Megasquirt Support Forum (MSEXTRA)

Greetings,
I have a Qstarz 818XT GPS unit that I want to use with the Bluetooth channel to communicate with TunerStudio. This has worked well with Win10 both as a USB device and using Bluetooth.

Now I've started a Raspbian Pi3 with a touch screen, and I cannot get any GPS info to show up in TS . In the Raspbian Pi3 the GPS device is there, connected, paired and light is green and data communication is shown...but nothing in TS (TS MS v3.0.28). Bluetooth is enabled in TS. The Qstarz GPS blinking LEDs show that it is happy and transmitting data.
The Pi3 is running "Raspbian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)"

What have I missed?
Martin

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ systemctl status bluetooth
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sun 2017-12-17 10:42:59 CET; 4h 14min ago
Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Process: 1181 ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/sdptool add SP (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1125 (bluetoothd)
Status: "Running"
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
└─1125 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd -C --noplugin=sap

Dec 17 10:42:58 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service...
Dec 17 10:42:58 raspberrypi bluetoothd[1125]: Bluetooth daemon 5.43
Dec 17 10:42:58 raspberrypi bluetoothd[1125]: Starting SDP server
Dec 17 10:42:58 raspberrypi bluetoothd[1125]: Excluding (cli) sap
Dec 17 10:42:58 raspberrypi bluetoothd[1125]: Bluetooth management interface 1.14 initialized
Dec 17 10:42:58 raspberrypi bluetoothd[1125]: Failed to obtain handles for "Service Changed" characteristic
Dec 17 10:42:58 raspberrypi sdptool[1181]: Serial Port service registered
Dec 17 10:42:59 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.

The Raspbian Pi3 seems perfectly happy with the GPS bluetooth status, but TunerStudio refuses to have anything to do with it...i.e. the gps-based gauges show nothing.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller B8:27:EB:C5:5B:2E raspberrypi [default]
[NEW] Device 00:1C:88:01:D8:D3 Qstarz 818XT
[Qstarz 818XT]# scan on
Discovery started
[CHG] Controller B8:27:EB:C5:5B:2E Discovering: yes
[CHG] Device 00:1C:88:01:D8:D3 LegacyPairing: yes
[Qstarz 818XT]# info
Device 00:1C:88:01:D8:D3
Name: Qstarz 818XT
Alias: Qstarz 818XT
Class: 0x001f00
Paired: yes
Trusted: yes
Blocked: no
Connected: yes
LegacyPairing: yes
UUID: Serial Port (00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
[Qstarz 818XT]#

I may have found something...in TS app-debug file....

12/17/17 1:14:25 PM :Info: Error closing port on cleanup. Port name - /dev/rfcomm0; Method name - closePort(); Exception type - Port not opened.
12/17/17 1:14:25 PM :Info: Failed to connect to GPS: Unable to open port: /dev/rfcomm0
Please check your Communications Settings.

I'm having issues with GPS on a Pi as well. I will try to have a look at that log file that you talked about and see what mine says.

There is thread that I have pretty much hijacked from nzgrub here: http://www.msextra.com/forums/viewtopic ... 29#p517229 . Hopefully our issues are the same though.

Not sure if this is the same problem that you are having though. I posted a snippet from the log in that thread.

I have (at the moment at least) given up on getting the Bluetooth connection to the GPS to work, and I have switched to the USB port...which works in my case, see the lower right corner in the attached photo.

That's good you have that working then!

Mine is connected through USB but still unsure why it's not connecting properly in tunerstudio.

I decided to spend some time this morning on the issue of getting TS to read the GPS data over the Bluetooth link...and suddenly it works as it should!
The problem is that I really don't know why it suddenly works, been fiddling around in the operating system so much that I have no clue...

A little update...the car has been hibernating all winter but is soon going to be out on the road again.

Yesterday I bought a Bluetooth keyboard to use with the Pi3 running Raspbian and TunerStudio. The struggle with the Bluetooth GPS had made me unsure if the Raspbian Bluetooth software was working correctly...but the BT keyboard works flawlessly!

Connected the Bluetooth GPS as well to see what happens, and TS doesn't show any input from the GPS. The Raspbian Bluetooth function icons are identical for both the keyboard and the GPS, but the GPS data doesn't appear in TS. Tried loading the keyboard by continuously pressing a key, but no problem could be observed. I guess the data stream from the keyboard is still small compared to the corresponding from the GPS.

Maybe an indication that there is something not fully working in the Linux version of TS regarding Bluetooth and GPS?

SwedCharger-67 wrote:A little update...the car has been hibernating all winter but is soon going to be out on the road again.

Yesterday I bought a Bluetooth keyboard to use with the Pi3 running Raspbian and TunerStudio. The struggle with the Bluetooth GPS had made me unsure if the Raspbian Bluetooth software was working correctly...but the BT keyboard works flawlessly!

Connected the Bluetooth GPS as well to see what happens, and TS doesn't show any input from the GPS. The Raspbian Bluetooth function icons are identical for both the keyboard and the GPS, but the GPS data doesn't appear in TS. Tried loading the keyboard by continuously pressing a key, but no problem could be observed. I guess the data stream from the keyboard is still small compared to the corresponding from the GPS.

Maybe an indication that there is something not fully working in the Linux version of TS regarding Bluetooth and GPS?

How are you set up? I assume you have the GPS set up as a virtual com port in Linux? Currently there is no Bluetooth Direct on Linux.