VK-162 Notebook USB GPS Navigation Module Support Google Earth GPS USB

I picked up one of these to see if I could make it work with a Windows 10 laptop for Open CPN navigation software for my sailboat. At first glance, it seemed to install but no matter what, I had no actual location lock. However, once I found there's a Virtual Com Port software download that took about 30 seconds to install and run, which then turned the USB into a "COM 5" port which could then be easily seen by the software, it works great. It locks on, even with the antenna in the center of the cabin inside, in about ten seconds after startup, and gave very good results over the subsequent trips. Very hard to beat for the price!

not easy to program. not worth it

was concerned about drivers and software (site leads to dead ends, non active redirects and so on) and no coherent support archive but of all things, wind 7 pro automatically detected the unit and after installing goggle maps for the laptop it was able to retrieve data stream without user intervention other than my installation of google map. who gets credit - google, microsoft, ubloc - not me.

I'm very happy with this product. It's always been a problem when traveling abroad and having to sign up for a service plan just to have GPS info on your phone. This works anywhere around the world, and it connects to my Surface Pro 4. I download the maps for the country traveling and it will pin point exactly where I am with-out having to pay any service. This is a great, easy, and an awesome solution for travelers.

There does not seem to be any software to read from this device other than the proprietary u-blox software that writes to a proprietary .ubx binary file. This is a giant hassle to deal with since you have to run their GUI to get the ubx file then run some other command like teqc to convert that to a useful format.If you just want a simple dump of the current lat/lon this device is a giant pain to deal with.You are completely on your own as far as figuring out how to use it. There is no documentation, and the drivers were a giant pain in the rear to find. Basically only buy this if you are interested in reading their spec and figuring out how to use it on your own.

I am running windows 10N and can not get the device to be recognized. Windows says the device is not functioning. I have been trying different drivers for to long, and assumed the issue was not getting the proper drivers and took to long to be able to return the device. Luckily it was not a lot of money. I got a refund so I can't really say anything bad about what happened. I wish it would have worked for me, don't know if it is an issue with Windows 10N or what.

Great value. I purchased this unit to pair with Victron's VENUS GX. It adds position so that the location of your installation is viewable on the VRM portal...and you can set a geofence to send notifications should your installation (Boat, or RV) move beyond the parameters of the geofence setting. Solid performance for this application.

This will pick up 7-8 satellites inside my house! I even use it in my basement for testing (antenna is placed near outside entrance. Acquires a fix fairly fast. This unit sends data to /dev/*whatever* buffer (linux) at a rate of once per second. So if you are like me and attempting to use this device at a fairly low level then this device is great. This device will connect to most GPS software programs utilizing GPS USB antennas. If you prefer a more high level language like Python, this device can easily be accessed via PySerial using Python. The NMEA sentences that the unit provides are GPGGA, GPVTG, GPGLL,GPGSV, GPGSA,and GPRMC. All of these sentences are streamed as new line terminated comma separated sentences. The device starts streaming the data as soon as it is plugged into the usb port!