GPS sentences -- monitoring with a phone app

[HillmanImp]

I wonder if anyone would be interested in trialling an Android app that monitors the output from a GPS module. The phone/tablet connects to the GPS via an OTG cable and either an Arduino board with a USB connection (eg, Nano, Uno) or a TTL/USB converter.

I know we can monitor the GPS output via a USB terminal app using either a OTG or Bluetooth connection, but that just gives a rapidly scrolling stream of sentences -- not easy to study.

The u-center software from u-blox is great, but you have to use a computer and it's perhaps more sophisticated than we need for just monitoring progress in accessing of sats and in getting a fix.

The app gives static views of the sentences as well as the values of parameters such as Sats Seen, Sats Used, Date, Time, Lat, Lon. This makes it easy to monitor progress rather than just waiting ages hoping for that blinking light.

Anyone interested in trying out the app?

[HillmanImp]

Here's some screenshots from the app in action.

1. Display of parameters while trying to get a fix (1 sat seen):
   
   
2. Display of sentences while trying to get a fix (2 sats seen):
   
   
3. Parameters when fix has been achieved (13 sats seen, 10 used):
   
   
4. Sentences with fix (13 sats seen) (important to understand these sentences are static displays, not scrolling as happens with a terminal app):
   
   

[HillmanImp]

The app can be downloaded here for only the next two hours:

http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/b/680p

The above link has probably expired by now.

Here's another link that can be accessed for the next two hours. When you create a link to an app, MIT App Inventor make it accessible for only two hours:

http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/b/kv26