, I have come across people who were interested to buy a GPS unit capable of higher refresh rate, so I think this unique feature may prompt more people to be interested in this unit. (I did a quick test, and I didn't observe any difference when iNav
iGuidance 4 was using 1Hz or 5Hz GPS receiver.)
A very practical feature of this unit is
auto on/off. It may prevent the internal rechargeable battery from accidentally being discharged, when we forget to to turn the unit off. i.Trek M7 will turn itself into stand-by mode if there is no Bluetooth activity. I tested this feature, and it worked for me flawlessly.
Holux GPSlim 236 (click the link for picture & description) was one of the very first GPS receivers based on the SiRFstarIII chip (in 2005). I used it for over a year, and I was very happy with it. An early batch of these units was affected by an issue which caused the Bluetooth module to stop functioning. But this must have been fixed a long ago, as I haven't come across any discussion of this problem in a very long time.
An interesting feature of
Holux GPSlim 236 is that it allows USB and Bluetooth connections simultaneously. This may not be a feature many users would take advantage of, but if you, for some reason, need to use one GPS receiver with two laptops (or a laptop and a PDA, etc), both at the same time, this GPS unit will let you do it.
Holux GPSlim 236 allows an external antenna to be plugged in. Again, since the receiver has a very good sensitivity, most users will not bother with an external antenna. But if you drive a lot in difficult environments, or if you just simply like to have the best possible signal, then you may order the optional external antenna.
Note that Holux GPSlim 236 is being sold as a Bluetooth GPS receiver. To use it as a USB GPS receiver, order also the optional special USB cable. An ordinary USB extension will only charge the unit's internal battery, so one really needs to buy the special USB cable to feed GPS signal to a computer.
Wintec G-Rays I (WBT-300) (click the link for picture & description) is another GPS receiver with dual USB and Bluetooth interface. I haven't tested this one, but a quick look at the specifications reveals it is equally excellent product like the above two. Interestingly, it is user configurable up to 10Hz(!).
******
Semsons.com gives away free
Franson GPS Gate software with the purchase of most GPS receivers (as of the time of this writing).
Franson GPS Gate is a very popular program that allows users to share one GPS among several applications, use Garmin USB GPS receivers with standard GPS applications, GPS simulation and logging, more stable GPS connection (in particular to Bluetooth GPS receivers), share a GPS over a network (ActiveSync, Bluetooth or HTTP), connect a GPS to Google Earth, connect Garmin nRoute to a normal GPS, multiplex and split NMEA streams, and more...
Questions? / Comments?
when it comes to just GPS receivers. They work fine with the current technology.
