Goals

• extract NMEA.GGA and NMEA.RMC information from the GPS data, including

  • location information

    • latitude and longitude

    • the incoming data is in the format ddmm.mmmm degrees minutes.fractional minutes

    • we want to convert it to the unit of degree only with 6 decimal places precision for the sake of simplicity and better compatibility

  • date

    • day, month, year

  • time

    • hour, minutes, seconds

  • number of satellites

  • ground speed

    • converts to m/s

  • track angle

    • this is the direction in which the vehicle is moving

    • this angle is relative to the true north

• build a GPS driver class to provide the proper GPS configuration methods and info getters

  • The GPS module we are currently using is spark fun GPS breakout https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15210

  • It has an onboard SAM M8Q module from Ublox

  • In theory, this device should be usable with other Ublox GPS module since the GPS sentence they spill out is the same

• using UART interface

  • we can add the I2C interface to this driver later since UART spots are usually more precious on a MCU

Design

Ria Prakash

Source

• GPS Arduino Library: https://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun_u-blox_GNSS_Arduino_Library/tree/main

• GGA format: https://receiverhelp.trimble.com/alloy-gnss/en-us/NMEA-0183messages_GGA.html

• RMC format: https://receiverhelp.trimble.com/alloy-gnss/en-us/NMEA-0183messages_RMC.html

• ublox 8 datasheet: https://content.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/products/documents/u-blox8-M8_ReceiverDescrProtSpec_UBX-13003221.pdf