Geekzone Reviews the Globalsat BT-338 Bluetooth GPS Receiver

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=4551' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?ContentId=4551</a><br /><br /></div><i>"This little beauty felt right from the start. It only has one button (on/off) and 3 LEDs, one for power, GPS, and Bluetooth status. It can operate for 17 or more hours continuously on each charge, longer when in Trickle mode. It was incredibly easy to get going with the Pocket PC, and I have had no bad Bluetooth experiences with it. &lt;...> The GlobalSat BT-338 uses the latest generation of GPS chipsets from SiRF, the SiRFStarIII, which is stated to be as sensitive as the SiRFXTrac used in their SD-501 GPS, but without the delay and overshooting issues."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BT-338.JPG" /><br /><br />I know from previous posts that while a lot of you have already invested in GPS solutions, there's still many of us remaining who are interested but don't know yet what to buy. I'm about 95% sure that I want a Bluetooth-enabled GPS receiver, but which one? Well, just to throw another option into the ring, it looks like Geekzone was pretty pumped-up in their review of Globalsat's latest offering. So if you're still procrastinating, check it out and let us know how you think this stacks up against the competition. ;)

[Paladin27]

I purchased this unit back in the winter when it was first released, and I have to say, it ROCKS! I had used a Garmin Etrex Vista with a serial cable previously and this unit blows the Garmin out of the water in every way. It has awesome battery life, great bluetooth functionality, and spectacular GPS reception. I use it with my HP h6315 PPC Phone and Tom Tom Navigator and have had ZERO issues with it since I got it.

Great product!

[ctmagnus]

I currently have a Garmin unit and haven't been exactly overwhelmed by the specs of any other receiver I've seen to date, but this is the unit I'm keeping my eye on at the moment.

[CrashX]

The perfect unit for my needs will be a standalone GPSr (Like a Garmin, Magellan, etc.) that has Bluetooth connectivity. I love the idea of being able to use a Bluetooth GPSr with my PDA and laptop, though I'm not too thrilled about taking my PDA into the field on a Geocache hunt. A standalone unit that has Bluetooth would let me use the GPSr with the PDA/Laptop in a vehicle for directions, and then I could take just the GPSr into the field with me for the remainder of the cache hunt.

Fortuna makes one like this but most of the comments and reviews that I've read on it have not been favorable.

[Paragon]

I've heard nothing but good reports about this receiver. It picks up satellites from basements, under bridges, under car dashboards, in consoles, under seats, in pockets...well you get the idea. My BT308 works great but I would be very happy to get this for my birthday next week....my dearest wife....are you reading this..... :ppclove:

Dave

[Altaman]

I purchased this beast, actually two of them...one for my wifes X50v and one for my E830 and it works flawlessly. I have had it pick up signals in a parkade no less.

My experience is with Mapopolis and I read about 1 user not being able to get it to work with his E830 and OnCourseNavigator 4. This tells me that OCN is doing something that the E830 does not like (the Bluetooth Stack on the E830 still needs some work apparently).

Anyways, the BT-338 is a winner in my books and you really can't go wrong!

alt

[Jonathon Watkins]

The perfect unit for my needs will be a standalone GPSr (Like a Garmin, Magellan, etc.) that has Bluetooth connectivity. . . Fortuna makes one like this but most of the comments and reviews that I've read on it have not been favorable.

I take it you are talking about the Fortuna GPSmart Bluetooth GPS Receiver (http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/gpsmart.php)? I am currently borrowing one from a friend. It's OKish. The sensitivity is not too great, it has a dreadful design fault whereby it's incredibly easy to switch the unit off as you pick it up, it's bulky, eats batteries at a fast rate and you need a serial to USB connector to get the tracking data off it. Apart from that it's great. :wink:

I really wanted to like it, but it does have a lot of black marks against it. On the positive side, it's almost exactly two years old, which leads me to hope that we should bee a replacement for it soon. I love the idea of a unit that you can take independently and can track and record your position if your PPC is off. I would hope that the new version would use replaceable and rechargeable nokia phone batteries, would be substantially smaller (possibly with a detachable belt clip) and use the new SiRFStarIII chipset. Not much to ask for eh! :wink: I can but hope.....

This Globalsat does look good, but it would be nice to have something that can track a position for 12+ hours or so, which is not always possible or convenient with PPCs.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Wow! Great feedback across the board for Globalsat!

