KR1 and GPSd Technical Discussion

Scott · Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:47 pm Post subject:

Not to derail the KR1 GPS tech thread with a non-tech thread question... buuutt (you're all HERE):

How close to the day are we that a lay user can plug one or a few specific GPS devices into the KR1 and be up and working? I'm gonna use it... a cliche I HATE, but 'gestalt' and all...(hold yer stomachs): Plug n' Play?

tz1 · Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 4:50 pm Post subject:

I've been thinking about a source for the USB-RS232C adapter or cable. I have four, each took about 5 minutes with some basic wire tools and soldering iron.

Technically that is all that is needed if you have a commercial standard (4800 baud RS232 NMEA) GPS. All non-USB Garmins are like that or can be configured to be that, and most other (non-USB, wired) GPS units I've seen also meet the standard. There are even bluetooth to RS232 adapters which could be used with those kind of GPS units, but baudrate setting might be a problem.

I would probably package a cable plus a better (i.e. secure version of the) firmware file and instructions. You would just need to add the KR1, an activated compatible EVDO card, any compatible GPS (which probably could be included in the package, also note custom versions could support things like 5Hz update units). Update the firmware, plug the cable into the KR1 and GPS, and you would be ready to go.

Scott · Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 5:07 pm Post subject:

Thanks tz1. Nice. The roadmap's in my brain now. Cables I can make!

Michael · Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:21 pm Post subject:

We have a bunch of Garmin GPS PC 18 with IO Gear, and those do not work out of the box, possibly because they are US and the baud rate is set different. It would be great to get the modified firmware working with some off the shelf GPS + Cables. If not possible, off the shelf GPS and then we can make the needed cables (right Scott?).

tz1, if you need extra GPS or IO cables, let me know (privately) and I can send some your way.
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Scott · Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:40 pm Post subject:

tz1 · Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:11 pm Post subject:

One other note, any normal USB to Serial converter WILL NOT WORK. They connect true USB through a UART somewhere in the cable to RS232C.

You need one of my cables - cut a USB connector and run the three wires, green, white, and black to pins 2, 3 and 5 of a male RS232 connector, or you can try just putting pins on the ends of the wire and they should fit in a GPS18-PC RS232 connector with the same pins - 5 is ground, the other two are Transmit Data and Receive Data, but they switch depending on which end. An RS232 LED box might help.

True USB can't do RS232, nor can the RS232 over serial as done in the diagnostic connector talk to any true USB hardware.

spaceskater · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 15

tz1 great work! thanks! I found the thread this morning (I was away for spring break) and of course I immediately Built a wire and plugged my Haicom HI-204E mouse GPS, flashed the firmware and I was ready to go! I already have a car pc and my KR1 is mounted permanently in my car. I connected with terminal and I could see NMEA data! So exited... Then I tried to create a virtual com port with the program I already use for replicating com ports but for some reason it didn't work... (I use GpsGate by Franson), Then took you suggestion and used HW VSP and it worked very well. Only annoyance in that was that I had to manually start the raw data by sending R. BTW I could not use the console command. I used terminal to send R initially the used any other program on the VSP.

Then I tried to connect to port 8888 with no success... Confused

I could not connect in any way to the server... I used IE to connect from the LAN. Have you added this future or is it working only in yours? I tried terminal I it did send me back some HTML code in text. How can I access the feed remotely? say from my home computer? same way just with my DDNS address? I really liked the idea of the web page that people can access and See where I am. vOnce again I feel the need to thank you!

tz1 · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:00 am Post subject:

The x1002-1.bix has the 8888 port, the x1002.bix does not.

If it works on the LAN port it ought to work on the WAN port, however sometimes the connection light will be on but the dyndns update may not have taken yet or it may not be quite finished connecting although ppp is running.

Yes, you can get to any of the three ports by using the dyndns address (after it goes through). My http://kr1gps.dyndns.org:8888/ does this - I have the kr1gps.dyndns.org, and my login stuff on the DDNS kr1 page.

That HTML code you see IS the output of port 8888 - if you save it, IE should be able to parse it. I don't know why IE would have trouble, or maybe it was only semi-connected when you tried with IE or missed a typo, or have some wierd IE settings. I don't produce a proper HTML header (which is prefixed to normal http), but I tried it with my version of IE, firefox, and opera on my Zaurus and they all worked.

You don't need to send an R on port 22947, it is a full transparent passthrough to and from the UART (if the white wire is also connected), so if you upfeed DGPS data, or things like turning sentences on or off they should also work through that port. 2947 is the normal GPSD so things like the P command for position work on that - the Raw is more of an extension, but a lot of programs use it.

tz1 · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:05 am Post subject:

One other note on 22947 v.s. 2947 - 22947 allows only ONE connection since it also sends data from the port to the GPS, so you can't easily use two mapping programs without some fancy serial port multiplying software.

You can create multiple serial ports on up to 8 connections on 2947 and (after sending the R) all will have the raw GPS data (the HW virtualizer can be run multiple times - see the instructions about the command line, and you can even create shortcuts).

tz1 · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:19 pm Post subject:

My most recent connector for the diagnostic port to the GPS.

The silver lines show the connection. There is a dot where there is a pin but no connection. The top image has pins 1-5 of the DB9 on the left, with the USB on the right, the top is the (unused) 5v red, then the white and green, and black/ground on the bottom. The top part of the USB connector is the hollow part with plastic on the bottom (deeper into the screen as you are looking at it).

The second one is flipped 180 degrees but shows the RS232 pins, the top row just barely.

Scott · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:09 pm Post subject:

NICE tz1! Clean and simple.

spaceskater · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 15

@ tz1, It works very well now! The Semi HTTP page loads from the WAN and I can also use port 22947 to locally connect any mapping software to it. Now I will be trying to connect to 22947 from the WAN so I can create a virtual port on the remote machine. Sounds the same with what I did before. I already have DDNS address so I'll just add the port number and it should work.

Great work tz1! thanks so much!

tz1 · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:31 am Post subject: Update

I've updated my gps firmware:

http://homepage.mac.com/tz1/.Public/ddnsfix.bix

It fixes the dyndns abuse problem.

GPSD enhancements:

+ B command to change the baud rate (so you can use different speed GPS or other things).

+ The passthrough port (22947) now works in both directions.

It is also a fat release with lots of extra utilities and telnetd on, so it isn't really secure. I still consider it beta.

(To save space I've removed the other files, PM me if you have reason to need an earlier one)

mysigp226 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 42

yeah!!! Got notice that my KR1 has shipped. Step 1 is get your (tz1) image installed. I'll provide feedback in a week or two.

I'm going to try and use it operationally on a storm chase at the end of the month.

mysigp226 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 42