Configuring Bluetooth GPS Ports

GPS receivers can be connected through Bluetooth network connections, appearing as a device implementing the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP).

To add a new GPS port, click the Add button on the Configure Ports tab. The port editing dialog will appear. Set the port type to Bluetooth_GPS.

NOTE: This may fail to work on 64-bit and/or non-Intel processor distributions of Linux, as only a 32-bit Intel-processor Linux native library for accessing the Bluetooth stack is included with the YAAC Bluetooth plugin. Install the distribution's native version of libbluetooth or BlueZ, using one of the following commands (depending on your distribution and its choice of software upgrade utility):

The other parameters you will need to specify for the GPS receiver are:

• the network address of the Bluetooth device to be paired with YAAC. When the configuration window is opened, it will automatically initiate a scan of the local Bluetooth network; the system wait cursor will be displayed over the Bluetooth configuration window until the search is completed. Note that the search will not report all nearby Bluetooth devices, but only those that support the Serial Port Profile (SPP).
• Whether YAAC should transmit waypoint messages back to the GPS to display APRS stations and objects on the GPS screen, and, if so, which message format should be used (standard GPS waypoints, or the Kenwood proprietary message understood by the AvMap GPSs).
• Whether the GPS is local (reporting the position of the station running YAAC) or remote (reporting the position of some other object using a long serial link). The remote option is useful for situations such as amateur rocketry, where an unlicensed ISM band link is used to relay the GPS data from the rocket to the ground station, and the ISM receiver connects to a serial-to-Bluetooth adapter. In addition, for remote GPS receivers:
  • the text name to use for displaying the remote GPS on the YAAC map.
  • the APRS symbol to use for displaying the remote GPS on the YAAC map.
  • whether or not the remote GPS should also be transmitted to the APRS networks as a locally-originated APRS Object with the specified name and symbol.

The "Test Port" button provides a means of verifying that you have connected to the correct place; it opens a terminal window connected to the configured Bluetooth device so that you can manually test the GPS receiver for the desired operation. To complete testing, close the terminal window.

Once you have the settings the way you want them, click the Save button.

You can check how well your GPS receiver is performing by selecting the menu choice View -> Show GPS Status.