GLO 2 Bluetooth GPS Receiver Bundle with Vehicle Power Cable 010-02184-01

This is a much longer review than I'd normally write so bear with me - I have to give a little background for this to make sense. My wife and I are planning a cross country auto trip, picking up a car in Florida and driving back to Washington state over several weeks. We decided we'd do so via Route 66, Chicago to Santa Monica. We ordered a Route 66 planning guide (Jerry McClanahan's Route 66: EZ66 GUIDE For Travelers , 4TH EDITION). What became instantly apparent was that the car's navigation system would not be much help - while you could travel Chicago-Santa Monica that way, there was no way that you could tell the system to do it via McClanahan's guidebook. You'd be in the vicinity of Route 66, but not on Route 66. I spent hours looking at ways to map the precise path into the car's GPS - POI files, favorite routes, etc - but given the number of turns in the McClanahan guide there's no remotely straightforward way to do it with the Chrysler Uconnect system; even if you are willing to tolerate keying multidigit lat/long values into the car, most car GPS systems allow for less than 20 intermediate points on a route so that will get you like 30 miles on 66 before you get to stop to key another whole set of coordinates. Eventually after a lot of trial and error, I was able to work out the following: 1) Using Google Earth (the satellite view tells you a great deal about the route and lets you look at road signs in Street View), add pins for each traffic direction point in the guide (Rt 66 westbound will have about 900 such pins, so I split them by state). A ) Name the pins with a sortable prefix - I just used sequential numbers starting at 001 in Chicago to 900-something at Santa Monica. B) Add a label to the prefix with what you need to do there, e.g. "Left onto Hwy 29" C) So my pins all are something like "0347 - left across I-40" 2) Export the pins via KML; using the Viking GPX editor or something similar (I cannot say enough good things about Viking - its interface is a little idiosyncratic, but it does an amazing job and is freeware), import the KML pins as waypoints. 3) Viking now shows all the pins as waypoints. Select a map base - I use Open Street Maps - and using Viking's track editor, create a track that links the waypoints IN ORDER BY THE INDEX NUMBER IN THE NAME. In other words, the track reflects the waypoints in the order in which they will be encountered. 4) Export the track(s) and waypoints from Viking as a single GPX file. 5) Using Dropbox or similar, move the GPX file to a mobile device (I'm using an iPad Pro 12.9). You will need a mapping program or two - lots of articles on using various apps. I am using 2 apps - GPS 55 ($6) and GPS Tracks Pro ($30); the paid for versions add things like the ability to import GPX files or store map tiles if internet is not available. What you now have a a highly detailed map on the mobile device that shows you EXACTLY where the next waypoint is, exactly what action to take, and the precise path down to a few feet that you'll take along the way. (Hint for Viking: I like to run the track editor at zoom level 13-15 and trackpoints no more than .25 miles apart, much less on curves. Takes more time - I can do about 350 miles of track in about 7 hours - but this smooths out the road curves and doesn't put trackpoints out in fields near the road instead of on the road). The above took several weeks to work out but it gave me exactly the map I wanted. Now I needed to add in tracking so I'd know where I was relative to the track I was following. And this is where things came apart. I already had a Garmin GPSMap 65 - highly accurate and it has a Bluetooth connection via the Garmin Connect app that lets the 65 tell the iPad where you are. Add in a mapping app and you have a moving map navigation system capable of 12-15 foot accuracy, right? Except that the refresh rate is so slow and the position so inaccurate as to make the whole thing useless. The 65 is an astonishingly precise system - I use it for photo location and it's usually within 6-8 feet with essentially instant update and its internal tracks are very, very accurate - so I do not know if this is an issue with the Bluetooth transmission or the Garmin Connect app. In either event, this was not going to work - the whole point of doing this level of mapping is that you'll know exactly where you are, when the next change is, and what to do when you get to that waypoint. Having the system lag way behind or be off in the bushes several hundred yards from your real location is not going to help. So I took a flier and ordered the GLO2 as an alternative to the 65. Tried it yesterday, 40 mile round trip. Took about 30 seconds to link to the satellites at the end of the driveway, way less than that to link to the iPad (no Garmin Connect app in the way!) and we were off. Never lost lock to either satellites or Bluetooth. Performance was amazing. We have a roundabout near us; our path on both GPS 55 and GPS Tracks actually showed the semicircle we made going through the roundabout. Using Open Street Maps, our position was sufficiently precise that it accurately indicated which side of the 2-lane highway we were on. It updated - according the the GPS 55 diagnostic tool - between 3 and 5 times a second consistently. This was enough that the apps actually showed smooth movement instead of jumps. As far as I can tell, the unit was off by - at most - something under 30'. As I said, a long story to get to that last paragraph but I figure there's likely someone else out there trying to figure out how to do the same thing so I put in the backstory both as explanation and instruction. I now have an iPad which, when linked to the GLO2, gives me sufficient precision I can follow any track I lay out in Viking. So I've added all of our side trips, tourist attractions, etc in as their own tracks; to make those side trips all we need to is just follow the arrow onto those tracks. If you don't care about exact route, use the car GPS and let it figure the best way. If you care about an exact path, a tablet with a GLO2, Viking, and some tablet mapping software will do wonders.

