Tag Archives: Adafruit Ultimate GPS

In this lesson we will learn how to take the data we are logging from our GPS, and display it properly on Google Earth. This lesson builds on Lesson 22, Lesson 23 and Lesson 24. You will need to complete those lessons before undertaking this lesson. In this series of lessons we are using the Arduino, Adafruit Ultimate GPS, Virtuabotix SD card reader, and a Battery Clip to power the arduino during your mobile jaunts. You will need a 9V battery. If you are going to be doing a lot of mobile work, it is probably worth it to invest in a good 9v Rechargable battery system.

When you get your gear gathered up, you will be ready to get this project going. First, hook the GPS and Card Reader up as we did in Lesson 23. We will start with the software that we used in Lesson 23. This software correctly reads data from the GPS and then logs the data into two data files on the SD card. The problem, though, we did not really do any fine tuning of the data file we were creating.

GPS Track — Displaying Data from Adafruit Ultimate GPS as track on Google Earth

In this lesson we want to create a data file that we can display as a track in Google Earth. In order for this to work, we have to save the data in the manner a KML file wants to see. We have to save the data as:

Decimal Longitude, Decimal latitude, Altitude

I find it works to not use a line ending, but put a single white space after the Altitude. That is, delimit with commas as shown above, but then use one white space to delimit between successive lines of data.

Lesson 24 explained in great detail how to interpret the NMEA sentences. The challenge here is that the Arduino is very poor at parsing strings. The NMEA sentence would be easy to parse in Python, because Python is so good at easily manipulating strings. Since it is tedious to manipulate strings in Arduino, we are going to try and parse the data using numbers and math, not strings. To explain this, I will give an example for Latitude, and Longitude will work in a similar manner. The latitude data we get from the parsed data from the Adafruit GPS looks like this:

3051.8007

From lesson 24, we know that this represents 30 degrees and 51.8007 minutes. In order to parse this in Arduino using just numbers I do the following. First create three variables deg, degWhole, and degDec. The variable deg will hold the final answer, degWhole holds the whole part of the number, and degDec whole the part to the right of the decimal. Adding degWhole to degDec gives you deg, your final answer. So, lets assume x = 3051.8007, our Latitude from the GPS.

degWhole = float(int(x/100));

1	degWhole = float(int(x/100));

Dividing by 100 moves the decimal to the left two spots, and taking the int removes anything to the right of the decimal. Then converting back to float gives us a round number with no values to the right of the decimal. For 3051.8007 it turns it into 30.0, the whole number part of degrees. Now to get the fractional part, we need to take minutes and divide by 60. This will always be a number less than one. To get fractional part of the latitude in degrees, we do the following:

degDec=(x-degWhole*100)/60;

1	degDec=(x-degWhole*100)/60;

We have to multiply degWhoe by 100 to get the decimal moved back to the right by 2. Then we subtract that number from the original latitude, and we are left with minutes. Then divide by 60 and we have converted minutes to a fraction of a degree. We now have the whole part and the fractional part of the answer, so we just add those together:

deg=degWhole + degDec;

1	deg=degWhole + degDec;

We now have a nice decimal number, deg, which is the decimal representation of our Latitude. We have one more thing to deal with. If the GPS is reporting ‘N’, leave the number positive. If the GPS is reporting ‘S’ (that we are in the Southern Hemisphere), you need to make your latitude number negative. Similarly, when you are doing your longitude, you need to make the longitude negative if you are in the Western Hemisphere.

Finally, when you write the file, Google Earth will want you to store the data as:

Longitude, Latitude,altitude

It is curious that this is reverse from what you would do if you were entering coordinates into the Google Earth search bar. That wants Latitude first.

In any event, with the parsing and formatting described above, you can create a file that is almost ready to read into Google Earth. The code below will create your coordinates in the correct format for KML, which Google Earth will read. Please watch the video for a complete description of the code.

