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GPS Toolkit Introduction

The Eye4Software GPS toolkit is an ActiveX / COM component which allows software developers to add GPS functionality to their programs and scripts without the need to have any knowledge on geodesy, serial communications, NMEA-0183 and GPS protocols. Some examples of applications include:

• Perform datum transformations on maps or survey data;
• Perform map grid conversions on maps or survey data;
• Mapping software;
• Navigation software;
• Precision positioning software;
• Hydrographic survey software;
• PC time synchronization.

The GPS control can be used from many programming environments, such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual Basic .NET, Visual C# .NET, Borland C++ Builder, Borland Delphi and VBA, but also web oriented applications such as ASP, ASP.NET and PHP, and all other programming environments that support ActiveX controls, can be used.

GPS Toolkit Features

Retrieve and decode NMEA-0183 position data from a GPS device

The toolkit will handle all the serial communications from the GPS device, and converts the received NMEA-0183 sentences into usable data, which can be used directly in your software and / or scripts:

• Latitude and longitude;
• Altitude and geoid height;
• Course over ground ( SOG );
• Speed over ground ( COG );
• Date and time;
• Fix type;
• Number of satellites in view;
• HDOP, VDOP and PDOP;
• Estimated position error (Garmin only);
• DGPS beacon id, speed and frequency;
• Satellite information like signal strength, azimuth and elevation.

Speed and altitude data can be converted to various units like: Knots, Kmh, Mph and Meters per second for speed, for altitude: Meters and Feet.

Use Garmin GPS devices connected using USB

Most Garmin devices are shipped with an USB instead of a serial cable these days. The protocol used by Garmin is called PVT. The toolkit can communicate directly with the USB driver to read position data from these GPS devices. The data which can be retrieved over the PVT protocol is the same as described for the NMEA-0183 protocol above.

Perform geodetic datum and map grid transformations

The latitude and longitude coordinates from either the GPS or set by the user, can be translated to any map datum or map grid around (for instance to UTM), by just using the built in "GpsProjection" object. The type of projections supported are:

• Transverse Mercator;
• Oblique Mercator;
• Hotine Oblique Mercator;
• Swiss Oblique Mercator;
• Mercator 1SP;
• Mercator 2SP;
• Gauss Kruger;
• Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM);
• Oblique Stereographic;
• Polar Stereographic;
• Albers Equal Area Conic;
• Lambert Conformal Conic 1SP;
• Lambert Conformal Conic 2SP;
• Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area;
• Krovak;
• Eckert IV;
• Eckert VI;
• Mollweide;
• Cassini;
• Polyconic.

It is also possible to convert from map grid coordinates to latitude and longitude, or from one map grid to another directly.

Advanced NMEA-0183 features

It is possible to filter incoming NMEA sentences by message type and talker-id. This can come in handy when multiple NMEA devices are connected to the same port, using for instance a NMEA-0183 data combiner, and you want to decode data only from either a GPS (GP TalkerID ) or Compass (HC TalkerID ). Using the filter, if needed you can also force the toolkit to extract the position from the GLL string rather then the GGA string.

The built in NMEA-0183 CRC check function prevents the toolkit from decoding corrupted data.

Type of NMEA-0183 messages the toolkit supports include:

$GPGGA	-	Global Positioning fix data, time, position and fix related data
$GPGLL	-	Geographic position - Latitude / Longitude
$GPGSA	-	GPS DOP and active satellites
$GPGSV	-	Satellites in view
$GPRMC	-	Recommended minimum navigation information
$GPVTG	-	Track Made Good and Ground Speed
$PGRME	-	Garmin proprietary NMEA sentence to retrieve estimated position error data from the GPS
$PGRMZ	-	Garmin proprietary NMEA sentence to retrieve elevation data from the built-in (baromethric) altimeter

All received NMEA-0183 or Garmin PVT data from the GPS can be logged directly to a textfile.

Code samples

The package includes code samples for the following programming environments:

Microsoft Visual C++	View code...
Microsoft Visual Basic	View code...
Microsoft Visual Basic .Net	View code...
Microsoft Visual C# .Net	View code...
VBScript	View code...

Requirements

To receive GPS information, you need a NMEA-0183 compatible (D)GPS device (most GPS devices around support the NMEA-0183 protocol) attached to your computer using an USB, Bluetooth or RS232 serial connection, or a Garmin GPS device connected directly to the computer using its USB interface. When the software is used to perform transformations between different map datums and / or map grids only, no hardware is required.

The software can be used on 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 2008 Server Operating Systems. The package includes two copies of the GPS SDK, a 32 bit version (GpsCtl32.dll) and a 64 bit version (GpsCtl64.dll).

Download

A fully functional 30-day trial version can be downloaded free of charge from the downloads page.

Pricing, licensing and ordering

Pricing, licensing and ordering information can be found on our sales page.