Configuring a Bluetooth GPS Receiver in Windows Mobile



I’ve received a numerous amount of emails from users asking me how to install and use BlueGPS on their Windows Mobile devices. Since there are several steps to this process and I’ve done very little documentation, I wanted to get started with a generic howto for configuring a Bluetooth GPS receiver. I currently own a Belkin Bluetooth GPS, but this should apply to many different types of receivers. Let’s get started.

The first thing you want to do is navigate to Start > Settings > Connections > Bluetooth as seen in Figure 1.

After clicking on the Bluetooth icon you’ll want to navigate to the Devices tab as shown in Figure 2. The tabs are located at the bottom of the screen.

Click on New Partnership and your device will start scanning for Bluetooth devices in range. You obviously want to make sure your GPS receiver is powered on. When scanning is complete you should see your GPS receiver listed in the window as seen in Figure 3.

Now select your Bluetooth GPS receiver and you should be prompted for a pass key. This may be manufacturer specific but for the Belkin receiver the key is 0000. Figure 4 shows the pass key screen.

Once your pass key is entered click Next and your receiver will be queried by your Windows Mobile device to see what services it supports. The main service we’re looking for is the serial port profile as seen in Figure 5.

Be sure to select the Serial Port checkbox and then click Finish. After that’s complete you’ll need to configure the necessary outgoing communication port. Let’s navigate to the COM Ports tab within the same Bluetooth settings screen we’ve been working from. You can see this screen in Figure 6.

After selecting New Outgoing Port you should be prompted to select your Bluetooth GPS receiver as seen in Figure 7.

After selecting your Bluetooth GPS receiver you’ll be asked to specify a COM port. This step is essential in making sure the configuration is correct for use with BlueGPS. You must make sure to specify COM 6 as seen in Figure 8.

I normally leave Secure Connection checked although I’m not 100% sure what that actually does. It ultimately doesn’t seem to affect my connection at all. Once you’re done here click Finish and you should see the screen in Figure 9.

That’s it! You’ve done it and everything should be configure correctly to work with BlueGPS. Pat yourself on the back and download BlueGPS to start having some fun.



10 Responses to “Configuring a Bluetooth GPS Receiver in Windows Mobile”

1. Austin Mills says:

   June 13, 2006 at 4:35 pm

   Btw, if you’re not familiar with the GPS Intermediate Driver in Windows Mobile 5, it might be helpful — it lets you split the data from the GPS device into multiple output streams, letting you run multiple GPS-accessing programs at once. http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/06/07/620387.aspx has setup instructions for smartphone and ppc.
2. dennis says:

   June 13, 2006 at 11:14 pm

   Austin,

   That is awesome. I haven’t used the intermediate drive but it seems like a really cool concept. Now it’s time to run off and give it a run. Thanks for the link.
3. [db75] » Blog Archive » Update to Bluetooth GPS Configuration in Windows Mobile says:

   July 6, 2006 at 9:32 pm

   [...] I’ve received a fair amount of emails lately asking how to get BlueGPS working with different Bluetooth GPS receivers. The configuration is generally the same for most receivers. Some users are unaware of my configuration page and I wanted to share the link here: http://www.db75.com/new_blog/?p=235. I’ve made a couple of updates so if you’re having problems be sure to review the steps again. Thanks to everyone for all the positive feedback on the Windows Mobile version of BlueGPS. [...]
4. blue says:

   July 22, 2006 at 4:39 am

   Hi,

   Any chance of getting BlueGPS to work where the GPS is built in to the windows mobile device eg. my IPAQ hw6965?

   Thanks
5. dennis says:

   July 22, 2006 at 10:51 pm

   I would love to get it working with this device, but don’t have access to one. I’ll see what I can do in the near future and if you know someone that is willing to donate one then please feel free to contact me
6. Luke says:

   November 18, 2006 at 11:43 pm

   I have an I mate jas jam and I can not create and outgoing port 6
   the only ports that I can create is 1,2,4
   any sudgestions¿?
7. dennis baldwin says:

   November 19, 2006 at 8:16 am

   I think those ports should be fine as long as you have the ability to tell your mobile app to use them. For BlueGPS (www.db75.com/bluegps) I’ve made the software to work only with COM6, but will fix that at some point. Let me know if you have any problems.

   Oh yeah, if you’re into GPS and the such then check out http://www.ublip.com. It’s a free community that I’m working on with a few friends. You can share your favorite locations and create map themes such as “favorite places to eat” and then embed it on your blog or webpage. We’d greatly appreciate you telling all your friends :).
8. Dodgie says:

   March 27, 2007 at 2:52 am

   I’ve had my bluetooth GPS working fine with my Jas/Jam and TomTom6. But since a reboot and reconfiguration, I can NOT get the ’serial port’ option to appear. Therefore no outgoing port option. Therefore no connection. Any ideas welcome.
9. panos says:

   May 25, 2007 at 5:05 am

   hmm, i installed in on my hp ipaq 6340 (with windows ce) and there seems to be a problem! I cannot set up manually the outgoing serial COM port to 6 and thus the gpsblue app cannot work.. any ideas?:(
10. R Korz says:

    September 24, 2007 at 8:46 pm

    i cannot get com6 free on my 8525 & g-sat. can u alter the program to com4?