Garmin Bluetooth GPS w/Microsoft Surface Pro

[3cdad]

Full Disclosure: I am not (yet) an OpenCPN user, but I want to take advantage of satellite imagery maps, such as those offered on the Soggy Paws site (https://svsoggypaws.com/SatCharts/index.htm#guides) and OpenCPN is one of the systems that they provide instructions for. My boat already has a full B&G chartplotter set up and, while I know it is possible to load satellite imagery onto the B&G, the process of doing that seems more daunting that getting OpenCPN and following the detailed instructions on the Soggy Paws site to load their satellite maps into OpenCPN.

I have a Microsoft Surface Pro, as well as a Macbook. But I plan to use the Surface since it's also a tablet. It does NOT have built in GPS though. So, I intend to get a bluetooth GPS device such as the Garmin one.

My question before I start down this path... Does OpenCPN support, or work with, a table such as the Surface Pro, with gps provided by a bluetooth connected device.

Thanks.

[nohal]

Yes, OpenCPN does work with Bluetooth devices providing NMEA data feed.
But doesn't your B&G system provide all the data over Wi-Fi, which is a far superior option for this setup?

[JPK]

I can't speak to the Garmin GPS (heard mixed reviews about it when researching recently) but I can tell you that the Bad Elf Flex mini will be able to provide a GPS signal to both the MacBook (over USB) and up to two other devices over BT simultaneously. The downside is that it's 5x the cost of the Garmin unit. It does, however, work exceptionally well on both my MacBook Pro running OSX Sonoma (only GPS device I've found that this is true for) as well as my wifi-only iPad and iPhone at the same time (providing greater accuracy than the built-in GPS chip on the iPhone).

[Corsair63]

I have a Surface Pro X tablet and I've used with BT GNSS without any problem and used the GNSS as simultaneous source of different computers and no problem at all.
e.g.
GNS 2000 feeding at the same time Surface and two windows PC.
Android phone with app for GNSS feeding Surface and windows PC.
and some other configurations.
Bear in mind that properly setup the BT connection have the capability of sending simultaneous data to some devices (depend on hardware but not less of six devices at the same time)

[rgleason]

2015 Post about MS SurfacePro 3 GPS