#include <SD.h> //Load SD card library
#include<SPI.h> //Load SPI Library

#include <Adafruit_GPS.h>    //Install the adafruit GPS library
#include <SoftwareSerial.h> //Load the Software Serial library
SoftwareSerial mySerial(3,2); //Initialize the Software Serial port
Adafruit_GPS GPS(&mySerial); //Create the GPS Object

String NMEA1; //Variable for first NMEA sentence
String NMEA2; //Variable for second NMEA sentence
char c; //to read characters coming from the GPS
float deg; //Will hold positin data in simple degree format
float degWhole; //Variable for the whole part of position 
float degDec;  //Variable for the decimal part of degree

int chipSelect = 4; //chipSelect pin for the SD card Reader
File mySensorData; //Data object you will write your sesnor data to


void setup() {
  
  Serial.begin(115200); //Turn on serial monitor
  GPS.begin(9600); //Turn on GPS at 9600 baud
  GPS.sendCommand("$PGCMD,33,0*6D");  //Turn off antenna update nuisance data
  GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_OUTPUT_RMCGGA); //Request RMC and GGA Sentences only
  GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_UPDATE_1HZ); //Set update rate to 1 hz
  delay(1000); 
  
  pinMode(10, OUTPUT); //Must declare 10 an output and reserve it to keep SD card happy
  SD.begin(chipSelect); //Initialize the SD card reader
  
  if (SD.exists("NMEA.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh
    SD.remove("NMEA.txt");
  }
  if (SD.exists("GPSData.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh
    SD.remove("GPSData.txt");
  }

}

void loop() {
  
  readGPS();

  if(GPS.fix==1) { //Only save data if we have a fix
  mySensorData = SD.open("NMEA.txt", FILE_WRITE); //Open file on SD card for writing
  mySensorData.println(NMEA1); //Write first NMEA to SD card
  mySensorData.println(NMEA2); //Write Second NMEA to SD card
  mySensorData.close();  //Close the file
  
 
  mySensorData = SD.open("GPSData.txt", FILE_WRITE);
  
  degWhole=float(int(GPS.longitude/100)); //gives me the whole degree part of Longitude
  degDec = (GPS.longitude - degWhole*100)/60; //give me fractional part of longitude
  deg = degWhole + degDec; //Gives complete correct decimal form of Longitude degrees
  if (GPS.lon=='W') {  //If you are in Western Hemisphere, longitude degrees should be negative
    deg= (-1)*deg;
  }
  mySensorData.print(deg,4); //writing decimal degree longitude value to SD card
  mySensorData.print(","); //write comma to SD card
  
  degWhole=float(int(GPS.latitude/100)); //gives me the whole degree part of latitude
  degDec = (GPS.latitude - degWhole*100)/60; //give me fractional part of latitude
  deg = degWhole + degDec; //Gives complete correct decimal form of latitude degrees
  if (GPS.lat=='S') {  //If you are in Southern hemisphere latitude should be negative
    deg= (-1)*deg;
  }
  mySensorData.print(deg,4); //writing decimal degree longitude value to SD card
  mySensorData.print(","); //write comma to SD card
  
  mySensorData.print(GPS.altitude); //write altitude to file
  mySensorData.print(" ");  //format with one white space to delimit data sets

  mySensorData.close();
  }
  
}

void readGPS() {
  
  clearGPS();
  while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  NMEA1=GPS.lastNMEA();
  
   while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  NMEA2=GPS.lastNMEA();
  
  Serial.println(NMEA1);
  Serial.println(NMEA2);
  Serial.println("");
  
}

void clearGPS() {  //Clear old and corrupt data from serial port 
  while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  
  while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
   while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  
}

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#include <SD.h> //Load SD card library

