Bluetooth GPS for my E200

pbird49 · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 6:32 pm Post subject: Bluetooth GPS for my E200

I am a complete newbie to GPS and Bluetooth so embarking on a final year project in my degree to create a GPS locator piece of software in J2ME for my E200 seems like a foolish idea.

Decided I need to purchase a GPS device to connect to my SPV E200. Can anyone suggest the best budget device for my needs.

Cheers.

PS. Any help on creating a program of this nature in J2ME would also be of help! :D

Dave · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 10:43 pm Post subject:

AFAIK I don't think the SPV has Serial Port Profile. If it does, I haven't heard of anyone running software on the SPV to link up with a GPS.

DavidW · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 11:30 pm Post subject:

Dave has mentioned the issue I was aware of - before you do anything, check that the E200 is capable of initiating a Bluetooth serial port connection to another device under Java. I have grave doubts that this is possible - even if the necessary Bluetooth support exists on the E200, I doubt that Java will be able to utilise it.

A good place to ask questions about this is probably the microsoft.public.smartphone newsgroups.

If the necessary Bluetooth support exists, you may have to decertify your phone (I believe Orange allow people to do that online and free of charge for software development purposes - we're talking here about the certificates that limit the phone only to digitally signed applications) and program in Embedded Visual C++ rather than Java. A suitable version of the Embedded Visual Tools is available free from the MSDN web site.

To experiment with the Bluetooth setup, it should be possible to use a Bluetooth setup on a PC, rather than getting hold of a Bluetooth GPS. Just configure the PC to have an incoming Bluetooth serial port; that's what a Bluetooth GPS offers.

I don't know what the availability of developer tools is like, or whether you can get hold of the hardware at the right price, but Nokia Series 60 certainly has the necessary support (though probably not in Java). Wayfinder uses this combination.

David

pbird49 · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 6:42 pm Post subject:

Quite a bit to take on board there. I will have to look into it. Thanks very much.

Darren · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 8:40 pm Post subject:

I have just taken delivery of an E200 (competition prize :D ) and it does not have the necessary serial port profile so it's a non-starter I'm afraid to say Sad

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Darren Griffin

pbird49 · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject:

Probably being a dumb ass here but if the GPS device is Bluetooth, why does it need a 'serial port' profile ??

DavidW · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 12:12 am Post subject:

Bluetooth has various profiles defined that do different jobs. Not every device supports every profile. For example, a mobile phone may well support the Headset profile and the Dial-Up Networking profile, but not the Audio Gateway profile, as it's unlikely you'll want to use the speaker and microphone on a mobile phone as a headset on another device.

The Serial Port Profile is used to emulate RS232 over Bluetooth. Without the SPP, you can't connect to a Bluetooth GPS.

David

pbird49 · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:20 am Post subject:

Could anyone suggest a GPS receiver which will work with my E200?? Cheers.

Dave · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 7:30 am Post subject:

Bluetooth has to talk over a serial port connection, hence the serial port profile. This is what links it to the gubbins within the device. If a device (e.g. E200) doesn't support a SPP (Serial Port Profile) then there's absolutely no way that you will be able to use any Bluetooth device with the E200.

Lost cause I'm afraid.

DavidW · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:52 am Post subject:

There's only two other options - as Bluetooth is definitely out. One would be a wired serial port - but I don't think the E200 has one, so that's out. The other would be an SDIO GPS, but they're still basically vapourware, and the information I have is that though the E200 hardware is SDIO capable, it lacks SDIO Now! drivers - so that's almost certainly out too (in any case, the SDIO GPS drivers probably only exist for Pocket PC at this time).

It seems near certain that your SPV E200 lacks the necessary connectivity to connect any GPS hardware.

I'm unclear precisely what your project entails - whether you have to show "proof of concept", or whether you have to demonstrate a working solution on target hardware. If the latter, can you not get access to a Pocket PC? It doesn't even have to be that recent a Pocket PC (though I would avoid anything so old that it's not on the Pocket PC 2002 operating system) - there's only about two models out there that don't have the ability to connect a GPS.

If the former, maybe the Pocket PC 2003 emulator without any Pocket PC hardware is sufficient - though I'm not sure precisely what I/O support the emulator has. If you can use the PC's COM ports from the Pocket PC Emulator, a cheap GPS mouse hooked up to a laptop's USB port would do. The laptop doesn't have to be that special - save that for the Pocket PC Emulator, it must be running Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Developer tools for Pocket PC - at least if you want Embedded Visual Basic or Embedded Visual C++ - are free. The Pocket PC Emulator is also free.

Java is very limited even on the Pocket PC - only a handful of machines are supplied with a JVM (often Jeode), and it's not "full" Java even then. I'm not sure what access to hardware ports is like, but I suspect you may not be able to drive hardware ports directly from Java.

I understand what you're trying to do, but I think you have both insurmountable hardware issues and inappropriate choice of programming language issues at the moment.

Bluetooth GPS connectivity is known to be possible from Nokia Series 60, as I've said before - that's what Wayfinder uses. However, I have no idea what development on Nokia Series 60 (which is based on the Symbian OS) is like, also I have no idea whether Wayfinder have had to add additional Bluetooth software to the phone. It doesn't sound like you've got a Nokia Series 60 phone handy in any case.

You probably would be better off in the microsoft.public.pocketpc.developer and/or microsoft.public.smartphone.developer newsgroups, where there's people there with development experience on the platforms. These newsgroups can be found on the msnews.microsoft.com server - which is open access at least to microsoft.public.*

David

pbird49 · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 1:52 pm Post subject:

Thanks very much David. You've been a big help.

chime · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 18, 2005 Posts: 9

Hi,

I'm trying to create a java application for my 6230 (to mate with a BT 77).

I've got the two connected but I need an NMEA parser and a few other bits and pieces.

If anyone has got some useful java code, they're willing to 'donate', I'd be most grateful.

Pc-Mobile · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 1:13 pm Post subject:

Which of the SPV (1, 2, or 3, or else) is E200?

The original Orange SPV 1,2 had serial ports and use the same serial cable as XDA. Mapopolis software was also available for it.

If E200 has the same port as SPV 1 then certainly it can connect a GPS via its serial port.

I have not had any SPV since the original so I am not certain that E200 is the same. But I think it has.
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Pc-Mobile
http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

Pc-Mobile · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 1:25 pm Post subject:

I have just dugged out some old posts and I can confirm that E200 (QTEK 8080) does have a serial port and can use the same cables as XDA.

Example, you can connect a Garmin or Magellan GPS with our available cables for XDA. Or you can use any mouse GPS made for XDA.

As for software, I know Mapopolis had it over a year ago running beta. I do not know whether they have made any new version. Any software for WM Smartphone should work.
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Pc-Mobile
http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

mmarks · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:54 pm Post subject:

I guess the reply is a bit late as the original post was over a year ago, but I fail to see the issue. TomTom Mobile runs on an E200 with a bluetooth GPS so surely it must work.

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