Real Time GPS Map

[TravisKy]

Hello everyone,

I am building a UAV and would like to be able to see, in real time, where my aircraft is at on a map. I have read and read about different GPS modules but I am spinning with ideas as to what I need. I don't want any waypoints or autopilot really, just want to see where that plane is at on a map while it is still in the air.

Thanks,

Travis

[Crash Pilot]

Travis

Here is a cheap option.

http://www.rc-cam.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1691&st=0

or Tiny Trak and computer sound card.

Crash Pilot

[dmgoedde]

You can also try this: take basically ANY OEM GPs module, wire the serial data output to a wireless modem such as XTend from Maxstream or any of the Sparkfun.com wireless modems that are intended to be plug and play serial cable replacements, and on the recieving end at your laptop, you take the serial data from receiving modem, pass it to an RS232 input to your laptop (or you could use a Parallax Prop Plug for serial-to-USB conversion). Then, your laptop has Google Earth with area of interest loaded into the cache memory, and you download the program Goops, which is made soley for tracking GPS data into a moving icon in Google Earth in real time.

This works, and I am using it.

[TravisKy]

Would a GPS module like the EB-85A (http://www.nghobbies.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=81) work as the module? Then just wire it up to the modems?

[David_Naseef]

Hi dmgoedde,

Can you work on google earth if not connected directly to the internet. Is there any add-on software for this?

thanks

[danstrider]

Google Earth caches imagery for locations you've looked at while on the internet, so for example if you disconnect, you can still look at the imagery you looked at before. Just try disconnecting your internet and open GE!

Super neat recommendation on GooPs! Looks like that's the ticket.

Dan

[David_Naseef]

Dan,

Is there anyway I could save imagery for later use.

What is goops. Is it a software

Thanks!

[danstrider]

Google Earth caches (saves) locally on your computer. Just unplug your internet and try opening Google Earth and you'll see it's already saved wherever you viewed previously.

GooPs:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=goops+google+earth&btnG=Google+Search

[dmgoedde]

In Google Earth you can specify a larger cache file than normal (though I doubt you'll need to do that). I also believe you could save cache files (change the name of the file when you have multiple copies and want only one specific cache file as the active one) for different areas and have these all on your PC at once, just one active and named properly at a time.

Yes, the ETek EB-85A would work totally fine. You do need to hook the GPS's Tx line and a common GND line to a COM port on your PC. I know from experience you could use a basic STAMP to interface GPS to a debug window on your PC, but then instead use that COM port to get the GPS data to Goops.

The link to Goops is this: http://goopstechnologies.com/

So really all that is needed is to get nmea0183 GPS data to a COM port on your PC, then open Goops and tell it the port ID, baud rate, parity... and it will pull in the GPS strings, extract required data, and feed this data at some frequency to Google Earth and refresh an icon in Google Earth.

Dean

Would a GPS module like the EB-85A (http://www.nghobbies.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=81) work as the module? Then just wire it up to the modems?

[TravisKy]

Alright, so I mount the EB-85A on the aircraft. Can i transmit the GPS' tx Line on the audio channel? Then somehow grab it off the audio from the receiver and input into the computer?

[bennettdan]

TravisKY,

You might like this program for tracking shipping trucks like "FedX" its a cool app that could be used on your plane instead of the Pocket PC just feed back the data to the PC and modify the Visual Basic code to use whatever GPS antenna you purchase. Maxstream as suggested in an earlier post are very nice longrange transmitters if you need the fast update or use a GPS enabled Pocket pc or Cell phone and use the articals code to send the SMS "text messages every so often" if you dont need superfast data return.

I plan to setup a small form motherboard PC on my heli design and the use a highspeed wireless modem from verizon to send data back to my base PC this I think will be fast and pretty reliable in my area especially in the air with nothing blocking the cell modem signal..

http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/32938/0

They lovly guys at Microsoft have a free downloadable VB.net "visual basic . net" program that you can use to modify the code and write to and read from serial ports.

I am working on a Heli style UAV and would not mind helping you with the code and implementing this on m heli.

Hope this helps and good luck email me if you need quicker answers from me.