Subject:
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GPS for RCX
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Mon, 10 Jan 2000 22:55:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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646 times
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The standard RCX firmware with its serial protocol could not talk to a GPS,
but LegOS could. With LegOS and a GPS we could make robots that could
tell where they were. This would be way cool. I want a solar powered
toy robot boat with GPS that can go whenever the sun is out.
The standard for communication over GPS serial ports is called "NMEA 0183"
with the NMEA standing for "National Marine Electronics Association".
There is already software for a PC/Mac/Palm to get input from a GPS using
this NMEA standard. Porting such code to LegOS is probably not too hard.
I have not found a GPS with an IrDA port, but it seems like there should be
some. With an IR port we could go directly to the RCX.
If there is no GPS with an IR port, we could use the IR to RS232 adaptor
that comes with the Lego set. Instead of plugging into the PS's RS232 we
connect to the GPS's RS232. This might need a gender-bender or pin 2/3
switching, but should be very workable.
Truth is I don't have time to work on this project, but it seems like
such a fun project that maybe someone else would think it fun and run
with it.
- Vince Cate
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: GPS for RCX
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| (...) Presuming, of course, that you are referring to "standard" GPS (i.e. crippled by "selective availability") then I'm not sure what good it is going to do for your robot. Typical errors of approx. 100 yards are rather difficult to deal with. Zoz (25 years ago, 10-Jan-00, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: GPS for RCX
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| (...) Without differential GPS the accuracy is low enough (usually no better than +/- ~100 feet, sometimes far worse than that) that it would be almost useless for a robot that wasn't in sight at all times anyway. I wouldn't want an autonomous boat (...) (25 years ago, 10-Jan-00, to lugnet.robotics)
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