I'll have to start checking prices and availability on this one! :way to go:

[cab124]

I purchased this GPS unit a couple of months ago. I have been trying to use it with my HP iPaq 2215, but it appears that the bluetooth implementation on the 2215 just can't maintain a connection to ANYTHING for more than 5 minutes. Whether its a connection to my desktop, my laptop, this GPS unit, or anything else, the 2215 drops the connection within 5 minutes.

It has been really frustrating because this GPS unit is so awesome, but I am not able to enjoy using it. I get connected and start driving, only to have the BT connection dropped in a short period of time.

I can't wait to get a new PDA with bluetooth that works!!!

Anyone want to speculate on when the WM 2005 devices will begin to trickle out????

[prismejon]

Wow! Great feedback across the board for Globalsat!

I'll have to start checking prices and availability on this one! :way to go:

Let us know if you find a good deal! I think I saw a special offer on the unit when it was released, but I guess it's over now.

[stoker]

Went to San Francisco, and Hertz offered Magellan Neverlost GPS for free, so I had TWO Gps's and never had used GPS until then. I enjoyed by PPC much more than using their GPS.
One minute glich, which was or is important to me. The little rubber band that attaches from the body that has a plug at the end that fits ito the hole for DC current is fairly flimsy, and you have to pay attention to force it into the hole ,otherwise pay attention to not having it getting tugged off by accident.. Not a big problem but this plug could be made more sturdy, and fit better in this hole. BuyGPSnow.com, offered to replace the product instead of sending it off back to Taiwan. for $25 shipping and handling which was very fair of them. Haven't taken them up on it yet. Seems like they offer excellent service.

[PeterLake]

I have used GPS units in the past, bought one of these myself, and cannot say enough good things about it. I cannot recall losing a signal, it quickly finds a fix, and it is the only BT unit I have that has never caused me a connection headache.

[CrashX]

I take it you are talking about the Fortuna GPSmart Bluetooth GPS Receiver (http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/gpsmart.php)?
Yes, that's the device I was referring to.

It's OKish.
Most of the negative points that you brought up are the same ones that I've been hearing elsewhere. Judging by the features you'd like to see in the next version of the device, I would say that you and I are looking for a similar GPSr. The hunt continues... :)

[nickpope]

Another very happy user here.

[Odessit]

I own this puppy and have to say that it is good, but not great. It's probably best used as a car navigation system and not for geocaching.

The biggest thing that keeps if from being "great" is BT-388's internal compass or most probably lack thereof. It seems to extrapolate the direction of the North (and which way the device is facing) based on your movement. But when you stop, like at a traffic light, the software map can start spinning around because the GPS keeps pointing to North in a bunch of different directions. When you start moving it picks up the proper direction again.

It seems to me that some people think that this GPS unit will work "anywhere" including in the urban canyons. I hate to disappoint you folks but once your buildings go above 40 floors and I tried both downtown and midtown Manhattan this thing starts having problems. If it has signal at all, it may place you a block or two away easily. It showed me swimming in the East River once when I was standing on Wall St. a block away from water front 8O . Then again, when you are driving on 46th, pass the 5th Ave and approach the 4th, it's not very difficult to figure out which street comes after that :D

Attn: cab124, BT-388 works fine with my iPaq h2215. I have the latest updates from HP, including bluetooth updates/patches. Beyond that I can only suggest that you keep your bluetooth on, but don't connect to BT-388 manually - let your map app do that. Both Mapopolis and TomTom work well for me.

[stevelam]

I purchased this GPS unit a couple of months ago. I have been trying to use it with my HP iPaq 2215, but it appears that the bluetooth implementation on the 2215 just can't maintain a connection to ANYTHING for more than 5 minutes. Whether its a connection to my desktop, my laptop, this GPS unit, or anything else, the 2215 drops the connection within 5 minutes.

It has been really frustrating because this GPS unit is so awesome, but I am not able to enjoy using it. I get connected and start driving, only to have the BT connection dropped in a short period of time.

I can't wait to get a new PDA with bluetooth that works!!!

Anyone want to speculate on when the WM 2005 devices will begin to trickle out????


Have you got all of the HP updates???

[Phoenix]

I too, am impressed with this GPS receiver, and plan to purchase one for use with my Imate JAM. For those interested in OnCourse Navigator GPS software, personally, I'm waiting until June to purchase the 338, which happens to be the month that OCN v5 software is supposed to be released.

I've been following the very long GlobalSat BT-338 thread (http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?topic_id=19000) over at GPS Passion, and everyone seems to be very satisfied with its performance, thanks largely in part to the SIRFstar III chipset. I've also noticed how responsive the company that makes the 338 has been in terms of fixing bugs. The 338 seems to be an excellent performer.

