gpsdrive v2.x - displays GPS position on a map

gpsdrive [options]

This manual page explain the basic functions of GpsDrive and some additional info.

In GpsDrive you find tooltips for nearly all buttons, there is also a HELP button for usage of the keys and mouse buttons.

For special purposes read the README files, i.e. README.kismet, README.SQL ...

Gpsdrive is a car (bike, ship, plane) navigation system. Displaying your position on a map and a lot of other functions are implemented.

This manual page describes GpsDrive version 2.x

GpsDrive displays your position provided from your NMEA capable GPS receiver on a zoomable map . The maps are autoselected depending on your position. You can set prefered scale, which the program tries to get from available maps.

GpsDrive was tested with a GARMIN GPS III, a Crux II GPS PCMCIA card and a Navilock USB receiver. All Garmin GPS reveivers with a serial output should be usable. Other GPS reveivers that sends NMEA protocol over the serial output should also work with GpsDrive.

These GPS receivers are reported to work with gpsdrive:

Magellan 310, 315, 320

Garmin GPS III

Garmin etrex

GPS 45

Crux II GPS PCMCIA card

Holux GM-200 serial version

Holux GM-200 USB (needs USB to serial support in kernel)

eMap

GPSMAP 295

GNS 530

Garmin GPS 12MAP

EAGLE Expedition II

DeLorme Earthmate

Rayming TripNav, TN-200

Haicom HI-203E

GM-307 USB-Mouse

Magellan Meridian Gold (works only with NMEA V2.1 GSA setting)

NAVILock GPS Receiver (http://www.navilock.de)

Haicom GPS HI204e

Magellan Nav 6500

BendixKing KLX 100

Motorola i58sr Cellular Phone w/built-in NMEA-compatible GPS

Disclaimer: Do not use for navigation!

-d

Shows some debugging information.

-D

Shows a lot of debugging information. If you have problems or program crashes, send this output to the author. You should also combine this with -d. See also the section BUGS

-v

Shows program version together with the CVS version of the mainfile gpsdrive.c. If you send a bug report, also include this output.

-h

Displays a short help message.

-o outputfile

With this option, you can write the NMEA sentences to a PTY master, file or serial device. This is useful if you use GpsDrive in simulation mode to provide other GPS applications with test data.

-t device

Serial port device (e.g. /dev/ttyS0 ). You can also set it in the setup menu.

-l language

Sets the language for the speech output. You have to provide the voice files in festival yourself (see below). At the moment german , spanish and english are provided.

-x

Creates own window for the menu buttons, status and map. This is helpful on small displays as the Compaq iPaq or on Head Mounted Displays, where the menu should be hidden.

-s height

Set the height of the screen, if autodetection don't satisfy you, height is i.e. 768,600,480,200

-r width

Set the width of the screen, if autodetection don't satisfy you. Works only in combination with -s

-f friendsserver

Define a friendsserver to exchange position information with other people. You can also set it in the Settings/Friends menu. You can start your own friendsserver with the program friendsd , which is included. More details are in section FRIENDSD server

-1

Set special mode if you only have 1 mouse button, i.e. on touchpads.

-a

Disable display of battery status. Some implementations of the APM-BIOS are broken, so use this option if gpsdrive crashes.

-b servername

Use a remote NMEA server. You can start gpsd on another host , which has the GPS receiver connected and display the position on your local machine.

-c waypointname

Initial position for simulation mode. Specify a waypoint name from your currently used waypoint list.

-q

Disables SQL support. Only usefull if you have SQL support compiled in.

-z

Don't show zoom and scaling on the map.

-n

Disables the direct serial connection. You have to use Garmin mode or start gpsd

Use gpsdrive -h to see the actual command line help.

First you have to choose if you want use the GARMIN or NMEA mode.

NMEA mode.

This is the most used mode. This mode is provided by most GPS receivers.

New!!!

Since Version 2.08 GpsDrive is now able to handle the serial connection itself, so you don't need to start (and use) gpsd anymore.

To enable this feature go into the settings menu, switch to settings 2 and select Use serial connection.

Make sure that your GPS receiver is connected and running before you start GpsDrive, so the program is able to detect the GPS device.

You can also use gpsd, i.e. if you want to share the GPS data over the network or if you need additional features.

You can force the use of gpsd by adding the -n commandline parameter, even if you enabled the direct serial connection in the settings menu.

To use NMEA mode with gpsd, you have to start the provided program gpsd first or do this by pressing the Start GPSD button in the GpsDrive menu after setting the parameters in the settings menu. This program runs as daemon in background and provides a server, which sends the GPS data on port number 2947. The settings /dev/gps and 4800 BPS are precompiled if you start gpsd by yourself. If you start it from GpsDrive, the settings defined in the Settings menu are used.

