Anyone get the GPS to work in a Latitude St2?

Has anyone been able to get their GPS to work on the Dell Latitude St2 Win 8? I can't find any reference to it anywhere but in the Dell Sales literature. It's attached to the WWAN card and have seen ads about geo-tagging pics.
Calls into Dell Tech Support tell me the GPS is actually coming from the cellular carrier and a subscription to that carrier is required for the GPS to work. I want the NMEA output from the GPS for standalone GPS apps and Google Maps.
If it doesn't work it's a deal breaker for me. Any Ideas?

Mike

 

I just brought up two apps from the app store. One called "sensors" that displays sensor data and another called "gps satellite" and both were able to determine my position even from inside my living room. The coordinates and altitude are both reading correctly also. I don't have the WWAN option, just the standard build. Its definitely reading a standard GPS sensor.

 

I do not have WWAN, and there are 3 separate radios--WiFi, GPS, and BT.

 

I spent a couple of hours on the phone with tech support, he reloaded a couple sets of drivers but could not prove to me that the
GPS was working It's using a different standard than I am accustomed to but now that I know it's working I can see how to get into settings.



Thanks!

Mike

 

It's the middle of March now, the GPS seems to work fine using apps from the Microsoft store but the GPS is not showing up on any port that I can use with windows. I use it with a offline mapping program that looks for the GPS on a com or USB port, none of which I have found. Wifi testing programs Inssider and Netstumbler can also use GPS info if present.

Does anyone have any insight on how to get the GPS in the tablet accessible to Windows applications - a virtual com port?. I expected to find the GPS somewhere in device manager but I don't think the Dell guys created or enabled that function.

 

I'm pretty sure Windows 8 and later on in Windows 7 that Microsoft was preferring devices to be presented as human interface devices (HID) instead of the now aging COM standards.

Windows Sensor and Location Platform

Try playing with the sensor diagnostic tool in the Windows Driver Kit to confirm

Info: Testing sensor functionality with the Sensor Diagnostic Tool (Windows Drivers)

Download: Windows Driver Kit (WDK)

My guess is the OS is using a HID device presented by SPB to talk to i2C sensors. Especially since i2C omits the need for a hub or additional resource assignments - Sensor Device Testing Prerequisites

 

Very Good Answer and Information Thank You

Not following the Windows evolution in the past decade I did not even know what a SPB is - I had to look it up. Now knowing it's a new implementation of a data bus I guess replacing Old school Ser and Par Ports my next question is how can I get ahold of that data to redirect to a com or USB port - something that my Windows based software can access and use? Do you think it's going to take a new version of the software that reads the SPB?

 

In a word, yes. Someone could also write a hid to com driver and then pass the nema data from the gps. Updated software is cleaner and more efficient though.