Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
you might also be interested to read Universal Serial Bus - the easy way (4 pages) and virtual com port drivers described at: http://www.dlpdesign.com/usb-easy-way.pdf Best regards Viktoras Graham Samuel wrote: Thanks Phil for that insight. I had a quick look at your link and staggered back, appalled. It reminded me of what a gentleman named Robert Lipe said to me on another list when he thought I was trying to reverse engineer the USB interface of my device (maybe I was - I had not considered Rev in the equation at that stage and had even less idea what I was doing). His advice started off: Reverse engineering USB protocols from scratch is possible, but only if you pass the entrance exam: Repeatedly jam a fork into your left eyeball.If, after about 40 jabs, your thought is man, this is great - my right eyeball needs a piece of this action, then reverse engineering USB protocols just might be your calling. I think I will just go back to sleep on this unless and until I can find out something more about the device I wanted to interface with. I suppose that I was seduced by the enormous number of USB-connected devices that surround me - right here where I'm sitting I can count 2 digital cameras, a printer, a scanner, a hard disk, an ADSL modem, a keyboard, three mice, a GPS training device, a SatNav, an Elgato TV receiver, a webcam, a digital storage card reader and a data key. Who knows what else I might find if I go into the other rooms in the house? And to think that the people who engineered them all had to write drivers for PCs and Macs, and (no doubt) they are all different. Compared to that, Rev programming seems so easy, doesn't it? Back to the day job. Graham On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:55:31 -0800, Phil Davis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Graham, Graham Samuel wrote: --- snip --- It looks to me as if my wish to create better software for it (on a Mac primarily) is pretty much a dead end - although if I can get hold of a serial-to-USB converter I might be able to experiment a bit. BTW I wonder why Rev has never entered the world of USB - I don't know about Linux, but for PCs and Macs, USB appears to be a completely standard interface and one which has been mandatory on all models of machine for many years. There must by a USB API for these operating systems - is it much more of a challenge to RunRev than the many other things they've had to incorporate? I do believe there is at least some level of demand. Graham You're certainly correct that USB is well-defined standard, evidenced by the many uses of it on all computing platforms and beyond. And as you might imagine, the USB standard is necessarily complex to do all it does. Here's a good introduction to USB: http://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/ I manage development of a system that uses a USB HID input/output device. The device has 9 backlit input keys whose lighted states and key events are managed/handled by a Rev-based app. The Rev app has no direct interface with the device driver; it interacts with the driver via a pass-through background app that provides a socket interface to the Rev app. On the Mac, the driver is actually a custom-built Kernel Extension (.kext) file; on Windows it's the Win32 version of the libUSB open-source library ( http://libusb-win32.sourceforge.net/ ). I imagine there may be better ways to implement this, but it is what it is. :o) It's the way we found we could make it work when it was initially needed. I know I haven't answered any questions here, but maybe it gives a little perspective. -- Phil Davis PDS Labs Professional Software Development http://pdslabs.net ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
On 4/3/08 10:45, Graham Samuel wrote: FWIW, the GPS device I described is marketed by a European sports retailer, Decathlon, as KeyMaze 300 GH-601. I've found out via the SiRF web site (the device uses a SiRFstarIII processor) that it is actually a rebranded GlobalSat GH-601 - this is GlobalSat of Taiwan. On the SiRF site this is further described at http://www.sirf.com/success_10.html Annoyingly the device is not described on GlobalSat's own web site (a site search reveals nothing), but strangely their FAQ pages provide a little info about downloading firmware for it etc. I suppose this means that either the thing is obsolete or else my retailer Decathlon has made an exclusive deal to market it - they are certainly selling it quite vigorously. I tried emailing GlobalSat to see if they have any more information available, but they didn't reply. I guess they don't deal with consumers. The device comes with a bit of PC software which is just about adequate, but I would not say that it was well-written or complete - its UI is crude and it doesn't even help to file all the information which it extracts from the device, and indeed it may be throwing away information (such as timestamps) which is just not visible to the user. It looks to me as if my wish to create better