Hawkey

Just a note for the Linux and FSWide users. I had some very good success running FSWide on a Slackware 12.1 Linux Box using Wine v1.0. My FS9 is on an XP machine. So far I have been able to run ACtiveSky v6. and ActiveSkyWxre remotely along with another traffic program called AISmooth on Linux. There are probably more aps that can run remotely on linux but I was happy with these results and that is all I require at this time. Not much extra work was needed to make things play on linux. Computer names could not be resolved, but maching IP addresses work quite well. All quite easy, actually.

Ok Peter, you win. Moral of the story is pack, a compass when you use a GPS system, mostly(VTG?). The VTG sentence does not work for headings with XCSoar or VisualGPSce(at least very good at all with this one). For me the v2.6.0.1 still gives bad altitude readings in XCSoar. For me the v2.6.01 gives good readings in VisualGPScd(this one does not care which dll is used) Good news is my BT308 gives good altitudes with XCSoar and VisualGPSout. The bad news is the XCSoar people may have to review their code, which at this point I am growing weary tracking down the nitty gritty, unless I decide to fly with their software. For FS2002 and FS2004 I will fly virtually with v2.6.0.7 until the cat or dog eats it or I lose it first or I work something out with XCSoar people or move on to something else. rww

Peter, I like your latest release (2.6.07) because it reports field elevation more accurately. But both dll's give me altitude and position. At KCID field elevation listed by FSNav is 862ft. AirNav lists KCID at 869ft (real world) GPSout 2.6.0.1 shows 979ft (center of RW9/27) GPSout 2.6.0.7 shows 867ft (center of RW9/27) (I like that better) I'm in a Bellanca Super Decathlon for these tests. Not a large a/c. Neither dll knows which direction the aircraft is pointed until it begins to move (I think). As best I can recall, my BT308 gets that right. Not a major concern here. rww

Peter, It works now!! I have altitude!! I made it home after work and tried the correct syntax, and it worked right off the bat. I'll certainly spend some time with XCSoar and FS9 working the bugs out, but I think the worst is behind now. I may experiment now with additional sentences but the basic 2 work ok now as far as i can tell. Sentences=GGA,RMC Thank you so much for your patience. Just add XCSoar to your list of compatible programs. rww :D

Peter, I sent the webmaster an email about his syntax. Will wait and see what happens. rww

Peter, You asked where I got that bad syntax. When I was looking for USB solutions I copied and pasted from this site. The config file examples are a ways down in this page. There is one good one and a bad one for USB connections. Again my eyes are not very sharp. http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/04fsST_GPS.htm rww

Can't wait till I get home to try this! That's why I never became a programmer. I was never much of a "human compiler". Will let you know the outcome later this evening. I'm sure it will be good. rww

Peter, Using a serial port to my PDA now. I tried the new GPSout.dll but still no altitude. I don't think the GGA sentence is being generated from the looks of what Microsoft Portmon is showing. First --- my config file. It is getting messy now. [GPSout] Sentence=GGA,RMC ;Sentence=GGA,RMC.GSA ;Sentence=RMA,RMC,GLL,GGA,PGRMZ,VTG,GSA,GSV ;Sentence=AV400 ;Sentence=PGRMZ Interval=1000 ;Port=\\.\WCEUSBSH001 Port=COM1 ;Speed=19200 Speed=9600 ;PosTo6Decimal=No ;Interval=1000 ;Port=com1 ;Speed=9600 PosTo6Decimal=Yes Next output from com1 to my PDA as reported by MS Portmon -- location KCID: 0.07198094 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023636.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07192115 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023636.94,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07193009 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023637.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07189322 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023637.42,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07196753 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023638.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07199435 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023638.14,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07192003 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023638.34,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07198736 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023638.55,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07196641 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023639.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07191333 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023639.08,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07197982 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023640.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07195384 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023640.11,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07194434 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023641.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07192087 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023641.13,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07194769 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023641.53,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07189377 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023642.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07193205 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023642.24,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07193708 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023642.34,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07190523 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023643.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07190746 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023644.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07192059 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023644.27,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07193009 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023644.38,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07198429 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023644.67,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07190467 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023645.00,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 0.07189573 fs9.exe IRP_MJ_WRITE Serial0 SUCCESS Length 73: $GPRMC,023645.17,A,4152.786901,N,09141.818855,W,0.0,2.3,010708,2 Looks more messy. The Bulletin Board wraps the text around somehow. Anyway, all this makes me wonder if there isn't something odd with my system. I have tried FS2002 and FS2004. Both have no altitude. Only location. Thanks for working with me on this. rww