#include<SPI.h> //Load SPI Library

#include <Adafruit_GPS.h> //Install the adafruit GPS library

#include <SoftwareSerial.h> //Load the Software Serial library

SoftwareSerial mySerial(3,2); //Initialize the Software Serial port

Adafruit_GPS GPS(&mySerial); //Create the GPS Object

String NMEA1; //Variable for first NMEA sentence

String NMEA2; //Variable for second NMEA sentence

char c; //to read characters coming from the GPS

float deg; //Will hold positin data in simple degree format

float degWhole; //Variable for the whole part of position

float degDec; //Variable for the decimal part of degree

int chipSelect = 4; //chipSelect pin for the SD card Reader

File mySensorData; //Data object you will write your sesnor data to

void setup() {

Serial.begin(115200); //Turn on serial monitor

GPS.begin(9600); //Turn on GPS at 9600 baud

GPS.sendCommand("$PGCMD,33,0*6D"); //Turn off antenna update nuisance data

GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_OUTPUT_RMCGGA); //Request RMC and GGA Sentences only

GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_UPDATE_1HZ); //Set update rate to 1 hz

delay(1000);

pinMode(10, OUTPUT); //Must declare 10 an output and reserve it to keep SD card happy

SD.begin(chipSelect); //Initialize the SD card reader

if (SD.exists("NMEA.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh

SD.remove("NMEA.txt");

}

if (SD.exists("GPSData.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh

SD.remove("GPSData.txt");

}

void loop() {

readGPS();

if(GPS.fix==1) { //Only save data if we have a fix

mySensorData = SD.open("NMEA.txt", FILE_WRITE); //Open file on SD card for writing

mySensorData.println(NMEA1); //Write first NMEA to SD card

mySensorData.println(NMEA2); //Write Second NMEA to SD card

mySensorData.close(); //Close the file

mySensorData = SD.open("GPSData.txt", FILE_WRITE);

degWhole=float(int(GPS.longitude/100)); //gives me the whole degree part of Longitude

degDec = (GPS.longitude - degWhole*100)/60; //give me fractional part of longitude

deg = degWhole + degDec; //Gives complete correct decimal form of Longitude degrees

if (GPS.lon=='W') { //If you are in Western Hemisphere, longitude degrees should be negative

deg= (-1)*deg;

}

mySensorData.print(deg,4); //writing decimal degree longitude value to SD card

mySensorData.print(","); //write comma to SD card

degWhole=float(int(GPS.latitude/100)); //gives me the whole degree part of latitude

degDec = (GPS.latitude - degWhole*100)/60; //give me fractional part of latitude

deg = degWhole + degDec; //Gives complete correct decimal form of latitude degrees

if (GPS.lat=='S') { //If you are in Southern hemisphere latitude should be negative

deg= (-1)*deg;

}

mySensorData.print(deg,4); //writing decimal degree longitude value to SD card

mySensorData.print(","); //write comma to SD card

mySensorData.print(GPS.altitude); //write altitude to file

mySensorData.print(" "); //format with one white space to delimit data sets

mySensorData.close();

}

void readGPS() {

clearGPS();

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

NMEA1=GPS.lastNMEA();

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

NMEA2=GPS.lastNMEA();

Serial.println(NMEA1);

Serial.println(NMEA2);

Serial.println("");

}

void clearGPS() { //Clear old and corrupt data from serial port

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

}

The final thing we have to do is to put a “wrapper” around the coordinates to turn the coordinates into a .kml file Google Earth will like. I just do this manually. I open the text file on the SD card created by the code above, and then just paste it into this KML wrapper, and save the file with a .kml extension. The KML wrapper is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2">
<Document>
<Style id="yellowPoly">
<LineStyle>
<color>7f00ffff</color>
<width>4</width>
</LineStyle>
<PolyStyle>
<color>7f00ff00</color>
</PolyStyle>
</Style>
<Placemark><styleUrl>#yellowPoly</styleUrl>
<LineString>
<extrude>1</extrude>
<tesselate>1</tesselate>
<altitudeMode>absolute</altitudeMode>
<coordinates>




</coordinates>
</LineString></Placemark>

</Document></kml>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

</LineStyle>

</PolyStyle>

</Style>

<Placemark><styleUrl>#yellowPoly</styleUrl>

<altitudeMode>absolute</altitudeMode>

</coordinates>

</LineString></Placemark>

</Document></kml>

Just paste your coordinate data in the file above between <coordinates> and </coordinates>, save with a .kml extension, and you should be able to open it with Google Earth and see your track. Good luck!

