From mujibur.inmind.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!olivea!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!mdsroc.com!news Fri Feb 16 12:14:49 1996 Path: mujibur.inmind.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!olivea!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!mdsroc.com!news From: chrisp@mdsroc.com (Christopher Piggott) Newsgroups: sci.geo.satellite-nav,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.networks,rec.radio.amateur.packet Subject: AutoMap software and GPS - some answers, some questions Date: 15 Feb 1996 17:23:02 GMT Organization: Microwave Data Systems Lines: 74 Message-ID: <4fvq5m$6e7@mdsroc.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: wz2b Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.3 Xref: mujibur.inmind.com sci.geo.satellite-nav:7229 comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.networks:2272 This note is somewhat oddly cross-posted, in part because so many are interested in GPS (including amateur packet radio). This article pertains to you if you're interested in hooking a GPS up to inexpensive moving map software that does NOT require you to have a portable CD-ROM for your laptop. Someone posted a question asking about GPS interfacing to AutoMap software. I was interested a while back in developing software to interface to the Motorola GPS module. In the AutoMap owner's manual, there is the following note: 1.3 Automap Pro DDE interface Automap Pro includes a DDE interface which is particularly suitable for use in conjunction with Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment. Please contact Automap, Inc. for further information concerning the Automap Pro Developer's Kit I made several attemps to locate "Automap, Inc" without luck. The owner's manual is published by Microsoft and refers to two companies in various places: "Automap, Inc." and "NextBase". Neither company appears to exist any longer. Since them, the product was purchased by Microsoft. Despite the reference in the owner's manual (which Microsoft published), the Microsoft help line (apparently dedicated exclusively to the Automap products) claims that, contrary to the above excerpt, they do not offer this product. The person I talked to seemed to be vaguely aware of its previous existence. (Sidebar: this is apparently why they put the remarks: "Contents of this manual are subject to change" in the manual). Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed, because I purchased this program specifically so that I could write GPS software. Now, on to the hopeful part. I think it's possible for us to figure out how to write our own software interface, even though this developer's kit is not available. I took a look inside the file NBDDE100.DLL, which is the DDE/DLL interface library. Near as I can tell, this single library supports both the DDE and the DLL interfaces to AutoMap. Either one would work fine. The example GPS interface program (which is available from ftp.microsoft.com) uses the DLL interface. This is unfortunate; if it used the DDE interface I would probably be able to monitor the messages and duplicate them with my own program. It is probably still possible to do this with the DLL interface and a schnazzy windows debugger or soft ICE. If anybody has these tools and knows how to use them, please help us!!! Send e-mail and I'll explain the details. Meanwhile, if anybody on the net can get me a contact in Automap, NextBase, or knows the author of the example GPS interface program to Automap Pro (Tomasz Kasperkiewicz of Nextbase Ltd.) please write me or call me on the telephone. I'm desparate for this information. By the way, if you happen to have a ROckwell, Sony, or Marconi-based GPS receiver, you may be able to juse download the program from microsoft and have it work. However, I should warn you that the program is somewhat of a pain; it seems to be meant to be an example of what you can do rather than an end-user application. I imagine it was intended to be distributed with source, which is what I had hoped, but somebody changed the plan. (Thanks again, Bill.) -------------------------------- Christopher Piggott, WZ2B Advanced Development Group Microwave Data Systems (a California Microwave company) e-mail: wz2b@mdsroc.com