HOW-TO: Use a Bluetooth GPS with the Motorola Q

Posted on by Rick Hallihan

Well, even though neither Motorola tech support, Verizon tech support, nor Pharos were able to help, I finally figured out how to get my Motorola Q to recognize and utilize my Pharos iGPS-BT.  (Incidentally, both Pharos and Motorola were helpful and apologetic when I communicated with them.)  Here’s the step-by-step: 



  1. Turn on the iGPS-BT.

  2. If it’s not on already, turn on the Q.

  3. Turn on Bluetooth on the Q.  (Start, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Manager, Settings, Set to “Bluetooth ON”)

  4. While in the Settings Menu, hit the Right soft key (Menu), select “Paired Devices”

  5. In the Paired Devices screen, hit the Right soft key (Menu), select “Search for Devices”, then while it’s searching, hit the Right soft key (Menu) again and select “Show All Devices”.  Your Q should find the iGPS-BT (Or other GPS device).  Select the device.

  6. Enter your device’s pin, for the iGPS-BT it’s 12345678.

  7. Now fire up your favorite GPS enabled application.  If you don’t have one, Virtual Earth Mobile (http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/06/27/649384.aspx) is a cool free mapping application.  It doesn’t do auto-updates for a moving map experience, but it can get your current location from a GPS.

  8. Configure your GPS COM port.  The trick here is to select COM1:.  Evidently COM1 is reserved for Bluetooth COM ports on the Q.  Might be similar to other Smartphones, but I never found this.

  9. When your application attempts to open the COM port, the Q will display a message saying that an application is attempting to open a Bluetooth Serial Port, and asking if you want to select a device.  Hit the Left soft key (Yes), and then select your Bluetooth GPS from the list. 

You’ll have to repeat 8 & 9 every time you want to use a GPS enabled app, but it works great.


That’s it!  9 easy intuitive steps is all it takes!  If you have any difficulties, feel free to leave a comment here and I’ll try my best to help. 

5 thoughts on “HOW-TO: Use a Bluetooth GPS with the Motorola Q”

  1. Ok I followed the steps and with Virtual Earth Mobile It locks up when i attempt to connect my GPS. With Streets and Trips, I get an error message saying I am not using Microsoft Bluetooth manger (which is correct Q uses Motorola’s bluetooth manager) and I cannot connect to the GPS…..
    HELP
    Chris

  2. yeah, i’m also unable to get your instructions to work. i’m using a Motorola Q (with new firmware) and a GPSlim 240. It detects it in the Bluetooth manager and i get all the way to step 9. After i select my device the phone locks up. Any ideas?

  3. I have only had this working with the old firmware. I just upgraded the firmware on my Q so I’ll give it a try and see if I can make it work.

  4. did this work after the firmware upgrade? i’m ready to do a master reset. i’ve been f*cking with my registry too long. …is there any way i could talk you into exporting the registry for your HKLMSoftwareWidcomm folder and emailing it to me? i thought i had a backup, but i don’t.

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