GPS Connection Using BT 821c

[tholley]

Hi,

I'm new to OpenCPN and am trying to configure it to recognize GPS. I have a Bluetooth GPS, (BT 821c), that seems to be working. I'm using windows 10 Surface Pro, and a Global Sat app (GPS Info) which shows the that the coordinates are being received. It's on com port 3. I've set OpenCPN to port 3 as well, but it doesn't recognize the signal.

Any advice on setting this up would be much appreciated.

thanks,

Tim

[.Paul.]

Tim,

On a Windows computer, only one program or app can access a COM port at a time. If the Global Sat app running on the Surface Pro receives GPS data on COM3, you must quit or exit the Global Sat app before OpenCPN can receive data on COM3.

Paul

[tholley]

Thanks Paul,

Unless I've misunderstood it sounds like it would be impossible to give OpenCPN access to the GPS data from a Bluetooth GPS. I guess I had understood that the program could access gps data - somehow. If this arrangement is not feasible, can you tell me how to get GPS info into OpenGPS ? Thanks for your help.

Tim

[hoolie]

To reiterate Paul's point - you should be able to use Ocpn with your GPS so long as it's the ONLY user of GPS data. You MUST disconnect/close down the GPS Info app before making the Ocpn connection to COM 3.

[rgleason]

Look in the manual under https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...droid_gps_apps