Arduino

LESSON 23: Arduino GPS with Data Logger

July 31, 2014 admin

In this lesson we will extend what we did in lesson 22 to include a data logger with our GPS. You should be sure and do lesson 22 first, as that shows you how to hook up and program the GPS. In this project we will connect an SD Card Reader/Writer, and will power the whole thing with a 9 Volt battery. With this, you can walk around, and the device will constantly monitor and log your position. You can then bring it back inside, and look at where you have been using Google Earth.

GPS Data Logger — Arduino connected to Adafruit ultimate GPS and a n SD card Data Logger

To start with, lets talk about what you will need to do this project. As described earlier, you need to start by doing lesson 22 which will get you going on the GPS hookup and initial software. Now, to move forward, you will need an Arduino, Adafruit Ultimate GPS, Virtuabotix SD card reader, and a Battery Clip to power the arduino during your mobile jaunts. You will need a 9V battery. If you are going to be doing a lot of mobile work, it is probably worth it to invest in a good 9v Rechargable battery system.

When you get your gear gathered up, you will be ready to get this project going. First, hook the GPS up to the arduino as we did in lesson 22:

Connecting the Adafruit Ultimate GPS Unit to Arduino
GPS Pin	Arduino Pin
Vin	5V
GND	GND
RX	Pin 2
TX	Pin 3

You also need to hook up the SC Card Reader/Writer. You should be familiar with this from lesson 21.

Connecting the SD Card Reader
Sd Card Reader Pin	Arduino Pin	Details
GND	GND	Common Ground
3.3 V – (NOT USED)
+5	5V	Power
CS	4	Chip Select
MOSI	11	SPI Data
SCK	13	Clock
MISO	12	SPI Data
GND	GND	Common Ground

Remember that this SD card reader has two rows of pins. Don’t let that confuse you, both rows are equivalent. You can connect to either row.

Most of the code has already been written in Lesson 22. In this lesson, the main thing we will be doing is to write the GPS data to the SD card. This way, as we walk around outside, it will log our positions to the SD card. We will create two files. One will hold the raw NMEA sentences, and the other our location data, as parsed by the adafruit GPS library. You should be able to figure most of this out from what you already know from lesson 22 and lesson 21. In the video above, we take you through this code step-by-step, so watch the video to understand what we are doing. If you get stuck, you can look at the code below.

#include <SD.h> //Load SD card library
#include<SPI.h> //Load SPI Library

#include <Adafruit_GPS.h>    //Install the adafruit GPS library
#include <SoftwareSerial.h> //Load the Software Serial library
SoftwareSerial mySerial(3,2); //Initialize the Software Serial port
Adafruit_GPS GPS(&mySerial); //Create the GPS Object

String NMEA1; //Variable for first NMEA sentence
String NMEA2; //Variable for second NMEA sentence
char c; //to read characters coming from the GPS

int chipSelect = 4; //chipSelect pin for the SD card Reader
File mySensorData; //Data object you will write your sesnor data to


void setup() {
  
  Serial.begin(115200); //Turn on serial monitor
  GPS.begin(9600); //Turn on GPS at 9600 baud
  GPS.sendCommand("$PGCMD,33,0*6D");  //Turn off antenna update nuisance data
  GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_OUTPUT_RMCGGA); //Request RMC and GGA Sentences only
  GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_UPDATE_1HZ); //Set update rate to 1 hz
  delay(1000); 
  
  pinMode(10, OUTPUT); //Must declare 10 an output and reserve it to keep SD card happy
  SD.begin(chipSelect); //Initialize the SD card reader
  
  if (SD.exists("NMEA.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh
    SD.remove("NMEA.txt");
  }
  if (SD.exists("GPSData.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh
    SD.remove("GPSData.txt");
  }

