U-Blox USB with Win10 Lenovo IdeaPad

[Yontrop]

Hello, I am new to Open CPN and I have a U-Blox USB “stick” Receiver for GPS and Glonass: VK-172 G-7020 connected to a Lenovo “Idea Pad” PC Laptop using Windows 10 Professional 64.
I can't get Open CPN to see the GPS receiver. I've read the the installation instructions at https://opencpn.org/ and have tried to find something about this problem here.
Windows sees the USB connected GPS receiver as an internal “sensor” and I see no way to find a com port or address. Other programs (Bing, Google maps and GPS32) have no trouble with using the GPS signal. For the program GPS32 I had to do the set-up listing the GPS as an internal device. Has anyone else had a similar problem? There is no auto-pilot or anything complicated connected to the computer.

[Paul L]

Look in Device Manager under Ports and see if ublox installed both the internal sensor and the virtual Com port.

[Yontrop]

Thank you for the reply Paul. No there seems to be no virtual Com ports. I should add. I have tryed this U-Blox USB "stick" also on my HP desktop --what I am working on now -- with the same result. Both computers run with Win10 64. On this computer OpenCPN sees both Com 1 and 3. But Com one is an unused normal com socket and Com 3 is something called "Intel (tm) Active Management Technology SOL"

[Paul L]

Try updating with the latest ublox driver.

[Nbarch]

I have one of these Ublox7 USB GPS dongle and I do find it troublesome. Other GPS USB dongles I have, even some very old ones, just work without any problems.

As Paul_L says you need to update latest driver from Ublox to work with WIN10.

I found the UBlox7 will not work in a USB3 port but is OK on USB2.0 port.

I tried this on 2 laptops and AFTER updating the drivers a virtual COM5 port appeared on both computers in the U_Center software.

This does not seem to a very sensitive receiver and although the satellites are displayed on U-Center, it will not get a fix indoors, but works outside with a cold start time of 3 minutes.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Nbarch

As Paul_L says you need to update latest driver from Ublox to work with WIN10.

I found the UBlox7 will not work in a USB3 port but is OK on USB2.0 port.

I tried this on 2 laptops and AFTER updating the drivers a virtual COM5 port appeared on both computers in the U_Center software.

I've a Win 10 laptop that only has five USB 3.0 and one USB 3.1 ports, no USB 2.0 ports.

I've had no problem running my UBlox7 GNSS device - but I've only tried it from a USB 3.0 port.

That's because my USB 3.0 ports have the same USB A type form as the UBlox device. The USB 3.1 port has the Lightning type form.

The latest device driver and Windows driver, both downloadable from the Ublox website (www.u-blox.com), are the keys.

[Nbarch]

Alan, thanks for your informative comments.
I am sure these GPS dongles work well on USB3.x, it is just not working on my 2 'older' laptops. I am considering tapping the USB dongles lightly with a small hammer, but probably the best thing is just to blame Windows 10!

[petter5]

I have tested then under openplotter , XP and ubuntu. Works fine as a serial device. could not get them to work with GPSD

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Nbarch

I am considering tapping the USB dongles lightly with a small hammer, but probably the best thing is just to blame Windows 10!

Yes. Who knows - the next upgrade of Windows 10 might work magic for your Ublox 7 sensor? Or not!

This 'Operating System as a Service' deal comes with a certain fear/expectation factor.