You can also change the gpsd settings i.e. to ttyS1 call it with:

gpsd -p /dev/ttyS1

but as mentioned, it's easier to do this in GpsDrive.

If you are using a GPS receiver with an USB connection, your port may be /dev/ttyUSB0 for the first device.

Be sure to select NMEA protocol and a baudrate of 4800 BPS in your GPS receiver.

To see the output of you GPS do telnet localhost 2947 and after the connect hit the R key to see the NMEA sentences.

NMEA sentences used

Following NMEA sentences are used for specified informations:

GPRMC: Position, Speed, Heading

GPGSV: Satellite signal level display

GPGGA: Altitude (not available on all receivers) and position if no GPRMC is available. In this case, speed and heading are calculated by GpsDrive.

PGRME: Display EPE (estimated position error), perhaps only available on GARMIN receivers

At least you need GPRMC or GPGGA for using GpsDrive. If you can turn on GPRMC, please do so.

GARMIN mode

In this mode, the program only gets lat/long data, the speed and direction it calculates itself. There is also no display of the satellite signal level (this data is not supported by GARMIN protocol).

GARMIN mode is faster (more data packets per second, in NMEA mode there are only 1-2 packets every 2 seconds), but the calculations the program makes may not be as accurate.

If you want to use Garmin mode, simply connect the GPS receiver to your serial port. Garmin mode is only provided by some GARMIN receivers.

GpsDrive autodetects GARMIN or NMEA mode if enabled in settings menu. I would recommend to use NMEA mode.

If you don't need the GARMIN protocol (i.e if you use only NMEA), you can compile GpsDrive yourself to not include the GARMIN protocol support. Do this with:

./configure --disable-garmin

make clean

make

su

make install

This has the advantage to produce a smaller and faster executable.

Start GpsDrive as normal user with: gpsdrive from your shell, if you want another language see section LOCALISATION

On some distribution you may find a "GpsDrive" entry in your Gnome or KDE menu.

It is important that you have installed GpsDrive as root, so it can find the necessary files. Don't start GpsDrive as root!

You can use GpsDrive without a GPS device connected. If you do so, GpsDrive will automatically start in Simulator mode if no working GPS receiver is connected and no gpsd is running. This mode is shown by a rotating globe.

In simulator mode the pointer can move on the map (if enabled in settings menu). You can also stop gpsd if it is already running with the "Stop GPSD" Button.

If you have connected a GPS-Receiver, you see in the GPS Info window how much satellites are in view. You can click on this image to switch to the Satellite position view.

You must have at least 3 satellites in view. If you want to see your altitude, you need at least 4 satellites. The antenna of your GPS receiver must have free sight to the sky, so you cannot use it indoor. More satellites gives you a better accuracy.

If your receiver have not enough satellites with usable signal, the GPS Info window is red. If your signal is ok and gives a valid position, the GPS Info window is green.

There are 3 modes in which GpsDrive is operating:

Normal mode:

This mode is entered if you have a GPS receiver connected. The cursor is at the position your receiver sends.

The black and a red arrow shows your position on the map. The black arrow is pointing to your selected target, the red arrow shows the direction in which you are moving.

If you have no valid position the arrows are blinking.

Simulation

If GpsDrive finds no GPS-receiver at program start, it shows the last position and the cursor will move to the targets you set. You can set your target by right-mouse click on the map or by selecting a waypoint from the FIND menu.

Position mode

This mode is activated by clicking on the "Pos. mode" button or if you "Jump" to a target in the FIND menu.

At this mode, you can temporary change the position for looking around and jump to another positions (i.e. for downloading maps). In this mode this is not your real position and is marked as an rectangle.

You can set the position by simple left-mouse click on the map.

You can leave the position mode by by clicking on the "Pos. mode" button or middle-mouse click or right-mouse click (which also sets your target).

You can easily download maps from internet with the Download button. GpsDrive stores an index of your maps in the file map_koord.txt in your ~/.gpsdrive directory. You can also use any directory for your maps, but you have set the directory in the settings menu.

There is a file called "map_koord.txt" in your ~/.gpsdrive directory. Here is a sample:

top_WORLD.jpg 0,00000 0,00000 88226037

map_file0000.gif 53,60751 10,01145 3160000

map_file0001.gif 43,08210 12,24552 3160000

map_file0002.gif 49,81574 9,71454 7900000

map_file0003.gif 47,72837 14,46487 592500

The first row is the filename, then comes the latitude, the longitude and the scale of the map. The scale of 10000000 is good for Europe, and 100000 is for a town. To see detailed streets in a city, choose a scale like 10000 or 5000.

GpsDrive selects the map with the best scale for your position. So get a map i.e for Europe, Austria and Vienna if you want to drive in Vienna.

There is also the programs gpsfetchmap.pl provided to download multiple maps for a bigger area.

Please consider the copyright information www.expedia.com if you want to use their maps!

