"Joel Kolstad" wrote in message
...
Al,

"Anonymous" wrote in message
...
I have a feeling that the TinyTrak3 hasn't kept up with the times and if
it
expects to survive it has to be updated to allow operation with the
latest
NMEA protocol version and the new USB units.

Unfortunately, whereas "RS-232 and NMEA" are very much a standard, the
newer
GPS receivers with USB ports neither all show up as a "standard
serial-type
device" nor do they encode NMEA the same way. :-( Updating the TinyTrak
to
support USB receivers is a _major_ undertaking... whereas you can talk
RS-232
with any old microcontroller (especially at the 4800bps that NMEA
typically
uses), I believe that the commercial USB receivers are running full speed
(12Mbps) and there is simply no way to build a full speed USB master (what
you
need to talk to one of these receivers) in software alone. I.e., the
TinyTrak
would have to change to incorporate a microcontroller containing a USB
_host_
(and these are few and far between -- Cypress has one), or it would have
to
add a separate chip to perform this function.

OEM GPS modules that spit out RS-232 won't be going away any time soon;
even
in 2010 you'll still have no problem getting them.

---Joel Kolstad

A lot of GPSs these days have Bluetooth and so practically all PDAs and
almost all notebooks - now all we need is for the radio manufacturers to
include it.
73
Roger ZR3RC

A lot of GPSs these days have Bluetooth and so practically all PDAs and
almost all notebooks - now all we need is for the radio manufacturers to
include it.
===========================
Perhaps there are Bluetooth to serial port RS232 /USB1 /USB2 converters ?

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

"Highland Ham" wrote in message
...
A lot of GPSs these days have Bluetooth and so practically all PDAs and
almost all notebooks - now all we need is for the radio manufacturers to
include it.
===========================
Perhaps there are Bluetooth to serial port RS232 /USB1 /USB2 converters
?

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH



USB --- Bluetooth are very common and quite cheap - getting to RS232 might
take a bit more research.

Hi Roger,

"Roger Conroy" wrote in message
...
A lot of GPSs these days have Bluetooth and so practically all PDAs and
almost all notebooks - now all we need is for the radio manufacturers to
include it.

AFAIK, there aren't any simple "microcontroller to Bluetooth" interfaces
available either. I forget the exact chip, but I'm fairly certain the
TinyTrak 3 uses some little 8 bit microcontroller with probably no more than
"many kilobytes" of flash ROM and "a handful of kilobytes" of RAM. That's
nowhere near enough to support Bluetooth.

Bluetooth is also a lot more power hungry than a wired connection would be,
and of course is prone to interference since it's operating in the 2.4GHz ISM
bands.

---Joel