GPS Car Tracking and Navigation

Global positioning system (GPS) technology first appeared in the 1980s. At that time, however, it was mostly used by the military. Next, it became widely available as GPS car tracking. Now, GPS devices can be very tiny, and they are used for a variety of purposes from going on treasure hunts to tracking teenagers. However, GPS car tracking remains one of the most popular and widespread uses of GPS technology.

One of the reasons GPS car tracking is so popular is for its navigation benefits. A car-tracking device is most often used, not to actually track the car by someone other than the person driving the car, but to help the driver navigate. An on board computer helps to contact a satellite that in turn finds the information on the vehicles location and then communicates that information to the cars computer. After the information has been received, it is displayed on a navigation screen. Often it is displayed in map form for a more effective visual representation of where the car is. Read more

Setting up Nokia 6630, Tomtom mobile 5 and a bluetooth gps

These instructions also apply to the other nokia 6600 series phones like nokia 6600, 6680, 6670.  You need to pair the phone with your bluetooth gps receiver.

1. Go to the main menu screen and select connect as shown below to begin pairing the gps receiver and the phone, Select the bluetooth icon and make sure it is set to On

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Configuring palm tungsten t5 t3 e2 tx treo tomtom and bt77 bluetooth gps receiver

It is quite easy to get your supported palm pda to work with tomtom and a bluetooth gps receiver of your choice. I am using a bt77 bluetooth gps receiver in this example.  If you follow the visual guides you should find it quite easy. The first thing as with any pda is to pair the pda with the bluetooth gps receiver.

1. On the palm home screen , tap on the bluetooth icon at the bottom of the screen (it looks like an uppercase B). a pop up appears, make sure the Bluetooth is set to “On” then tap on the “prefs” icon.

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Troubleshooting your bt77 bluetooth gps receiver

The goal here is really to find out if your bt77 bluetooth gps receiver is faulty, because if it is there isn’t much you can do than to send it back to the manufacturer or retailer if it is still under warranty. It is a very simple process, all you have to do is to make sure that the receiver is where it has a good view of the sky and wait for the red light to start blinking.  when it blinks it means it has acquired a fix, if after a while it doesn’t blink then it means the gps receiver is most likely faulty.

In some cases the gps receiver could be blinking and your navigation software still can’t see any satellites. If you are using tomtom, what works for me is this. Restart tomtom and let it find the gps receiver by itself and prompt you to pair it.

Another thing to check is the pairing , check to see if you can pair the gps receiver with your pda, this is rare but if you can’t pair them then there isn’t much you can do. It meas the receiver could be faulty if your pda or phone can pair with other devices, your best bet is to return the gps receiver.

In summary, you are looking for two things, the bluetooth pairing and the satellite locking, first check if both devices are paired if they are then check if the bluetooth gps receiver is locking to any satellites. Make sure the gps receiver has a fairly good view of the sky, remember the initial fix can take up to 10-15 minutes. If it is fixed to any satellites then the red light should be blinking.

Troubleshooting your bluetooth gps receiver connection

When we say troubleshooting your gps, the goal here is not really to attempt fixing your bluetooth gps, that is best left to the manufacturer if it is still under warranty or probably replacing with a new one if out of warranty (which may be more economical), but to find out the source of the problem. When you experience a problem receiving signals , there are two things to look out for, first the bluetooth connection between the gps and pda/phone and secondly the ability of the gps to receive signals.  In this guide I’ll assume you are using tomtom 5 navigation software.

When you find out your gps doesn’t seem to be working, Check if there is still a bluetooth connection between the receiver and your pda or phone. The whole task is simplified if your bluetooth gps receiver can give you a visual indication of a bluetooth connection.  For  example, if one is using a polstar bluetooth pbt-111, when there is a bluetooth connection, the blue light on the receiver remains steady, if it is lost then the blue light blinks. If your gps receiver doesn’t give any visual indication, look at your pda, it should say something like “GPS signal was lost xx min ago”, check the today screen and access the bluetooth manager, go to active cnnections , the outgoing connections should show some green bars, Read more

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