From: Brian (bmcewen_at_comcast.net)
Date: Mon Jun 07 2004 - 21:00:58 PDT
So, after downloading and trying Teletype, while it looks really nice,
it also seems to be one of those apps (like MapPad) that only has
software hooks into the serial port, not any card slot serial interface.
Which is too bad. So, the "big" applications that will work with
CF-card GPS units that I know of are FieldNote, FieldWorker, and GPS
Map Lite. Fieldnote supports both NMEA and Trimble's TSIP protocols;
the others are NMEA only. I've not tested GPS View yet.
Apps that will only talk with serial port cards include MapPad,
Teletype. Little utils like GPS_Mon: I've not tested all of them,
but mostly they should work for both interfaces, since mostly they are
utils made by the GPS Map Lite or FieldNote people and I'd assume they
would be as compliant as the main apps are... MapPad and Teletype both
support the NMEA coordinate protocol.
So, for programmers out on the list, how hard would it be to edit the
prefs for programs like the latter so that the communicate via internal
slot serial rather than the serial port (the buttons could still say
IR but point to PC slot serial instead, even)? The PC Card GPS units
that have been mentioned here are seen as a communications card and are
just selected as slot 1 or slot 2 serial cards in the apps that do have
this toggle- no special drivers needed.
This would be a neat modification. Although with the Haicom model
cards, they come with just about all the cables a well-stocked Newton
user would need to hook it up as external serial instead of the card
slot- you might need a DB-9 gender changer is all. It's not nearly as
convenient to use the Haicom cards as a GPS Mouse like this, though,
and you need to pack a couple long cables plus adapters along as well
as your external battery pack, etc.
Teletype would be nicest to convert as it has many many maps of cities
and freeways for N America and Canada at least, already built and ready
to go.
Thoughts on this? 10 min hack for Paul, Daniel, Eckhart, or one of the
newer guys programming, or a larger project? I'd be happy to loan my
Haicom card (heck a whole 2100 setup with it) for a bit if it would
help;
Thanks for thoughts.
Brian
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