}

void loop() {
  
  readGPS();

  if(GPS.fix==1) { //Only save data if we have a fix
  mySensorData = SD.open("NMEA.txt", FILE_WRITE); //Open file on SD card for writing
  mySensorData.println(NMEA1); //Write first NMEA to SD card
  mySensorData.println(NMEA2); //Write Second NMEA to SD card
  mySensorData.close();  //Close the file
  mySensorData = SD.open("GPSData.txt", FILE_WRITE);
  mySensorData.print(GPS.latitude,4); //Write measured latitude to file
  mySensorData.print(GPS.lat); //Which hemisphere N or S
  mySensorData.print(",");
  mySensorData.print(GPS.longitude,4); //Write measured longitude to file
  mySensorData.print(GPS.lon); //Which Hemisphere E or W
  mySensorData.print(",");
  mySensorData.println(GPS.altitude);
  mySensorData.close();
  }
  
}

void readGPS() {
  
  clearGPS();
  while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  NMEA1=GPS.lastNMEA();
  
   while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  NMEA2=GPS.lastNMEA();
  
  Serial.println(NMEA1);
  Serial.println(NMEA2);
  Serial.println("");
  
}

void clearGPS() {  //Clear old and corrupt data from serial port 
  while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  
  while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
   while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence
    c=GPS.read();
  }
  GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence
  
}

#include <SD.h> //Load SD card library

#include<SPI.h> //Load SPI Library

#include <Adafruit_GPS.h> //Install the adafruit GPS library

#include <SoftwareSerial.h> //Load the Software Serial library

SoftwareSerial mySerial(3,2); //Initialize the Software Serial port

Adafruit_GPS GPS(&mySerial); //Create the GPS Object

String NMEA1; //Variable for first NMEA sentence

String NMEA2; //Variable for second NMEA sentence

char c; //to read characters coming from the GPS

int chipSelect = 4; //chipSelect pin for the SD card Reader

File mySensorData; //Data object you will write your sesnor data to

void setup() {

Serial.begin(115200); //Turn on serial monitor

GPS.begin(9600); //Turn on GPS at 9600 baud

GPS.sendCommand("$PGCMD,33,0*6D"); //Turn off antenna update nuisance data

GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_OUTPUT_RMCGGA); //Request RMC and GGA Sentences only

GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_UPDATE_1HZ); //Set update rate to 1 hz

delay(1000);

pinMode(10, OUTPUT); //Must declare 10 an output and reserve it to keep SD card happy

SD.begin(chipSelect); //Initialize the SD card reader

if (SD.exists("NMEA.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh

SD.remove("NMEA.txt");

}

if (SD.exists("GPSData.txt")) { //Delete old data files to start fresh

SD.remove("GPSData.txt");

}

void loop() {

readGPS();

if(GPS.fix==1) { //Only save data if we have a fix

mySensorData = SD.open("NMEA.txt", FILE_WRITE); //Open file on SD card for writing

mySensorData.println(NMEA1); //Write first NMEA to SD card

mySensorData.println(NMEA2); //Write Second NMEA to SD card

mySensorData.close(); //Close the file

mySensorData = SD.open("GPSData.txt", FILE_WRITE);

mySensorData.print(GPS.latitude,4); //Write measured latitude to file

mySensorData.print(GPS.lat); //Which hemisphere N or S

mySensorData.print(",");

mySensorData.print(GPS.longitude,4); //Write measured longitude to file

mySensorData.print(GPS.lon); //Which Hemisphere E or W

mySensorData.print(",");

mySensorData.println(GPS.altitude);

mySensorData.close();

