GPS simulation software

[FredericG]

For my project, OSD with navigation aid and rudder-home, I have used the demo-mode of a handheld GPS and a tool called "gpsfeed" (http://users.hol.gr/~dzach/gpsfeed/) for testing.

Now I would like to have something that generates NMEA messages for a sequence of positions for regression testing.

What tools do you guys use?

Thanks,
Frederic

[Tom Harper]

Frederic,

I just wrote some routines in Visual Basic. I set up a couple of text boxes, one for write and one for read and two command buttons. The Comm Control takes care of the RS232 interface. Click on one and it transmits the NMEA message from the write box. Click on the other and it reads the input buffer.

I built up from there using Timers to generate sequential sentences that are evenly spaced. Then I closed the loop so that the PC becomes an emulator by generating new positions in response to control signals from my navigation boards.

The baud rate is a property of the Com Control. I'm using 38400 baud at present.

Tom

[clolson]

I'm not sure if this is the direction you want to go with this, but FlightGear (a flight simulator) can output serial NMEA strings for your "simulated" position. We've used it to trick existing moving map applications into working with FlightGear instead of a real world gps. I don't know if that is useful for your application, but thought I'd mention it just in case.

http://www.flightgear.org

Curt.

[Wulffy]

For my project, OSD with navigation aid and rudder-home, I have used the demo-mode of a handheld GPS and a tool called "gpsfeed" (http://users.hol.gr/~dzach/gpsfeed/) for testing.

Now I would like to have something that generates NMEA messages for a sequence of positions for regression testing.

What tools do you guys use?

Thanks,
Frederic

Good day, Sir Frederic! I respectfully suggest that you evaluate Franson GPSGate (http://www.franson.com/). I have used it for quite a bit of testing and have found it to be VERY useful.

Good Luck!

-t

[ryan.reeve]

Try easy to use NEMA TALKER from
http://www.sailsoft.nl/NemaTalker.htm

[phubner]

Frederic,

I too use the http://www.sailsoft.nl/ GPS Simulator 3.3.1. It's functional and can send out several common NMEA strings - GPGLL, GPRMC, GPGGA, GPGSA, GPZDA, and GPVTG.

It has definitely helped my with my board development!

Paul

[FredericG]

Thanks for the interesting pointers !

As I was in a hurry, I made tiny bash script (5 lines) that combines a NMEA template with a list of coordinates (with altitude and heading). In each point it stays for a configurable amount of time, let's say 10 sec.

For further testing I will look into these tools.

Thanks,
Frederic