GPS software

Necromatic · 03-14-2009, 10:19 PM

Hello everybody,

I am the new proud owner of an old GPS unit, Pharos GPS-360 that shipped with Microsoft's Streets and Trips 2006. Can an experienced user point me in the direction.

What I have tried: gpsdrive

I installed gpsdrive via Yast2 and it runs just fine, but it doesn't notice (or maybe it shouldn't even notice) that I have the GPS connected via USB. Here is the output of dmesg showing the GPS usb:

Code:

hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 6
usb 3-3: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 3
usb 3-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
pl2303 3-3:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
usb 3-3: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=aaa0
usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 3-3: Product: USB-Serial Controller
usb 3-3: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
usb 3-3: SerialNumber: 12345678

I am running OpenSuSE 11.0

Thanks in advance for viewing.

Necromatic

doc.nice · 03-15-2009, 06:17 AM

gpsdrive can connect to your gps with two methods:

First, it can use gpsd to connect.
gpsd is a program listening to your real GPS device and providing the data to applications using linux sockets or tcp ports.
This method has the advantage that you can use multiple applications with your gps at once.

You have to install gpsd and configure it so that it listens to the gps device on /dev/ttyUSB0 (the device name is shown in your dmesg output).

see man gpsd after installing gpsd for configuration information.

Second, it can connect directly to the gps.

When running gpsdrive, click "Preferences" and select the "Settings 2" tab page. At the bottom, you can enable "use serial conn." for the direct connection or diable it for gpsd usage.
When you enable "use direct conn.", you have to enter your device information in the fields below:
/dev/ttyUSB0 as device and baudrate 9600 or 19200, depending on your device.

hope this helps,
Florian

Necromatic · 03-15-2009, 08:22 AM

Thanks for your response! I'll post my results when I get home and configure gpsd.

archtoad6 · 03-20-2009, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necromatic

I'll post my results when I get home

Still haven't made it home???

Necromatic · 03-20-2009, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by archtoad6

Still haven't made it home???

Whooops! I've been under the catchup-on-schoolwork game the last few days :P

I actually got my Pharos GPS-360 working with gpsd. My problem was that Pharos has a huge startup issue; which I monitored by: cat /dev/ttyUSB0. It takes a good 5 minutes of nothing but unrecognizable characters before actual gps lon / lat numbers start to appear. It was at that point I could issue the command, gpsd -F /dev/ttyUSB0. Once I did that, gpsdrive immediately picked up my location here in MS. At this time I'm trying to figure out what I need to do in order to get gpsdrive to show me streets and towns etc etc. It currently only shows me a world view with my location on the coast of Mississippi (which is correct)

Here is a screenie of my gpsdrive http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1237608718

And also this output to the console seems to tell me that I need to get a map file

Code:

Creating main window
/root/.gpsdrive/way.txt: No such file or directory
Read 503 POI-Types from /usr/share/map-icons/icons.xml
map_koord.txt reloaded
/root/.gpsdrive/way.txt: No such file or directory
/root/.gpsdrive/way.txt: No such file or directory
/root/.gpsdrive/way.txt: No such file or directory

Solutions are welcome, and I'll be sure to post my solution if I find one on my own.

Cheers,

Necromatic

doc.nice · 03-24-2009, 02:49 AM

my gpsdrive version has a button "doenload maps" to get them from the web automagically, maybe "man gpsdrive" tells you something?