Tag Archives: GPS

Getting Latitude and Longitude from the Adafruit Ultimate GPS with Raspberry Pi Pico W

 

In this video lesson I show how to get usable Latitude and Longitude from the Adafruit Ultimate GPS version 3 using the Raspberry Pi Pico W. We read the NMEA sentences from the GPS, we parse them into individual strings for each sentence, and then we create arrays of data from the strings. Then we begin to parse the arrays, and convert the confusing numbers into useful Decimal Degree values for Latitude and Longitude.

This schematic shows how to connect the Adafruit Ultimate GPS to the Raspberry Pi Pico W

For your convenience, this is the code we developed in todays lesson:

 

Connecting the Adafruit Ultimate GPS to the Raspberry Pi Pico W

In this video lesson we will connect the Adafruit Ultimate GPS to the Raspberry Pi Pico W, and will write a simple program to capture the data being sent by the GPS. In this lesson, we simply want to read and print the NMEA sentences coming off the GPS, and then in future lessons we will begin to parse the data, and turn the data into usable numbers. This is the schematic for connecting the GPS to your Raspberry Pi Pico W.

This schematic shows how to connect the Adafruit Ultimate GPS to the Raspberry Pi Pico W

Then this is the simple code we developed to allow reading the data coming from the GPS.

 

Getting Geared Up for the Ultimate GPS Tracker with Raspberry Pi Pico W

Gearing Up for the Ultimate GPS Challenge

Guys in this class we will be building the Ultimate GPS Tracker. This will build on all you learned in our most excellent Raspberry Pi Pico W class, and now we will begin working on a real project. Hopefully most of the gear you will already have from the various kits you already have, but I give amazon links to the gear we will be using in the project. You Will Need:

Incorporating an Adafruit Ultimate GPS into your Raspberry Pi Pico W Project

In this video lesson we will show you how to connect and begin to get data from your Raspberry Pi Pico W connected to an Adafruit Ultimate GPS. The circuit schematic presented below. Notice Tx on the Pi Pico goes to Rx on the GPS, and Rx on the Pi Pico goes to Tx on the GPS.

This schematic shows how to connect the Adafruit Ultimate GPS to the Raspberry Pi Pico W

Then this is our initial code which reads the data from the GPS one byte at a time and prints it. In future lessons we will explain how to get useful information from this data, but for now, this code will allow you to read the data:

 

Beaglebone Black GPS Tracker LESSON 5: Displaying Data from GPS in Google Earth

Example of GPS Data displayed in Google Earth

In the earlier lessons in this series we learned how to hook the Adafruit Ultimate GPS up to the Beaglebone Black. In these lessons we got the hardware working, got to the point we could take data, and then got the NMEA sentences parsed, so that we could display understandable data for Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude. In this lesson we will show you how to create a GPS tracker, by logging your GPS data to a file on the Beaglebone Black. Then when you get back home, you can load the data into google earth to see an interactive view of where you have been.

The video shows step-by-step how to get the code working, starting with the code we developed in Lesson 3. We end up with the following program:

 This program should create a file on the Beaglebone Black, and track your longitude, latitude and altitude.

In order to view the file on Google Earth, you will want to put a KMZ wrapper on the coordinates. A reasonable KMZ wrapper is below. Simply take your coordinates from the program above, and paste them in the file below, in the area between <coordinates> and </coordinates>