I would love the ability to force a com port

[Darkitec]

Show all the possible com ports if they are in use or not.

During a recent cross country trip. I was using a blue tooth connection to my gps antenna. Unfortunately every time I would stop the car and shut down the computer, I would have to reset the connection to the gps receiver before I could get the system to work. 4 out of 10 times it was simple. The other 6 of 10 times the correct com port would not show up in Delorme. I would then have to manually delete the device then recreate my blue tooth connection to get the correct com port to show up in Street atlas 2008.

[Dan Lawyer]

This really shouldn't be a problem, and in all the years (been a while), that I used BT GPS, I don't recall anyone having this problem. If the GPS radio is on, and available, it should show the com port in the DeLorme program. It should only show an available BT com port, as messing with active com ports on other devices can cause serious problems with those deviced depending on what they are. Not a good idea.

Note: Options/GPS tab will only show a possibility of 2 com ports, normally only 1. With a built in BT radio it should normally stay on the same com port. With a USB BT radio, it will change when you move it between USB ports, so always use the same one. If you move it you will have to change it in the DeLorme program. When you click on the Port option on the Options/GPS tab, it will show the last set com port and the new com port where the radio currently is. If you check your Bluetooth Devices in your OS's Control Panel, it will show the current incoming com port. That will match what the DeLorme program is using, and is the com port to select in it.

I still have a BT radio, but not a BT GPS so, I can't test it thoroughly right now. I just checked the com port settings and found that they were on the high end from the last time I used it. From what I remember, if it's set in Device manager to a high number, then other devices that use comports will almost always take the lower numbers, leaving your BT port high. Once you get SA set to the proper port, it should remain that way, pretty much forever. I used to switch back and forth between a BT and USB receiver and never had to fiddle with the BT port.

This search is using Google (works better than the forums advanced search). I'm leaving it native so you can fiddle with it. If you remove the +retain keyword, you'll get lot's more hits to read through.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... f&oq=&aqi=

[Bains]

This has been a persistent problem under Vista.

My client systems have had a variety of Bluetooth related connection issues with Street Atlas using Holux GPS receivers and Vista laptop systems. They work about 60% of the time and the remainder of the time it is not possible to get a valid Comm port registered in Street Atlas even though the Bluetooth porperties show the valid Comm port assignments. In those cases we conned the older USB device and live with the lower sensitivity. UIse the system for a while and the device will now seem to work. The work around is adequate and Delorem did not respond to a question so I have ignored it.

Prior questions regarding this issue were ignored so my assumption was the Delorme did not care about this issue if it was related to a third party device.

If you do a little research you will find that there are some issues associated with the Vista implemented Bluetooth protocol stack. Depending on who is writing and responding to these blogs/forums(non-Delmore) this is a solvable issue or sometimes just a persistent problem. XP based systems do not have this issue apparently, at least in the environments I am familiar with and support.

My advice is to live with the fact that Delorme will not respond and you need a work around. Resurrect your older USB device and it will work, albeit with reduced sensitivity.

[Dan Lawyer]

My advice is to live with the fact that Delorme will not respond and you need a work around.

You've been around long enough to know that these forums were setup by DeLorme for customers to help other customers. DeLorme rarely responds here.

BT has always been a pain, I learned years ago not go get any products with it, unless that was the only way to get it. However, once you get a device setup to a port, you should rarely have problems with it, but then I've never had more than one or two devices. Long ago, we found that if you turn Discover off and leave it off, this helps keep things for changing on their own, which can take over a com port you assigned to something else.