software for it (on a Mac primarily) is pretty much a dead end - although if I can get hold of a serial-to-USB converter I might be able to experiment a bit. ...not wishing to stop you from getting back to your day job, but you might not be completely at a dead end. AFAICT, almost all GPS devices are using SiRFStar II or III as the actual GPS chipset. (And FWIW a very large number of them are using Globalsat technology wrapped round that, regardless of the name on the box.) And at root these things output serial; so they are glued onto (I don't know much about electronics, can you tell?) a serial-USB chip in order to give them a USB interface. There seemed when I was working in this area to be two main sources of the latter: FTDI and ??Prolific?. Although the devices I was working with were Windows only, I was able to find Mac drivers for both of these things with a bit of googling on the net (because other products are using the same chipsets, and are marketed with Mac software). Once I got these installed I could simply open a port called /dev/cu.usbserial, and found that I was talking to the GPS device as if it was a serial device. So in fact Rev was dealing with a serial device; and the actual SiRF chipset was a serial device; there were just a few layers of bridging over USB going on between the two. So I reckon that there's a fair chance that you could establish communication with the device (though mind you I did this a couple of years ago, on a PowerPC - I've not checked whether Intel versions of these drivers are now available). However: I was dealing with basic GPS devices, no memory, interface, or anything: so was essentially just trying to talking to the SiRF chip to get the current GPS data in realtime. It sounds as though you might have a device that actually does stuff to record your trace etc when you're out and about, and then you plug it in later and extract info. In that case you're probably talking to some other piece of hardware, which has done the communication with the SiRF, stored the results, and so on; in that case the device you're actually talking to may not talk serial, and in any case you'd have to reverse-engineer the protocol, which would presumably be proprietary (unlike the SiRF, which talks NMEA). This may not be that impossible (judging by the macam project, which has succesfully created Mac support for hundreds of digital cameras). I believe that there is a handy utility available that lets you eavesdrop on USB traffic, which might be the place to start... good luck! - Ben ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
There seemed when I was working in this area to be two main sources of the latter: FTDI and ??Prolific?. Although the devices I was working with were Windows only, I was able to find Mac drivers for both of these things with a bit of googling on the net (because other products are using the same chipsets, and are marketed with Mac software). Once I got these installed I could simply open a port called /dev/cu.usbserial, and found that I was talking to the GPS device as if it was a serial device. So in fact Rev was dealing with a serial device; and the actual SiRF chipset was a serial device; there were just a few layers of bridging over USB going on between the two. So I reckon that there's a fair chance that you could establish communication with the device (though mind you I did this a couple of years ago, on a PowerPC - I've not checked whether Intel versions of these drivers are now available). I use FTDI serial-USB adapters at work, and I know they do come with versions that can be attached directly to a circuit board, so that is probably what is being used in these cases. There are Intel drivers available, just google FTDI drivers and see what you get. Cheers, Sarah ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
This is what I was referring to before. I was able to communicate with a few of my 'Serial' now USB devices using the same drivers from Keyspan. I noticed after install from a Kestrel device that the driver that created the Virtual Com Port was the same. I found them here : http://www.keyspan.com/downloads/homepage_pn_usa19w.spml I believe it was the 19W that worked best. I also use this to communicate to my Meade Telescope, Kestrel 4500, and Garmin GPS. HTH Tom McG On Mar 5, 2008, at 6:17 AM, Ben Rubinstein wrote: There seemed when I was working in this area to be two main sources of the latter: FTDI and ??Prolific?. Although the devices I was working with were Windows only, I was able to find Mac drivers for both of these things with a bit of googling on the net (because other products are using the same chipsets, and are marketed with Mac software). Once I got these installed I could simply open a port called /dev/cu.usbserial, and found that I was talking to the GPS device as if it was a serial device. So in fact Rev was dealing with a serial device; and the actual SiRF chipset was a serial device; there were just a few layers of bridging over USB going on between the two. So I reckon that there's a fair chance that you could establish communication with the device (though mind you I did this a couple of years ago, on a PowerPC - I've not checked whether Intel versions of these drivers are now available). ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
