I build my own computers, and can find easily find all the cases, boards, accessories, and software I’d need for a range of uses (e.g., simple workstation to gaming). If I wanted to start selling them, I could eventually scale up to buying custom branded/fit parts directly from the manufacturers.
But what about GPS devices? Can I get the basic hardware from NewEgg? License GoogleMaps or some other company’s map data? Run it all off Linux?
Thanks,
Rhythm
You could probably source all the parts, but you’d need to write some code to make all of them play nicely.
A GPS unit is basically a PDA with a GPS chip added. Most of them run WinCE but I think Tomtom runs Linux. There are free public domain maps available.
If you have one you can probably unlock it and explore. The forums at gpspassion and navmanunlocked are a good starting place.
Well, looks like I was slightly wrong.
Still trickier than installing XP on fresh PC hardware, but a tractable problem.
Robot building sites sell basic gps boards.
Here’s one with a USB interface:
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/lassen-iq-gps-receiver-usb-evaluation-kit.aspx
I am presently messing around with a HAICOM HAI-303III, which sends data using the serial port and NMEA-0183, my old laptop running Win XP pro and Trackmaker. It seems to work well and I have managed to work with NOAA charts as it accepts pretty much all graphic formats.
Not as technical but I did see online where you can salvage an OnStar unit and hook it up to a Nintendo GameBoy I believe.
A GPS device basically consists of three parts (correct me if I’m wrong):
Getting those three things to interact with each other is not a trivial task, and I note that the basic GPS board that Squink referenced costs more than a low end Tom Tom device.
“GPS device” is nowadays often shorthand for “Small street-navigation computer incorporating a GPS receiver.” It’s even normal (and undeniably painful) to hear such a computer called “a GPS”.
But a more basic “GPS device” is simply the receiver itself. Circuit boards and self-contained versions are available. They listen to the GPS satellites’ signals and typically spit out serial data, which is easy to read with even a simple microcontroller. There are versions that connect to a PDA, which allows that to act as a navigation computer.
You could take a look at the OpenStreetMap project for a data set. There’s also a bunch of routing and navigation software that people have developed to work with the OSM data; this is an example.
Thanks. So it’s not as simple as patching together the right OTS bits and running, but I don’t have to hire custom chip manufacturers.
It sounds like the better way of approaching this would have been to ask if I could make a simple, custom PDA from available parts. Then the GPS/coding bits could have come second.
Is this a rhetorical question?
You can buy a ready-to-go fully-featured GPS (SatNav, for those who don’t like the term GPS used this way) for $150. How much is your time worth?
I use a laptop-based GPS, and you could certainly put the time and effort into gettting it to run on some tiny computer, but to actually start from scratch, and negotiate the map data license, write routing software, and create a UI, seems like not only re-inventing the wheel, but re-inventing walking.
Heh… good question.
Not completely rhetorical, but not absolutely pragmatic. Again, much of this stems from experience building computers. Can be (no longer *will *be) much cheaper, and more powerful or more targeted towards an application.
So if someone said “well, Radio Shack will sell you basic 3X6 enclosures,” and someone pointed out that screens/hardware can be gotten from similar sources, etc., I might be able to fill a niche market.
I worked with a big electronics manufacturer in Japan on a car navigation device, and with the largest mapping software company there, on enhancements to “car-navi” (as the Japanese call it). One of the major issues is data updates, and modern car navigation systems often incorporate real-time traffic volume and road construction data into their routing algorithms. As well, the lead times on development are often very long, since it’s not easy to push out bug fixes once the units are in consumers’ hands.
There are a few common platforms out there, such as Toyota’s G-Book system or [formerly Nissan’s] Xanavi, that might be a better target for enhanced functionality. Getting your application onto an existing product is probably more feasible for a start-up than developing a new one from scratch.
A pretty reasonable approach might be to buy an OEM style antenna/receiver package or receiver and separate powered antenna, from someone like Garmin. I think their little receiver costs $50 in single quantity and outputs NMEA data on a RS232 serial line.
NMEA data are formatted as ASCII strings. Typical receivers that support NMEA transmit 5 to 10 different lines and often can be configured to send more or fewer. They usually send them every second unless configured differently.
You could built a home rigged GPS but it would be a clunky mess, cost 10X (or more) more than a commercial unit and most likely have much poorer performance.
Beyond the hardware the main elements of a GPS are the mapping software (and they are not all the same by any measure) plus the extensive best fit algorithms developed by the manufacturer and used for determining the fastest, shortest etc routes.
A modern Garmin (as an example) series GPS you can buy for $200-$700 is the synthesis of tens of millions of dollars in hardware and software research and development. Anything you could try to do on your own would be an expensive joke by comparison.
Yeah, one or two guys tinkering in the garage couldn’t possibly hope to compete with the likes of Apple or Yahoo or Google.
In this case no. The current GPS units are the coming together of lots of different, and very sophisticated, hardware, software and engineering technologies. There are some developing technologies where garage entrepreneurs might have a chance, and there are others where the investment required is far beyond the capability of a lightly funded start up. Unless there is some massive paradigm change going on in the engineering & hardware solutions (ie rise of personal PCs etc) garage entrepreneurs have a fairly limited window in modern manufacturing. Unless some radically different technology is emerging on the personal GPS solutions horizon where a start up can get it’s foot in the door, someone trying o assemble a useful and competitive GPS with spare parts is wasting time and money.
Very funny, Turble.
Well, the real issue is: what do you want to do with your GPS that current units don’t do?
If you are just trying to make it cheaper, than you are SOL - the big guys have all the economies of scale. If there is some unique feature that you’ve thought of that nobody else has, then patent it, and license it to them.