[trowabarton]

Hi I have a verizon bb curve 8330 that I bought a few months ago.

So I bought a new bluetooth gps unit. Before I started anything I pulled the battery and did a long reboot.

My gps a signal lock it flashes green on the puck. After that happens it sycs up with my BB and I get the normal Blue LED flash on my phone. All is well. I go to advanced settings and set it to use the BT GPS instead of internal. I also turn location on. Ok everything should be setup so far correctly right?

I have tried with 3 different programs BBmaps, google maps, and amaze. BBmaps allows me to select to use the BT GPS instead of internal. The other 2 do not. Regardless neither program will get a gps signal. I tried this on my 30 minute ride to work today for many minutes waiting on each program to get the gps but none did.

What did I do wrong.

[FF22]

Find the thread on gps-logger and try downloading that. I find it pretty quickly finds my bt gps unit and locates me.

I don't recall if those programs each may have a setting/option where you tell it to use the external gps (in addition to the advanced bb setting).

[trowabarton]

I installed GPSed which saw my gps device. With this running in the background every program gets a signal lock. Google Maps shows distance within 3 meters, bbmaps works fine, and amaze does turn by turn directions. Now I can sell my stand alone car gps unit and just use my phone. One less thing to carry around now.

[FF22]

I installed GPSed which saw my gps device. With this running in the background every program gets a signal lock. Google Maps shows distance within 3 meters, bbmaps works fine, and amaze does turn by turn directions. Now I can sell my stand alone car gps unit and just use my phone. One less thing to carry around now.

There seems to be some limitation in some BT gps units - they need what I will call a helper program, like gpsed (I now use gps-logger) to talk with the BB and then other programs, google, for instance, will then get the proper signal, too.

Well, there are still some limitations in the BB as a gps, at least, my 8830. It is much slower at recalculation and does require a DATA connection in order to get maps/routing. My TomTom is faster and has the maps on board. The screen is much larger and it speaks MUCH LOUDER!

But I do like the BB as it is with me whereas I have to plan to take the TomTom. Actually, it was fun/practical when traveling down to the Sierra this past summer having the TomTom find a point-of-interest and have the BB dial the phone number - that can't be beat.

[trowabarton]

Just for fun I tried GPSLogger and it worked as well for getting the signal. I don't have a tom tom but a generic gps device just like it. It has many less options and no way to update the maps. But for $70 at the time I couldn't beat it. I think I will still sell it since using amaze tonight on the ride home worked OK. It was a little slow but I could use it without problems.

Now I just have to find a nice windshield mount with maybe a speaker on it since the BB speaker isn't loud enough with my windows open. But that is ok for now. Since I bought my BB I don't have to carry around my mp3 player with me as well. 2 less things to carry to my car everyday is great!

[Tre Lawrence]

All about convergence. I agree... less devices to carry.

[hubermania]

So I bought a new bluetooth gps unit
...
My gps a signal lock it flashes green on the puck. After that happens it sycs up with my BB and I get the normal Blue LED flash on my phone. All is well. I go to advanced settings and set it to use the BT GPS instead of internal. I also turn location on. Ok everything should be setup so far correctly right?

I have tried with 3 different programs BBmaps, google maps, and amaze. BBmaps allows me to select to use the BT GPS instead of internal. The other 2 do not. Regardless neither program will get a gps signal.

Some programs don't startup correctly with a BT GPS. Obviously BB Maps is going to work fine with a BT GPS. Garmin Mobile also works fine. Amaze and Nav4All didn't work right unless BB Maps was running, otherwise they wouldn't see the BT GPS.

Here's the workaround if you have a GPS app that won't play nice with your BT GPS:

1. Start BB Maps
2. Start finicky GPS app.
3. Wait for finicky GPS app to get a fix.
4. Exit BB Maps
5. Use finicky GPS app.