Don't missuse this service by downloading more maps as you need! You will risc that you will be blocked by this servers.

File formats:

The decimal points in way.txt must always be a dot ('.'), in map_koord.txt '.' or ',' are possible. If you download maps from within the program, GpsDrive writes the map_koord.txt respecting your LC_NUMERIC setting.

You can also use your own (self drawn, scanned...) maps. The maps must be gif, jpeg, png or other common file formats (the format must be recognized by the gdk-pixbuf library). The lat/long coordinates you write into the "map_koord.txt" file must be the center of the map. The map must have a size of 1280x1024 pixels!

Important! The maps must now be named map_* for streetmaps and top_* for topographical maps. If not, gpsdrive won't display the maps.

There is an "import assistant" build in. Use this to import your maps.

The easiest way is to use the script "wpget" which does all for you if you use a GARMIN receiver. You can use the program "garble" (included in the package) to read out your waypoints from the Garmin GPS (Transfer mode must be set to GARMIN here, while GpsDrive needs NMEA!).

Scripts: "wpget" is a script which calls "garble" in the proper way.

Be sure to have "wpget", "wpcvt" and "garble" in your path. This is fullfilled, if you did install the program as root and /usr/local/bin is in your path.

The manual way:

You may create a file "way.txt" in your ~/.gpsdrive directory which looks like:

DFN-Cert 53.577694 9.991263 FRITZ

Finkenwerder 53.541765 9.842541 AIRPORT

Fritz_Wohnung 53.582700 9.971390 FRITZ

The rows are: label latitude longitude waypoint-type. You may omit the waypoint type.

There is no need to create the way.txt file yourself, you can add the waypoints with GpsDrive using the "x" key. See help menu.

There is no route planing feature at the moment. Route planing would need the use of commercial maps and a database license which costs more than EUR 10.000.

If you must access the internet via a proxy server, you have to set the enviroment variable HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy to a value like http://proxy.provider.com:3128 where 3128 in this example is the proxy port.

You can switch on the Position mode by selecting this option in the menu.

If you switched to "position mode" there a rectangle is the cursor and no position is shown. If you zoom or select another map scale with the slider, this is done for the position of the rectangle-cursor in the same manner as it would be your actual position. If you click with the left button near the border, GpsDrive will scroll the map or load the next map if you are on the margin of the map.

The middle mouse button switches back to normal mode, or select the "Pos. mode" menu entry. The same if you select a target with the right mouse button. Shift-left-mouse-button and shift-right-mouse-button changes the map scale.

Please have also a look into the Help menu in GpsDrive to be informed about the actual mouse functions and key shortcuts.

You can simply add new waypoints in two ways:

o To add a waypoint at the current (GPS) position, simply press CTRL and RIGHT-mouse-click. You can also press the x key.

o To add a waypoint at the mouse position, simply press CTRL and LEFT-mouse-click. You can also press the y key.

In the popup window add the waypoint name (spaces will be converted to underscores) and a waypoint type (see below for predefined waypoint types). You can create a new waypoint type by typing it into the text field or choose a existing waypoint type from the list. Important: The list (in SQL mode only) shows already used waypoint types, NOT the predefined.

You can define freely your waypoint type names. But there are special names, which results in special icons display in GpsDrive:

WLAN

open WLAN accesspoint

WLAN-WEP

crypted WLAN accesspoint

Rest

a restaurant

McDonalds

a kind of restaurant

BurgerKing

another kind of restaurant

Hotel

A hotel

Shop

Shop

Monu

Monument, touristic attraction

Speedtrap

Speedtrap (Radar), gives warning if this is in front of you

Nightclub

Pssst...

Airport

a Airport

Golf

Golf course

Gasstation

a gas station

Cafe

coffee bar

Geocache

Geocache point

The names are case insensitive.

Please have also a look on README.SQL , for a actual list of waypoint types.

If you are using SQL (see below) for your waypoints, you can define your own waypoint icons.

Do the following steps:

Create the directory: $HOME/.gpsdrive/icons and place your icons (image type must be PNG) into this directory, with the name of the waypoint type (the filename must be lowercase). In example for waypoint type "HOTEL" the file must have the name "hotel.png".

The PNG image can have transparency, and should have a size around 16x16 until 32x32, bigger icons may result in a performance hit.

Your user defined waypoints override the built-in waypoint icons.

For managing a larger number of waypoints you should use SQL support. This needs to install a SQL server on your machine. At the moment, only MySQL is supported.

Don't be afraid, MySQL don't need much resources, is very fast, but makes the management (including selection of waypoint types) of the waypoints much easier. In SQL mode you can select the shown waypoints in the setup menu.

GpsDrive use MySQL automatically if it finds the shared library libmysqlclient.so.10 and the MySQL Server is running and a connection to the database is possible. For first use you have to run create.sql once.

