GPS Linux open source solution site could help cut costs

[treehog]

Suitable for Linux and apple and not microsoft which can go cry somewhere for their money else :p

For those that want to control all elements of the GPS and just buy ready to program cheaper GPS chips and write their own stuff or obtain programs without incurring costs this might the solution compared to buying expensive ready made solutions where you are locked into expensive software

Information
http://gpsd.berlios.de/

I found this from subcription to freesoftwaremagazine from eric redmond one of the gurus of linux

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/interview_with_eric_raymond

Hope this helps to cut costs and speed up working AUV projects for others


Ralf

[clolson]

Suitable for Linux and apple and not microsoft which can go cry somewhere for their money else :p

For those that want to control all elements of the GPS and just buy ready to program cheaper GPS chips and write their own stuff or obtain programs without incurring costs this might the solution compared to buying expensive ready made solutions where you are locked into expensive software

Information
http://gpsd.berlios.de/

I found this from subcription to freesoftwaremagazine from eric redmond one of the gurus of linux

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/interview_with_eric_raymond

Hope this helps to cut costs and speed up working AUV projects for others


Ralf

I used this once because it was able to talk to a USB based Garmin GPS-18. It generally worked well although I seem to recall some order dependent problem ??? I forget exactly what that was ... something along the lines of if you start the client and connect up once, and if you kill the client and try to connect again, you need to restart gpsd ... something slightly weird like that.

That said, gpsd really just provides a unified layer on top of your gps ... adding another open interface on top of the first.

It's not a bad piece of software, but it's claimed value is that it is better at parsing gps strings than you are and it provides you with an "easier" (maybe better documented?) interface (not a free-er or more open one.) My view of it's value is that knows how to talk to USB based gps devices under linux and that saves me the trouble of figuring out those details myself.

Regards,

Curt.

[treehog]

I was hoping to get one of those off the shelf smaller lighter cheaper basic GPS chips instead of more expensive ready made heavy weight GPS units and rig it to communicate with something small and light like a PIC or PDA and do the calculations preferably more crash proof than micro soft windows

Ralf

[matttay]

I was hoping to get one of those off the shelf smaller lighter cheaper basic GPS chips instead of more expensive ready made heavy weight GPS units and rig it to communicate with something small and light like a PIC or PDA and do the calculations preferably more crash proof than micro soft windows

Ralf

It's not the OS that gets you, its the environment. You are aware that Windows runs most manufacturing lines in this world--pick and place machines, reflow, vision inspection, board test, unit test, etc. Windows also runs much of the test equipment on these manufacturing lines, from oscilloscopes to GPIB, to teh back-end databases. And of course, you can bet that reliability is a requirement in these settings.

We had an older agilent oscilloscope running windows 98 that sat there doing FFTs in a test bench for 3 years straight. It was unplugged to be moved, plugged back in, and presumably continued doing what it had been doing for another few years.

There are definitely reasons to "roll your own", but reliability isn't one of them. In fact, for a non-trivial problem, rolling your own is the surest way to spend more than you had planned while delivering reduced reliability. But if your time is worth little and/or you enjoy it (which is why everyone is here), then it can indeed be a good path.