GPS receiver

[seanwitte]

I have a Garmin ETrex Vista. It comes with a serial cable to download information to a PC or grab the NMEA data stream. All you need for the RC is a null modem adapter and you're good to go.

Kevin's serial port library would make it pretty straight-forward to read and parse the stream. There is sample code for the BASIC Stamp, google can probably find it.

[John Gutmann]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

Not sure how closely it fits what you're looking for, but all recent Motorola iDEN phones (Nextel & BoostMobile) have GPS units built in. You can turn on NMEA 0183 output from these and access it over either serial or USB depending on which data cable you get. You might be able to find someone with an older i730 or something that they'd give you, or else you can find the Boost i415 for about $30 at places like Target & Wal-Mart. $10 will probably get you the data cable from eBay.

{edit} You don't need to have it activated to use the GPS, and the Boost i415 is a pre-paid so it can be bought w/o contract. {/edit}

oooooh! I like.....I will deffinately check it out, is it hard to turn on the output or is it just a setting on the phone?

-John

[John Gutmann]

Originally Posted by seanwitte

I have a Garmin ETrex Vista. It comes with a serial cable to download information to a PC or grab the NMEA data stream. All you need for the RC is a null modem adapter and you're good to go.

Kevin's serial port library would make it pretty straight-forward to read and parse the stream. There is sample code for the BASIC Stamp, google can probably find it.

What is the RC your talking about? Is it the FIRST Robot Controller?
And Kevins code is written specifically for the PIC in the Robot Controller.....it would be of very little use to me.

-John

[seanwitte]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

What is the RC your talking about? Is it the FIRST Robot Controller?
And Kevins code is written specifically for the PIC in the Robot Controller.....it would be of very little use to me.

-John

You only said "microcontroller", not a specific target platform. I assumed you were using either the IFI Robot Controller or some variation thereof. It doesn't matter as long as it has a UART to read the data stream and parse it. You can use a BASIC stamp.

http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/r..._gps_track.asp

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

oooooh! I like.....I will deffinately check it out, is it hard to turn on the output or is it just a setting on the phone?

It's just a setting in a menu.

[John Gutmann]

Oh, nice, I think I will have to check that out

-John

[karlcswanson]

I am going to look in to this too. It looks like boost mobile data charge is $.35 a day. I think a J2ME application could have access to the serial port and GPS. mologogo uses phones like this to make cheap gps trackers.

[John Gutmann]

ewww data charges....I would rather go get a etrex or something like that so I can use it while I hunt then too.

-John

[karlcswanson]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

ewww data charges....I would rather go get a etrex or something like that so I can use it while I hunt then too.

-John

no, the data charges are if you use the internet. Using the GPS is free.