Re: gpsd and ublox

[Beissel, Joseph M. - US]

Thank you for the initial reply.  See embedded.  I added more details and asked a few more questions.  Thank you for your patience.

Joe B.

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From: gpsd-users-bounces+joseph.beissel=caci.com@nongnu.org on behalf of Gary E. Miller
Sent: Saturday, March 2, 2024 3:37 PM
To: gpsd-users@nongnu.org
Subject: Re: gpsd and ublox

Yo Joseph M. - US!

On Fri, 1 Mar 2024 21:18:59 +0000
"Beissel, Joseph M. - US" <joseph.beissel@caci.com> wrote:

> I was wondering if there is any documentation that you can point me
> to on the interactions (if any) that occur between gpsd and a ublox
> device when gpsd starts.

Sorry, no doc.  And it depends a lot on your u-blox model and your
gpsd configuration.  You can look in the doc, use ubxtool to watch it,
or ask here (after providing model number, configuration, etc.)

We are using a Ublox MAX-M8W-0 device on our board.  Does the doc contain specifics based on the type of device?

Users fall into 2 types.  The majority want gpsd to "Just Work"tm, and
for them auto-configuration is fine.  A small minority, will use
"--passive" mode, and use ubxtool (or similar) to program their device
just the way they want it.

Which user type are you?

We do not use gpsd and are looking into moving to it.  We currently use custom interface code that configures the device and then process messages that it sends.  We configure it to send out several UBX messages as well as NMEA sentences.   Since we are currently locked into Warrior which has GPSD 3.17 (I know, sucks to be me) we have to work things keeping that in mind.

With that above in mind I guess we would be part of the small minority that would need to configure the device and then use "--passive" mode if I understand correctly.  We need to configure the device to send UBX messages as well as NMEA strings  since we process both of them.  If we need to get a few of the UBX message (an example is NAV_TIMEGPS), does that require usage of the "--passive" mode and either ubxtool (or similar) to program the device?

A follow-on question about the above, would or could gpsd be configured to pass along UBX messages to the user if the device is configured to send them out?  Or do we need to stay with our custom interface code.

> Does it perform any initialization of the
> ublox device?

If: 1) it recognizes the device model, 2) --passive is not used, and
3) you connected the TXD wire.

> How does it handshake with it?

Standard UBX handshake.

> Does it handshakle
> with it?

When possible.

> I reset the ublox device on our board

The device is always in the details!  What model?  What board?
How did you start gpsd?  My mindreading skills are weak.

My wife says that same thing to me all the time (her "mindreading skills are weak")  As indicated above we use a Ublox MAX-M8W-0 .  Also the embedded comments above have a bit more detail.

> and start gpsd
> (since we are not running it by default as of yet).  I can then run
> gpsmon and see things getting reported (really nice tool).  I am just
> looking for documentation that indicates what happens when gpsd
> starts.

Uh, you reallize thet gpsmon is old, obsolete, unmaintened, and not
evern a try gpsd client?  Try ubxtool, cgps, xgps, etc.

Did not realize that it is old, obsolete, etc.  Was this true in 3.17 or in later versions?  Just curious.

> We are running an image on our custom hardware that is built using
> Yocto Warrior that came packaged with version 3.17.

Uh, you realize that is 6 years old?  We can't support that.

Obviously.  I am hoping that questions can still be answered on the later versions.

> I know there are
> newer gpsd versions with later releases of Yocto but we are unable to
> move away from Warrior at this time.

Sucks to be you.

Yup, but the reality is products need to be supported in the field beyond the dates of the software used to coble together the build products.  In a perfect this would not be a problem, but ...

> I see in later releases and read documentation about ubxtool that can
> be used to send configuration commands to a ublox device.  Is there
> something similiar to that in 3.17?  I am not sure I have seen
> anything like that.

Nope, you are out of luck.

Yup.  Have a custom tool that is currently used to program device.

> Sorry if this question appears to come from a newbie,

You become not a newbie by asking questions.  And we improve our doc
by seeing what is unclear to newbies.  So we welcome all questions, at
least those in good faith.

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Uh, no.  Don't do that.  This is a FOSS project and we do not do:

    company sensitive,
    proprietary
    privilege
    otherwise protected from disclosure

Agree.  Boiler plate our email client tags on.  Just asking questions.  Pretty sure nothing I asked touches on the above things you mentioned.  Appreciate the banter...

RGDS
GARY
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary E. Miller Rellim 109 NW Wilmington Ave., Suite E, Bend, OR 97703
        gem@rellim.com  Tel:+1 541 382 8588

            Veritas liberabit vos. -- Quid est veritas?
    "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." - Lord Kelvin

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This electronic message contains information from CACI International Inc or subsidiary companies, which may be company sensitive, proprietary, privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. The information is intended to be used solely by the recipient(s) named above. If you are not an intended recipient, be aware that any review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of this transmission or its contents is prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately.