re-purposing off the shelf GPS receiver - Electronic Circuits Projects Diagrams Free

justDIY · 13th March 2007, 08:45 PM

Ebay has a Sirf Star III based (20 channel) gps receiver for $25. It's sold under the brand name "HOLUX" model GR 213

Does anyone have one of these? Have you cracked it open to see what's inside?

I would like to add gps to some projects, but the cost of a bare 'engine' is prohibitive. Now these off the shelf receivers cost half what a bare engine costs... a bare sirf star iii engine with built in antenna is almost $60 from sparkfun.com

What I'm wondering is if I get one of these and crack it open, will I be able to interface with the engine on a simpler level than full blown USB. I guess my real question is... is the engine connected to a usb transceiver via a uart, or is the transceiver built into the engine itself?

picasm · 13th March 2007, 09:51 PM

There are 2 versions of the GR-213. If you could get the type that has a round ps-2 connector then a google search would find the manual showing the power and serial data connections which would mean you would not even have to open it.

I don't know anything about the usb versions on ebay - the Holux website link to the manual for it does not work.

If you just want some cheap oem modules, there are some on ebay for less than $20 inc shipping - but most sellers there only ship within the US

For those, you would also need to buy or make an antenna.

justDIY · 15th March 2007, 09:43 PM

Any other folks with feedback?

I know I can get an old serial based gps pretty cheap, but they're huge, hog power and rather insensitive compared to the SiRF Star III chipset

dknguyen · 16th March 2007, 12:00 AM

If you look at the USGLobalSAT modules from SParkFun, you would see that those communicate by UART and are pretty much the barebones. It's safe to assume the chipset uses UART or SPI, and not USB (that's silly for an OEM chipset!)

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13th March 2007, 08:45 PM	(permalink)
justDIY	re-purposing off the shelf GPS receiver Ebay has a Sirf Star III based (20 channel) gps receiver for $25. It's sold under the brand name "HOLUX" model GR 213 Does anyone have one of these? Have you cracked it open to see what's inside? I would like to add gps to some projects, but the cost of a bare 'engine' is prohibitive. Now these off the shelf receivers cost half what a bare engine costs... a bare sirf star iii engine with built in antenna is almost $60 from sparkfun.com What I'm wondering is if I get one of these and crack it open, will I be able to interface with the engine on a simpler level than full blown USB. I guess my real question is... is the engine connected to a usb transceiver via a uart, or is the transceiver built into the engine itself? __________________ If you don't have a planet, what good are gold bars? want to contact me directly? gmail gordonthree check out my project website: http://projects.dimension-x.net Favorite numbers: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

13th March 2007, 09:51 PM	(permalink)
picasm	There are 2 versions of the GR-213. If you could get the type that has a round ps-2 connector then a google search would find the manual showing the power and serial data connections which would mean you would not even have to open it. I don't know anything about the usb versions on ebay - the Holux website link to the manual for it does not work. If you just want some cheap oem modules, there are some on ebay for less than $20 inc shipping - but most sellers there only ship within the US For those, you would also need to buy or make an antenna.

15th March 2007, 09:43 PM	(permalink)
justDIY	Any other folks with feedback? I know I can get an old serial based gps pretty cheap, but they're huge, hog power and rather insensitive compared to the SiRF Star III chipset __________________ If you don't have a planet, what good are gold bars? want to contact me directly? gmail gordonthree check out my project website: http://projects.dimension-x.net Favorite numbers: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

16th March 2007, 12:00 AM	(permalink)
dknguyen	If you look at the USGLobalSAT modules from SParkFun, you would see that those communicate by UART and are pretty much the barebones. It's safe to assume the chipset uses UART or SPI, and not USB (that's silly for an OEM chipset!)