Will iPhone connect to an external Bluetooth GPS device ?

sky_rat wrote:
I know you can get the car kit from TomTom which has an improved GPS receiver built in that connects over bluetooth.

In addition to Bluetooth pairing for audio, the Tom Tom Car Kit mount has an integrated dock connector - used for charging, and I believe also for the GPS signal from the antenna in the mount. The iPhone only supports limited Bluetooth protocols (voice and music transmission only), so I doubt Tom Tom is using Bluetooth for the GPS receiver.

I would check with TomTom before you take that as gospel. If they are using BT to connect to the GPS receiver they would have to be using the PAN (Personal Area Network) protocol so first you would need to check with other Nav devices and see if their BT implements that protocol AND if they have included software in their device that interfaces with the firmware in the iPhone.

I think the answer at this time will be no, but things change.

I've got a Tomtom cradle and the GPS functionality doesn't connect via Bluetooth. You can pair the iPhone to the cradle but this is purely for hands free calling.

In addition by using the cradle with my old iPhone 2g the cradle allows it to use the GPS chip.

The cradle is also compatible with other navigation systems such as the copilot which I use on both my 2g and 3g iPhones.

To connect to external GPS devices, while it is nice to have a SPP profile, it is not needed. Depending on the applications. The application has to be SPP aware and give a helping hand.

For example, I have a non-iphone phone with a BT stack. I do not need to pair it ever to use an external GPS device (standalone TomTom in this case).

Both TomTom and CoPilot (currently) applications initiate their own connections (over BT). This is done inside the Applications themselves. Once successful, I can use them to navigate. The BT GPS device itself never appears under my BT connections on the phone. Therefore, I can never use the phone for applications who rely on the device (phone) itself to setup the connections. But works perfect with TomTom and Copilot.

So the application has to have a lot of BT functionality to establish this.

Take for example, Copilot on my Iphone, this version has no GPS setup whatsoever and it relies on the internal GPS. However, on my windows mobile phone, it has its own specific BT connections and completely bypasses the built-in BT connections in my WM phone. just 0.02 cents.

TomTom tech support confirmed to me that their Car Kit does indeed share its built-in GPS receiver to the iPhone via Bluetooth not via the dock connector. They said that if you do not pair the Car Kit with the iPhone, then you do not get the benefit of the GPS assist from the Car Kit's receiver. However you can still navigate using the iPhone's built in GPS receiver and antenna.

They also told me that once paired, the Car Kit completely takes over bluetooth hands free calling for the iPhone. That means I would not be able to use my car's superb built in bluetooth hands free calling capability. It is apparently impossible to use the Car Kit's enhanced GPS receiver and use your car's integrated hands free calling at the same time. They said the only way to use the car's own bluetooth capabilities is to physically unplug the Car Kit from the car's cigarette lighter/charging port. But then you lose the assisted GPS and everything else, being left with only a very expensive iPhone mount.

Does anyone know if there are simple external GPS receivers (e.g. GlobalSat) that could pair with and provide superior GPS reception to the iPhone, much as the one in the TomTom Car Kit does? Also, if those do exist, would they allow your car's own bluetooth system to handle hands free phone calls even as they use Bluetooth to transmit GPS information to the iPhone. I'm not sure if the iPhone can handle two Bluetooth connections at once.

I just picked up a TomTom Bluetooth GPS receiver and can't seem to pair with it using my iPhone 2G. I was hoping to be able to use the cheap Bluetooth GPS receiver instead of buying the TomTom cradle but it looks like it's not gonna work. I'll continue to fool around with it today and see if I can get it working but as of right now it doesn't look like it's gonna happen.

Bill, I find the statement that TomTom told you that the GPS is sent via bluetooth odd as I emailed TomTom support last night regarding this very issue and received the following response:

"Thank you for contacting TomTom Customer Care.

The GPS receiver from the TomTom carkit for iPhone works when you dock the iPhone on the carkit. The GPS receiver does not use Bluetooth. Bluetooth would only be necessary when using the carkit for hands-free-calling."

So they are pretty definitive in what they are saying above, so just wondering why two different TomTom reps would say opposite things?...

Thanks,
Richard.

RoqyGPS for jailbroken iPhones adds the ability to use 3rd party Bluetooth GPS receivers. I can confirm that it works great with my iPhone 2G and the TomTom Bluetooth GPS receiver along with several GPS apps I've tried.

http://www.roqy-bluetooth.net/roqyGPS.html

Bill, Richard,
As a user, I can confirm that iPhone connects to TomTom CarKit GPS via the docking connector.
The TomTom iPhone application does not require BlueTooth to be turned on to provide active navigation.

You must turn on iPhone BlueTooth If you wish to use the speaker and microphone built into theTomTom CarKit.

Note that you must also turn on the Locations Services on your iPhone to use the TomTom Navigation application...

Robert...

Message was edited by: Robert J McInnes

If RoqyGPS works on a Jail Broken phone, how come Apple wont allow external GPS to work as standard?

I have a built in Parrot CK3500 bluetooth car handfree kit with GPS receiver, and dont see why I should have to purchase another GPS device (TOMTOM Carkit) in order to get a good GPS signal.

Surely Apple should stop selling a product (TOMTOM) that is obviously not fit for purpose, as it doesnt work properly with the iphone as is.

I would Jail Break my phone, but am running OS 3.1.3, which at present cant be broken. BUT COME ON APPLE WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO GO TO THESE LENGTHS TO GET A DECENT GPS SIGNAL. SORT YOURSELVES OUT.

PLEASE...........................

AFAIK the iPhone does not support that bluetooth profile...