FTDI drivers (including macosx): http://www.ftdichip.com/ applications to eavesdrop usb communication (windows only): usb snoopy: http://www.wingmanteam.com/usbsnoopy/ ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
FWIW, the GPS device I described is marketed by a European sports retailer, Decathlon, as KeyMaze 300 GH-601. I've found out via the SiRF web site (the device uses a SiRFstarIII processor) that it is actually a rebranded GlobalSat GH-601 - this is GlobalSat of Taiwan. On the SiRF site this is further described at http://www.sirf.com/success_10.html Annoyingly the device is not described on GlobalSat's own web site (a site search reveals nothing), but strangely their FAQ pages provide a little info about downloading firmware for it etc. I suppose this means that either the thing is obsolete or else my retailer Decathlon has made an exclusive deal to market it - they are certainly selling it quite vigorously. I tried emailing GlobalSat to see if they have any more information available, but they didn't reply. I guess they don't deal with consumers. The device comes with a bit of PC software which is just about adequate, but I would not say that it was well-written or complete - its UI is crude and it doesn't even help to file all the information which it extracts from the device, and indeed it may be throwing away information (such as timestamps) which is just not visible to the user. It looks to me as if my wish to create better software for it (on a Mac primarily) is pretty much a dead end - although if I can get hold of a serial-to-USB converter I might be able to experiment a bit. BTW I wonder why Rev has never entered the world of USB - I don't know about Linux, but for PCs and Macs, USB appears to be a completely standard interface and one which has been mandatory on all models of machine for many years. There must by a USB API for these operating systems - is it much more of a challenge to RunRev than the many other things they've had to incorporate? I do believe there is at least some level of demand. Graham On Sun, 2 Mar 2008 16:49:22 -0500, Thomas McGrath III [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Graham, What is the make and model of the device? Most of the devices that I have seen (even the USB only ones) use serial commands or a converter to serial commands. I have come across a few generic USB drivers for things like the Keyspan High Speed Serial converter. It is a Serial to USB hardware converter. BUT it uses serial commands in the device, the USB driver only emulates a serial port on the Mac. I have also noticed that other types of devices use the same exact driver. I can look it up if you tell me more. So a little more info on the device will help. Tom McG On Mar 2, 2008, at 3:26 PM, Graham Samuel wrote: This interests me also - I have a simple GPS device (a so-called 'training' device) which captures trackpoints and waypoints. Its current PC software is just that, i.e. it doesn't work on a Mac, and more or less the only thing it can do is to create a kml file for use by Google Earth. I am not at all sure that it uses the same chipset as the mainstream GPS devices (the kind you can pre- programme with a route, like Garmin etc), but my main problem in even starting to deal with it is the lack of USB capability in Rev. In order to talk to the device, I have to have a USB driver of some kind and I absolutely do not know where to start. I have tried emailing both the retailer and the manufacturer for advice but neither has bothered to reply. Has anyone got any advice about cracking the USB problem? TIA Graham ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Hi Graham, Graham Samuel wrote: --- snip --- It looks to me as if my wish to create better software for it (on a Mac primarily) is pretty much a dead end - although if I can get hold of a serial-to-USB converter I might be able to experiment a bit. BTW I wonder why Rev has never entered the world of USB - I don't know about Linux, but for PCs and Macs, USB appears to be a completely standard interface and one which has been mandatory on all models of machine for many years. There must by a USB API for these operating systems - is it much more of a challenge to RunRev than the many other things they've had to incorporate? I do believe there is at least some level of demand. Graham You're certainly correct that USB is well-defined standard, evidenced by the many uses of it on all computing platforms and beyond. And as you might imagine, the USB standard is necessarily complex to do all it does. Here's a good introduction to USB: http://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/ I manage development of a system that uses a USB HID input/output device. The device has 9 backlit input keys whose lighted states and key events are managed/handled by a