Please read README.SQL for information how to setup the SQL database.

A route is a list of waypoints. GpsDrive guides you from one waypoint to the next on the route. You can add waypoints to a route using the waypoint (select target) window. You can also add comments to a waypoint which will be spoken by the speech system and also be shown in the map window as scrolling text.

To add comments create a file with the same name as the waypoint file, but change the suffix to .dsc, i.e way-trip.txt and way-trip.dsc, then enter the comments in the way*.dsc file in the kind of:

$waypointname Text which is displayed and spoken

$nextwaypointname another text

Example:

$Fritz_Wohnung Hier wohnt Fritz, der Autor von diesem Programm. Er freut sich auf Besuch und eine Einladung zu einem saftigen Steak. $Hubertus Hier wohnt Hubertus, ein Freund von Fritz.

There is no limit of the length of the comment. Important is to start the line with '$name' and the comment in the next lines.

Gpsdrive supports kismet. Kismet is a 802.11b wireless network (WLAN) sniffer. If you have kismet running, gpsdrive will detect it and program start and shows new WLAN accesspoints in realtime on the map. SQL mode is necessary to run Gpsdrive in Kismet mode. WLAN accesspoints which are already stored in the SQL database from prior wardrivings are ignored. If you have voice output in gpsdrive, you hear information about the new found accesspoint.

Please see also the file README.kismet

If you installed the program it will display messages in english, german, french, italian, dutch, dansk, hungarian, slovak, swedish, turkish or spanish if your language is set either with LANG or LANGUAGE. LANGUAGE overrides all other settings. Call "locale" to see the settings and call "set" if LANG or LANGUAGE is set. For german do:

export LANGUAGE=de

and then call gpsdrive in this shell.

You can also start it with the line LANGUAGE=de gpsdrive without setting the language for the shell.

Sometimes you have to do use LANG instead of LANGUAGE.

If your own language isn't available, please contact me if you want to make the translations.

If you want speech output you have to install the festival speech output system. See http://fife.speech.cs.cmu.edu/festival for information.

For german output you have to get the german festival from www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/phonetik/synthesis/index.html

If you have a functional festival software call it as server with:

festival --server

When you start GpsDrive it will detect the server on port 1314 and puts out some status information as speech. You also have an additonal button (Mute) to switch off sound output.

GpsDrive tries to select the correct language for your locale. The -l option can force the languages for speech output. At the moment english, spanish, and german are supported. GpsDrive sets festival into the proper language. If the initialisation is not correct, have a look into gpsdrive.c and edit following defines do your needs:

#define FESTIVAL_ENGLISH_INIT "(voice_ked_diphone)"

#define FESTIVAL_GERMAN_INIT "(voice_german_de3_os)"

#define FESTIVAL_SPANISH_INIT "(voice_el_diphone)"

For this, you need the voices ked_diphone for english, german_de3_os for german (this is a MBROLA voice) and el_diphone for spanish.

There is now an unsupported build of festival including english, german and spanish support. Download it from GpsDrive homepage mirrors and extract the tar file in the directory /usr/local as root:

cd /usr/local

tar -xvzf festivalbuild.tar.gz

Start the server with /usr/local/festival/bin/festival --server

There is a server program, called friendsd which acts as server for the position of your friends. If you enable it in the settings menu, then you can see the position of all gpsdrive connected with this server.

You see the position of your friends as a car symbol on the map, including the name, time, day of week and the speed of his last connection. The blue arrow shows the last reported direction of your friend.

The time is transmitted as UTC, but shown on the display as your local time, so it is also correct if your friend lives in another time zone.

The server uses port 50123 (UDP), so be sure that you open the port in your firewall. The server needs no root privileges and should run as normal user or a special user with no privileges. The server was NOT tested for security.

There is a friends server running on www.gpsdrive.cc, you can try it if you enable it in the settings menu.

You can also send messages to other mobile targets (Misc. Menu/Messages)

The address for the mailing list is gpsdrive@warbase.selwerd.nl

Subscribing can be done by sending a mail containing subscribe gpsdrive

to majordomo@warbase.selwerd.nl

Please send bug reports to the author. Report version (gpsdrive -v), screen size and info how to reproduce the bug. It is also a big help to run gpsdrive for a minute with the -d option and send me the output.

If gpsdrive crashes with a segfault, I need a backtrace of the program in addition. To create a backtrace do following:

Extract the tar file, change to gpsdrive directory and do

./configure --with-debug

make clean

make

cd src

gdb ./gpsdrive

Inside the debugger do:

run (if you use arguments write it after run)

When you get the segfault type in:

bt

and send me this output.

Fritz Ganter

E-Mail: ganter@ganter.at

http://www.gpsdrive.cc

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Copyright (c) 2001-2004 by Fritz Ganter

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.