GPS

Hello all,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I think this is a good
place to start. I have been asked to write a small program, to run on a
laptop (or perhaps a PDA) that accepts log entries. They want several
fields captured, among them lat/long coordinates.

Is there a standard API for getting this info or will this need to be
written with a specific piece of GPS hardware in mind? I think I'm over my
head here. Any help would be appreciated.

Bill

Floyd
Sun Jul 25 17:35:00 CDT 2004

Look up the NEMA specifications and you'll get a lot of info about the data
format (google for "nema gps"). The protocol isn't that complex, but there
are a bunch of variations. You might want to look at
http://www.gpsdotnet.com/, it's a commercial GPS .NET product, and will
handle most of the low-level stuff for you.

--
Floyd Burger


"Bill McAlister" <wcmcalister@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uIhyAaocEHA.3716@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hello all,
>
> I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I think this is a good
> place to start. I have been asked to write a small program, to run on a
> laptop (or perhaps a PDA) that accepts log entries. They want several
> fields captured, among them lat/long coordinates.
>
> Is there a standard API for getting this info or will this need to be
> written with a specific piece of GPS hardware in mind? I think I'm over
my
> head here. Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Bill
>
>

John
Sun Jul 25 22:44:01 CDT 2004

> "Bill McAlister" <wcmcalister@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uIhyAaocEHA.3716@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I think this is a
good
> > place to start. I have been asked to write a small program, to run on a
> > laptop (or perhaps a PDA) that accepts log entries. They want several
> > fields captured, among them lat/long coordinates.
> >
> > Is there a standard API for getting this info or will this need to be
> > written with a specific piece of GPS hardware in mind? I think I'm over
> my
> > head here. Any help would be appreciated.

One of the guys at Falafelsoft posted this the other day...it is an intro
article on GPS with .Net...

http://www.falafelsoft.com/ShowPub.aspx?pubID=19

Hope that helps some...

John

Dick
Mon Jul 26 09:33:40 CDT 2004

Hi,

GPS receivers output serial data using the NMEA-0183A protocol. Decoding
this is fairly straight forward. I have example code for both desktop and
Compact Framework in my book (see below). Also, you may download the
Compact Framework DLL -- free -- from my homepage.

Dick

--
Richard Grier (Microsoft Visual Basic MVP)

See www.hardandsoftware.net for contact information.

Author of Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications, 3rd
Edition ISBN 1-890422-27-4 (391 pages) published February 2002.

Bill
Mon Jul 26 21:04:45 CDT 2004

Thanks to all yall!

News group people remind me that there is still good in the world :o)

Bill McAlister