NetStumbler.org Forums - View Single Post

ac57846 · 08-14-2003

The limitation about running NS (or PW) and mapping software concurrently is that both want full control of a serial port on which they will listen for NMEA sentances.

The issue for most of us is that we only have one serial prt, the sync port. Add a second serial port and the two applications can have one each.
One place to get a single card with two serial ports is http://www.socketcom.com/product/serial_dual.asp, this would go well in a dual PCCard jacket on an iPAQ alongside your favourite NS compatible WLan card.

Now we ask ourselves, how do I get one GPS to supply data to two serial ports?
The great news is that since we are only listening for data from the GPS (not sending any data to it) this is quite simple. Connect the ground pins of the two serial PPC ports to the ground pin of the GPS serial port. Then connect the data out pin of the GPS serial port to the data in pins of the two PPC serial ports.

Personally I'm still hoping that Marius will offer us a GPS API for NS 0.4 that will allow my little eVB application to send it NMEA sentances the way that it sends them to OziExplorerCE (http://216.218.220.254/ozice/ozice_api_docs.html or http://www.oziexplorer.com/ for the main site)

08-14-2003	#6 (permalink)
ac57846 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New Zealand Posts: 13	One GPS + splitter cable + two serial ports = Ministumbler & moving map at same time. The limitation about running NS (or PW) and mapping software concurrently is that both want full control of a serial port on which they will listen for NMEA sentances. The issue for most of us is that we only have one serial prt, the sync port. Add a second serial port and the two applications can have one each. One place to get a single card with two serial ports is http://www.socketcom.com/product/serial_dual.asp, this would go well in a dual PCCard jacket on an iPAQ alongside your favourite NS compatible WLan card. Now we ask ourselves, how do I get one GPS to supply data to two serial ports? The great news is that since we are only listening for data from the GPS (not sending any data to it) this is quite simple. Connect the ground pins of the two serial PPC ports to the ground pin of the GPS serial port. Then connect the data out pin of the GPS serial port to the data in pins of the two PPC serial ports. Personally I'm still hoping that Marius will offer us a GPS API for NS 0.4 that will allow my little eVB application to send it NMEA sentances the way that it sends them to OziExplorerCE (http://216.218.220.254/ozice/ozice_api_docs.html or http://www.oziexplorer.com/ for the main site)