From: james m. <jam...@cw...> - 2005-11-14 22:16:26
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hi currently working with a garmin etrex with NMEA protocol over serial. does anyone have any recommendations for moving to a tiny OEM board, they all have the similar basic functions. build quality? layout of connectors? size? power consumption? service & support? many thanks James __________________________________________________________________________ Sent via Cable & Wireless Guernsey system at cwgsy.net |
From: Doug S. <do...@pr...> - 2005-11-14 22:40:23
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james mcewan wrote: > does anyone have any recommendations for moving to a tiny OEM board I have had good experience with u-Blox, Motorola, and Laipac modules, but the two that look most interesting to me now are Lassen IQ and the USGlobalSat EM-406. You can see both of them here: http://www.sparkfun.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&cart=443852&cat=63& I like lassen for its size, supply voltage (3.3v) and consumption (26mA). I used to have a big chart comparing many OEM modules, and I can say that all things considered (assuming small/mobile/battery operation is desired) Lassen IQ is just about the best I have seen in years. The other one, EM-406 is interesting because of its Sirf III engine and 20-channel tracking. But you pay the price in 5v supply and 70mA consumption. > they all have the similar basic functions. I've worked with a half dozen and they are all very similar. Almost all support NMEA and some proprietary binary protocol. > build quality? No complaints for any OEM modules I have used yet. > layout of connectors? This is fairly important and depends on your board/connection specifics. One thing that's a real PITA is most antennas are quite large and they usually come with long cables and large SMA connectors. Both of the above mentioned modules (Lassen and UsGlobalSat) have nice small embedded antennas. The Lassen has a short cable, the other is stacked on top of the OEM module). The host interface can be tricky too, in the past I had to solder wires onto a small SMT connector. In general, if you want the really small modules you'll either need to make a custom PCB with proper pads, or solder wires onto the SMT connector and glue or brace the module by other means (both work okay). > size? Smaller the better right? See this comparison image http://www.sparkfun.com/images/GPS/GPS-Compare-1.jpg From biggest to smallest they are Laipac PG-31, USGlobalSat EM-406, Lassen IQ, USGlobalSat ET-301. There are obviously many more around, but they don't get much smaller than this. > power consumption? 26 mA is very decent. Consumption has dropped a lot in recent years. The motorola OEM module I used five years ago was well over 100 mA. > service & support? No idea here, but none have ever failed. The most important support is good documentation. -- Doug |
From: Dan T. <log...@gm...> - 2005-11-14 23:22:43
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I've got a Lassen IQ myself and have had much success using it with the gumstix. Used gpsd on the 'stix to listen to the NMEA message stream from the lassen's second serial port. You can interface to the gumstix with just four wires (V+, GND, RX, TX), which is very neat. One problem I am still having, however, is an occasional failure of the serial connection to initialise (i.e. start working). No idea what the cause of this is, but it is annoying and generally means "power cycling" everything and starting again. Once things are working though, they carry on working. Gumstix (basix 400) and Lassen IQ last for over 24 hours on four 2000mAh batteries and I managed to plot a fantastic map of a walk I did with my Dad in a Google maps application, complete with satellite imagery - which impressed the old one if nothing else :o) Anyway, I've documented my progress (irregular evenings and weekends only at the moment) on my website... http://logicalgenetics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3D1206 http://logicalgenetics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3D1270 Cheers, Dan -- Dan Taylor Software Development Engineer, JTL Systems Ltd PhD Student, Reading University, UK http://www.logicalgenetics.com |
From: Brian G. <br...@ps...> - 2005-11-15 02:03:44
