GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB GPS Receiver (Black)

I wanted a simple, inexpensive, but accurate GPS receiver to use with Google Earth's "real-time GPS" function. This GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB GPS Receiver works perfectly for that use. It is small and unobtrusive and the long cord allows it to be placed on the dashboard of my car. With my laptop in my car and the GlobalSat BU-353-S4 plugged into its USB port my position is shown very accurately in Google Earth. I have taken a number of test drives and this GPS receiver updates my moving position with just a little delay (it may be Google Earth that is causing the delay). This GPS receiver is so accurate that if I drive one direction on a two-lane road and then drive back the other direction, the route lines in Google Earth can be seen to be separate and right over the corresponding lane used. Please note that for this setup to work - without any currently active internet connection - the satellite imagery must have been previously loaded into the Google Earth cache (do an internet search for "google earth offline" and follow links from there; it is possible to create multiple caches of different areas). The GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB GPS Receiver comes with a small but handy application, GPS Utility, which can be used to check the functioning of the receiver. The app displays a sky map of all of the GPS satellites detected and the signal strength, as well as the raw data stream from all detected satellites. It also provides data for current longitude, latitude, heading, elevation, and speed. Please note that it appears that the computer port used by this GPS receiver cannot be used by two applications at the same time - only one app can access the GPS satellite data at a time - so if running Google Earth "real-time GPS" the GPS Utility app will not receive the GPS data at the same time. In summary, this GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB GPS Receiver works perfectly and is exactly what I was looking for. It should work for any "GPS aware" application (such as Google Earth).

This is by far the most pleasant surprise I've had in an electronic purchase in a long time. The unit it smaller than it appears to be on the photos, but that's a good thing. I realize this kind of device is at the mercy of whatever software is used, and I was lucky enough to borrow a few tablets, phones, and laptops with different navigation programs to test. For our vacation trip, I ended up choosing my wife's Surface as the hardware with Microsoft Streets & Trips (Not one of the programs we tested was excellent, and the MS product was the lesser of all evils). The one other thing I'll say about the Surface is, even though the screen is large, the "touch" part was maddening in a moving car, and the attached keyboard was also hard to use. Now, the GlobalSat: 1. I tested it at home, first inside, away from any windows. It pulled in enough satellites to put me about 10 feet from my actual location. (I was in the middle of the room, and it placed me on a wall). I used Google Earth here, but did not choose to use it in my car later. 2. In comparison with my phone GPS, the GlobalSat was always 10-20 feet better. 3. The weatherproof GlobalSat has a magnet that should withstand hurricane winds, and the USB cord is plenty long. On the trip, I sometimes forgot to put it back on the roof when I got back to the car. While I drove, it was dangling near the floor. The accuracy was about the same, but I would lose the voice-directions (not the fault of the GlobalSat). 4. It took the device around 30 seconds to give me a location after a cold boot. 5. I dropped it several times on macadam and concrete and it never skipped a beat. 6. It was recognized by all the programs I tried. My endorsement of the GlobalSat BU-353-S4 is unequivocal. If you don't want the limited real estate of a Garmin or Tom Tom screen, this is the unit to pair with a larger Android or a Windows device (Never used an Apple product). It worked with my 7" Acer notebook and my wife's new 10" notebook. The car we drove didn't have the optimal space for these, but other cars may.

You can use map apps in Windows, but if you want to use the best ones out there installing an Android-x86 operating system is necessary, it can be set up to dual boot with Windows, it seems the one that works the best for map subscription apps is Phoenix OS, this one installs itself. The important thing is if you do not have a touch screen the app needs to have zoom buttons. When setting up the OS, PL2303GPSInfo.apk needs to be installed. This used to be available on Google Play Store but can be found at apkpure.com, then to enable developer options go to settings/about tablet/build and press the build entry 7 times, a notice will appear that you have developer rights. Go to settings/developer options and scroll down to Select Mock Location App, double click and select PL2303GPSInfo. The OS is now set up to receive data from the GlobalSat BU-353-S4, the PL2303GPSInfo needs to be running in the background and GPS started inside the app with the USB-GPS plugged in of course. If you are using it outside, the LED on the puck will be blinking indicating a fix. There are a few very good map apps out there for Android, the good ones have a subscription service and, again, if you don't have a touch screen they need to have zoom buttons.

This is an impressive device. However, in my application it did not work as I had wanted, due to no fault of its own. I wanted to bring a GPS signal into a 7" tablet so I could run the Waze program on long distance drives. The tablet has a microUSB and this has a full size USB. I found a converter cable that let me hook this up to the Android tablet. It worked just great! Locked on quickly and maintained a great lock. Just what it is supposed to do. However, my tablet soon ran out of battery power. So I got a "Y" cable and added power to the cable- but the tablet did not charge when GPS was active. Turns out, there is software inside the Tablet that determines if the microusb port is in host mode (so it can be charged) or slave mode (where it cannot). It was not possible to have the GPS attached in any fashion so the tablet could maintain charge. If you're using this with a laptop, then I think you will be very well pleased!

