sci.geo.satellite-nav comp.protocols.time.ntp de.sci.electronics sci.electronics.misc rec.aviation.misc rec.aviation.products rec.models.rockets This is a _long_ post but many people have requested this info. I hope this isn't in approprite in any of the groups its posted to. I tried to get a good cross section of groups where I know some people are interested. A group of us are tring to get GPS engines very cheap. Garmin made an offer to sell us the units at a good price. This is the second attempt to do this. Last year we tried to buy Motorola engines but that didn't work out since we were a few orders short. GPS engines use the US Air Forces Golbal Positioning System Satellites to get a position to about 15meters. It also does speed and altitude. The specs are hidden below. Please keep in mind that these are GPS engines only! They must be hooked to a computer of some type to do anything useful. These are for experimentors and hobbist. If your not into hacking hardware this is may not be for you. These do not have any display. A GPS eninge with a display can be obtained for as little as $200. There are very nice units with displays that will talk to computers as well for about $300. Due to the nice US goverment export restrictions on GPS equipment, the person dealing with the shipping doesn't want to send any out of the coucUnited States. If there is interest out side of the US we might be able to get someone to do the same thing in Europe (where Garmin also has an office) Below is the current set of info on the products. We still don't know which units we will be buying. If your interested, please join the email list server using the instructions below. There is a good chance that we will get even better prices on these unit. We might be able to get an 8 channel GPS engines for as little as $120. Thats about a third of the price Motorola offered us on the last group buy. ************************************************************************* * About The Garmin GPS Boards * ************************************************************************* To get added to the list server. All requests to this listserv should be send to maiser@humec.ksu.edu 1. To get a current list of members send the following message: REVIEW GPS 2. To Unsubcribe to this listserv send the following message: UNSUB GPS 3. To resubscribe to this listserv send the following message: SUB GPS "your email address" [ as in SUB GPS user@host.name.com ] Your moderator is Lloyd Verhage, verhage@humec.ksu.edu ************************************************************************* * About The Garmin GPS Boards * ************************************************************************* The boards we're looking at purchasing are described below. They can start with the GPS engine, but we can add options to them. The prices quoted are for 5 - 99 pieces, which I think we already have sufficient demand. UNIT P/N COMES WITH $ PRICE GPS20-000 MultiTrac8 sensor board only 150 GPS20-020 GPS20 with GA27 mag mount ant. and 8' cable 240 GPS20-099 GPS20 Eval Kit* 499 GPS25-000 PhaseTRac12 sensor board only 225 GPS25-020 GPS25 with GA27 315 GPS25-099 GPS25 Eval Kit* 599 GPS30-000 MultiTrac8 and ant. combo 240 GPS30-099 GPS30 Eval Kit* 499 GPS30-100 GPS30 PC Version with DB9 connector 250 GPS31-000 same as above, but with threaded 1" marine ant. 240 GPS35-000 PhaseTrac12 and ant. combo 315 GPS35-099 GPS30 Eval Kit* 599 GPS35-100 GPS35 PC version with DB9 connector 325 * Eval Kits come with GPS engine, antenna with cables & connector, power/data cable with connector, NMEA monitor software & documentation. All Garmin engines come complete with DGPS input capability, PPS timing output and lithium 3V battery on board A note from our Garmin rep states that for this order, he will include one piece of documentation for each board (normally they only send it with the Eval Kits) ordered at no additional cost. This documentation is copyrighted, so we don't want to go around photocopying it. Further Info PhaseTrac12: 12 parallel channel, phase tracking accuracyu in the world's smallest GPS footprint. MultiTrac8: Tracks and uses up to 8 satellites for accurate, reliable GPS data at an incredibly low 1 watt power comsumption. With same footprint as PhaseTrac12 and a real time clock, PPS timing and nonvolitile memory right on the board. TracPac: A sure bet on Plug and Play GPS. Combines a GPS engine and antenna