}

void readGPS() {

clearGPS();

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

NMEA1=GPS.lastNMEA();

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

NMEA2=GPS.lastNMEA();

Serial.println(NMEA1);

Serial.println(NMEA2);

Serial.println("");

}

void clearGPS() { //Clear old and corrupt data from serial port

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Loop until you have a good NMEA sentence

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Parse that last good NMEA sentence

}

Arduino, Tutorial

LESSON 22: Build an Arduino GPS Tracker

July 30, 2014 admin

OK, it is time for us to take our projects up to that next level. We are going to build a GPS tracker from scratch. This is going to take several lessons to complete, but it will build on what you already know, and is really not going to be that difficult of a project. We will be using the most excellent Adafruit Ultimate GPS module. This is an excellent GPS. I like it because it is affordable, easy to use, and is one of the few that will work at extreme elevations, making it ideal for our Edge of Space/High Altitude Balloon work.

Arduino GPS — We are using the Adafruit Ultimate GPS

This unit is pretty easy to hook up, as you can see in the Table below:

Connecting the Adafruit Ultimate GPS Unit to Arduino
GPS Pin	Arduino Pin
Vin	5V
GND	GND
RX	Pin 2
TX	Pin 3

Our goal in this lesson is to get the GPS connected, and get it reading NMEA sentences. NMEA is a data format used by GPS and mapping devices and software to keep track of position coordinates. There are lots of different NMEA sentences, but the two that contain the most useful information are the $GPRMC and $GPGGA sentences.

Our interest is in creating a location tracker for our High Altitude Balloon work, and the $GPRMC and $GPGGA sentences contain all the information and data we would need for that work. These sentences contain the lattitude, longitude, time, altitude, and velocity.

The GPS modules are pretty easy to work with. When you apply power to the GPS, it immediately starts spitting out NMEA sentences to its serial port. Our job on the arduino side is to simply read these data strings, and then parse them into useful data. The thing that is a challenge is that they constantly spit out data, whether you want it, or whether you are ready for it or not. In developing the software, we have to be mindful the the data is always spewing out of the GPS. Typically, we will have other components on our package, like temperature, pressure and inertial sensors. While our arduino is out making measurements on these other sensors, data continues to stream in from the GPS, likely overflowing our serial buffer. When we return to make a GPS measurement, it is very likely that the serial buffer will have old or corrupt GPS data in it. Hence, we must be mindful to deal with this issue in developing our software.

The video above takes you step-by-step through connecting and reading the NMEA sentences step-by-step. Then in the next lesson we will parse and log the data to create a portable GPS tracker. The code below is explained in the video. You need to watch the video to understand this code, and so you will be able to begin to work with this code to create a portable GPS tracker.

In order for this software to work, you need to download and install the Adafruit GPS Library.

//Make sure to install the adafruit GPS library from https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-GPS-Library
#include <Adafruit_GPS.h> //Load the GPS Library. Make sure you have installed the library form the adafruit site above
#include <SoftwareSerial.h> //Load the Software Serial Library. This library in effect gives the arduino additional serial ports
SoftwareSerial mySerial(3, 2); //Initialize SoftwareSerial, and tell it you will be connecting through pins 2 and 3
Adafruit_GPS GPS(&mySerial); //Create GPS object

String NMEA1;  //We will use this variable to hold our first NMEA sentence
String NMEA2;  //We will use this variable to hold our second NMEA sentence
char c;       //Used to read the characters spewing from the GPS module

void setup()  
{
  Serial.begin(115200);  //Turn on the Serial Monitor
  GPS.begin(9600);       //Turn GPS on at baud rate of 9600
  GPS.sendCommand("$PGCMD,33,0*6D"); // Turn Off GPS Antenna Update
  GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_OUTPUT_RMCGGA); //Tell GPS we want only $GPRMC and $GPGGA NMEA sentences
  GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_UPDATE_1HZ);   // 1 Hz update rate
  delay(1000);  //Pause
}


void loop()                     // run over and over again
{
readGPS();  //This is a function we define below which reads two NMEA sentences from GPS

