Re: Third party applications on GPS receivers

<SNIP>

Thank you all for your valuable reply. I have one more query, how does
the application interact with GPS devices with different interfaces,
like USB, bluetooth.

Some applications and devices use proprietary means, but most of them
communicate through an internal virtual COM port, regardless of how they
physically connect to the computer.


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
There are three different level of "interface."

First level - the physical form and protocol. Most GPSs use a serial port
which uses a DB-9 (9 pin) connector. Others use a USB port (flat multi-pin
connecor).

Second - the PC operating system (assuming Windows here). The operating
system will "see" the attched GPS in one of a couple of different ways. If
the GPS uses a USB port, it is likely to be seen as a disk drive by the PC,
and files can be read from it or written to it. With an additional USB port
driver, the USB port can also be seen as a "virtual serial port" by the
operating system. This is often used by USB port GPSs to do "moving map"
functions which result in a stream of position data rather than a static
file (like waypoints, for example).

Third - the application. The application often may (OziExplorer for
example) allow the user to configure the interface to the particular GPS
being attahed. When I attach my Magellan Explorist with USB to my PC, I
configure OziExplorer to work with that model. If I attach my Garmin, then
I configure OziExplorer to expect a Garmin attached to serial port 2 (COM2)
in my case.


Hope this helps

Pieter


.

Relevant Pages