Rev-based app. The Rev app has no direct interface with the device driver; it interacts with the driver via a pass-through background app that provides a socket interface to the Rev app. On the Mac, the driver is actually a custom-built Kernel Extension (.kext) file; on Windows it's the Win32 version of the libUSB open-source library ( http://libusb-win32.sourceforge.net/ ). I imagine there may be better ways to implement this, but it is what it is. :o) It's the way we found we could make it work when it was initially needed. I know I haven't answered any questions here, but maybe it gives a little perspective. -- Phil Davis PDS Labs Professional Software Development http://pdslabs.net ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Thanks Phil for that insight. I had a quick look at your link and staggered back, appalled. It reminded me of what a gentleman named Robert Lipe said to me on another list when he thought I was trying to reverse engineer the USB interface of my device (maybe I was - I had not considered Rev in the equation at that stage and had even less idea what I was doing). His advice started off: Reverse engineering USB protocols from scratch is possible, but only if you pass the entrance exam: Repeatedly jam a fork into your left eyeball.If, after about 40 jabs, your thought is man, this is great - my right eyeball needs a piece of this action, then reverse engineering USB protocols just might be your calling. I think I will just go back to sleep on this unless and until I can find out something more about the device I wanted to interface with. I suppose that I was seduced by the enormous number of USB-connected devices that surround me - right here where I'm sitting I can count 2 digital cameras, a printer, a scanner, a hard disk, an ADSL modem, a keyboard, three mice, a GPS training device, a SatNav, an Elgato TV receiver, a webcam, a digital storage card reader and a data key. Who knows what else I might find if I go into the other rooms in the house? And to think that the people who engineered them all had to write drivers for PCs and Macs, and (no doubt) they are all different. Compared to that, Rev programming seems so easy, doesn't it? Back to the day job. Graham On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:55:31 -0800, Phil Davis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Graham, Graham Samuel wrote: --- snip --- It looks to me as if my wish to create better software for it (on a Mac primarily) is pretty much a dead end - although if I can get hold of a serial-to-USB converter I might be able to experiment a bit. BTW I wonder why Rev has never entered the world of USB - I don't know about Linux, but for PCs and Macs, USB appears to be a completely standard interface and one which has been mandatory on all models of machine for many years. There must by a USB API for these operating systems - is it much more of a challenge to RunRev than the many other things they've had to incorporate? I do believe there is at least some level of demand. Graham You're certainly correct that USB is well-defined standard, evidenced by the many uses of it on all computing platforms and beyond. And as you might imagine, the USB standard is necessarily complex to do all it does. Here's a good introduction to USB: http://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/ I manage development of a system that uses a USB HID input/output device. The device has 9 backlit input keys whose lighted states and key events are managed/handled by a Rev-based app. The Rev app has no direct interface with the device driver; it interacts with the driver via a pass-through background app that provides a socket interface to the Rev app. On the Mac, the driver is actually a custom-built Kernel Extension (.kext) file; on Windows it's the Win32 version of the libUSB open-source library ( http://libusb-win32.sourceforge.net/ ). I imagine there may be better ways to implement this, but it is what it is. :o) It's the way we found we could make it work when it was initially needed. I know I haven't answered any questions here, but maybe it gives a little perspective. -- Phil Davis PDS Labs Professional Software Development http://pdslabs.net ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Graham Samuel wrote: Thanks Phil for that insight. I had a quick look at your link and staggered back, appalled. It's pretty ugly. It reminded me of what a gentleman named Robert Lipe said to me on another list when he thought I was trying to reverse engineer the USB interface of my device (maybe I was - I had not considered Rev in the equation at that stage and had even less idea what I was doing). His advice started off: Reverse engineering USB protocols from scratch is possible, but only if you pass the entrance exam: Repeatedly jam a fork into your left eyeball.If, after about 40 jabs, your thought is man, this is great - my right eyeball needs a piece of this action, then reverse engineering USB protocols just might be your calling. I think I will just go back to sleep on this unless and until