GPS tools to tweak your GPS receiver

GPS Tools for pocket PC and PC

WARNING: Most of these GPS tools allow you to change the settings of your GPS receiver. This means that you can mess up things and in some cases even physically destroy your receiver. Use them at your own risk.

u-Nav Microelectronics GPS tools: Orion Navigation and SDK Software package. Orion is a GPS navigation software package designed to support u-Nav's family of low power GPS chipsets across multiple frequency plans. The GPS software is responsible for all GPS functions such as signal acquisition, tracking, data extraction, and GPS navigation. Orion's message-based architecture supports both self-contained as well as hosted applications. Orion provides both NMEA and u-Nav binary protocols. This GPS Navigation package supports autonomous operation and multiple assisted operating modes including 3GPP, 3GPP2, and IS-801 that are required by GSM, WCDMA and CDMA cellular networks. The Orion Software Development Kit (SDK) provides developers to customize and add functional software blocks to meet application specific requirements. In addition, SDK allows users to modify operating parameters of the navigation software and develop custom applications to run on the internal DSP of u-Nav's GPS chipsets. The Orion SDK also provides a complete set of analysis GPS tools and support for production flashing of the Orion software.

One of the safer GPS tools, GPSInfo from Navman will give you full details about the satellite fixes you have, which type of fix, minimum, average and maximum satellite signal it is currently receiving, how many satellites it currently has a fix on and also the full driver version you are running to talk to your receiver. It does not allow you to change settings for your receiver, so it is the ideal first tool to use when checking the GPS receiver signals to your pocket PC.

Pennock�s GPS Viewer GPS software actually projects the received satellites onto the map, along with your current position. You can customize it with your own maps. The program has an auto scan function that searches for an open port and the GPS signal. It can also be used with the Holux receiver to set the Power Save and WAAS/EGNOS settings. When the GPS is behaving abnormally, using GPS Viewer�s cold start function will refresh internal memory and correct the problem. For PC, not pocket PC.

CE Monitor from LeadTek allows you to switch between NMEA- and SiRF-mode. You can reset a GPS receiver to the factory default settings with this program or you can change all settings as you like.

Also from LeadTek is the WinFast Navigator. It displays all signals, coming from the receiver and lets you switch between NMEA- and SiRF-mode. You can choose which NMEA protocols will be active, as well as their update frequencies and you can change all settings. But there is no easy way to tell how you have set your GPS receiver, so you could mess-up things with this kind of GPS tools. For PC, pocket PC and Palm PDA.

SiRFDemo GPS software is, as the name suggests, for SiRF receivers. It allows for real-time monitoring, configuration of the receiver and efficient logging of data in the field for further analysis. Three main types of information are shown: Signal level, Tracking and Map.

u-center mobile GPS Evaluation Software is the ideal tool to evaluate u-blox GPS technology, GPS products and AssistNow A-GPS in the field, particularly with GPS integrated in mobile devices and consumer products. Running on Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) based PDAs, and using Bluetooth, USB or UART connectivity, u-center mobile GPS software provides a highly flexible platform to configure and test GPS products and visualize the collected GPS data.

The NMEA monitor program from navtec GmbH could be used to display and analyze NMEA data from different sources like GPS, sounder, etc. It also allows writing of received data to disc. All NMEA data sentences, starting with "$", are displayed in a text window. Some selected data sentences are displayed graphically. In later versions a synthesis of data sets is planned. The navtec NMEA-monitor supports all four PC COM ports.

NMEA Express from SteelWater Solutions Corporation is a NMEA-0183 Sentence Processing and Analysis tool that can be used for Hardware setup and monitoring, Protocol testing, NMEA-0183 training as well as product demonstrations.

Using Stan Huntting�s SA Watch you can learn to distinguish between the artifacts of your GPS receiver's firmware and limitations of the GPS system. The effective use of GPS in the field is strongly influenced by your understanding of the subtle interaction between time, your GPS receiver, its antenna and every object that intrudes on the antenna's view of the sky. Exploring GPS using SA Watch from a fixed location will help you develop that understanding and permit you to make the most of your field use of GPS. SA Watch GPS software can capture a log of data spanning many days and multiple logging sessions. It can then export that data in a format that is ready for advanced statistical analysis with programs like MS Excel.

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