These two lines contain information about six satellites in view. GLGSA serves DOP (dilution of position) and active satellite information from Glonass, GPGSA serves information from GPS. So you can expect receiving the same kind of message from different systems if your GPS supports multiple systems. There are multiple GPS systems: GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, etc.

Carriage-return and linefeed to separate messages.

Predefined fields (relative to the message) in the middle.

this is a very traditional way to show GPS information.

The data received is sent in the NMEA format. I went for the Serial Debug Assistant app:Īnd because I knew I had to listen to comport 7, I immediately got the data: So I downloaded some Windows app which could show data received over the serial port. Even that Bluetooth GPS mouse I used in 2005, implemented a serial connection protocol. GPS data is traditionally received over RS-232, serial ports. I first tried it out on Windows, I just plugged the USB of the GPS in and it was seen as a serial port without hesitation: I got a positive message back (thanks, shop5059202) and I was sent some zip file which should contain the driver. I was interested if this one could work on Linux too so I contacted the shop.

It has a USB cable which is more convenient than a Bluetooth connection when you want to read data for days instead of hours. Let’s check out if this one just works OK as a reliable GPS receiver. I have no clue about the ‘BU-353S4’ or even the better ‘BN-85U’ 🙂 I used a Sirfstar III chipset for GPS, fourteen years ago. So I was checking out this GPS receiver on Ali express with this promising title: “BEITIAN Auto-adapted baud rate USB GNSS GPS Receiver 1Hz 4M FLASH 5.0V Double-sided tape NMEA-0183 BN-85U better than BU-353S4”

I wanted to experiment with GPS over USB cable. Within my family we easily reach up to 12 systems with free and accurate global positioning. Just count the number of GPS receives you have in your mobile devices, car or even your pets collar. I still have warm feeling about what I managed to do back then… A GPS was not built in by default in those devices. Back in 2005 already, I did some projects with tracking vehicles using a ‘GPS mouse’ and smart phones with GPRS. I have always have had a sweet spot for GPS technology.

Usb gps receiver for car