I can find out something more about the device I wanted to interface with. I suppose that I was seduced by the enormous number of USB-connected devices that surround me - right here where I'm sitting I can count 2 digital cameras, a printer, a scanner, a hard disk, an ADSL modem, a keyboard, three mice, a GPS training device, a SatNav, an Elgato TV receiver, a webcam, a digital storage card reader and a data key. Who knows what else I might find if I go into the other rooms in the house? Good night man! But wait... (looking around my office...) my own collection is bigger than I realized And to think that the people who engineered them all had to write drivers for PCs and Macs, and (no doubt) they are all different. Compared to that, Rev programming seems so easy, doesn't it? It makes me appreciate Rev all the more! Back to the day job. Graham On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:55:31 -0800, Phil Davis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Graham, Graham Samuel wrote: --- snip --- It looks to me as if my wish to create better software for it (on a Mac primarily) is pretty much a dead end - although if I can get hold of a serial-to-USB converter I might be able to experiment a bit. BTW I wonder why Rev has never entered the world of USB - I don't know about Linux, but for PCs and Macs, USB appears to be a completely standard interface and one which has been mandatory on all models of machine for many years. There must by a USB API for these operating systems - is it much more of a challenge to RunRev than the many other things they've had to incorporate? I do believe there is at least some level of demand. Graham You're certainly correct that USB is well-defined standard, evidenced by the many uses of it on all computing platforms and beyond. And as you might imagine, the USB standard is necessarily complex to do all it does. Here's a good introduction to USB: http://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/ I manage development of a system that uses a USB HID input/output device. The device has 9 backlit input keys whose lighted states and key events are managed/handled by a Rev-based app. The Rev app has no direct interface with the device driver; it interacts with the driver via a pass-through background app that provides a socket interface to the Rev app. On the Mac, the driver is actually a custom-built Kernel Extension (.kext) file; on Windows it's the Win32 version of the libUSB open-source library ( http://libusb-win32.sourceforge.net/ ). I imagine there may be better ways to implement this, but it is what it is. :o) It's the way we found we could make it work when it was initially needed. I know I haven't answered any questions here, but maybe it gives a little perspective. -- Phil Davis PDS Labs Professional Software Development http://pdslabs.net ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution -- Phil Davis PDS Labs Professional Software Development http://pdslabs.net ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Tom, U, I don't know what to say, but... thanks for all the links. I'm hoping most of the issues will be resolved simply because it now comes with Mac compatible software. Although I don't have the unit in my hot little hand, I just visited Garmin's support site and download the very latest (22 Feb 08) beta of the 'Training Centre' software. I note in the version history that 'Fixed some XML export issues' is listed. So if 'everything' the 305 records is downloadable to the TC software, and the TC software can export 'everything' to XML, I should be pretty sweet :-) Of course if the TC software only exports a portion of the data then GPS Babel may need to come to the rescue :-) Now off to check the docs that came with the software to see what I can find. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
usually GPS devices use NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association) protocol. Check this: http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/nmea.htm Best wishes Viktoras Andre Garzia wrote: Richard, I never did that but I think there's a protocol and it's all ascii based. I think you just open the right com port or something and then reads chars... Andre On 3/1/08, R. Hillen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, is there anybody who succeeded in reading data from a gps device into a revolution application? How did you do it? Which device did you use? Thank you. Richard. ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