in an all weather, low profile housing that's a perfect fit for vechicle and PC applications. Just connect to 10 - 32 volts DC and your data interface, pick the mounting option you need and you're off. Available with choice of PhaseTrac12 or MultiTrac8 engine. Consumes very little power and feature DGPS capability. NMEA 0183 output. PhaseTrac12 MultiTrac8 Architecture 12 parallel channels Patented MultiTrac8 Time to first fix reacquistion < 2 sec < 2 sec warm 15 sec 20 sec cold 45 sec 2 min sky search < 5 min 15 min update rate 1 sec continous 1 sec cont. Dynamics velocity 999 knots 999 knots acceleration 6 g 3 g jerk 60 m/s^3 20 m/s^3 Datums 102 predefined, 1 user defined Electrical input voltage 5.0V DC +- 5% regulated power comsuption 1.1 Watts 0.8 watts backup on board 3V lithium (10 year lifetime) sensitivity -166 dBW Connectors antenna 50 ohm MCX female connector for active (5V DC @ 15ma) or passive antenna power/data single row, right angle 12 pin male Physical configuration 1 integrated board engine size 1.83"W X 2.75"L X 0.45"H weight 1.1 oz op temp -30 deg C - 80 deg C (remove Li battery for extended usage above 80 deg C) storage temp -40 deg C - 85 deg C Interfaces compatibility 2 RS-232 serial ports data rate User selectable baud rate 1200/2400(tx only)/4800/9600 format NMEA 0183 v.2.0, ASCII inputs initial postition, date and time (not required), 2D/3D & earth datum command, RTCM-104 v.2.0 differential outputs position, velocity & time, receiver and satellite stautus, geometry and error estimates timing output timing output with +- 1 microsecond accuracy The TracPak is an integrated angine/antenna system 2.33"W X 3.80"L X 1.04"H 7.2 oz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This info is from documents that Garmin sent me. Architecture 12 parallel Multitrack Time to Fix Reacquisition ~2 sec ~2 sec Warm 15 sec 20 sec Cold 45 sec 2 min Autolocate 90 sec 7 minutes Sky Search <5 min 15 min Update rate 1/sec 1/sec Accuracy Position 15 m 15 m Speed .1 m/s .2 m/s Electrical 5.0V 1.1 watts .8 watts (Track Pak's are 10-30V DC) 1.4 watts 1.2 watts Timing 1pps 1pps (will be within 1/8 us most (within 1us most) of the time) the time) Connector 50-ohm MCX female 5V DC@15ma for active Operating Temp: -30C->85C Storage Temp: -40C->85C Data Rate 1200,2400,4800,9600 NMEA 0183 v. 2.0 The following info is for the GPS25 only! (The 20 will be real close but I have not cross checked the info) Connector: 1 - Tx2 (Not used) 2 - Rx2 RTCM input 3 - PPS 1us pulse at 1hz. Can drive a 50Ohm load 4 - Tx1 RS-232 compatible Output 5 - Rx1 RS-232 compatible Input (-25 < V <+25V) 6 - Reset supply at least 2.5 V to reset engine 7 - V_Aux External power for battery backup. 50uA. (4 < V < 33) 8 - Gnd 9 - NC 10 - 5V DC Regulated input. +5V +/-5%. 350mA maximum. Must be clean! 11 - NC 12 - NMEA NMEA compatable output (same data as on pin 4) Data Input: Almanic: $GPALM (GPS 25 only) alanac data Inialization: $PGRMI includes position, utc data and time Configuration: $PGRMC includes altitude, datum selection, baud rate Output Select: $PGRMO turns on specific output sentences. Data Output: Time have leap seconds accounted for $GPALM: Almanac (GPS 25 only) $GPGGA: Position include time, position, quality, number of satellites used. Horz DOP, Alt, DGPS data age, diff staion ID $GPGSA: DOP, active SVs Mode, 2D/3D, Satelltes tracked, PDOP, HDOP, VDOP $GPGSV: Sats in View Sv #, elevation, azimuth, S/N $GPRMC: Basic info Time, Position, speed, course, date, magnetic variation. $GPVTG: trak, speed course, mag course, speed in knots, speed in kmh $LCGLL: Loran simulation position, time $LCVTG: Loran tracking simulation course, mag course, speed kts,speed kmh $PGRME: Error Horizontal Error, Vertical Error, Total Error $PGRMF: GPS Fix Week number, gps seconds, date, time, leap seconds, postion, speed (kmh), course, PDOP, Time DOP $PGRMT: Sensor Status Product version, test results( chksum, reciever, stored data, RTC, oscillator,data collection, board temp, board config data. $PGRMV: 3d speed east, north, up, all in m/s Map Datums: There are 104 of them (some are the same) plus one user selectable one if you have your own ideas of how round the earth is. On the $GPGGA NMEA output the message uses: latitude in ddmm.mmmm longitude in dddmm.mmmm On the $LCGLL (Loran position): latitude in ddmm.mm longitude in dddmm.mm -tim http://www.abnormal.com/~thogard GPS, VW and Usenet topics.