Any BU-353 experts about?

Robin

Robin

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I've just bought a BU-353 Globalsat USB GPS for my laptop, running Vista Business. I installed the software and a small program 'GPS Info' from the CD and followed the instructions to the letter.

OK, the GPS is working and has found a position. It is on COM21 port which is noted in the various nav software programs I have installed and baud rate is set at 4800 as instructed.

So, success so far:-

OpenCPN - working fine
Seaclear11 - working fine
Tsunamis - not working, cannot allocate the right port (21) as 1-10 only options shown
Neptune C-Map Planner - says port 21 'in use' cannot connect
GPS Info - port 21 entered but it finds no data. This prog is used to enable WAAS/EGNOS but it isn't allowing anything as it doesn't 'see' the GPS data.

I re-installed GPS Info but it still will not find the GPS data or any port even if the allocated one (21) is selected.

Any ideas????

Interesting that the two freebie progs, Seaclear11 and OpenCPN worked instantly whereas all the other expensive ones don't!
 
BU-353

It doesn't help you, but I have the same experience. I bought the BU-353 two years ago, it worked well on an XP and Win2K machine without any issues. Oziexplorer, OpenCPN and the GPSInfo goblin worked fine. That is, until it died a sudden death this summer. Ebay provided me a few days ago with the BU-353N, which differs a bit (SIRF III). Loaded the Vista driver on the PC, but no joy on the GpsInfo program. But OpenCPN works, finds the puck on a COM port, and the position in a few seconds. OziExplorer : nothing.
Then I tried the latest free version of Google Earth, which supports a GPS now. The program finds the GPS mouse on the same COM port as OpenCPN, but the screen starts flashing, the Earth revolves, zooms in, and 'finds' a position in the Atlantic, some 1000 miles off Africa. Looking out the window, the streets are still there, and cars pass by. More flashes on the screen, and the PC shuts down (crashes).
I'm looking at COM port gating programs now.
 
thalassa said:
It doesn't help you, but I have the same experience. I bought the BU-353 two years ago, it worked well on an XP and Win2K machine without any issues. Oziexplorer, OpenCPN and the GPSInfo goblin worked fine. That is, until it died a sudden death this summer. Ebay provided me a few days ago with the BU-353N, which differs a bit (SIRF III). Loaded the Vista driver on the PC, but no joy on the GpsInfo program. But OpenCPN works, finds the puck on a COM port, and the position in a few seconds. OziExplorer : nothing.
Then I tried the latest free version of Google Earth, which supports a GPS now. The program finds the GPS mouse on the same COM port as OpenCPN, but the screen starts flashing, the Earth revolves, zooms in, and 'finds' a position in the Atlantic, some 1000 miles off Africa. Looking out the window, the streets are still there, and cars pass by. More flashes on the screen, and the PC shuts down (crashes).
I'm looking at COM port gating programs now.
Click to expand...

The BU-353 I have just bought has SIRFIII and what you describe is about what it does on my Vista machine, except I just got it to work with Google using a free program called Goops, Google should find it.
I'm determined not to be beaten by this...
 
I have the BU-353 which is running on both Vista and Windows 7. It works on all programs OpenCN, Maxsea, Google Earth etc.

I do sometimes have problems when using other Prolific USB to Serial Com Ports (i.e my Garmin GPS connects via a USB to Serial adaptor). Check via Device Manager that the Com Port is working correctly and is not being affected by another USB to Serial Com Port.

Also some programs do not recognise COM Ports above certain numbers say 10. You will need to get the BU-353 to set up as say COM 4.
 
Are you opening one program at a time? sometimes when you open one program immediately after closing another you can get the message com port in use. It does also seem like a high port number.
 
Try this

Try just installing usb gps. Do not open any other software. After usb Gps has found satellites (five minutes) then open Opencpn. Go to tools and make sure baud rate is 4800 and is connected to correct port. Should work then.
 
Take a look at this software www.curioustech.net/xport.html. XPort is intended to allow sharing of data from a single input from a GPS to other programs running at the same time but I have read on the OpenCPN forum where BU353 users have found it to be a good solution to some of the driver issues they have had. I see that yours works on OpenCPN but I suspect your real problem for other apps is the COM number which the current driver automatically allocates. I think XPort will give you some control over that and allow you to use COM port numbers which the other software can cope with.

I have a BU353 working with OpenCPN under W7 pro and XP pro on another PC without any problems using the Prolific driver suggested by the BU353 manufacturers but I know there are others who have problems with similar systems - go figure - I imagine it's all in the drivers and their relationship with the application. Anyway, try Xport and let us know the result.
 
OK thanks all so far. To sumarise & answer some questions:-

I've bookmarked Xport to download and try later, will report back.

