Side by Side Comparison of: USGlobalSat vs GlobalSat

Worked like a charm to add GPS signal to my VHF for DSC capabilities. Combined with a cheap 12vdc to 5vdc step down transformer, this was easy to wire in to my VHF. Just Google it. There is a good video by a British guy who shows how to do it step by step.

Works great, I like to hang it out my bedroom window & watch the satellites come into "view" and lock on different ones - my BCT15X & 996XT both operate flawlessly as well with this unit & appropriate adapters

Works great. Very strong signal even when hidden from view of the sky.

A little bit of hackery and a 5v DC-DC converter, and this thing talks perfectly to a Kenwood TM-D700 for APRS use!

I use this GPS hooked up to my Icom IC-7100 for GPS input. I did have to splice off the adaptor and wire it to a mini-stero plug and 12 volt power source, but it was no more soldiering work than the average ham is familiar with. I keep this powered on 24-7 and it never skips a beat after months of continuous use. It is small and effective at what it is designed to do.

This is a great little GPS. It locks on to the satellites quickly and holds the signal well even in the cabin of my boat where it has to go through the body of the boat. It seems to pick up the signal very quickly after a restart too although I haven't tried it if I move it some distance before I try. My only gripe is with the connector which is a PS2 mouse plug but using non standard pins. To connect it to the ships radio for DSC, I had to make a custom cable to feed it power and to take the GPS signal to the radio. It would have been easier to cut off the plug but I didn't know if it would work to start with.

very nicehad the discontinued version for years and worked well on Win XP- 7 however was not compatible with Win 8 and up.This unit worked perfect on my Win 10 integrated on my chart program PolarView from Polar Navy.This version comes driver to be installed in a mini CD, the older unit do not recall been included.excellent product,great price.

Absolutely fantastic. Worked in Windows 10 Pro 64bit desktop without installing ANY drivers.Worked in Windows 7 Pro 64bit laptop without installing ANY drivers.Neither OS required a restart..I'm using it with Street Atlas USA 2015 Plus [Download] an offline gps program. Street Atlas USA recognized it immediately without my needing to select it.The settings if needed are -Device: GlobalSat BU-353Port: USBSettings: 4800,8,N,1If your computer picks anything else, set it to the above settings.The first time that Street Atlas USA locked on to the satellites it took about a minute and a half. After that, Street Atlas USA locks on to the satellites in the blink of an eye.Testing it on both computers *INSIDE* my home, it picked up 7 to 8 satellites!No question about it - this is one great GPS receiver.As to the many 1 star reviews, I didn't find any that were valid. That's not to say that some people have computer problems that they don't know how to resolve, or that someone didn't get a bad unit. But I had absolutely NO problems.

Purchased this to use with my netbook and Microsoft Streets & Trips. It connected right away and worked great. So cool that you can just put out the window on the roof of your car with the strong built-in magnet. I wanted to use it on a road trip that I had planned on the Streets & Trips software which included over 90 stops along the way. The only problem is the voice on Streets & Trips is not loud enough even with the speakers turned all the way up on the netbook. I could not hear the directions in the car at all, so I sent it back and purchased a regular GPS.

I wanted a simple, inexpensive, but accurate GPS receiver to use with Google Earth's "real-time GPS" function. This GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB GPS Receiver works perfectly for that use. It is small and unobtrusive and the long cord allows it to be placed on the dashboard of my car.With my laptop in my car and the GlobalSat BU-353-S4 plugged into its USB port my position is shown very accurately in Google Earth. I have taken a number of test drives and this GPS receiver updates my moving position with just a little delay (it may be Google Earth that is causing the delay). This GPS receiver is so accurate that if I drive one direction on a two-lane road and then drive back the other direction, the route lines in Google Earth can be seen to be separate and right over the corresponding lane used. Please note that for this setup to work - without any currently active internet connection - the satellite imagery must have been previously loaded into the Google Earth cache (do an internet search for "google earth offline" and follow links from there; it is possible to create multiple caches of different areas).The GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB GPS Receiver comes with a small but handy application, GPS Utility, which can be used to check the functioning of the receiver. The app displays a sky map of all of the GPS satellites detected and the signal strength, as well as the raw data stream from all detected satellites. It also provides data for current longitude, latitude, heading, elevation, and speed. Please note that it appears that the computer port used by this GPS receiver cannot be used by two applications at the same time - only one app can access the GPS satellite data at a time - so if running Google Earth "real-time GPS" the GPS Utility app will not receive the GPS data at the same time.In summary, this GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB GPS Receiver works perfectly and is exactly what I was looking for. It should work for any "GPS aware" application (such as Google Earth).

