Globalsat BT-338 review

lbendlin · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:01 pm Post subject:

no
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Lutz

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tjy57 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 1

Your review says that a CON of this unit is that it does not have SBAS support. You should update your review because a firmware upgrade in August '05 activated SBAS. Someone reading your review and not the posts might decide not to buy this great unit based on the incorrect info posted.

Thanks
tjy57

sunmach · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 18, 2006 Posts: 4

Hi, My three day old BT338 can't find Oziexplorer or Destinator PN. I have tried all different ports etc. GPSinfo finds BT338 ok and supplies all info, but no other program I have can't find it. Any ideas?
Any help appreciated,
Stan

lbendlin · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:36 pm Post subject:

switch the receiver back to NMEA mode.
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ItsMikeE · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:49 am Post subject:

iankb · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:32 pm Post subject:

I find the Sirf III chipset to be much more sensitive, speedy and reliable than the Sirf II chipset. I still find the occasional problem with getting the initial fix, but I believe it is probably due to Bluetooth problems on my PDA when short of memory. I use the BT338 anywhere in the car, without an external aerial, and behind a metallised windscreen.

Unless you have a perfectly acceptable GPS unit at the moment, any Sirf III receiver should be a worthwhile upgrade.
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iPaq 2210
Globalsat BT-338
Seidio G2500 Amplified Vent Mount
CoPilot 6, GPS Tuner 4.2, Navio 3.01
BMW 330ci Sport

ItsMikeE · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:49 pm Post subject:

I don't have it handy at the moment, but isn't the TomTom MkII Sirf III?
As you mentioned you had both, I was interested in how they compared and why you have chosen to use the GlobalSat.

lbendlin · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:02 pm Post subject:

Time To Fix is a stochastic thing. It greatly depends on the time of day (satellite constellation), the weather and other conditions. You will always see widely varying values. Life is easier if you ignore that.

The MKII is SiRF III but has a number of oddities

- Quad Helix antenna. Supposedly being less sensitive to the receiver orientation. IMHO the antenna is less sensitive than the flat patch.
- non-user-replaceable battery. I thin k that is a bad decision
- the lanyard hole is so oddly shaped that you can't really put a lanyard through.

The 338 has a proper lanyard hole, a replaceable battery and a flat patch antenna. What gives...
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ItsMikeE · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:05 am Post subject:

Thanks for your response (I had to look up stochastic!)
I am definitely going to buy another BT GPS.
Looking through the forums there doesn't seem to be one that no-one has issues with.
I think my shortlist is Globalsat 338 and Holux 236, but haven't decided which way to jump yet.

ItsMikeE · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:07 am Post subject:

Thanks for your response (I had to look up stochastic!)
I am definitely going to buy another BT GPS.
Looking through the forums there doesn't seem to be one that no-one has issues with.
I think my shortlist is Globalsat 338 and Holux 236, but haven't decided which way to jump yet.

cloudchaser · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:46 pm Post subject:

ItsMikeE · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:52 pm Post subject:

I jumped in the Holux direction. It was almost tossing a coin, there was no real reason why I jumped one way or the other.
Initially it was better than the TomTom, but still not up to my expectations.
I have since added the external antenna, and am now happy with the performance.

SimonCatlin · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject:

The BT338 does not need an external aerial.
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mcrobiej · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 04, 2004 Posts: 17

hmmm

BT-338 - excellent BT receiver - fast TTFF - good battery life ....

but ...

I've had the unit for about 3 weeks - been workging great - until the unit stopped working on battery - it would only work if plugged into the power (car) - then yesterday when I went out for a drive (330 mile round trip) the stupid thing kept on switching itself off - as in you pressed the on button and about 10 seconds later it would switch off.

sometimes I could get it to work.

I will be returning the unit to expansys and I will be looking for an alternative SIRF III unit that scores better on the reliability (I have seen a couple of posts now about the power on problem with batteries)

http://www.usglobalsat.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=283

http://www.expansys.com/forumthread.asp?code=122496&thread=11&page=1

I would hesitate in recommending the unit from my experience.

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