imclab / indicator-gpsd

GPSd application indicator for Unity. Toggles data acquiring from GPSd, shows GPS data, manages GPS device power.

indicator-gpsd v0.0.2

GPSd application indicator for Unity. Toggles data acquiring from GPSd, shows GPS data, manages GPS device power (only GOBI3000 currently).

Written and tested only on Ubuntu 12.10 (unity 6.8-6.12, gpsd 3.6).

##Disclaimer## This is my first experience in writing code using GTK, Unity, GIT, GitHub and gpsd. Had only known Python and invested 8 hours to make first version.

##Features:##

• Ubuntu Unity integration
• One-click GPS toggle
• Live display of GPS data from gpsd via network socket (localhost by default)
• Open Google/Yandex/OpenStreet map in default browser at current location
• Has to be (no tests done yet) energy-efficient:
  • UI is updated only on new location data arrival from gpsd
  • gpsd manages active state of most GPS devices automatically, and this applet may add power management for some others through custom shell commands

##TODO:##

• Handle gpsdata elegantly
• Add "Copy GPS data to clipboard" menu item
• Tidy up code, menus and errors
• Add configuration GUI
• "Autostart with system" option
• Redraw icons
• Write dpkg stuff and make .debs for easy installation
• Settle PPA
• i18n

##gpsd and python-gps required:## 1. sudo apt-get install gpsd python-gps 2. sudo dpkg-reconfigure gpsd 3. sudo service gpsd restart

##Download and run indicator:## 1. git clone https://github.com/alteist/indicator-gpsd.git 2. python path/to/indicator-gpsd.py

##Power toggle for Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000(TM) Module GPS (USB 1199:9013)##

1. Add yourself to dialout group: sudo adduser USERNAME dialout
2. Restart X-session or reboot.

###Troubleshoot Gobi 3000 power toggle###

1. If you didn't add yourself to dialout group:

    sudo su -
   

2. echo "$GPS_START" > /dev/ttyUSB2

3.  cat /dev/ttyUSB2
   

4. if you see something like:

    GPGSV,3,1,12,03,47,085,29,05,06,323,22,06,34,063,27,07,58,309,31
   

then this applet will have power control over GOBI3000 GPS. Press CTRL+C to stop stream from ttyUSB.

5. echo "$GPS_STOP" > /dev/ttyUSB2

###Note### I think gpsd has to manage power state of the GPS device itself, if someone wants to send patches to the author here is the clue for Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000(TM) Module:

lsusb:
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1199:9013 Sierra Wireless, Inc.

turn on:

echo "\$GPS_START" > /dev/ttyUSB2

turn off:

echo "\$GPS_STOP" > /dev/ttyUSB2

gpsd docs: http://catb.org/gpsd/gpsd_json.html

##Options:## GPS_OFF_TIMEOUT = 65000 When you close connection to gpsd, it still reads data from GPS device for some time (I think it's 60 seconds) and I haven't found a way to stop it immediately to turn off power of the GOBI3000 GPS and the device cannot be turned off if someone uses it so I added this timeout (65 seconds in ms)

GPS_DEV = "/dev/ttyUSB2" Used only for power management in this indicator

GPS_ON_COMMAND = "path|cmd" GPS_OFF_COMMAND = "path|cmd" Not implemented yet.

GPSD_HOST = "127.0.0.1" GPSD_PORT = 2947 Cat /etc/default/gpsd to check if there are non-default settings

##Debug indicator <--> gpsd part:## Run in separate terminals: sudo gpsd -N -D 5 /dev/ttyUSB2 sudo ngrep -d lo port 2947