GPS not Communicating

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njgibson
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: Moorestown, NJ

GPS not Communicating

Post by njgibson » Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:38 pm

I am using HP IPAQ 111 PDAs with an IOGear GBGPS201 GPS, communicating by Bluetooth connection. The IPAC is running Windows Mobile 6 Classic operating system. The GPS does not seem to work with iTREE 3.0. The IPAC makes a Bluetooth connection with the GPS and I can read the GPS on the IPAC, however when I log into iTree, go to settings and press Test GPS, I get the message "GPS communications failed. Please check setting and try again". The Bluetooth Serial Port Settings are: Inbound Com Port 5, Outbound Com Port 6. The Com Port for the GPS is 6 and the Baud rate is 4800. The settings on iTree are Com Port 6 and Baud Rate 4800.

An additional and possibly related problem, about every other time I try to run iTree on the IPAC it will not load, rather the loading bar goes slowly cycles and then repeatedly through the loading screen, I can remedy this by resetting the IPAC and then it will load. Any suggestions?
MJKerr
i-Tree Team
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:02 am

Re: GPS not Communicating

Post by MJKerr » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:56 am

njgibson wrote:I am using HP IPAQ 111 PDAs with an IOGear GBGPS201 GPS, communicating by Bluetooth connection. The IPAC is running Windows Mobile 6 Classic operating system. The GPS does not seem to work with iTREE 3.0. The IPAC makes a Bluetooth connection with the GPS and I can read the GPS on the IPAC, however when I log into iTree, go to settings and press Test GPS, I get the message "GPS communications failed. Please check setting and try again". The Bluetooth Serial Port Settings are: Inbound Com Port 5, Outbound Com Port 6. The Com Port for the GPS is 6 and the Baud rate is 4800. The settings on iTree are Com Port 6 and Baud Rate 4800.

An additional and possibly related problem, about every other time I try to run iTree on the IPAC it will not load, rather the loading bar goes slowly cycles and then repeatedly through the loading screen, I can remedy this by resetting the IPAC and then it will load. Any suggestions?
It is possible that the test will fail, however the GPS control may still work on the GPS tab.

You may wish to look into the Windows GPS virtual port. Under Settings -> System -> GPS, you can select a port for Windows Mobile apps to access the gps through.
njgibson
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: Moorestown, NJ

Post by njgibson » Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:34 pm

Appreciate the prompt reply. I have tried actually collecting GPS info by tapping Start and Acquire, but no information appears.

I tried setting up a Windows GPS virtual port with no success in having iTree communicate. The settings on iTree are: Com Port - 6, Baud Rate - 4800, Parity - None, Data Bits - 8 and Stop Bits - one. At the Settings> Connections> Blue Tooth> Services> Serial Port screen the following boxes are checked: Enable Service, Authentication Passkey) Required, Encryption Required. Are these set correctly?
MJKerr
i-Tree Team
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:02 am

Post by MJKerr » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:28 pm

njgibson wrote:Appreciate the prompt reply. I have tried actually collecting GPS info by tapping Start and Acquire, but no information appears.

I tried setting up a Windows GPS virtual port with no success in having iTree communicate. The settings on iTree are: Com Port - 6, Baud Rate - 4800, Parity - None, Data Bits - 8 and Stop Bits - one. At the Settings> Connections> Blue Tooth> Services> Serial Port screen the following boxes are checked: Enable Service, Authentication Passkey) Required, Encryption Required. Are these set correctly?
Perhaps it does not require encryption or authentication? It is a bit of a hack, but have you tried to use the GPS virtual port with another app and then launch Streets with the app still running?

The virtual port is a sort of multiplexer, it lets multiple applications receive data from the gps at the same time. If another application can get the GPS started on that port, Streets should be able to read from it as well.
njgibson
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: Moorestown, NJ

Post by njgibson » Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:57 pm

I'm not sure if I am actually using the GPS Virtual Port or not. At the External GPS Setting, I set the GPS HW port to Com 6 and the GPS Program Port to Com 5, I also connect thru Bluetooth Connectivity. The only other GPS app I have is the IOGear Navigation System which will receive and display the GPS info. I leave that running and open iTree and cannot get any communication either on the Test GPS or going direct at the GPS tab. Any other suggestions, it is a great improvement to be able to get GPS into iTree if only I could get it to work.
MJKerr
i-Tree Team
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:02 am

Post by MJKerr » Fri Aug 21, 2009 8:14 am

njgibson wrote:I'm not sure if I am actually using the GPS Virtual Port or not. At the External GPS Setting, I set the GPS HW port to Com 6 and the GPS Program Port to Com 5, I also connect thru Bluetooth Connectivity. The only other GPS app I have is the IOGear Navigation System which will receive and display the GPS info. I leave that running and open iTree and cannot get any communication either on the Test GPS or going direct at the GPS tab. Any other suggestions, it is a great improvement to be able to get GPS into iTree if only I could get it to work.
Assuming the IOGear software lets you choose a port for the gps, set that to port 5 (the GPS program port,) start it running, and also set Streets to port 5.

If that does not work I am not sure I'm going to be able to help, sorry.
MJKerr
i-Tree Team
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:02 am

Post by MJKerr » Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:31 pm

I've revisited this issue a bit, and I think perhaps the inbound and outbound bluetooth port should be the same. Try setting them both to COM 6.

If that doesn't work by itself, turn Windows automatic GPS management off in the GPS settings form in the control panel, and then tell Streets PDA to use COM 6.

Good luck and please report back with results.
The Bluetooth Serial Port Settings are: Inbound Com Port 5, Outbound Com Port 6. The Com Port for the GPS is 6 and the Baud rate is 4800. The settings on iTree are Com Port 6 and Baud Rate 4800.
It is also possible it needs set to the inbound port.
njgibson
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: Moorestown, NJ

GPS not Communicating

Post by njgibson » Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:40 pm

Based on a comment from azaelea, that a Bluetooth correction was coming after 3.04, I installed upgrade 3.07. After installing the upgrade 3.07 my GPS can now communicate with my PDA via a Bluetooth connection. After entering 2500 trees in a spreadsheet this is a welcome addition. Thanks.
azelaya
i-Tree Team
Posts: 372
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:50 am

GPS bluetooth update

Post by azelaya » Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:43 am

Thanks for the update. MJKerr did research & programming work to resolve that issue. We appreciate the feedback to let us know when things are working especially after making updates to address those issues.

Regards,
Al
A member of the i-Tree Team
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