Serial use of Bluetooth GPS devices?

I thought I'd the device hacking forum off with a question.

I have two old bluetooth GPS devices. I'd like to use either of them with the arduino, ideally without having to bother with USB. I've tried googling without much success, does anyone know how I'd go about using either a Globalsat BT-308 or a Nokia LD3W?

The BT-308 has two boards linked with six cables - one for the GPS and the other for the bluetooth, power socket and switch and status LEDs.

Can you post some pictures of the boards? If you're trying to use the GPS without bluetooth it's just a matter of finding the Tx pin from the GPS engine. It should be the only pin streaming data, unless the module uses a PPS pin. You'll need to figure out the baud rate and voltage logic level. I would start with a baud rate of 4800 and and plan on a logic level of 2.8 volt so you may need a logic level shifter.

I am interested in this topic, too, as I have two old Royaltek BT receivers; I can't see the chips inside as they're sealed, but I can see a lot of test points on the board:

What should I look for on them? And... which ones to test?!?

I tried to do the same thing with a rebranded magellan device. There were tons of pinouts (including like 20 JTAG pins). I was able to find the device TX and RX, but I had to enable NMEA output from within the settings menu. I was also able to find a temp sensor (for some reason unusable from software). However, after hours of probing I still couldn't find serial data from the GPS sensor. I wish you better luck, and I'm sure it will be a million times easier with a logic probe if you have one.

I found something!

As test points on the right in the picture are accessible from outside without dismounting the unit, I started with them. Sampling the first one using my PC audio card set to 100,000 HZ sampling frequency, I got this:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Sampling more or less at the dame time the bluetooth transmission, I got this:

$GPGGA,000436.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*47
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000436.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6C
$GPGGA,000437.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*46
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000437.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6D
$GPGGA,000438.061,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*4B
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000438.061,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*60
$GPGGA,000439.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*48
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000439.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*63
$GPGGA,000440.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*46
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPGSV,3,1,12,20,00,000,,10,00,000,,25,00,000,,27,00,000,*79
$GPGSV,3,2,12,03,00,000,,31,00,000,,24,00,000,,15,00,000,*78
$GPGSV,3,3,12,16,00,000,,05,00,000,,01,00,000,,26,00,000,*7D
$GPRMC,000440.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6D
$GPGGA,000441.062,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*46
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000441.062,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6D
$GPGGA,000442.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*44
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000442.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6F
$GPGGA,000443.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*45
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000443.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6E
$GPGGA,000444.061,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*40
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000444.061,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6B
$GPGGA,000445.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*43
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPGSV,3,1,12,20,00,000,,10,00,000,,25,00,000,,27,00,000,*79
$GPGSV,3,2,12,03,00,000,,31,00,000,,24,00,000,,15,00,000,*78
$GPGSV,3,3,12,16,00,000,,05,00,000,,01,00,000,,26,00,000,*7D
$GPRMC,000445.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*68
$GPGGA,000446.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*40
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000446.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6B
$GPGGA,000447.062,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*40
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000447.062,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6B
$GPGGA,000448.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*4E
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000448.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*65
$GPGGA,000449.050,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*4F
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPRMC,000449.050,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*64
$GPGGA,000450.062,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,,0.0,M,0.0,M,,0000*46
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E
$GPGSV,3,1,12,20,00,000,,10,00,000,,25,00,000,,27,00,000,*79
$GPGSV,3,2,12,03,00,000,,31,00,000,,24,00,000,,15,00,000,*78
$GPGSV,3,3,12,16,00,000,,05,00,000,,01,00,000,,26,00,000,*7D
$GPRMC,000450.062,V,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,,0.00,060305,,,N*6D

Now it's just a matter of time and patience... :roll_eyes:

hi,

i have a plan to send data to my camera from the arduino
but do i understand it good that the signal from a bluetooth device is a serial signal?
so i can send this code from my arduino to my camera?

or do i make a mistake in my conclusion?

Thanks! :smiley: