Bluetoothing inReach to Gaia app on iPhone
Hello. We have an inReach Explorer and are wondering if we can Bluetooth it to the Gaia app on our iPhone. We like the Gaia maps but don't like that it uses up our iPhone battery to communicate with the satellites. We'd like to use the inReach (which has an exceptional battery life) as the "communicator" with the satellites and then have it feed our GPS location to the iPhone. Many thanks.
-
From what I know about the inReach, it can only be used with the Earthmate app, and not 3rd party apps like Gaia GPS.
I usually recommend Bad Elf Bluetooth GPS devices for use with Gaia.
The way GPS devices work with iOS, is your phone will still search for satellites on its own, and then decide what it thinks are the better coordinates before sending them to Gaia GPS - so there isn't a way to stop the phone from communicating with satellites to save battery life.
-1 -
Ashli,
You can use an InReach with Gaia GPS. I use mine with my WiFi only iPad. It functions like any other Bluetooth GPS.
6 -
Thanks Chris!
-1 -
Over on Reddit I posted about using a Dual XGPS receiver while hiking:
From the post: "I hiked Santa Fe National Forest this weekend. The trip was a little under 20 miles. I used the XGPS receiver on the way out and turned it off on the way back. No real difference in battery usage - about 3.5% per hour with and without the external GPS receiver. However, I did take a lot of pictures and videos on the way out, so maybe the external receiver uses a little less battery."
I haven't dug into Apple's developer resources to see how iOS handles external Bluetooth GPS receivers. Maybe I was doing something wrong?
I only know of one offroad driving navigation app that tells you when you're connected to a Dual GPS receiver and I'm not sure the external receiver saves battery and improves location accuracy or not. I don't really use that app.-1 -
I don't believe using a Bluetooth device would save battery life. I could potentially decrease it, but I haven't done any testing.
I think, either way, it'd probably be an insignificant difference.
Taking pictures and video on the other hand decreases my battery life by a bunch :)
Also, cold weather really hits my battery hard.
I always just carry a battery charger with me - and in the cold make sure to keep it somewhere warm, like in your jacket, close to your chest if possible.
-1 -
I noticed that inreach mini gps not better recepty than phone (iphone) gps..
-1 -
@4XOA How do you connect Gaia on iOS to the Garmin InReach?
I was recently in a spot where I dearly needed to download additional maps in Gaia, and couldn't find the connection.
Many thanks,
Ofer Morag
-2 -
Ofer
Satellite communication offers very little bandwidth.so text messages, plain text emails and phone calls are quickly transmitted. Pictures, video, social media and web browsing are by comparison very high bandwidth uses for a limited data connection. A severely throttled data connection is available for a very expensive per kilobyte and per month price. The best plan is to download far more map data than you forsee needing before leaving your home.
0 -
I just bought a Garmin inReach Mini (firmware 2.70) and it works perfectly with Gaia GPS on my WiFi-only iPad 6 (2018). No additional software, etc needed just pair it with an iThing like any other Bluetooth device. I have not activated it because I wanted to see what could be done be for activation. As an external GPS it is an excellent (albeit expensive) solution.
1 -
Just to add another experience:
I have an inReach Mini and it works great with my IPad Pro 2020 + Gaia GPS. All you have to do is connect via Bluetooth.0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
10 comments