Making work tablet integrate GNSS (GPS) on Windows 8 with QGIS?
At the end I decided to try newer driver from other company.
Broadcom GNSS Geolocation Driver for Windows 8.1 (32-bit), 8 (32-bit) - ThinkPad Tablet 2 19.14.8401.4 24 Nov 2012
With this driver and Centrafuse Localizer the GPS finally works in QGIS (and also in some way in Google Earth). Hooray!
You need at this moment these things:
- Centrafuse Localizer (which is unfortunately not freeware) to bypass Windows Location Provider which is useless
- Install driver from Lenovo (which makes Broadcom GNSS work properly)
- QGIS (tested with version 2.0.1) - GPS is under View / Panels / GPS information
- I decided to set connection to Serial device to see if COM port is available
Shame on you Microsoft to totally cut out backward compatibility!
Shame on you DELL to not provide proper functional driver!
Make sure you see sensor working in the localizer:
My saved test track in QGIS:
Good Luck!
I had to solve this issue for a client running QGIS on Windows tablets 8-10.
The best solution I found so far is GpsGate Splitter Express. If you install it with the plugin, it makes it possible to read the GPS data from the location provider and send it to a virtual COM port. The program runs at startup, so UEFI secure boot has to be disabled for this to work.
And the best part: GpsGate Splitter Express is free for both private and commercial use, as they state on their website.