New project: GPS Interface

skippy76 · 09-14-2004, 03:30 PM

Dear all,

I'm planning on working on a GPS interface. This is intended to be a supplement to the existing software out there. Therefore it's intended that you will need a com port splitter (software).

The GPS software will have the following functionality:

- Digital Speedo
* Dial / Digital
* Kph / Mph / Knots
- Tacometer / Tripometer
- Heading
- Satalite status
- Speed Alert
- Screen Gamma change based on location & sunset time
- Volume control based on speed
- Positional data logging for black box / third party use (veihcle tracking).

Any other thoughts on functionality? Note that I don't intend to have any interface into any navigation / mapping software (e.g. Routis, Mappoint).

Thanks

Andrew

frodobaggins · 09-14-2004, 03:32 PM

You can always try my philosophy.

skippy76 · 09-14-2004, 03:41 PM

Well, yeah I agree. I kind of thought that if I threw everything in including the kitchen sink, then less people would hound me for new functionality once it's written and distributed!

frodobaggins · 09-14-2004, 03:43 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by skippy76

Well, yeah I agree. I kind of thought that if I threw everything in including the kitchen sink, then less people would hound me for new functionality once it's written and distributed!

DON'T COUNT ON IT

jcdillin · 09-14-2004, 03:48 PM

Thats why I just use a garmin handheld gps for most those items, gives me all I need. Speed limit changes so often for most roads I just leave it off in my software. Still seems like a good idea though.

stevieg · 09-14-2004, 03:53 PM

I don't know about anyone else, but the only GPS splitter software I have found that survives standby is GPSGate (which costs) and sometimes, weirdly it lags behind and spurts out data that's a minute old - which is why I have stopped using it.

If you're going to make this software, what are you're thoughts on adding a GPS Splitter driver with standby support built in to the software?

Also, if you are going to have it log tracks, I would suggest to an ODBC data source - so people could log to an access database all the way upto MySQL/MSDE/SQL2000 - whatever they want - that way it would be easy to make a plug in to syncronise the data somewhere else, or re-use the data in another program

mykolJay · 09-14-2004, 03:54 PM

Not that I wouldn't prefer and nicer looking interface for the functionality, such as large digital guages, I feel like much of the things you listed are included in iguidance v2.0.

I know it inlcudes:
Digital Speedo
* Dial / Digital
* Kph / Mph / Knots
- Tacometer / Tripometer
- Heading -no
- Satalite status
- Speed Alert
- Screen Gamma change based on location & sunset time -no
- Volume control based on speed -no
- Positional data logging for black box / third party use (veihcle tracking). (maybe)

but I'll still support you. I live extra guages. Thats why I love my OBDII interface.

skippy76 · 09-14-2004, 04:02 PM

Isn't there an app that creates a comport based on data provided over IP? If so, I could supply data over an IP connection.

skippy76 · 09-14-2004, 04:11 PM

mykolJay: I'm not really sure how usable iguidance is with touch screens. The idea of me creating this is we can easily meet the demands of mp3car.com users. For example, people want to write car tracking systems. This would greatly reduce the development time for them as they would not need to create the GPS system, they would just need to interface to the database.

Yang · 09-14-2004, 04:57 PM

I would love an app that simply decodes location/speed/heading etc into a stream I can pipe into a perl script that I can then parse and send messages to Girder for whatever even I want.. This would make things like speed related volume adjusment, on screen messages, etc, easily doable and customizable.

skippy76 · 09-14-2004, 06:01 PM

Speed related volume adjustment I intend to cover.

Again, the intention is that I shall provide some source for the data. The source will probably be via database for non-realtime applications. For real time apps, we either have to use a comport splitter or maybe provide the data over a TCP session.

skippy76 · 09-15-2004, 09:14 PM

Ok, so I've started.... I've spent the day looking for custom controls, I was looking for an odometer control and a gauge control for VB .NET.... I tell you, the amount of good FREE controls has dwindled over time!

So, I wrote my own odometer control this afternoon... works pretty good.

Now I'm looking for a GPS interface for VB .NET. Any suggestions? No sense in reinventing the wheel! that's what I say...

Regards,

Andrew

rando · 09-16-2004, 12:59 AM

I've got a NMEA class and GPS class that I wrote in VB.Net. I use them on top of a RS232 class I found on the web. I have a small front end that clones the AGPS plugin for Mappoint look and feel (no not all the routing stuff, just the GPS status window). It handles RMC and GGA strings and has the framework in place for dealing with others, if you want them. It fires an event upon receiving a valid GPS string. The state of each GPS parameter is maintained so you can poll the GPS object via its properties at any time. The RS232 reading is done asynchronously in a background thread.

I'm not much of a .Net guy -- this was my first effort at anything beyond a few lines. The code appears to work but hasn't been rigorously tested -- It may not even be in a running state. I really don't recall how I left it. It's certainly not an example of how to do things right in .NET.

Here is how you might use it with your Odometer control.

'Create and init GPS reader
moGPS = New GPS
moGPS.COMPort = 1
moGPS.Enable()

'Update ODO with current speed
'Assume moSkippyOdometer is already initialized and visible.
'You'd probably want to do this inside your event handler or main program loop.
moSkippyOdometer.Speed = moGPS.Speed

If you want the code, you can have it. How about you post the source to your control to get the ball rolling. Then I'll reciprocate. Maybe we can start an atmosphere of code sharing around here. What do you say?