[TESTED]: GPS on Pandora


FBnil

They'll own everything and be miserable.
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D'oh... I bought an USB1.1 GPS device... so I needed a hub that could throttle down to usb1.1, but still talk usb2.x to the Pandy...

Hardware bought:
GlobalSat ND-105C Micro USB GPS Receiver (comes with cable to connect to normal USB port)

extra hardware required: USB hub (mine is Sitecom)

gps_on_pandora.jpg


Energy consumption

305 idle
321 usb turned on + hub connected (takes a few seconds of full power while initializing)
740 GPS dongle connected to hub

gpsd and modrana work like a charm. Unfortunately, modrana, when choosing bike and choosing a spot got me a 5 km route for a 1 km trip. In the Netherlands, most streets are bike ready, and it seems these bike lanes have to be explicitely defined to be traversable by bike... I see that, as it is openstreetmaps, I need to chip in to make them better.

upsides:
* It works (well, I am not the first one that tried this, so...)

downsides:
* Need wifi enabled to also download maps, and wifi is not always available (if you look at the route in advance, you can force to download these parts of the map). And hopefully along the way you have wifi to recalculate the route. As such, the power drainage gets ridiculous, and you are better off with a specialized device.
* Setting up takes a while. You need to drop to commandline, do a dmesg, from there, pick up which port it connect to "now attached to ttyUSB0", because that is what you need to select in gpsd frontend. Start up is ok, but there seems to be a bug that when you come out of hibernation, the GPS selects ttyUSB1, however, even selecting that from the gpsd menu will still make gpsd use ttyUSB0... so you need to reboot to get it working again... bummer.
Not much success with Navit... does not seem to want to talk to the usb gps... (last time I tried, 3 years ago, it worked?). Well, out of power, and need to recharge it before I try that again.

will be updated...
 
I have been using a bluetooth GPS with Navit for a while now, and it comes with its own set of problems.
The good: Navit works with offline copies of open street maps, so you can download a set of maps that covers your area of interest and not need wifi enabled.
The bad: One must use the command line at least once after the Pandora has been rebooted to enable bluetooth to connect. If you have hibernated your pandora with bluetooth enabled, it will not work again until bluetooth has been disabled and re-enabled. If the bluetooth GPS gets too far from the pandora for too long, it will not reconnect automatically. The GPS must be connected before navit is run, or navit will not ever see the GPS.
The end result is that to use the bluetooth gps with navit, it takes about 5 minutes of setup every time you wish to use it. Not very convenient.
 
@Willhelm : thanks for the link. So that is the direction I need to go in.

https://github.com/navit-gps/navit/releases/tag/v0.5.0
http://download-mirror.savannah.gnu.org/releases/gpsd/

sigh... more than your 10 minute compile and run.

@DAP: From: http://catb.org/gpsd/
gpsd also works with some bluetooth GPS receivers. Warning: there are serious problems with the firmware in at least one family of Bluetooth implementations shipped by Holux that may result in gpsd bricking your GPS.

I'm glad it woks for you... I was scared to use BT...
 
after "one weekend"tm of trying out some tutorials i was able to connect a bt gps towards navit.

actually i managed to get navit working without gpsd
 
@Wilhelm please do tell how you did it! I'd love to use gps on my pandora and especially navit.
 
Ups, have not seen this thread :(
Have made a "GPS Pandora". 2/3-sized Battery and Adafruid GPS inside...

Pandora_GPS_kl.jpg


Pandora_GPS_vd_kl.jpg


PanGPS.jpg


Is working with RISC OS. First try with gpsd and Navid not... no time for more.

P.S. I forget. The black rectangle at the right side is a WiFi antenna for a bit better and stable connection.
 
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holy moly, that is a super cool mod. would you be willing to write up some instructions on how you installed the gps module?
 
Will you also install inside or only "electrical"?
At first I have try outside. Have solder a cable (have any plugs from ED)...

GPS_Pan2.jpg


Complete instruction take same time and my English is a shame.
 
Hey @Raik I am German so if you'd write up something in German I am happy to translate it for everyone else. I love how you wired it internally and would like to attempt that myself
 
@Raik sorry but no. I have been part of the international forum for over twelve years now, I will not switch to the german forum now ^^. that is exactly why I offered to translate a guide to English: so more people can have access to it.

I'll contact you over the form you linked and we can do this via email!
 
That looks awesome. I miss on my new phone that the only way to use the GPS module is to start google maps; I can't get the raw coordinates or satellite status without running code from our favourite data hoarders any more.
 
holy moly, that is a super cool mod. would you be willing to write up some instructions on how you installed the gps module?

Have found any words in English and German .

To be continued...

Feel free to send any questions or give some hints, tips ... whatever.
 
Isn't that putting 3V onto a 1.8V I/O pin? Though in 10 minutes I haven't managed to find out whether the module's TX drives the signal high or only pulls it down. Looks like the module's RX pulls up through a 10k resistor and a diode, which might be enough to stop it frying the Pandora in practice, but not sure if I'd count on it.
 
Not sure what you mean. I put the Pandoras 3V out to 3,3V breakout in. TX to RX, RX to TX, GND to GND and use it like a serial connection.
Works with my Classic (extern) and my GHz (intern) Pandora since more than one year.
 
According to the hardware hacking guide, the I/O pins on the Pandora are 1.8V. That note, and the warning, are even in one of the pictures in the document you just published.

As I hinted in my last post, maybe there are good reasons why it's OK in this case. But if you never thought about it, you've been lucky.
 
Upps, the time is running. Was 2012/2013 as I build...
Sorry, you're right but I thought about it then before I build. The points are highlighted in red in my paper.
I remember I was in contact with ED (?) or Notaz (?). Can not find the mails quickly.
I use a 3-wired solution and only TX on the breakout board. Is enough normally.
Maybe I find my old notes but not sure. I will look at and think about.
 
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