Sending GPS data to Android Apps (Bluetooth)

[BaobobMiller]

GPSOut… over bluetooth Windows 7 64 bit

 

Perhaps I’m just way behind in the common knowledge department, but I recently went looking for “the way” to send my FSX gps data to my Android tablet over Bluetooth so that I could use the full functionality of apps like Garmin pilot, FltPlan.com, and others and was surprised at the number of posts making reference to the fact that it could be done but lacking in the information about how to actually do it. So I am posting this as an example for anyone who is in the same situation I found myself in. 

I’m not going to wordy by getting into things like how to install a Bluetooth adapter and how to pair your tablet with the PC. If anyone has questions about thinks like that that they cannot find answers to on Google, feel free to shoot me an email or a PM and I’ll do my best to help out.

Let’s assume that you already have your tablet paired with the computer and start there…

PC Portion:

1. Open “Bluetooth Settings” (Right click on the Bluetooth icon in your system tray and choose “Open Settings”
2. Click on the “COM Ports” tab and if there are no incoming com ports listed, click add.
3. Make sure that “Incoming” is chosen (there are only two choices) and click ok.
4. Make note of the incoming COM port number that has been added to the list. (COM3 for example) and click “OK”
5. Run FSX, start a flight,  and open the FSUIPC interface (AutoSave and GPSout tab) and Enable GPSout
6. Choose the COM port you made a note of from the drop down list (but do not check the box for “Send data via WideFS” as this is an either of function and we want the data sent via the COM port)
7. Leave the port speed and interval timing alone for now (you will change it ONLY if you need to later)
8. For testing purposes check all of the boxes at the bottom of the section and click ok (RMA, RMC ,VTG, etc. After you know which ones are needed by the app you want to use on the tablet you will disable the ones that are not needed)

Tablet Portion:

1. Enable “Allow Mock Locations” in the “Developer” section if the settings menu
2. Install “Bluetooth GPS” on tablet (there are others that I have tested as well but it works and it’s free… for now at least)
3. Open Bluetooth GPS and tell it to connect to your PC. (there is a drop down list of paired devices at the top.
4. As long as you left your FSX flight running you should see GPS data in the boxes on the main screen of Bluetooth GPS.
5. If the connection fails before going back through all the settings you just made try the alternative connection method in the “Bluetooth GPS” settings.
6. Leave Bluetooth GPS running and open whatever app you want to use (FltPlan.com for example) and Bluetooth GPS will continue to feed the GPS data from your FSX to the tablet tricking most applications into thinking it’s a “real” gps connected via bluetooth.

 

Don’t forget to research which sentences (RMA, RMC, etc. you actually need and disable the rest)

Continue fiddling and tweaking in general until you get what you are after.

Note: Many people, myself included, have trouble with windows randomly assigning a different COM port to the Bluetooth every time windows is restarted. I have not looked for a way to “reserve” a COM port yet and knowing Microsoft… there may not be one. If anyone does know of a work around please let me know and I’ll edit it into this post.

 

May your Sim flights be plagued with bad weather, damaged landing gear, low oil pressure, and engine failure… and may your real flights endure none of the like.

 

Bao

[crisaum]

Hey Bao, I am trying to connect my tablet (Samsung Galaxy E) with GPS on FSX and I am unable to find in Google Play Store the Bluetooth GPS app mentioned in the tutorial, you would have a link to this app or the developer's name for easy reference?

[Mouseviator]

Hi, in case you did not find it yet, I believe it is this one:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=googoo.android.btgps