OpenCPN Fails to Receive Bluetooth Data Feed

[CarCode]

The dog is biting into his tail sometimes.
OpenCPN works very well with Bluetooth GPS devices.
You MUST however strictly follow the steps and for the first installation it might be needed to position the GPS puck very near to your computer.

Please see the following pictures and before you start reboot your windows, then open the Microsoft Bluetooth stack program and delete first the seen Bluetooth devices. The pictures are done with a german language Windows XP version but should be similiar in other languages.

Follow strictly the wizard. See the pictures attached here from Win-BT02.png to Win-BT09.png. If it hangs, start the wizard again.
Seen here automatically COM9 has been assign as virtual COM port to the GPS. Regard also the Device Manager then as shown.
Enter COM9 (this example only) in OpenCPN and it works in any case!

Gerhard

[OyvindO]

Gerhard, wie gehts?
Thanks for your effort (my German is not perfect :-)
I have doen exactly as you describe. Here are my screendumps:


Rgds
Oyvind

[RhythmDoctor]

One screen shot (Serial Properties) shows your COM port set at 4800. But two others, including OpenCPN, show your COM port set at 38400.

Some programs may override the settings so that these discrepancies are not important. Other programs do not override and will break if everything does not agree. In my experience OpenCPN needs everything to agree.

You may want to try setting OpenCPN to 4800 to ensure it agrees with COM4 Properties. Also, you should configure your GPS puck to send its sentences out at 4800 baud. (This often needs to be done by sending NMEA sentences through a terminal emulator, though some GPSs come with configuration software that provides a GUI.)

After you get it working with everything set at 4800, you can try to set everything at 38400. (Walk before you run.)

[CarCode]

Explaination: Your Holux software is using now COM4 and so COM4 is blocked for another software like OpenCPN.

To confuse you more about this:
Using one GPS device for several programs this could be done with GPSD daemon but I know this only for Linux or Mac OS X.

Gerhard

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by RhythmDoctor

One screen shot (Serial Properties) shows your COM port set at 4800. But two others, including OpenCPN, show your COM port set at 38400.

People get confused also setting a baudrate at several places: The sending device (here the Bluetooth puck itself), the COM port settings in Device Manager of Windows and finally the receiving software itself (here OpenCPN). Because OpenCPN is rather simple here, it often helps to see with HyperTerminal e.g. what is coming there. If it is garbage only, the baudrate is wrong. GPS NMEA 0183 protocol sends readable ASCII chars.

Gerhard

[OyvindO]

Don't mind the baudrate setting, I made sure they were always the same, and I tried all combinations. The pictures were simply taken from two different sessions and I didn't notice the discrepancy until after I sent them.

Oyvind

[bdbcat]

Hello...

Does anyone know if this issue is confined to Win7 netbooks with integrated Bluetooth?
Or does it occur with particular external (USB) Bluetooth adapters? What models, if any, fail? Which ones work?

Thanks
Dave

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Hello...

Does anyone know if this issue is confined to Win7 netbooks with integrated Bluetooth?
Or does it occur with particular external (USB) Bluetooth adapters? What models, if any, fail? Which ones work?

Thanks
Dave

A complete explanation and resolution of my experience in Windows XP can be found here. It touches on different Bluetooth stack software, but not on specific brands of Bluetooth adapters. There could be thousands of hardware/software combinations:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...m40-55347.html

[OyvindO]

RythmDoctor,

That appears to be a dead link, by the way....
Nevertheless, I've tried my BT GPS receivers with WinXP, Win Vista, Win 7-32 and Win 7-64 on different laptops (Dell, Lenovo, HP) all with built-in BT adapters. The result is always the same; No-Go on O-CPN, works perfectly on all other applications I've tried.

So, in my world, this is definitely a O-CPN issue.

Rgds
Oyvind

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Hello...

Does anyone know if this issue is confined to Win7 netbooks with integrated Bluetooth?
Or does it occur with particular external (USB) Bluetooth adapters? What models, if any, fail? Which ones work?

Thanks
Dave

Specifically just WIN7?
I'm ok with my BlueSoleil usb dongle on XP with OpenCPN.It was a struggle but a Bluetooth one.Bluetooth should have been kept away from the NetworkCrazy Redmond gang.It should have been CellPhone only,where it works fine.

[CarCode]

Oyvind,

it is not a bad link, RythmDoctor has pointed to his thread here about his problems using the Toshiba Bluetooth stack.

When all the suggestions done here for you does not not help in your case and OpenCPN works with Bluetooth for other people then it is supposely a matter of your hardware, software or other things and not a matter of OpenCPN, I am afraid.

Gerhard

[CarCode]

HappySeagull,

I fully agree about your complaints of the crazy Redmond gang. I too does not like them. But they have learned some lessons, although not enough for the average user.
The first MS Bluetooth stack was indeed only capable to handle a Bluetooth keyboard and a Bluetooth mouse. This is better now. But as you know these Redmond people always try to invent the wheel again and setting their own standards for standards that have been there times ago. See e.g. the TCP/IP.

Same was with Bluetooth. They insist to handle it their way and disturbs other Bluetooth stacks from third parties.

Gerhard

[HappySeagull]

Exactly so,Carcode.They shoot themselves in the foot every time.Remember the big speech Bill Gates gave about how the tablet was the future?Not many will.Then ....nothing.No flood of Super Windows Tablets.Nothing.But a year later,the ipad came out.Go figure.

[kiwiradical]

Gerhard,

When many users report that every other piece of software they try works fine (and some have quoted many different programs working fine) with bluetooth, and they can get NMEA data coming through fine, but bluetooth does not work with OpenCPN for them, I think it is entirely appropriate to suspect the problem lies with OpenCPN.

Repeatedly stating that it must be a configuration issue on the users part does not really help, or make it so. Your experience of it working fine is great, but that does not mean that other users are not seeing different issues, with other programs working fine with Bluetooth com ports, and OpenCPN not.

This doesn't seem to be a Bluetooth stack issue, or a configuration issue, but rather the way OpenCPN connects to Bluetooth com ports.

For example on both my Win7 and Vista systems, using a BT_GPS-36D567 nmea data is available over com7 for any other GPS program but com7 doesn't even show in the port dialogue for GPS input in OpenCPN!

However, if I set up Eterlogic's VSPE to mirror the nmea data from the bluetooth com 7 to com 10, then OpenCPN sees com 10 and works fine!

So, in summary the issue appears to be that OpenCPN does not recognise Bluetooth ports properly, but has no problem seeing a VPSE virtual port.

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by kiwiradical

...For example on both my Win7 and Vista systems, using a BT_GPS-36D567 nmea data is available over com7 for any other GPS program but com7 doesn't even show in the port dialogue for GPS input in OpenCPN!...

What happened when you typed "COM7" into the port dialog?