Compatibility

Compatible GPS Devices

All Bluetooth GPS devices should be compatible. This is therefore not an exclusive nor exhaustive compatibility list, but just lists of devices that have been tested by foolography and/or our customers and reported working with the Unleashed.

Tested by foolography

Reported to be working by customers

Basically all Bluetooth GPS Receivers available

Not compatible

We do not know of any Bluetooth GPS Receivers that are not compatible.

However, since we do get asked a lot:

  • Garmin Handhelds/Outdoor GPS – sadly none of these have Bluetooth!
  • Any other outdoor GPS – We know of no outdoor GPS with Bluetooth
  • PNDs/PNAs, such as Garmin Nüvis – although some might have bluetooth, this is always limited to Hands-free operation of mobile phones, and not for outputting GPS (NMEA) data via Bluetooth, which is what our devices would require.

Mobile phones

One of the most asked questions is: “Does it work with the iPhone?”

The answer is: In theory yes, but in practice no, since Apple won’t allow direct access to the Bluetooth interface for developers. Any hardware that wants to communicate with the iPhone needs a special chip. Therefore the current Unleasheds cannot communicate with the iPhone.

For mobile phones in general: We would need to write an app that outputs the GPS data via Bluetooth. We don’t yet have any apps like that, and will not be able to provide one for all the different platforms out there, so if you’re interested in writing such an app, you are very welcome to contact us for any technical details.

However, even if it would work, we would still recommend purchasing a seperate and dedicated GPS receiver simply because if you would keep both Bluetooth and GPS on all the time your phone battery will be drained very quickly.

Customers are very welcome to report more tested GPS devices in the comments or via Email!

10 Responses to “Compatibility”

  1. Shiva Ramabadran Says:
    October 17th, 2010 at 21:58

    Will it work with Android phones that have bluetooth and a GPS reciever ? You may need to write an Android app for this.

  2. Brett Says:
    October 20th, 2010 at 04:57

    Yes that would be great if it could use the GPS receiver in your iphone/android while in your pocket.

  3. Daniel Says:
    November 11th, 2010 at 03:03

    Not true, there are plenty of apps for iPhone that acess the GPS. Have a look at “Bluetooth GPS” on the iTunes store.

    This program allows there ipad application to use the iPhone as a Bluetooth GPS.

    Maybe you can contact the developers and get them to add whatever format you need the data in?

  4. John Says:
    December 29th, 2010 at 14:07

    The iPhone only supports audio and handsfree profiles, you need the serial profile to work with the foolography receiver. You may be able to get this with iBlueNova if you have a jailbroken iPhone, but apart from that you will need Apple to provide support.

  5. Sharath Jeppu Says:
    January 3rd, 2011 at 08:04

    Has anybody tried “SolidSync Network/Bluetooth GPS” for the Android?

    Standalone GPS take a lot of time to get the TTFF (Time to first Fix) while a Phone based GPS is much faster as they also seem to use the network to improve TTFF . Most cell phones also support Cell Site Triangulation and hence are probably better GPS receivers. My GPSlim 240 took close to 20-30 minutes to get it’s fix and even that was not very accurate. However, I got to know this only after I uploaded the pictures from my Camera to my PC.

  6. Torsten Says:
    February 3rd, 2011 at 23:18

    wouldn’t
    http://www.galarina.eu/GeoLogTag/Galarina.html

    work for this to use the Iphone as a GPS datalogger?
    I do have a jailbroken Iphone, so iblueNova would work with your device?
    I guess there is no chance that the BlueSLR app can be tricked to use a foolography device instead of the much large blueSLR device, has this been tested?
    Thanks

  7. Jim Spann Says:
    February 5th, 2011 at 19:19

    HOw about compatibility with iPhone?

  8. Abi Says:
    February 7th, 2011 at 12:37

    The current Unleasheds cannot communicate with the iPhone because any hardware that wants to communicate with the iPhone needs a special chip which is not built into the Unleashed yet.

  9. roberto garcia Says:
    March 14th, 2011 at 17:55

    Can this be used to sync (picture transfer) between the camera and a phone?
    I need it to transfer the pics to my blackberry and send them to facebook, email, etc.

  10. Oliver Perialis Says:
    March 14th, 2011 at 18:17

    @roberto: No, it is for GPS data only, and only FROM the GPS receiver TO the camera, not the other way round. You’ll need to get the WiFi adapter for your DSLR (or an eye-fi card) to do what you’re talking about, and it will not be easy to set up.

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