BuyGPSnow (http://www.buygpsnow.com/) has some great prices on GPS hardware, software, and packages, including the 338. Worth a look.

[everettes]

The biggest thing that keeps if from being "great" is BT-388's internal compass or most probably lack thereof. It seems to extrapolate the direction of the North (and which way the device is facing) based on your movement. But when you stop, like at a traffic light, the software map can start spinning around because the GPS keeps pointing to North in a bunch of different directions. When you start moving it picks up the proper direction again.


Direction and Speed are a function of your software, not the GPS. But it's a simple fix (or cover up really). Just enable static navigation using the Sirf software. It was disabled by default at the request of geocachers. It will stop sending updated coordinates (to your software) when it reads minimal movement. Then, once you move 50 feet, it will start sending coords again.

The program and instructions can be found below. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. It is not a program to be played with.
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25575&amp;whichpage=1

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I'll have to start checking prices and availability on this one! :way to go:
Let us know if you find a good deal! I think I saw a special offer on the unit when it was released, but I guess it's over now.
I'm looking for a combination hardware/software bundle.

Here's a bundle of the BT-338 unit with OnCourse Navigator for ~$250. I'm considering this strongly.

http://www.buygpsnow.com/item.aspx?itemid=406

I'm intrigued by OCN b/c of it's VGA capabilities, though I'm reading of some folks who think iGuidance is a better solution for more local driving (which I'm more apt to do) as opposed to long distance driving. The research continues...

[Jason Lee]

I'm seriously looking at this device:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/semsons-inc/hogpwigpsres.html

It does have a smaller battery than the globestat gps but it can be used as a mouse gps (serial or usb) and can also have it's firmware updated via the serial cable.

I like. :)

edit: oh and it has a port for an external antenna. I dunno if many others do or not. /shrug

[Paragon]

I hate to disappoint you folks but once your buildings go above 40 floors

Alright, that's great news! My BT308 doesn't work when blocked by a one story building. This is a big improvement. ;):)
Dave

[everettes]

I recommend iGuidance and the BT-338. Oncourse Navigator is so painfully slow, even on a hx2755. iGuidance also comes with a version to use on your laptop\PC. Works great for us because my wife uses her Laptop when traveling. After trying just about all of them, I stayed with the IGuidance.

[Spenser]

If it has signal at all, it may place you a block or two away easily. It showed me swimming in the East River once when I was standing on Wall St. a block away from water front 8O . Then again, when you are driving on 46th, pass the 5th Ave and approach the 4th, it's not very difficult to figure out which street comes after that.

I was told that SIRF has officially wirhdrawn its SirfIII-chipset because of its buggyness. Can anybody confirm that?

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I think this is what it comes down to for me. I can go with the BT-338 and OnCourse Navigator 4 (w/ free upgrade to 5 next month) for ~$250:

http://www.buygpsnow.com/item.aspx?itemid=406

Or I can go with the BT-338 and iGuidance 2.1.1 for ~$234:

http://www.semsons.com/glbtsiiwigso.html

Tough choice. I may wait for OCN5 to come out next month as I hear reports from those who are using the version 5 pre-release that it is much improved over version 4 (which many people already swear by). My concerns are that there appear to be some glaring bugs with v4 (e.g. - inability to find certain destinations that all other mapping software can find and it's poor rerouting capabilities), but it's custom mapping capabilities are top-notch and the VGA capabilities are unmatched.

iGuidance seems like a solid choice. It appears to execute much more consistently than OCN but doesn't have the flash or upside of OCN. It also includes both the PC and PPC versions.

There have been some reports of defective BT-338 units, but overall, everyone seems to give it big thumbs up.

I've really appreciated everyone's feedback on this thread! :way to go:

[sylvangale]

I just bought one of these things at from the Semsons/yahoo online store and it comes to around $180 with shipping. It's really small. Just need to get it working now. :mrgreen:

Semsons bundles the GPS with a PDA/Phone holder (Arkon brand) that clips into your air conditioning vent. The holder cannot close enough to hold something small like my motorola V551, but it holds my h1945 without case pretty securely. The holder can prevent you from adjusting your air direction from left and right so you may want to put on your main vent for yourself.

The GPS came with a little case for it, a regular American power plug, a car charger, a two prong adapter (Europe?), and a CD.

The CD only has manuals and a GPS program on it which detects the GPS and acts like a compass (from what I can tell).

http://www.semsons.com/glbtgpsrebts.html