cheapie GPS for laptop

[johnneale]

Info only .....
Following my earlier post re Maxsea etc. I now got a £20 USB mouse type GPS from Ebay (+£10 postage from Hong Kong) . - The driver gives a Com port output which Maxsea recognises and works fine - so you don't need a Serial - USB converter.
However you only get what you pay for and with only a little flashing led to show its working, and starting from cold (ie 000N & 000E ) each time its powered on.
You have to change the String commands from Seadriver in Maxsea to get position updates and it seems only to work on Com1.

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[Guest]

Does it have possibility for external power connection ? If so then this will keep the Mouse GPS 'alive' when PC is off.

Often the power reqt is very small ..... mAh on 5V if I'm right ...... it may be possble at the price you paid to get into the cable and find which are powering the gps rcvr ..... then separate and run it off direct power instead of from the usb port .....


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

 

[johnneale]

no way of getting 5v to GPS when not connected to laptop, unless you hook into the cable itself (& so push 5v back into the laptop via the usb port) Startup time is pretty quick though - 2 mins or so.

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[robind]

How about including a diode?
Regards
Rob

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[danera]

You could get a powered usb hub and plug it into that. I think I've seen one desinged for laptops, but can't recall where/make/model.

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[aitchw]

Most USB hubs, even cheap ones, have the facility to be powered from an external supply. It is the easiest route to take on this one and requires no expertise at all.

Howard

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[Guest]

My thought was to disconnect the power wires from the USB and supply from external supply ..... never seen it done - but it must be possible as many accessories that are USB powered have also external power possibility's ......
Surely as long as the data contacts are still intact ??


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

 

[Guest]

Powered Hub

Now thats a thought ..... I have one connected to my Notebook here now ...... never thought about it !!

Having never used the power suply ... I now have to find it !!



<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/