I wanted something to connect to my phone and allow me to use the apps on my phone for over landing. Worked great, and lasted the entire day. Easy to connect via Bluetooth. It was accurate enough that I knew which trail to turn on.

Essential to navigate with wifi-only devices that lack a GPS module. Works flawlessly with iOS. only gripe, status indicator lights are confusing

I gave 5 stars, but it was a rather pointless purchase. The GPS receiver in my iPhone 12 is as accurate as the Garmin GLO 2, which is about 16 feet in an average setting. In a skyscraper laden environment, it's every bit as inaccurate and useless as the iPhone GPS receiver. The only advantage the Garmin gives when paired with an iPhone is vastly improved iPhone battery life. That's because the iPhone's battery hungry GPS receiver is superseded by the Garmin.

I love this external Bluetooth GPS receiver. This external Bluetooth GPS receiver enables my tablets without a Built-In GPS receiver to navigate using downloaded offline maps on the Google Maps app. I did have to do a small amount of research on the Internet and on YouTube for the settings on my tablet to work with this GPS Bluetooth receiver. I would list the settings in this review, however I imagine the settings differ on the variety of tablets on the market. On Garmin's website there is helpful information on using this GPS receiver with a tablet. I am currently using this GPS receiver with my Amazon Kindle Fire HD 10 and my 11 inch Ecopad E20. Once the settings were made on my two tablets, the Garmin GLO 2 Bluetooth GPS Receiver enables the use of offline maps for navigation on my tablets without a hitch. With downloaded maps, this device allows for navigation without cell phone service and without WiFi.

Purchased this to replace my Bad elf gps . I loved that unit , but wanted to give Garmin a try. Unfortunately, right out of the box the LED indicator was giving an error code of " Faulty battery or system failure." I'm returning this for the second Time and asking for an exchange hoping this is a rare issue.

Why did you pick this product vs others?: this works pretty good when its working, we live in Texas and it gets hot enough on the dash it will stop working, and unfortunately it has to be in the windshield to find the satellites

Setup instructions were clear and straight forward. After I used Bluetooth to pair My Garmin GLO 2 Bluetooth GPS Receiver with my iPad Air 5 (Ios 15.7) it informed me that I was missing an app and sent me to a non-existent App in the App Store. I closed the App Store and started using the Waze app and noticed that the location accuracy was OK for driving directions to a local barber shop. I used it with Google Maps at a local hiking trail and estimated location accuracy to be within 20 feet. I returned home and found this request for a revue waiting in my email in box. My revue describes my first 4 hours of using my new Garmin GLO 2 Bluetooth GPS Receiver. I lost the GPS Receiver when I arrived at the hiking trail and found it on the floor of my car beside the driver seat. It fell out of my pocket when I pulled out my iPhone. The case of the GPS receiver is slick which made it easy for it to slide out of my pocket. I feel that this review will be more useful if you compare it with other revues.