GPS drivers for Window 10

Ian_Edwards

Ian_Edwards

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I have a USB GPS which works OK on Windows 7, but I can't seem to find a driver that works for Windows 10.

The USB GPS is a BU-353 and shows up in device manager as a "Prolific USB to serial converter on COM3"

Windows doesn't seem to be able to find drive which works on the Internet, and when I download the driver and point windows to the location on my hard drive, it won't load it.

I've tried loading the diriver with with "signed drivers" disabled, a method I've used successfully to load drives for other bit of hardware, but I can't seem to find anything which works on Windows 10 for the BU353.

I have a more recent USB GPB, a BU353-4, which looks exactly the same and works on Windows 10.

Has anyone any idea if there a windows 10 driver for the earlier version of the BU-353, or know a way to get he original driver to work?
 
Google for a Prolific USB to serial converter Com Port Windows 10. That solved the problem albeit for a different GPS Dongle as it was using a common chip.
 
As tillergirl says, you will probably have to find a copy of the Prolific driver dating back to Windows 7 and install that. The Prolific chip was blatantly copied by lots of far east manufacturers and a high proportion of devices sold as having the Prolific chipset really didn't. Starting with Windows 8, the manufacturers of the real Prolific chips tightened up the code in their drivers to the point where they no longer work with the majority of the rip-off chips - hence the need to find a copy of the earlier drivers.
 
I was caught by the reference to drivers and Windows 10. I also have one of these GPS "mice" and it worked perfectly on Win 8.but I have not tried it on 10 yet. I do remember that I had to go through a procedure for locating the port that the device was located on and remember that it depended on which USB socket it was in. As a lot of such procedures have been changed in Win 10, I wonder whether I will be able to find the port again.

On a separate issue but still related to drivers, I had a problem connecting the Windows 8.1 laptop to my printer and found that drivers existed only up to Win 7. Following advice from another forum, I installed the 7 driver and managed to get it to print, but not very well. When the 10 upgrade happened, the printing improved. For a while. Then two weeks ago the machine told me it was updating. Since then lots of things have gone pear-shaped. Menus are not where they used to be and when I try to print PDF files there is a quick flash of the print menu box then nothing happens. I can print .doc stuff but very badly. However today the printer would not work on my XP machine and the toolbox says it need a new print head, so a new printer that works on 10 is probably the answer.

In saying all this I do not mean to hijack the thread, but to point out that updates may be clobbering stuff you already use.
 
Surely one of the many pleasures of a Windows 10 upgrade is that stuff don't work.
If you are happy with a mouse type unit the G-STAR IV works fine on my lappy with W10.
Model No BU-353S4.
NB The BU-353 without the S4 suffix refused to work.
 
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Having found problems with using old GPS dongles on Windows 10 I bought a new U-blox 7 based dongle from e-Bay. This one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-GPS-R...660557?hash=item2cac61efcd:g:7UcAAOSwWntXNDXS

After downloading u-centre for windows software https://www.u-blox.com/en/product/u-center-windows I found that the new dongle picked up more satelites than my old u-blox 7 and got a fix far faster. I simply use the u-centre software with map view enabled to see what satelites are providing the fix, check which port the dongle is using and the baud rate which defaults to 9600. In Open CPN I enable the same port at its default rate of 4800 and it works perfectly.

Instead of trying to get an old dongle to work I recommend buying a new one.
 
My older u-Blox 7 GPS is the GPS & Glonass one you linked to, and it is one of the dongles I had trouble getting to work with the little Gigabyte Brix computer, though I did get it going in the end. The corded one gives me faster satelite acquisition and a stable fix. It may be because my Glonass dongle is older and the latest ones may have updated firmware. The u-centre software has a facility to do a firmware update, though I have not yet tried it.
 
nigelmercier said:
... Glonass, but the £13 VK-172 below does, and is also a U-Box: VK-172 Gmouse GPS Glonass
Click to expand...

Installed straight away in Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, I don't have the "u-centre software"

Appears in Device Manager under Sensors as u-blox 7 GPS/GNSS Location Sensor
However, under Events it says: Device USB\VID_1546&PID_01A7\6&1f21cb62&0&8 requires further installation.
 
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My BU 353 which worked with Vista would not work on Win10 nd I had to buy a newer GPS puck BU353S4 which worked just fine and still does on Win 10.THere were new drivers issued for the BU 353 but I could not get them to work back then either.
 
nigelmercier said:
Installed straight away in Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, I don't have the "u-centre software"

Appears in Device Manager under Sensors as u-blox 7 GPS/GNSS Location Sensor
However, under Events it says: Device USB\VID_1546&PID_01A7\6&1f21cb62&0&8 requires further installation.
Click to expand...

Download the u-centre software from the link I gave earlier. If you select "Sky View" it gives you a picture of the satelites in use and providing the fix as well as those in sight but not being used. Its a good way of checking whether the dongle is getting a full view of the sky if you are using it below decks. Typically using it indoors at home I see eight to 10 satelites at a time, sometimes more. I am looking at it now and it shows GPS satelites 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 & 23 providing a 3D fix and 26, 29 & 30 all visible but low on the horizon and not being used.

Edit. I put it on to look at, and wrote the above. Its now fully warmed up and 4 more satelites are now being received!
 
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Sorry for the late update, I've away sailing on the West Coast of Scotland with little or no internet access (or mobile phone for that matter).
Bought a BU 353 S4 and it worked 1st time with both openCPN and SeaClear. So the immediate problem has gone away, but I'm annoyed that a perfectly good GPS mouse won't work with Windows 10. I've tried installing various drivers using the unsigned driver procedure, but as yet haven't found anything that works.
 
Robin said:
My BU 353 which worked with Vista would not work on Win10 nd I had to buy a newer GPS puck BU353S4 which worked just fine and still does on Win 10.THere were new drivers issued for the BU 353 but I could not get them to work back then either.
Click to expand...

Ian_Edwards said:
… Bought a BU 353 S4 and it worked 1st time with both openCPN and SeaClear. So the immediate problem has gone away, but I'm annoyed that a perfectly good GPS mouse won't work with Windows 10. I've tried installing various drivers using the unsigned driver procedure, but as yet haven't found anything that works.
Click to expand...

Yes, your experiences match mine IIRC (I think there was a temporary work-around for the BU 353 driver, but it did not stay ‘latched-on’ and so required some setting up every time one used it).

It is a bit annoying - but you do get a better S4 GPS puck.
 
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