Customer Reviews

GR-110 : GiSTEQ USB GPS Receiver (65 Ch, SBAS, AGPS) (Windows, Mac, Linux Compatible)

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Purchased on June 20, received today. I got the black version of this item. Plugged in and installed the drivers that came on the included CD without any problems. I bought this item to use with Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009. S&T requires GPS receivers to operate on NMEA 2.0 standard and at 4800 baud rate. The 4800 baud rate is a must if you are going to use this with S&T. That's where my problems started.

Although this item is NMEA 2.0 compliant, the default baud rate was set to 38400. S&T 2009 kept saying that either the data being sent/received by GPS receiver was not NMEA 2.0 compatible or the baud rate was incorrect. After a lot of browsing through different GPS forums did not help, I visited the GiSTEQ website. To my surprise, the Forums on the GiSTEQ website have no discussion area for the GPS USB dongle - even though there are (at the time of this review) discussion areas for other GiSTEQ products.

So I called the contact phone number listed on their website. I got to voicemail saying, "GiSTEQ Corporation is closed, please leave a message". This was at 4pm Eastern Time on a Monday. I started to suspect the credibility of GiSTEQ. I tried again 20 minutes later and this time a gentleman answered the phone. I explained the problem to him and he said that he would email me a tool to change the default baud rate to 4800. The email arrived shortly after the phone call, along with instructions on how to change the baud rate using the tool.

[...] Here's how to use the tool:

1. Plug in the device and make sure that drivers are installed. It should show in Device Manager under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" category as Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM#).

2. Unzip the file you downloaded from the link above and run GPS Viewer executable file.

3. Select the right COM port (if you don't know the COM port you can find it in device manager, see #1).

4. Select 38400 as baud rate

5. Click the connect button, immediately to the right of Baudrate. It's titled "Close" for some reason.

6. When you see some codes appear in the Message section, you are ready to change the baud rate

Message should look something like this:

---,$GPRMC,013211.000,A,3355.2100,N,11754.9368,W,28.00,0.00,091206,,*26
---,$GPRMC,013212.000,A,3355.2183,N,11754.9369,W,29.00,0.00,091206,,*2E
---,$GPRMC,013213.000,A,3355.2266,N,11754.9369,W,29.00,0.00,091206,,*27

7. Go to Binary menu (next to File at the top left of the window)-> Configure Serial Port.

8. Change the baud rate to 4800 and click Set.

9. Make sure you see the message "Configure Serial Port Successful" in the Response window

10. You should now see that the baud rate has changed to 4800.

11. Click "Connect" button right next to Baudrate to disconnect.

12. Close the program.

Streets & Trips should work fine with your GiSTEQ GR-110 (aka GT-730F) USB GPS receiver. It works very well and finds 8-10 satellites even inside the house. Start up time is very fast.

Over all, it's a great product at a great price (got it new for $[...] + shipping). I just wish that this information was available to public on the GiSTEQ website.

I bought the referenced dongle to use with my laptop as a GPS unit in our motor home. While the dongle says it is compatible with Microsoft Streets and Trips, it is NOT compatible right out of the box. You have to change the default BAUD rate of the dongle to one that MS S&T can recognize. To do that you need a a special software tool from the manufacturer. To get the tool you have to call the phone number for the manufacturer's tech support - they give you a web URL from which to download. None of this was mentioned in the included documentation, although the cover of the box specifically states the product is "compatible" with MS S&T.

In the end the product works, but it was a lot harder to get it working than it should be....

Pros: It's a compact, solidly-built USB dongle-style GPS receiver. Used under Ubuntu it works out-of-the-box with gpsd and Tangogps installed.

Cons: Accuracy is horrible. Example: In an open area it locks onto 7 satellites. In that same area the GPS on my cellphone (used as GPS device with Tangogps under Ubuntu, same computer same time same location same software) locks onto 5 - so far so good. But the FreeRunner [phone] GPS has pinpoint accuracy, while the GiSTEQ junker fluctuates by up to 1/4 mile!!

Mapping my commute resulted in abstract art, using it for turn-by-turn GPS navigation would be impossible. I travelled straight down a 4-lane highway at 45mph and the FreeRunner reported accuracy even as to which lane I was in while the GiSTEQ reports a lightning-bolt shaped path that varies by 2 blocks in either direction.

Also, the overlarge blinking LED (1/8" x 1/2") is obnoxious

I don't know if it's the GPS dongle or satellites but the accuracy is not good. If I drove the way this charts I would be sited for drunk driving. But... I did read that GPS satellites were failing in 2010 so I can't blame the dongle as the cause.

This dongle comes preset to 38400 baudrate which is not compatible with most GPS software applications. The company will not respond to my email requests for support so I would definitely stay away from this product.