Peter, Is this anything like what you are looking for? A log file from VsualGPSce PDA program talking to my bluetooth HP BT308. Location is KCID. $GPRMC,222400.813,A,4159.3273,N,09138.5491,W,0.52,209.43,280608,,*14 $GPGGA,222401.813,4159.3274,N,09138.5490,W,1,03,26.5,203.1,M,-33.5,M,0.0,0000*77 $GPGSA,A,2,23,08,19,,,,,,,,,,33.2,26.5,20.0*03 $GPGSV,3,1,10,13,70,265,00,25,67,324,32,23,54,179,41,03,54,101,00*74 $GPGSV,3,2,10,07,48,304,00,06,46,078,00,19,41,145,37,27,40,302,00*77 $GPGSV,3,3,10,16,27,053,00,08,13,290,30*7E $GPRMC,222401.813,A,4159.3274,N,09138.5490,W,0.54,209.72,280608,,*17 $GPGGA,222402.813,4159.3276,N,09138.5488,W,1,03,26.4,203.2,M,-33.5,M,0.0,0000*7D $GPGSA,A,2,23,08,19,,,,,,,,,,33.1,26.4,20.0*01 $GPRMC,222402.813,A,4159.3276,N,09138.5488,W,0.53,211.27,280608,,*11 $GPGGA,222403.813,4159.3279,N,09138.5485,W,1,03,26.4,203.2,M,-33.5,M,0.0,0000*7E $GPGSA,A,2,23,08,19,,,,,,,,,,33.1,26.4,20.0*01 $GPRMC,222403.813,A,4159.3279,N,09138.5485,W,0.64,208.15,280608,,*1F $GPGGA,222404.813,4159.3282,N,09138.5482,W,1,03,26.3,203.2,M,-33.5,M,0.0,0000*7D $GPGSA,A,2,23,08,19,,,,,,,,,,33.1,26.3,20.0*06 $GPRMC,222404.813,A,4159.3282,N,09138.5482,W,0.50,209.89,280608,,*18 $GPGGA,222405.813,4159.3285,N,09138.5478,W,1,03,26.3,203.3,M,-33.5,M,0.0,0000*7F $GPGSA,A,2,23,08,19,,,,,,,,,,33.0,26.3,20.0*07 $GPRMC,222405.813,A,4159.3285,N,09138.5478,W,0.43,210.38,280608,,*1B rww

Ok Peter, I have a bit of a problem monitoring my BT308 output. For now only my PDA talks to it, and I have not found a PDA based port sniffer that is free yet. May have to break down and get a bluetooth adapter for my PC, and the go figure a way from there. Perhaps then I can find a way with PC based Portmon. This may take a while. rww

Pete An added note. And I am using on my PDA a free GPS "monitoring program" called VisualGPSce. Do a google on it. I use this thing to debug/see if things work sort of tool tool. It connects. There is a red indicator light showing incoming packets. But is shows no GPS data at all. If that helps at all, rww

GlobalSat BT308 Bluetooth GPS Receiver Manufacturers Technical Specifications Channels 12 parallel channels Output Messages NMEA 0183 V2.2 protocol and supports command: GGA, GSA, GSV, RMC, VTG, GLL Hot Start 8 sec., average Warm Start 38 sec., average Cold Start 45 sec., average Acceleration Limit < 4g Altitude Limit 18,000m Re-acquisition 100ms Velocity Limit 515 meters/sec Time Accuracy 1us synchronized to GPS time Position Accuracy 15m 2D RMS without SA {BR} 10m 2D RMS WAAS enabled Supply Voltage Build-in rechargeable battery and 5V DC input charging circuit Operation Time 8hr. After fully charged, in continuous mode Dimension 84mm*47mm*27mm Storage Temperature -30¢XC~85¢XC Operation Temperature -20¢XC~70¢XC Humidity Up to 95% non-Condensing rww

Peter, So far no luck. Just position in XCSoar. Thanks for checking on the source code for me. It's a bit beyond me and my one class of C++ years ago. We have updated to FSUIPC v3.81 and GPSout v2.601 and WideFS v6.75. Here's what's in my config file: [GPSout] Sentence=GGA,RMC Interval=1000 Port=\\.\WCEUSBSH001 Speed=19200 PosTo6Decimal=Yes Tried baud of 19200 and 9600, "GGA,RMC" and "RMC,GGA" (for sequence) messed with the "." in the port statement but my system does not care about that. PosTo6Decimal set both ways In XCSoar Generic, CAI 302, EW Logg, Altair Pro, Vega, CAI GPS-NAVNmeaOut, PosiGrap, Borgelt B, Volkslogg, EW Micro, LX -- were all tried. COM9 is used for my USB connection "Use GPS time" set to both on and off I have a number of other programs all competing for FSUIPC output but have never seen a problem here. System is here is Windows XP patched and up-to-date While flying -- I get from XCSoar I get -- %Climb (not correct) and Variometer activity (all sink) which is not correct and VGND which looks ok. Incidentally my bluetooth HP 308 GPS works fine real world with XCSoar Thanks agn, RWW

Peter, I have been connecting GPSout to FS2004 via USB to an HP HX4700 PDA Windows Mobile 3.x, running XCSoar, FSUIPC v3.75. I have position, speed, and direction but no altitude. I have tried multiple combinations of baud rate, sentence sequences, but have never seen an altitude reading. Killed ActiveSych and even tried a serial port connection but no luck. Just position and speed and I guess direction. I checked the XCSoar forum and they cited that their program had a long history of working with things like "Condor" and a wide variety of other GPS devices. XCSoar is open source. They suggested that I check here first and were reluctant to change code to accommodate a commercial product. GPS sentence structure was suspect according to them. Was hoping to use FS2004 as a training platform to gain experience with XCSoar before actually flying. XCSoar is a real world aviation navigation/glide computer program for sailplane pilots. I have enjoyed using FSUIPC and occasionally Wide for a some time now with no problems till now (:-) Thank you for your help, rww