Adding GPS support to a Wi-Fi only iPad
Solution 1:
Using External GPS / GNSS With iOS
This requires :
- The external GPS must be a Made for iPod (MFI) certified External Accessory (EA) that support iOS (has the Apple authentication chip) via a Bluetooth connection to the GPS
- Requires that iOS Core Location Services be overridden by one of two methods so that all apps on the iPhone/iPad will use the external GPS.
- 1) Use of an app such as EOS Tools Pro that receives location information and overrides iOS Core Location Services.
- 2) The External Accessory (EA) itself somehow overrides iOS Core Location Services.
I do not understand how this is done.
Only devices made by SXblue https://sxbluegps.com/products/gps-gnss-receivers/ can do this MFI magic AFAIK.
I have found only a few GPS manufactures that support iOS:
- BadElf (lower accuracy but lower cost)
- EOS https://eos-gnss.com/product/arrow-series/arrow-gold/
- BlueStar (rebranded EOS devices) http://bluestargps.com/index.html
- SXblue https://sxbluegps.com/
- EOS (BluStar is EOS Arrow 200 I think). All these EOS devices support iOS:
- https://eos-gnss.com/comparison-chart
Sharing Android GPS with an IOS Device
I have no idea if this works.
How To Share GPS From An Android Phone To An iPad [Guide]
Solution 2:
Wi-Fi only iPad doesn't come with built in GPS and other positioning hardware (GLONASS, Galileo, and QZSS) which are available in current models of iPhone and Wi-Fi + Cellular models of iPad.
You can search the Web and find various wired/wireless (Bluetooth) accessories for your iPad that provide positioning functionality using GPS and a companion app.
I’m curious if an Android or iPhone could be used to share its GPS.
Generally speaking, an Android or iPhone can't be used out of the box as a GPS (positioning) accessory for your Wi-Fi only iPad. It is technically possible to create an app which will let you pair your iPad with a mobile device and view the positioning data, but the same can be done on the mobile device itself.