Category: Teaching

Here’s some example Arduino code for getting a Etek EB-85A module up and reading latitude and longitude (will probably work with most GPS modules). You can purchase a module from Sparkfun.

The module only needs power, ground, rx and tx. Most modules like the Etek start sending NMEA strings as soon as it has power. The Etek module takes a minute or two to get a satellite fix from a cold start in urban environments. Signals drop out once in a while between tall buildings at street level even with DGPS and SBAS. On a clear day, if you’re lucky, you can get a signal sitting by the window in urban canyons.

//Etek GPS EB-85A Module Example
//by Che-Wei Wang and Kristin O'Friel
//32 Channel etek GPS unit
//modified from original code by Igor González Martín. http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Tutorials/GPS
boolean startingUp=true;
boolean gpsConnected=false;
boolean satelliteLock=false;

long myLatitude,myLongitude;

//GPS
#include 
#include 
int rxPin = 0;                    // RX PIN 
int txPin = 1;                    // TX TX
int byteGPS=-1;
char linea[300] = "";
char comandoGPR[7] = "$GPRMC";
int cont=0;
int bien=0;
int conta=0;
int indices[13];

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

void setup() {
  //GPS
  pinMode(rxPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(txPin, OUTPUT);

  for (int i=0;i