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I've got a USB GPS receiver that creates a virtual COM port in the OS. I have installed GPSDirect driver in order to create a Windows Location sensor out of it so that Microsoft Maps app would work. And it did work on my desktop. But now I've installed the computer and the GPS receiver into my car, and Maps never shows my location since.

So, I need to find out if it's a driver / location sensor problem, if I need to do something in Maps to make it work, or if the GPS signal is blocked by some internals of my car. Is there a program that could visualize low-level GPS data from the receiver via the Location Sensor API? If not, is there such a program that would work with a serial port GPS (if I uninstall the GPS Direct driver)?

Violet Giraffe
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1 Answers1

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Based on your description, I'd expect your GPS receiver to support NMEA protocol. To test it, you should install a terminal emulator (e.g. Putty), connect to the COM port created by your GPS and examine the data you're receiving. You may need to remove GPSDirect before (or use a laptop for testing).

You should be able to see your GPS device in Device Manager under Ports (COM & LPT), though it might not be labeled as a GPS device like NMEA specifically and might just say "USB Serial Device (COM4)" for example. If so in putty you would connect to Serial > COM4 for example.

In my experience, you should start receiving something right away, before any satellites are found (like $GPZDA strings with current time). Once the GPS finds enough satellites to provide a usable position data, it will start sending $GPGGA and $GPGLL strings. If you never see those, it usually means the signal is too weak. $GPGGA strings actually have a special field (#7, according to this document) which tells you how many satellites are in view.

Matthew
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Dmitry Grigoryev
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