By Merle Nicholson, Tampa PC Users Group
merlenic@tampabay.rr.com

I’ve written about using travel software in previous articles. This is a quick update on the latest GPS on the market – the Delorme Earthmate USB. Delorme had a previous model (with a serial connector) that went out of production perhaps a year ago, and this is the replacement. It’s intended to work with software on your PC, usually a notebook that travels with you.

This new GPS is pretty unique. It’s WAAS capable for greater accuracy, and as you can see, it’s tiny. Unlike the previous model, it has only one cord and uses no battery, being powered from the USB port (and therefore your notebook’s power supply). It works. That’s about all you can say about a GPS, because a GPS is just a little piece of hardware that makes your software work as it should. We sit ours fully forward on the dash against the windshield, the only place any GPS will pick up the satellite signals in your car.

I have only one wish, that the cord was as soft and flexible as its competitor, the NavMan e-Series GPS. But it’s the right length, 6 feet. It comes with two software drivers. One is the USB driver that makes it work with Delorme Street Atlas 2003. The other driver is a COMM port driver for use with other programs. It makes the GPS signals appear as a COMM port, in my case COM4:4800,N,8,1. Keep in mind, physically, it has a USB connector, and that’s all you use. But the COMM port driver makes it look to the system as a COMM port – a fake one, because physically it’s just USB.

The GPS started working with Street Atlas 2003 immediately after installing the first driver using the USB interface, but then as I wanted it to also work with Microsoft Streets and Trips, and also SailGPS, my own sailboat software, I installed the second driver successfully, tested it with the Microsoft software, and went back to Street Atlas, and it didn’t pick up the satellite signals. So I did a couple of uninstalls, reinstalls and then wrote Delorme’s on-line help. I received an answer within a couple of days. They told me what to do about this. It seems that when you install the second driver to make it look like a COMM port, it disables the USB driver for Street Atlas. So you need to set the Street Atlas to look at the COMM. And it worked just fine. I later got a note from Delorme that tells how to designate the driver to only one of the two USB ports – a feature of Windows XP, which would allow me to use USB for Delorme and Serial for the others. I’ve not tried this yet. Delorme deserves a great deal of credit for their fast and informative responses to my email. I recommend this GPS for its price, size and software support. u