Connect to Lenovo X230 Onboard GPS

[JoeFlannery]

I have a new Lenovo X230 with an onboard GPS chip (Sierra Wireless MC7750 - Gobi 4000) and a GPS Enabler utility.  GPS satellites are detected and a good 3D position is fixed, but I cannot get AGX Desktop to connect to the onboard GPS device.  From the Display tab in AGX, I click on the Receive Signal button and configure the GPS Port Settings as revealed for the Gobi GPS chip, but AGX just "Attempts" to connect and fails.

Screenshots are attached.

Does anyone have any advice for connecting to an onboard Gobi chip with ArcGIS Explorer Desktop?

[norie]

I have a new Lenovo X230 with an onboard GPS chip (Sierra Wireless MC7750 - Gobi 4000) and a GPS Enabler utility.  GPS satellites are detected and a good 3D position is fixed, but I cannot get AGX Desktop to connect to the onboard GPS device.  From the Display tab in AGX, I click on the Receive Signal button and configure the GPS Port Settings as revealed for the Gobi GPS chip, but AGX just "Attempts" to connect and fails.

Screenshots are attached.

Does anyone have any advice for connecting to an onboard Gobi chip with ArcGIS Explorer Desktop?

Does the GPS Enabler application lock the COM port? Have you tried connecting while the application is closed?

[JoeFlannery]

Aaron:

Good call.  With the GPS Enabler utility Off, AGX connects to COM4 and displays a location at 0,0.  I will get to some open space, now, and try the workflow of 1) Connect AGX to the onboard GPS.  2) Turn on GPS Enabler utility and see if AGX continues to be connected to the onboard GPS and give my current location.

I'll report back, soon.

Thank you,
Joe

[JoeFlannery]

Aaron:

I am seemingly back to square one.  After my reply back to you, I cannot reproduce my first success of connecting to the onboard GPS in AGX with the Lenovo GPS Enabler off and closed.  I have rebooted and tried some other Gobi settings and GPS Enabler settings and continue to fail connecting in AGX.  I will have to try again tomorrow morning.

I appreciate your input.

[norie]

Aaron:

I am seemingly back to square one.  After my reply back to you, I cannot reproduce my first success of connecting to the onboard GPS in AGX with the Lenovo GPS Enabler off and closed.  I have rebooted and tried some other Gobi settings and GPS Enabler settings and continue to fail connecting in AGX.  I will have to try again tomorrow morning.

I appreciate your input.

Upon further investigation, I do believe that the GPS Enabler activates the NMEA feed to COM4, but enabling "Auto Tracking" *should* negate the need to activate manually.

I recommend downloading something like GPSGate to help diagnose exactly what's going on. You can configure GPSGate to accept the input from COM4 and virtually output to other ports/interfaces. For example, I think it would be helpful to have a text file output to confirm COM4 is actively outputting NMEA sentences.

Another thing that wouldn't hurt to try, set the port settings according to the NMEA 0183 spec.

[JoeFlannery]

Aaron:

I think that I have found a solution for my AGX GPS connection issue on a Lenovo X230.

The Lenovo carries an onboard Sierra Wireless MC7750 - Gobi 4000 GPS chip.  When I right-click on the Gobi device in the Windows Device Manger and choose properties, I see a "Bits per Second" (Baud Rate) of 9600.  I assumed that the GPS Port Settings in AGX would need to be set to that 9600 Baud Rate, which I did and my connection would fail.  Well, a co-worker left the Baud Rate in the GPS Port Settings at 38400, the default, and AGX makes a connection with the Lenovo onboard GPS with no problem.

Thank you for your input and suggestions on this thread.  I appreciate your help.

Sincerely,
Joe