Maybe I tried it too late last night, and I was too tired, but I didn't understand how this is supposed to work :-)

I installed bluez-utils-test with apt-get then your two deb packages with app manager.
I didn't find minigpsd in the menus, only the standalone python app, so I launched it from xterm. It did show up in htop but nothing appeared in the status bar and the test app did not seem to lock, at least not any faster than with the usual applet.

So I left it at that and went to bed. This morning the tablet was turned off with an empty battery, although it was almost full.

What am I doing wrong ? :-)