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Dan, Would you mind sharing how you put your GPS data into google maps? Brian Dan Taylor wrote: > I've got a Lassen IQ myself and have had much success using it with > the gumstix. Used gpsd on the 'stix to listen to the NMEA message > stream from the lassen's second serial port. You can interface to the > gumstix with just four wires (V+, GND, RX, TX), which is very neat. > > One problem I am still having, however, is an occasional failure of > the serial connection to initialise (i.e. start working). No idea > what the cause of this is, but it is annoying and generally means > "power cycling" everything and starting again. > > Once things are working though, they carry on working. Gumstix (basix > 400) and Lassen IQ last for over 24 hours on four 2000mAh batteries > and I managed to plot a fantastic map of a walk I did with my Dad in a > Google maps application, complete with satellite imagery - which > impressed the old one if nothing else :o) > > Anyway, I've documented my progress (irregular evenings and weekends > only at the moment) on my website... > > http://logicalgenetics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1206 > http://logicalgenetics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1270 > > Cheers, > > Dan > > -- > Dan Taylor > > Software Development Engineer, JTL Systems Ltd > PhD Student, Reading University, UK > > http://www.logicalgenetics.com > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. Get Certified Today > Register for a JBoss Training Course. Free Certification Exam > for All Training Attendees Through End of 2005. For more info visit: > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_idv28&alloc_id845&op=click > _______________________________________________ > gumstix-users mailing list > gum...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gumstix-users > |
From: Dan T. <log...@gm...> - 2005-11-15 10:35:53
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Brian, Here's an example (which may take a few seconds to load the data)... http://www.logicalgenetics.com/gmap/index.php?route_id=3D1&home_x=3D-0.7684= 4&home_y=3D51.74919&zoom=3D4 I used the Google maps API (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/) to embed the map in my web page and then some pretty simple techniques from the documentation to display the line. The whole thing is implemented in PHP and Javascript, which can be a strange combination but works quite well. Google use an RPC-like system to request XML data from a server and I use a similar technique to fetch map data from a mySQL database via a PHP interface. Anyway, none of this is on the gumstix at the moment. I've tried to get sqlite3 working to implement at least some database functionality there, but although the sqlite3 console application works, my app dies as soon as it makes a library call :o( At risk of thread-jacking this GPS conversation, I won't go on here.=20 Feel free to mail or wait for me to write the whole thing up as an article for my website ;o) Dan On 15/11/05, Brian Geiger <br...@ps...> wrote: > Dan, > > Would you mind sharing how you put your GPS data into google maps? > > Brian > > Dan Taylor wrote: > > > I've got a Lassen IQ myself and have had much success using it with > > the gumstix. Used gpsd on the 'stix to listen to the NMEA message > > stream from the lassen's second serial port. You can interface to the > > gumstix with just four wires (V+, GND, RX, TX), which is very neat. > > > > One problem I am still having, however, is an occasional failure of > > the serial connection to initialise (i.e. start working). No idea > > what the cause of this is, but it is annoying and generally means > > "power cycling" everything and starting again. > > > > Once things are working though, they carry on working. Gumstix (basix > > 400) and Lassen IQ last for over 24 hours on four 2000mAh batteries > > and I managed to plot a fantastic map of a walk I did with my Dad in a > > Google maps application, complete with satellite imagery - which > > impressed the old one if nothing else :o) > > > > Anyway, I've documented my progress (irregular evenings and weekends > > only at the moment) on my website... > > > > http://logicalgenetics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3D1206 > > http://logicalgenetics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3D1270 > > > > Cheers, > > > > Dan > > > > -- > > Dan Taylor > > > > Software Development Engineer, JTL Systems Ltd > > PhD Student, Reading University, UK > > > > http://www.logicalgenetics.com > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. Get Certified Today > > Register for a JBoss Training Course. Free Certification Exam > > for All Training Attendees Through End of 2005. For more info visit: > > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_idv28&alloc_id=16845&op=3Dclick > > _______________________________________________ > > gumstix-users mailing list > > gum...@li... > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gumstix-users > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. Get Certified Today > Register for a JBoss Training Course. Free Certification Exam > for All Training Attendees Through End of 2005. For more info visit: > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=3D7628&alloc_id=3D16845&op=3Dclick > _______________________________________________ > gumstix-users mailing list > gum...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gumstix-users > -- Dan Taylor Software Development Engineer, JTL Systems Ltd PhD Student, Reading University, UK http://www.logicalgenetics.com |