}
void readGPS(){  //This function will read and remember two NMEA sentences from GPS
  clearGPS();    //Serial port probably has old or corrupt data, so begin by clearing it all out
  while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Keep reading characters in this loop until a good NMEA sentence is received
  c=GPS.read(); //read a character from the GPS
  }
GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA());  //Once you get a good NMEA, parse it
NMEA1=GPS.lastNMEA();      //Once parsed, save NMEA sentence into NMEA1
while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) {  //Go out and get the second NMEA sentence, should be different type than the first one read above.
  c=GPS.read();
  }
GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA());
NMEA2=GPS.lastNMEA();
  Serial.println(NMEA1);
  Serial.println(NMEA2);
  Serial.println("");
}
void clearGPS() {  //Since between GPS reads, we still have data streaming in, we need to clear the old data by reading a few sentences, and discarding these
while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) {
  c=GPS.read();
  }
GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA());
while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) {
  c=GPS.read();
  }
GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA());

}

//Make sure to install the adafruit GPS library from https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-GPS-Library

#include <Adafruit_GPS.h> //Load the GPS Library. Make sure you have installed the library form the adafruit site above

#include <SoftwareSerial.h> //Load the Software Serial Library. This library in effect gives the arduino additional serial ports

SoftwareSerial mySerial(3, 2); //Initialize SoftwareSerial, and tell it you will be connecting through pins 2 and 3

Adafruit_GPS GPS(&mySerial); //Create GPS object

String NMEA1; //We will use this variable to hold our first NMEA sentence

String NMEA2; //We will use this variable to hold our second NMEA sentence

char c; //Used to read the characters spewing from the GPS module

void setup()

{

Serial.begin(115200); //Turn on the Serial Monitor

GPS.begin(9600); //Turn GPS on at baud rate of 9600

GPS.sendCommand("$PGCMD,33,0*6D"); // Turn Off GPS Antenna Update

GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_OUTPUT_RMCGGA); //Tell GPS we want only $GPRMC and $GPGGA NMEA sentences

GPS.sendCommand(PMTK_SET_NMEA_UPDATE_1HZ); // 1 Hz update rate

delay(1000); //Pause

}

void loop() // run over and over again

{

readGPS(); //This is a function we define below which reads two NMEA sentences from GPS

}

void readGPS(){ //This function will read and remember two NMEA sentences from GPS

clearGPS(); //Serial port probably has old or corrupt data, so begin by clearing it all out

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Keep reading characters in this loop until a good NMEA sentence is received

c=GPS.read(); //read a character from the GPS

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA()); //Once you get a good NMEA, parse it

NMEA1=GPS.lastNMEA(); //Once parsed, save NMEA sentence into NMEA1

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) { //Go out and get the second NMEA sentence, should be different type than the first one read above.

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA());

NMEA2=GPS.lastNMEA();

Serial.println(NMEA1);

Serial.println(NMEA2);

Serial.println("");

}

void clearGPS() { //Since between GPS reads, we still have data streaming in, we need to clear the old data by reading a few sentences, and discarding these

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) {

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA());

while(!GPS.newNMEAreceived()) {

c=GPS.read();

}

GPS.parse(GPS.lastNMEA());

}

Technology Tutorials

Tag Archives: Adafruit Ultimate GPS

LESSON 25: Display Your GPS Data as Track on Google Earth

LESSON 23: Arduino GPS with Data Logger

Connecting the Adafruit Ultimate GPS Unit to Arduino

Connecting the SD Card Reader

LESSON 22: Build an Arduino GPS Tracker

Connecting the Adafruit Ultimate GPS Unit to Arduino

Making The World a Better Place One High Tech Project at a Time. Enjoy!