With the modem... The phone is a Kyocera 2035 that has a DataOnly option. When the serial cable arrives I'll experiment with it. It's only a 14.4 connection but that's fast enough for NMEA GPS data.
I'll do some research on the modem you suggested, just in case the kyocera doesn't work out.
I found a similar microprocessor to your, the Rabbit 2000. It has 4 serial ports and tons of IO pins. Programmed in C. The dev kit and chip total out at $139 - the chip itself is 12.75.
Other features I'd like to add;
- Remote disable of the car (If the cops arrive at the car and it's moving, I can disable the fuel pump at their request)
- Trigger horn and hazard lights - that should get them out of the car
- Using a car alarm shock sensor add-on ($10 for dual-stange sensitivity) it'll trigger a subroutine if the car suffers a shock when the engine is off. It could detect anything from a break-in to a door ding, and email/SMS my phone.
- There's a couple of other little add-ons I've been wanting to do to my car that required some kind of logic, and I can have these running as independent routines in the processor, such as turning on the hazard lights when it detects heavy braking (determined by a rapid reduction in speed from GPS data) and turning them off again when I accelerate.
THis is all the bells and whisltles, but for now I'd be happy with just the GPS location.
In terms of actually mapping the car, I have an ASP webserver and a microsoft COM object built that handles the modem stuff. Right now it dials into the modem (regualr modem for testing, not the cell modem) and will accept the GPS data back (I have the unplug the GPS until the phone connection is made due to the problem I described earlier with flooding the modem with too much data). The COM object gets all the GPS data in NMEA format and drops everything except the $GPGGA line. Form that it parses out lat, lon and time. Those values are returned to the web page ASP from the COM object using Public Properties and the resulting lat/lon is displayed on the website.
I also launch a seperate browser with a well-formed URL which calls
www.mapquest.com and submits the lat and lon in deg/min/sec format - this displays a map with the GPS location pinpointed. So instead of telling the cops "It's at 40d16m40s" I can say "Corner of 3rd and main, heading north at 25mph"
If my car gets stolen I can track it from any internet connection. Work/Home/call a friend etc
I can even make the website compatible with the browser of my recular phone so I can go to a bookmarked website and it'll just display lat/lon/heading/speed so I can call the cops immediately.
I'm gonna go look at the URL you posted now...