rivviepop phantom :: knowledge in passing

Recently my boss purchased a Garmin Nuvi GPS unit, and I got all interested in what I could do with my 6682 and a bluetooth receiver. I decided on the OnCourse BT-339 unit, purchased from BuyGPSNow:

http://www.buygpsnow.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=474

The unit is really small, but a little deeper than the 6682. Build quality is great, it feels like a little rock in your hand with excellent materials used. It’s kinda heavy for something so small, but comes with a little case you can put on your belt (which I used, works fine).

Some pics:

Operation of the unit is dead simple – hold the power button down for 1 second, and it comes on and acquires signal and initiates bluetooth. A quick look at the supplied PDF revealed the pairing passcode was “0000″; the device paired instantly with my 6682. Throughout all tests and track recording through town, the BT signal stayed solid and I had no connection problems.

I have three types of apps at my disposal: PyS60 (python on S60), native C++ S60, and J2ME jars. All apps paired instantly with the BT-339 and provided the NMEA info to the apps without any glitches. Not all apps are created equal of course, so here’s a few shots of the various ones in action:

Bluesky (S60):
http://www.blueskygps.com/

MapviewGPS II (S60):
http://www.wild-mobile.com/eng/down…44d2af9bd1b&p=0

PyS60GPS (PyS60):
http://positio.rista.net/en/pys60gps/

NMEA Info (PyS60):
http://gagravarr.livejournal.com/104793.html

GPS Display (PyS60):
http://crschmidt.net/symbian/locative/gpsdisplay/

But what good is a GPS unit if you don’t use it? First we try Mobile GMaps, which by itself is a good app already. Attach the BT-339 and it pinpoints your location in seconds:

Mobile GMaps (j2me):
http://www.mgmaps.com/

That’s about as far as Mobile GMaps was useful – it at least has maps that load quickly and can be useful for just general use.

But wait, there’s more.

J2MEMap — this little java midlet is all that and a bag of chips! The BT-339, my 6682 and the J2MEMap midlet are a great triad. I was able to easily pair the device, set “autotracking” (i.e. automatically position the map to your current GPS location), then hit record.

I stuck my phone in my pocket, jumped on the bicycle and went for a ride. Every once in awhile I stopped and looked at the phone, and it was dutifully downloading map segments in realtime, tracking my progress. Again, no BT disconnects or hiccups, the BT-339 performed top notch.

Stopped recording, saved the track. Used the “Show Track” feature to get my ride:

J2ME Map (j2me):
http://j2memap.landspurg.net/index.html

I then used the app to export my ride into “KML” (Google Earth) format, send it to my (linux) laptop here and pull up my ride on the desktop tool. Pimp. The only downside is that this applet uses all my RAM on the 6682, and I couldn’t have the GPS connected (via the app menu) and run Screenshot at the same time – the 6682 kept quitting Screenshot because it was out of memory. Thanks Nokia, *sigh*. Here’s $10, would you put some more RAM in our stupid phones please?

Battery life on the BT-339 is excellent so far — running it for a whole bunch of hours and it’s still strong. It turns off automatically if it hasn’t paired with anything in 10 minutes, so that surely helps. The Li-Ion battery is easily removeable, so you could even buy a 2nd (weekend hiking trip?) and slot it in.

All in all, I’d buy this little device again, it gets a two thumbs up. Small, dead simple operation, catches all the satellites I want, good battery, pairs with the phone without any hassle. It even responds nicely to a full BTExplorer scan of the device and doesn’t crash.