On 1/3/08 22:59, R. Hillen wrote: is there anybody who succeeded in reading data from a gps device into a revolution application? How did you do it? Which device did you use? Hi Richard, I did this a couple of years ago in Rev - it was very straightforward. All (er, virtually all) GPS devices speak NMEA, which is widely documented on the web. We worked with a couple of different devices, and the software didn't notice any difference (apart from anything else, I think pretty much everyone is using the same chipsets). We did this on Mac and Windows; the only difficulty was locating Mac drivers. All the devices we worked with were serial originally with serial-USB chips bolted on; there seemed to be a couple of different ones of these. The other way that working on Windows was easier in locating the device automatically - just iterated through COM1-10; on the Mac I think we had to set the name of the device in the configuration. The devices just spend a steady stream of data; in the NMEA format this is ASCII, line formatted; so I had a handler running on a timer which read data from the port and buffered it, and then invoked a handler to see whether there were any completed sentences to process. That handler in turn checked whether the position etc information had changed, and if so invoked a handler to actually do whatever it was supposed to be. In theory you can switch the devices into a binary format which should be much faster - but we didn't seem to need the speed and I never dared try in case I couldn't get it to switch back! Good luck, - Ben ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
This interests me also - I have a simple GPS device (a so-called 'training' device) which captures trackpoints and waypoints. Its current PC software is just that, i.e. it doesn't work on a Mac, and more or less the only thing it can do is to create a kml file for use by Google Earth. I am not at all sure that it uses the same chipset as the mainstream GPS devices (the kind you can pre-programme with a route, like Garmin etc), but my main problem in even starting to deal with it is the lack of USB capability in Rev. In order to talk to the device, I have to have a USB driver of some kind and I absolutely do not know where to start. I have tried emailing both the retailer and the manufacturer for advice but neither has bothered to reply. Has anyone got any advice about cracking the USB problem? TIA Graham On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:42:43 +, Ben Rubinstein [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 1/3/08 22:59, R. Hillen wrote: is there anybody who succeeded in reading data from a gps device into a revolution application? How did you do it? Which device did you use? Hi Richard, I did this a couple of years ago in Rev - it was very straightforward. All (er, virtually all) GPS devices speak NMEA, which is widely documented on the web. We worked with a couple of different devices, and the software didn't notice any difference (apart from anything else, I think pretty much everyone is using the same chipsets). We did this on Mac and Windows; the only difficulty was locating Mac drivers. All the devices we worked with were serial originally with serial- USB chips bolted on; there seemed to be a couple of different ones of these. The other way that working on Windows was easier in locating the device automatically - just iterated through COM1-10; on the Mac I think we had to set the name of the device in the configuration. The devices just spend a steady stream of data; in the NMEA format this is ASCII, line formatted; so I had a handler running on a timer which read data from the port and buffered it, and then invoked a handler to see whether there were any completed sentences to process. That handler in turn checked whether the position etc information had changed, and if so invoked a handler to actually do whatever it was supposed to be. In theory you can switch the devices into a binary format which should be much faster - but we didn't seem to need the speed and I never dared try in case I couldn't get it to switch back! Good luck, - Ben Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK and France ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Graham, What is the make and model of the device? Most of the devices that I have seen (even the USB only ones) use serial commands or a converter to serial commands. I have come across a few generic USB drivers for things like the Keyspan High Speed Serial converter. It is a Serial to USB hardware converter. BUT it uses serial commands in the device, the USB driver only emulates a serial port on the Mac. I have also noticed that other types of devices use the same exact driver. I can look it up if you tell me more. So a little more info on the device will help. Tom McG On Mar 2, 2008, at 3:26 PM, Graham Samuel wrote: This interests me also - I have a simple GPS device (a so-called 'training' device) which captures trackpoints and waypoints. Its current PC software is just that, i.e. it doesn't work on a Mac, and more or less the only thing it can do is to create a kml file for use by Google Earth. I am not at all sure that it uses the same chipset as the mainstream GPS devices (the kind you can pre- programme with a route, like Garmin etc), but my main problem in even starting to deal with it is the lack of USB capability in Rev. In order to talk to the device, I have to have a USB driver of some kind and I absolutely do not know where to start. I have tried emailing both the retailer and the manufacturer for advice but neither has bothered to reply. Has