Re: Earthmate's Receiver ?ns

["Peter H. Coffin" <hellsop@ninehells.com>]

On Sun, Jun 01, 2003 at 10:31:46AM -0600, dreamwvr@dreamwvr.com wrote:
> Hi,
>   Anyone using Earthmate with OpenBSD? Opinions on this 
> product and map availability. It looks a lot more 
> flexible than the custom units like say the Garmin Vs. 
> It refers to maps by third parties. Can one assume this 
> means nearly any countries mappings are available? 
> Since it plugs into USB does anyone know if it just 
> works? Apparently it just dumps the stream in NMEA
> format. Howevr I do not have one "yet". Wanted to get
> feedback before trying to get one.

unless they've changed their operation from the serial models, yes, it
just outputs NMEA after being appropriately "tickled on" to make it
function wake up any pay attention. As far as maps go, it's just a NMEA
source, so whatever map software you already have that support NMEA
input may work with it, provided you can tell it to get the NMEA data
from a USB port rather than a serial port. Delorme provides USB->Serial
redirection drivers for Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, and XP for use with
applications expecting NMEA on serial ports. Obviously, the mapping
software Delorme provides is Windows-only. And the software *is* called
Street Atlas USA. Don't bet on maps for other countries immediately, if
ever.

Now, Delorme IS going to be selling a magic "USB to serial" cable for 
PDAs for an additional $20-$50, but those won't be availible until July,
and the cables aren't standard plug: one end is formed to fit specific
lines of PDAs, and the other plugs into a battery pack that plugs into
the USB port.

You might be better off from a hacking standpoint of picking up the
serial version of the Earthmate from ebay or something.

-- 
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
                -- Hector Berlioz