Can a pic do several things at once?

[mister_e]

There's probably reasons why they came with installation CDs...

I heard few times about Falcom modules.. never tried them though.
<hr>
EDIT: FSA02 seems to be a cute little one

[karenhornby]

There's probably reasons why they came with installation CDs...

Well it's unlikely an installation cd would be much use to me the way I want to use it.....
And the USB version has no drivers on cd.

Anyway I've found a sual mini usb/bluetooth GPS receiver that uses the same chipset i wanted, and outputs all the NMEA sentences I would be interested in

Output terminal: Mini-USB (CMOS Level)
‧ NMEA protocol output : V 3.01
‧ Baud rate : 38400 bps
‧ Data bit : 8
‧ Parity : N
‧ Stop bit : 1
‧ Output format :
Standard : GPGGA (1time/1 sec), GPGSA (1 time/5 sec.), GPGSV (1time /5 sec.), GPRMC (1time /1 sec.), GPVTG (1 time/1 sec)

Would this CMOS level interface directly to a pic with no other hardware needed so I could wait for the nmea sentence I wanted and then act upon that sentence?

In case anyone's interested... http://www.holux.com/JCore/en/produc...ec.jsp?pno=227

[mackrackit]

If all you are after from the GPS is speed, one of these might do. I have not used them yet but I hear they are OK. Both are serial interfaced.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...roducts_id=465

http://www.parallax.com/Store/Microc...%2cProductName

[dhouston]

You need a USB host to receive data from a USB device. A PIC is not powerful enough to act as a USB host.

[b1arrk5]

Karen,
according to the link you provided, you could get RS-232 serial out of the gps unit using an RJ-45 connector. These are the same connectors used for ethernet connections, and you can purchase a cable that has this on one end and a nine pin serial plug on the other. You can make your own cable, but you need a tool to press the wires into the connector. You can also get PS-2 connectors, but they are harder to find and cost more. Of course you might find a broken PC keyboard, and take the cable off of it. Darrel's Instant Interrupts will be your best friend for this project.

Jerry.

[Squibcakes]

A cheaper option would be to use a hall sensor mounted on your drive shaft and have the pic count the rpm. Convert that to mph and voila! You have your speed.
(If you want to get even more fancy, you could then hook the pic into your throttle and hey presto!, you've just built a cruise control for your car. Lets see the GPS do that!!)

Good luck.

Squib

[karenhornby]

A cheaper option would be to use a hall sensor mounted on your drive shaft and have the pic count the rpm. Convert that to mph and voila! You have your speed.
(If you want to get even more fancy, you could then hook the pic into your throttle and hey presto!, you've just built a cruise control for your car. Lets see the GPS do that!!)

Good luck.

Squib

I would have considered that but I've already got something similar, its my speedometer, my reason for wanting to do the above is the accuracy of speed derived from GPS signals, where using sensors on the driveshaft or anywhere else will never be anywhere near accurate due to tyyre sizes, and even the tyre pressure dropping would change the speed reading's accuracy thats why I ruled out sensors on the cars mechanical bits