anyone got any advice about cracking the USB problem? TIA Graham ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 4:26 AM, Graham Samuel [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This interests me also - I have a simple GPS device (a so-called 'training' device) which captures trackpoints and waypoints. Its current PC software is just that, i.e. it doesn't work on a Mac, and more or less the only thing it can do is to create a kml file for use by Google Earth. Just bought a Garmin Edge 305 and apart from it's list of cool features the thing that had me opening my wallet was 'with Mac drivers and Software' :-) I currently don't intend to talk to the Garmin with Rev (although I'll keep an eye on how this thread develops, and who knows I might give it a crack) but I think, once the files are downloaded I might try to sneak into them with Rev and see what I can do. I see some software out there that adds extra info to the data, like weather conditions, to correct data for wind speed and barometric variations. I've checked the central weather bureau and they collect data from a bunch of automatic weather stations, a couple of which are in the vicinity of where I ride. The output is every 10 min, and it's available within 15 min on their site and goes back 24 hrs. Unfortunately the format is in the form of a graph - great to get a quick 'visual' overview of what the weather's been doing, but it's going to be a pain to try and 'reverse' it back into plain numbers. Anyone attempted this in Rev? Anyway, that's all a long way off yet. I got to get the thing first. You see I bought it, but have now given it to my wife so she can give it to me for my birthday :-) How else am I going to prevent getting some item of clothing that I have no real interest in - the last suit she got me cost more than twice as much as the Edge - and lets face it, I have 10 times the interest in any 'gadget' than any piece of clothe ;-) PS The reason we own Macs is because way back in 1987 my wife bought a 512K for me to give to her for her birthday; something I'm so pleased she did :-) ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Kay the Garmin Training Center takes XML files and outputs to XML as well. I don't know if it is working with serial commands or not since I don't have the Edge 305. You can download the program to play around with at: http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=010-00447-00 Keep us informed when your birthday is so we can see what you can do with it. Tom McG On Mar 2, 2008, at 10:20 PM, Kay C Lan wrote: Garmin Edge 305 ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Kay, Also: Garmin USB support just works. Support is built into the kernel, so the device now sits on a pseudo-serial port called /dev/ ttyUSB0. quote found here: http://www.marengo-ltd.com/gps/ Also of interest: http://www.gpsbabel.org/ Getting info out of the 305: - http://www.marengo-ltd.com/gps/converting_tracks.php And on Parallels virtual machine: http://eudyptes.com/SerialClient.php For Garmin 10 in parallels may help: http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=2823page=3 HTH Tom McG On Mar 2, 2008, at 11:04 PM, Thomas McGrath III wrote: Kay the Garmin Training Center takes XML files and outputs to XML as well. I don't know if it is working with serial commands or not since I don't have the Edge 305. You can download the program to play around with at: http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=010-00447-00 Keep us informed when your birthday is so we can see what you can do with it. Tom McG On Mar 2, 2008, at 10:20 PM, Kay C Lan wrote: Garmin Edge 305 ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: Revolution Reading GPS Data
Kay, Lastly, This is for Firefox and Google Maps with a GPX Conversion. Supposed to work with the 305. http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx/ But GPS Babel is supposed to be the swiss army knife for GPX file formats Tom On Mar 3, 2008, at 12:16 AM, Thomas McGrath III wrote: Kay, Also: Garmin USB support just works. Support is built into the kernel, so the device now sits on a pseudo-serial port called /dev/ ttyUSB0. quote found here: http://www.marengo-ltd.com/gps/ Also of interest: http://www.gpsbabel.org/ Getting info out of the 305: - http://www.marengo-ltd.com/gps/converting_tracks.php And on Parallels virtual machine: http://eudyptes.com/ SerialClient.php For Garmin 10 in parallels may help: http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=2823page=3 HTH Tom McG On Mar 2, 2008, at 11:04 PM, Thomas McGrath III wrote: Kay the Garmin Training Center takes XML files and outputs to XML as well. I don't know if it is working with serial commands or not since I don't have the Edge 305. You can download the program to play around with at: http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=010-00447-00 Keep us informed when your birthday is so we can see what you can do with it. Tom McG On Mar 2, 2008, at 10:20 PM, Kay C Lan wrote: Garmin Edge 305 ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
