Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

My GPS is obviously wrong

pentium avatar
pentium
Old Salt
Who joined Aug. 28, 2006, 6:29 p.m.
and authored 3733 notes
Wrote the following at April 21, 2010, 5:41 p.m...
So I bought this Etak ET-GPS1 PCMCIA GPS adapter for my laptop and of course, no driver was included so all I had was google.
A bit of searching found a hint that if I installed the card as a 9600 baud serial port and set the protocol switch to NMEA it would still work well enough for Streets and Trips to get a fix on my position.
Needless to say, something is not right.


No matter how long I let the GPS take a fix on its position, I'm locked directly on that location and either this is because of my attempt to work without a driver or the GPS itself is stuck here. I have no idea how to determine what's the culprit.

_________________
:Crimson: :Onyx: :O2000: :PI: :Indigo: :Indigo: :O2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :Indy: :Indy: :Cube:

Image <-------- A very happy forum member.
neozeed avatar
neozeed
Journeyman
Who joined Feb. 17, 2010, 10:14 p.m.
and authored 44 notes
Wrote the following at April 26, 2010, 11:02 a.m...
Open up a terminal program, and 'talk' to the GPS... IIRC it'll just spew clock timings and stuff... but as you 'move' around they should change......

And for what it's worth, every time I go to Brooklyn, my GPS tells me I'm in the middle of the Hudson river.... It's a little annoying.

_________________
:Cube: O40-25Mhz!
porter avatar
porter
Old Salt
Who joined Nov. 1, 2006, 11:37 p.m.
and authored 2619 notes
Wrote the following at April 26, 2010, 10:13 p.m...
Can I presume that people know that GPS devices support multiple coordinate systems? Or does nobody actually lookup coordinates on a map anymore and let the device just do everything?
bri3d avatar
bri3d
Addict
Who joined June 28, 2008, 11:08 a.m.
and authored 566 notes
Wrote the following at April 26, 2010, 11:04 p.m...
neozeed wrote:
Open up a terminal program, and 'talk' to the GPS... IIRC it'll just spew clock timings and stuff... but as you 'move' around they should change......

And for what it's worth, every time I go to Brooklyn, my GPS tells me I'm in the middle of the Hudson river.... It's a little annoying.


It's called NMEA and it'll tell you anything you want. It's also a very well-documented protocol. Just Google NMEA, get a terminal emulator, and hit up the GPS.

I suspect it's a coordinate system issue like porter thinks.

_________________
:0300: <> :0300: :Indy: :1600SW: :1600SW:
pentium avatar
pentium
Old Salt
Who joined Aug. 28, 2006, 6:29 p.m.
and authored 3733 notes
Wrote the following at April 28, 2010, 1:07 p.m...
Well I finally managed to get a proper output at 4800, 8, N,1 and...
Code:
$GPZDA,195700,12,09,1990,,*49
$GPGSA,A,2,15,17,24,02,10,30,09,25,15,17,24,02,,100,*20
$GPGGA,195701,3727.575,N,12225.778,W,,00,100,0006,M,,M,,*4B
$GPGLL,3727.575,N,12225.778,W,195701,A*3B
$GPRMC,195701,A,3727.575,N,12225.778,W,000,134,120990,,*09
$GPVTG,134,T,,M,000,N,001,K*79


Translation...
Quote:
-UTC Date/Time and Local Time Zone Offset
-GPS DOP and Active Satellites
-Global Positioning System Fix Data
-Geographic Position, Latitude/Longitude
-Recommended Minimum Specific GPS/TRANSIT Data
-Track Made Good and Ground Speed

It looks okay but the output is obviously fixed. I'm sitting here at my computer inside the house and it's not possible for this to get a satellite signal.

_________________
:Crimson: :Onyx: :O2000: :PI: :Indigo: :Indigo: :O2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :Indy: :Indy: :Cube:

Image <-------- A very happy forum member.
nekonoko avatar
nekonoko
Site Admin
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 2:31 a.m.
and authored 7591 notes
Wrote the following at April 28, 2010, 1:21 p.m...
Maybe it's just giving default data due to lack of satellites. Etak was based in Menlo Park which isn't far from your indicated position fix (San Mateo county).

_________________
私のホバークラフト は鰻が一杯です。
IRIX Release 4.0.5 IP12 Version 06151813 System V
Copyright 1987-1992 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
pentium avatar
pentium
Old Salt
Who joined Aug. 28, 2006, 6:29 p.m.
and authored 3733 notes
Wrote the following at April 28, 2010, 2 p.m...
Well then I'll go setup the laptop on the deck and leave the GPS and the system alone for an hour or so to see what it does.

_________________
:Crimson: :Onyx: :O2000: :PI: :Indigo: :Indigo: :O2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :Indy: :Indy: :Cube:

Image <-------- A very happy forum member.
bri3d avatar
bri3d
Addict
Who joined June 28, 2008, 11:08 a.m.
and authored 566 notes
Wrote the following at April 28, 2010, 3:49 p.m...
Note that NMEA gives you fix status and active satellites so there shouldn't be any guesswork...

_________________
:0300: <> :0300: :Indy: :1600SW: :1600SW:
pentium avatar
pentium
Old Salt
Who joined Aug. 28, 2006, 6:29 p.m.
and authored 3733 notes
Wrote the following at April 28, 2010, 4 p.m...
I left it out for two hours and that was enough for it to dump the stale satellite data and reload everything. It now sees me in the correct location.

Edit: Yep. It's working perfectly now.

_________________
:Crimson: :Onyx: :O2000: :PI: :Indigo: :Indigo: :O2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :Indy: :Indy: :Cube:

Image <-------- A very happy forum member.