GPSProxy

Andrew Klopper · 09-05-2005, 06:16 PM

For those of you who have never heard of it, GPSProxy is an NMEA to Garmin Protocol translator that allow you to use a standard NMEA Bluetooth GPS with the Garmin Que app on the PPC. You still require a valid Garmin GPS Unit ID and corresponding map unlock code in order to be able to use the detailed maps, however.

For anyone from the "other" forum eagerly awaiting an update, a built-in virtual serial port driver for GPSProxy is looking very feasible at the moment. I have identified all of the functions and IOControls that a serial driver needs to support based on a sample serial driver included with Microsoft Platform Builder, and have started filling in the blanks. I hope to have something working by the weekend, but don't quote me on that...

For the non-techies among you, this means that GPSProxy will no longer require GPSGate (or similar) in order to communicate with Garmin Que. In theory an open source equivalent of GPSGate may be on the cards as well, but I don't know if I am feeling that energetic.

jmckie · 09-06-2005, 01:28 AM

Great work, Andrew. I'm definitely looking forward to this new release.

One further consequence of this development is that in conjunction with gpsgate, we should now be able to run other GPS apps alongside the Garmin Que app.

jonasolof · 09-06-2005, 02:54 AM

Great Andrew,

Garmin must have known this was coming. So they decided they had better include SiRF III technology in their future GPS receivers...

JHMCkie, could you please elaborate why it would take the version of GPSproxy which Andrew is now developing to run another nav program alongside Que using GPSgate. Is that because you can only run one instance of GPSgate at the time and it has until now been needed for GPSproxy?

bokkie · 09-06-2005, 03:14 AM

That's excellent news Andrew and I hope it pans out as expected. I know you will not want to divulge the source code for obvious reasons but would you be prepared to share some of the inside knowledge about how you went about it?

Andrew Klopper · 09-06-2005, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bokkie

I know you will not want to divulge the source code for obvious reasons but would you be prepared to share some of the inside knowledge about how you went about it?

It will be open source under the GNU licence. That's another reason why I am trying to get away from Platform Builder and the Codetelligence driver template. At the end of the day, it will all be my own code so I will be able to publish it freely, and you will be able to compile it using Embedded C++ which is also freely available. Of course, as usual it will come with absolutely no warranties whatsoever...

bokkie · 09-06-2005, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Klopper

It will be open source under the GNU licence. That's another reason why I am trying to get away from Platform Builder and the Codetelligence driver template. At the end of the day, it will all be my own code so I will be able to publish it freely, and you will be able to compile it using Embedded C++ which is also freely available. Of course, as usual it will come with absolutely no warranties whatsoever...

Thanks Andrew. We are all rooting for you. No pressure.

Edit: That you are prepared to make this open source is very noble and underlines you as a great guy! Many thanks from all of us.

jmckie · 09-06-2005, 09:01 AM

Quote:

could you please elaborate why it would take the version of GPSproxy which Andrew is now developing to run another nav program alongside Que using GPSgate.

Hmm, I'm not thinking clearly. You should be able to do so even now, by outputting to two virtual ports. Is this correct, Andrew?

bokkie · 09-06-2005, 11:06 AM

Andrew, if you need any help packaging an installation for it I'll be happy to help. I can craft it using InstallShield 11 but if I keep the project in binary format it can also be maintained using Microsoft's Orca which is free for download.

Andrew Klopper · 09-06-2005, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bokkie

Andrew, if you need any help packaging an installation for it I'll be happy to help. I can craft it using InstallShield 11 but if I keep the project in binary format it can also be maintained using Microsoft's Orca which is free for download.

That would be a great help, thanks. Installation should be fairly straightforward, even with the driver. Installing the driver simply involves copying a DLL to the Windows directory and creating a few registry entries. GPSProxy itself will load the driver dynamically. Installing GPSProxy is a matter of installing the program, creating a start menu shortcut, and installing OpenNETCF.

bokkie · 09-06-2005, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Klopper

That would be a great help, thanks. Installation should be fairly straightforward, even with the driver. Installing the driver simply involves copying a DLL to the Windows directory and creating a few registry entries. GPSProxy itself will load the driver dynamically. Installing GPSProxy is a matter of installing the program, creating a start menu shortcut, and installing OpenNETCF.

That should be quite straightforward. Are you using the 1.4 OpenNetCF? I think they introduced it as an urgent fix about 2 weeks after they announced 1.3.

If you want to let me know the name of the dll you need to copy, I can get that installation done first. I don't need an actual dll as I can copy another one just to get it installed. If you know what registry items/types you need I can add thosein advance. Then, once I've got the .msi produced and tested I can send that to you and give you the link at MSDN where to find Orca in case you want to manually edit the msi later.

GPSProxy can be added as well so the one install can do either or both depending on the feature selected at install time. It's a relative doddle with InstallShield as they provide specific PPC platform install facilities.