I had misplaced or lost the GPS receiver that came with Microsoft Streets and Trips. I ordered this as a replacement. There was no problem installing it to my Windows XP laptop and Streets & Trips Version 2013. With my Microsoft receiver, my house appears to be a couple of hundred feet east of its actual location. With the Bu-353-54, it was on the button. For the short period that I have had it, I noticed that it is placing my car on the road rather than very slightly to one side as with the Microsoft receiver. That's plenty close enough for navigation. And the Microsoft version is less expensive when purchased with Streets & Trips. But based on my experience, the BU-353-54 is accurate. That may the because I was able to place it on the top of the car instead of on the dashboard. There is no good way to put the Microsoft version on the roof of the car and it is not designed to be water proof. I like placing it on the roof of the car because that gets it out of the way when I have my laptop computer in the passenger seat. The receiver has a magnetic base. It appears to be plenty strong enough to stay put. The receiver has a low profile and appears to be aerodynamically shaped to hold itself down in addition to the magnet. I haven't tested it at 100 mph yet, but I would be willing to bet that I would stay put. There is a rubber-like ring on the bottom to protect the car's finish. The cable is just under 5 feet long. I wouldn't really want it any longer. But that can be extended with a USB extension cable. No real complaints so far.

After spending several hours on the internet searching for a solution to the problem of Windows 10 navigation apps recognizing the GPS data I finally found a solution. I downloaded a program called GPSComplete from gpssensordrivers dot com. The program forms a bridge from the GlobalSat BU-353-S4 to whatever program or website you are using. So for I have tried Sygic GPS Navigation, Maps in Windows 10, Wego.here, and Bing. They all worked great. I'm sure it would work with any program or website that will accept location data. When you run the program to install the GPSDirect driver you set the baud rate to 4800 and select whichever com port that Windows 10 assigned to it. You can find the com port number in device manager under "Ports (COM & LPT)" or you can run the test application that comes with the GPS. From the GPSComplete website: Welcome to GPSComplete, the all-in-one tool for Sensor Drivers including GPSDirect, GPSReverse and testing tools. GPSDirect allows you to reuse your existing GPS source (a COM port, a Bluetooth device, a TCP/IP Source, or a simulation) and map it to a Windows GPS Sensor for your Windows applications that are GPS sensor-aware (Maps, etc). Using this driver enables all Windows sensor aware applications to get GPS information without directly accessing the GPS hardware. GPSDirect is useful for new applications to access information from older devices. GPSReverse does the reverse, maps a Sensor (either a physical one, ILocation or GPSDirect) as a virtual COM port. GPSReverse is useful for legacy applications to use a sensor which exists in modern PCs.

So I ordered this to replace my Delorme Earthmates I have used for chasing storms for years now. I needed a GPS puck like this that would work in Windows 7 64 bit because my old GPS by Delorme did not have drivers or software for their serial emulator beyond Windows XP 32 bit so that was the last piece hold me back from modernizing my OS. I ordered from Beach Audio and was at my house the next evening. I like this unit because of the Windows 7 32/64 bit support, built in magnet, and SiRF Star IV GPS chipset which allows for use in urban canyons, and in dense foliage. I bought it for being underneath supercell thunderstorms. So I tested it out and the sat signal acquisition time was fast, and it saw many (around 12) satellites from inside my house sitting on the couch. I could never do this with my Delorme Earthmates so I can already vouch for the radio being excellent. I also use Fransom GPSGate as the port emulator which has worked great so far. A word of advice is that do not confuse this unit with the BU-353-W or the original BU-353 as the S4 is the newest and best. Although the original or "W" model for weatherproof would do just fine for most people I would pay the small difference and get the S4 with the new SiRF Star IV GPS chipset.

i hate leaving bad reviews because i know how damaging they can be but i truly feel like this thing is total crap. i bought this thing a few months ago and unlike the youtube videos it didn't come with no driver disk of any kind. no problem i figured ill simply go to the website and download it,Wrong! after downloading the wrong driver for it 3 times and i contacted support and was directed to another driver all together that i never did see on the site. after that it seemed to know the receiver was there but couldn't seem to use it. for some reason. now i was instructed to buy this model by tech support because the model gsat i bought from the same company also wouldn't work for any third party or windows apps. so they just got tossed in the closet with everything else ive gotten tired of screwing with. today i found them again and tried one last time with the same results, nothing. i tried on my asus g752vs, on my asus g750jw, and my hp envy all with the same results, and all running windows 10 pro. 20 minutes ago i relocated them from the closet to the trashcan where they will remain!!!