This item works as advertised. I use it to bring GPS into Nobeltec Navigation software on my new laptop running Windows 8.1. My old receiver would not work with Windows 8 so I had to purchase a new one. This item was 1/3 the cost of my old one and works just as well!Install was a breeze. I followed the instructions on the disc included in the box, which had a link to their website with the most current drivers. Once the drivers installed, I rebooted and loaded the included GPS Info program to test the receiver and see what port it was being assigned. All worked as it should. One thing to note, you must close GPS Info before bringing data into another app/program. Of course this is in the instructions as well.Nobeltec's setup wizard picked it up right away and it is working great!

I bought this because my existing BU-353 did not work with my new Windows 8 computer. I think you will be happy with this product but make very sure it is a BU-353-S4. The S4 has the new chipset and earlier versions do not. Take care on the model number. This antenna will work for you for real time navigation with Streets and Roads, Topo USA and other laptop navigation software, and give you a precise location. I find it helpful and more reliable than tethering a handheld GPS to my laptop. This receiver gets is power from your laptop and has no batteries to worry about

I can't review this for its intended purpose for the most part. I bought this to use with my telescope mount where I cut off the end and put a telephone type connection on it and it plugs into my telescope mount where it provides gps coordinates. Works perfectly for what I use it for.I get lots of sat locks and pretty fast.

I took the connector off of this unit and hooked it to an ICOM 880H to provide gps data for my DSTAR transmissions. After a little trial and error, I figured out the pin outs and got this thing working. I've left it powered for weeks, and sometimes it will "hang" and need to be restarted. I now power it on and off daily. If you're using this for some remote solution that you will not have access to for months, I'd come up with some way to remotely reset it.

Bought this last year for use with the Stratux Project. (ADS-B.) It works fine, although we found that the new VK-162 works better. (Receives more satellites.) And the VK-162 is cheaper too.As a result, the Stratux Project will be moving away from supporting the BU-353.

Bought this guy to make myself a gps unit with a Raspberry Pi. It took some tweaking on the Pi's part, but I did get it to work. It picks up signals really fast and doesn't draw much power at all. Great product.

Bought it with one-day shipping with sunday delivery, it arrived on time, hooked up to my Asus laptop running windows 10 instantly, connected and worked perfectly with Google Earth's GPS function without even installing any drivers. Kudos for a good product. The reason it is not 5 stars is that the directions, on paper and on the included mini CD, were not all that much. Info is king, but hey, it worked without needing anything so I guess we're good to go.

Great little device!!! My one complaint, they don't offer it in a micro USB plug to use with a tablet. Had to try two different OTG cables to get it to work... Now is up and running perfectly... Small neat and very sensitive. With my BU-353-S4 , a $20 tablet, some free software and the $5 OTG device I now have perfectly working GPS in my car on a 7" screen with voice directions as well.

I purchased this receiver to replace a previous generation BU-353 that wasn't compatible with current Windows USB driver software. I use the receiver in conjunction with Microsoft Streets and Trips (now discontinued) and laptop when we make our annual pilgrimage from upstate NY to Orlando FL to find hotels, Starbucks and hotels en-route. This new receiver performs admirably in being able to pick up satellites more quickly, reliably and with more satellite fixes than the older version. For example, it was able to find satellites from my den deep inside my home that the older BU-353 was not able to do. And similar to the previous version, it is thoroughly weather-proofed and has held up in rain, sleet, snow and sub-zero temperatures. (Also in my role as chief navigator, now I can continue to relinquish most of our long-distance driving to my wife!). A quality product.

This unit works very well. However, if you are running Windows 7, do not use the drivers on the included CD-ROM. Go to the Globalsat website and download the newest ones for proper operation.

Not to clear instructions, should have got the USB version.

I purchased it to use with a Linux Computer and had a difficult time getting it to work, it did however work with my Windows 7 computer with no problems whatsoever.

