My old usb gps puck finally bit the dust for some reason (now outputs garbage, if anything at all). So I'm looking for something a bit easier to use.

From order of importance (high to low)

New chipset
Good battery life
ability to use via usb as well (optional, but I'm curious as to what my options are on this, most seem to just be for charging)
Charge via usb (do they all pretty much do this?)

I'm going to be using this primarily tethered to my laptop for navigation, although I may tether it with a more mobile device down the road (don't have one yet.

 Thanks in advance!

Hi Tuckie,

 Welcome. Please consider the i-gotU GT-200 below:

http://www.buygpsnow.com/i-gotU-GT-200-Bluetooth-GPS-Data-Logger-Tracking-Receiver-gt200_igotu.aspx

It is using SiRF StarIII chipset, which is a very reliable chipset with great accuracy and GPS performance.

It comes with a USB cable that may be used for charging and GPS data at the same time. I recommended this one because you could use the unit as a USB GPS receiver at 4800 bps.

All other Bluetooth units that could also be used as a USB GPS receiver such as Holux GPSlim 236/ 240/M-241/M1000/M1200 or Wintec, Qstarz, etc send out data at 9600 bps or higher. This means you have to use the GPS Gate software to intercept the data and output it to another virtual COM Port at 4800 bps.

Almost all mapping software such as Microsoft Streets and Trips and Delorme only accept a baud rate of 4800. So, with the i-gotU GT-200, you could use it with most navigation software in the market without the need to downgrade the baud rate.

Hope this helps.

It definately looks like a good option, but the usb connector looks a bit odd in the picture; is it just a standard mini usb connector, or some sort of proprietary connector? If so, what else would your recommend (maybe with better battery life, its hard to look for this spec on your site)?  I would probably use gps gate anyway, as I would often be piping the data to multiple sources. 

It uses a proprietary connector.

You said, "its hard to look for this spec on your site". Could you please clarify? Most of our products have a GPS Specification tab. Did you click on the tab but could not see the contents?

Did you look at Qstarz BT-Q1200 Ultra? ( 48 hrs battery live with the option of solar charging)

http://www.buygpsnow.com/Qstarz-BT-Q1200-Ultra-Bluetooth-Solar-GPS-Travel-Recorder-Data-Logger-Q1200U.aspx

 

If you could live with 12-hrs battery live but get the latest chipset 66-channel, you should consider the Qstarz BT-Q1300 below:

http://www.buygpsnow.com/Qstarz-BT-Q1300-Super-Slim-Nano-Keychain-Bluetooth-GPS-Data-Logger-Travel-Recorder.aspx

 

or 51-channel Qstarz BT-Q818 Extreme with 32-hrs of battery live:

http://www.buygpsnow.com/Qstarz-818-eXtreme-Bluetooth-GPS-Receiver-51-ch-MTK--32hrs--1-5Hz-Configurable--Dual-USBBluetooth_984.aspx

 

As far as it being hard to look for specifications, I know they are provided on the product pages, I just wish there was a way to have a few more sort options on the main listings, such as price, battery life, time to position fix, weight, built in memory etc.  The first looks a bit bigger than I was looking for, but the next two are definately the one's I'm going to consider.  I'm going to do a bit of research, but I will definately buy from you guys (now that I think about it, I think my original usb gps was purchased by you guys through ebay).