UMPC w/ no GPS

[zombiesatemygoldfish]

Ok I'm obtaining a UMPC with a ARM processor and a LINUX OS here in the not so distant future.

 

It does not have a GPS device include. Are there USB GPS units I can plus in to gain this feature?

 

I work with kids and would like to do an event featuring geocaching and dont want to have to drop 300 on a GPS unit if it isnt nessecary.

[NordicMan]

Does the device have Bluetooth? If so you can grab a Bluetooth GPSr puck and use it as your UMPC GPS receiver

[zombiesatemygoldfish]

It does have blue tooth! Would I need any special software for a GPS puck or should it come with some.

[+Entropy512]

It does have blue tooth! Would I need any special software for a GPS puck or should it come with some.

Depends on the puck.

 

The i-Blue 747A+ ( http://www.semsons.com/i74blgpsdalo.html ) is $80 and has Bluetooth and USB. The USB connection appears as a USB ACM serial port (ttyACMn in Linux) which spits out NMEA 0183 formatted data. The Bluetooth interface behaves as a standard Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) device, which spits out the same NMEA data. It is really sensitive and can also log data without any PC. Retrieving the logs does require special software, but there is an open source Java program that can do this at http://www.bt747.org/

 

I use my 747A+ with Linux all the time.

 

There are probably cheaper MTK2 pucks without datalogging or BT.

[+dfx]

The USB connection appears as a USB ACM serial port (ttyACMn in Linux) which spits out NMEA 0183 formatted data. The Bluetooth interface behaves as a standard Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) device, which spits out the same NMEA data.

and that's pretty much how all USB and bluetooth GPS receivers work

[+ecanderson]

It does have blue tooth! Would I need any special software for a GPS puck or should it come with some.

Just having Bluetooth isn't necessarily going to get you a connection to a puck. Bluetooth operates in any number of "profiles" that are (usually) tailored to a specific use. You'd want to be sure that yours will permit access via "SPP" (serial port profile) before you put down the $ for the puck.

[+dfx]

Just having Bluetooth isn't necessarily going to get you a connection to a puck. Bluetooth operates in any number of "profiles" that are (usually) tailored to a specific use. You'd want to be sure that yours will permit access via "SPP" (serial port profile) before you put down the $ for the puck.

it's linux based and linux supports SPP just fine.

[+ecanderson]

Just having Bluetooth isn't necessarily going to get you a connection to a puck. Bluetooth operates in any number of "profiles" that are (usually) tailored to a specific use. You'd want to be sure that yours will permit access via "SPP" (serial port profile) before you put down the $ for the puck.

it's linux based and linux supports SPP just fine.

It wasn't Linux that I was worried about. I've run across several of these "UMPC" devices lately that employed the "Bluetooth on a chip" where the profiles available were a function of the stacks included on the chip. Was seriously annoyed to find one of them didn't include any of the RFCOMM based profiles, including SPP, which was what I needed for another project .

[+Entropy512]

Also, to the OP: What UMPC are you getting? I'm trying to find info on the Marvell Dove and Freescale i.MX51 platforms, but the only info I've been able to find is how to install Ubuntu on them and the fact that Ubuntu 10.04 supports them, NOT where to obtain the hardware or any of the hardware specifications...

[Ken in Regina]

Ok I'm obtaining a UMPC with a ARM processor and a LINUX OS here in the not so distant future.

 

It does not have a GPS device include. Are there USB GPS units I can plus in to gain this feature?

 

I work with kids and would like to do an event featuring geocaching and dont want to have to drop 300 on a GPS unit if it isnt nessecary.

1. Yes, there are many inexpensive USB GPS receivers available. You should be able to find a good one for $25-$30. You should be able to find a good Bluetooth GPS receiver for $30-$50. Of course you can pay a lot more for either type if there are other features you want, like data logging.

 

2. You cannot get anything useful for geocaching by simply plugging in a GPS receiver, no matter what type you use. You will need navigation software and maps as well. One popular product for Linux is GPSDrive.

 

www.­gpsdrive.­de/­index.­shtml

 

For more options just do a search for "linux navigation software".

 

...ken...