Yes it gives me my location coordinates on my lap top but it just does notintegrate with my "MapQuest" navigation program for which it was intended.

Works in Linux well, but there are a lot of things this "Says" it does that it doesn't.WAAS/ EGNOS Support.... Yeah, it has support but can't ever seem to get a lock.CGEE-start time of less than 15 seconds under most conditions... That condition must be planets aligning. This fluctuates from 10-20 seconds to several minutes. I have a non-current clock (using this as a time source) so if it is back-feeding time data, it may be messing it up.Magnetic... If it is, I wouldn't leave it on my roof if the wind was blowing 3 kts. I couldn't get any decent stick on my car, but take that with a grain of salt as I didn't really try hard.Having said all of that, I didn't /need/ WAAS, and startup time only happens once, and I planned on leaving this in my car, so frankly this product is okay, and pretty good for the price, but if you need higher quality you may want to look elsewhere.If you need PPS, this doesn't support it either. Google "gpsd hardware catb" for a list of and ranking of GPS hardware. Here is what the site has to say about this model:"This receiver does not support PPS timing output. Much like the BU-353 except for using a SiRFStar IV chip. Has poor sensitivity and takes a lot longer to cold-start than the vendor claim 45 of 45 seconds. Gary Miller rates this device "DO NOT EVER BUY ONE!", observing "The big selling point of the SiRF IV is the lower power needs. Looks like they made that happen at the expense of sensitivity and timeliness of fixes." Also, has the SiRF-IV tendency to freeze when switched from binary to NMEA mode (power-cycling it unjams it)."

It was difficult finding a driver for this unit that would work on win 8. Have not tried it out yet on windows 10. I gave it 3 stars because it should have already had the updated drivers, or pointed me to where I could find them.

This unit did not work out for me. Maybe it was my laptop's inability. I don't know. I no longer have it. No complaining.

Used it on my last boat trip and it worked great. we did a 61NM trip with it and was interfacing with OpenCPn softwareIt gives the best bang for your dollar.

My oversight but be careful since the plug for this fits very few computers.

Haven't been able to get it work on my laptop.

The company was sold to another company and they are no longer providing updates, so basically useless.

Incomplete software does not permit GPS info transfer to navigation or maps appsReceiver works with good satellite sensitivity

What good is this? It doesn't work with any map programs like Google or bing. The only thing I have found that it might work with is Microsoft streets and maps which they quit making several years ago. Yeah I works with Windows 8.1 and with windows 10 all right, but it does nothing and it ended up in my glove box

Does not work with Window RT ... would have been nice to know. I called tech support and was advised that Windows RT support and drivers are not available. There are no plans to create drivers for RT. The product seems very well made however and if you're using a compatible device I expect performance will be satisfactory.

Out of the box experience is poor. No manual. Online documentation is scattered and poorly organized. I did have to find and install a driver from the web; then, the GSP would work with old-style desktop apps. Never could get it to work with modern Windows 8 Metro/Store Apps. Sending it back for a refund.

won't work on my computer, ps2 connector will not adapt to USB. waste of time and money.

Misrepresented availability and non-delivery occurred.

Don't bother with this one, it uses the cheapie Chinese counterfeit Prolific chip, and causes compatibility problems. Very disappointed.

Can not get it to work with Windows 10.

Used it twice with my marine charting system. On the third time it failed to work. No amount of resetting would make it work. Too late to return it so it is destined for the trash bin.

Bought to use on a IBM Thinkpad, win 7 pro 64 bit laptop, with nautical navigation programs. The same apps work perfectly with internal GPS on my tablet, but either give wrong location or PORT errors when using this model. Even if it did work, I am not happy about other features. My simple Samsung tablet's gps works inside my house, this has to be taken outside to see the sats, a PITA when doing settings.. Not having a reduce button so that it is not always on the desktop, is very annoying as well. I have never seen an app or device that does not tell what it is compatible with until this one. So please save your replies of "well it works fine with mine" That's how it is, not every device or app works on every system. If you are needing gps for waterways, do some homework before wasting $$ on this.

Anyone know what kind of driving or map freeware I can use for this? For offline use? Downloaded Google Earth but cant tell if it's reading the device. Looks complicated too. I want to use a laptop for a large display when driving.

They say it works with the old National Geographic TOPO state series CD's & program but it doesn't. Tried everything. Waste of money.