COM Port 21 is what was automatically allocated and is the first one listed as 'not in use', although 1,2 & 3 were also shown free.

Tsunamis Nav prog doesn't recognise anything above Port 10. I tried switching everything onto COM3 and Tsunamis set up (separate from the main program) read the GPS positions against COM 3, but the main program was still bound and determined not to show a GPS position.

Neptune C-Map Planner doesn't work on either COM21 or on COM3 when re-configured to that, but on COM3 it doesn't throw up error messages, just shows a GPS position of 00.00.00 in both lat & long.

Neptune basic program is the same.

OpenCPN works fine on COM21 or COM3

GPS Info program (comes with BU-353 CD) will not read any data on either COM21 or COM3, just says port error or some such.

SeaclearII works fine on both COM21 and COM3

I do understand that only one program will work at a time from the GPS (unless a port splitter program is used, I have not tried one yet)

I also understand that after configuring or changing it, sometimes the program needs to be closed and re-opened or the system re-booted, I have tried all combinations!

I have both Open CPN and SeaclearII running properly and with GPS working and these are the programs I will use in anger when we move to the USA, I already have the USA charts loaded FOC courtesy of Uncle Sam.

I would have like to see my other programs, Neptune C-Map Planner (Neptune planning software with a C-Map card reader for charts) and Tsunamis, mainly because I have UK/EU charts on those but not on OPenCPN or SeaclearII.

BU-353 GPS itself seems excellent, very quick to find a position even here in the office and on Google Earth (got it working on there with an extra program called GooPS) it even shows the position in the right part of our house, not had a Google camera through the window yet though.

I still don't like to be beaten though...
 
Try This

Hope I can remember this.

You can change the port number that is allocated to the USB dongle

HAve a look in My Computer , Device MAnager and then Com Ports you should be able to see the port and change its number. You will sometimes notice if
you put it in another usb port that it comes up with yet another number

Using a Mac at home at the moment so cannot SEE windows.
 
Yes I have tried that, same results.

I've also just tried the Xport program mentioned by Gypsy. This allows me to have more than one port open running BU-353 and I just had both OpenCPN and SeaclearII working simultaneously with GPS, normally only one can link at a time. However it still doesn't work with Neptune or Tsunamis either alone or combined. Since there is no advantage I can think of to running SeaclearII and OpenCPN at the same time, I reverted to the original one port set up for the time being.
 
Update on GPSinfo on Vista

thalassa said:
It doesn't help you, but I have the same experience. I bought the BU-353 two years ago, it worked well on an XP and Win2K machine without any issues. Oziexplorer, OpenCPN and the GPSInfo goblin worked fine. That is, until it died a sudden death this summer. Ebay provided me a few days ago with the BU-353N, which differs a bit (SIRF III). Loaded the Vista driver on the PC, but no joy on the GpsInfo program. But OpenCPN works, finds the puck on a COM port, and the position in a few seconds. OziExplorer : nothing.
Then I tried the latest free version of Google Earth, which supports a GPS now. The program finds the GPS mouse on the same COM port as OpenCPN, but the screen starts flashing, the Earth revolves, zooms in, and 'finds' a position in the Atlantic, some 1000 miles off Africa. Looking out the window, the streets are still there, and cars pass by. More flashes on the screen, and the PC shuts down (crashes).
I'm looking at COM port gating programs now.
Click to expand...

I found this link buried on the Globalsat web page and did as it says, run GPSInfo as 'administator' and now IT WORKS! Largely academic mind but at least it allows me to see which satellites are available and in use as well as to select or deselect WAAS/EGNOS.

I tried running Neptune C-Map Planner as 'administrator' but that still isn't interested in working. I'll call Neptune tomorrow and ask why.

Tsunamis is an old program so I'll just give up on it other than use it to view the worldwide charts, they are 12 years old now so used in interest only for where I don't have up to date stuff. Our next in anger navigation will be in the USA where we already have all the latest charts loaded, Raster versions only on SeaclearII and both the Raster and Vector charts on OpenCPN, I do so love uncle Sam's free downloads! Tsunamis is about as user un-friendly as it gets so no real loss as it was a freebie copy anyway. OpenCPN seems so much better and will probably be number one choice to use.

Good job I'm not billing myself for the hours I've put in on this..
 
Update and yeehah we have lift off!

Finally have GPS working on everything (OpenCPN, SeaclearII, Neptune C-Map Planner, even Google Earth) only exception a very old copy of Tsunamis!

Neptune C-Map Planner problem was solved (thanks to Neptune advice) with a download of a later version of the software that I had, but installed and set up initially with 'User Account Control' turned off, then turned back on again once everything in place, each action needing a re-boot.

The little Globalsat BU-353 USB GPS is a little gem, especially for £25 delivered.
 
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