G'day! Thanks for returning!
Determined to get more life out of my aging and now unsupported Dell pda, I recently picked up a bluetooth GPS box via eBay and a second-hand set of Australian city street maps.
Now, the whole kit and kaboodle doesn’t promise you the functionality of the latest gps navigation tools (voice prompts, journey maps, etc.,) but it at least supposedly helps you find out where you are in relation to where you want to go — you just have to figure out the best way of getting there yourself (heavens, so THAT’s why all those orienteering lessons at school were so important! I wish I hadn’t skipped them…)
But one of the ‘challenges’ facing me was connecting the GPS box up with the Dell pda and getting them to play nicely together.
The Dell site is absolutely useless for how to do this, so it relies (as it so often does) on fan sites/forums to provide the answer.
Aximsite has a very robust forum (although it is becoming quieter now that Dell are no longer selling pdas), and the forum is full of talk about gps stuff and the difficulties around getting the two to play together (here’s an example).
I can’t be bothered to join the forum for just the one post so I’ve taken to writing it here and hopefully when someone googles about the issue this post will show in the results.
Here’s how I got my BT GPS device to connect to my Dell Axim X51:
- Turn the GPS on – GPS goes into discover mode.
- In the Axim’s, Bluetooth Settings:
/Mode – enable BT and allow discovery
/Devices – search for New Partnership
> should find BT GPS (or similar) – select it and click Next
> enter passkey (usually 0000) – click next
> should find a serial port service – ensure box is ticked , click Finish
/COM ports
select New OUTGOING port – it should list the BT GPS – select it and click next
Choose a comport (I used COM7) and unchecked secure connection (not sure what difference this makes)
COM ports now lists BT GPS (COM7) - I have the WM5/Settings/GPS set to :
/GPS program = COM5
/Hardware = COM7
/Access = un-ticked
Note that the first time your GPS receiver tries to connect to a satellite when you power it up, it can take up to 10 minutes to find one. Give it time!
