I want to read streaming serial data from a GPS device which it puts out via a USB port. Inside the GPS device it's basically taking serial data and pushing it out through an FT232RL serial to USB converter. If the device is plugged into a PC, it's recognized as a serial com port using an FTDI driver.
I'd like to connect the device to an Arduino (preferably UNO) which would requite a USB Host shield such as this USB Host Shield Support Google Android ADK & MEGA Duemilanove 2560 Arduino | eBay. I've done some reading and I'm familiar with the hardware issues such as joining up pads to provide the correct power connections and the possible need to swap out the 74HC135D for a 74AHC125D.
However I have not found any examples of this type of connection. I see lots of people trying to hook up mice and keyboards, and the library seems to cover these cases - and even then people have problems! I can't find any examples of connection the shield to a device that would presumably identify as an FT232RL, and then reading the streaming serial data. The data would be in NMEA format. I have previously used the tinyGPS++ library to read NMEA data presented to an arduino as a RS232 serial data stream. In this case I'd want to convert the USB data received by the USB Host shield into serial data that could be presented to a software serial port which was read using the TinyGPS++ library.
Is this a reasonable approach? I've seen no examples of anyone actually doing this, but in principle it sounds (to me) like it should work. I read all sorts of horror stories about problems with USB Host shield problems with mice, keyboards and similar devices and can find very little actual data on the shields, like which pins they use, potential pin conflicts etc.
An alternative which sounds much easier would be to use a GPS receiver that generated serial data directly rather than using a USB connection, but since I already have a USB connected GPS receiver, i'd like to use it. It connects fine to a PC and programs like U-center can read and display the data, but I'd like a "stand alone" readout.
Any help or advice would be appreciated (even if it's "don't do it this way" !)