GPS2IP
  • Settings
  • Tutorials
  • FAQ
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  • Time between sending positions
  • Disable when Static
  • GPS Accuracy
  • NMEA messages to send
  • GGA
  • RMC
  • GLL
  • HDG
  • HDM
  • HDT
  • Other messages
  • PASHR
  • GPTXT
  • General Settings
  • Operate in background mode
  • Operate when terminated if enabled
  • True North
  • Send in 1 transmission
  • Lock with Password
  • Connection Method
  • Socket
  • TCP Push
  • UDP Push
  • Network Selection
  • Wifi IP
  • Cellular IP
  • Hotspot
  • Bluetooth

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Settings

Every setting in GPS2IP

Time between sending positions

You can choose how often messages are sent by GPS2IP.

  • No delay

    Send as quickly as possible, on every new location received by the hardware

  • 1s Send every second, even if there is no new location data. If you do not want identical data being sent when the device is not moving, see See Disable when Static, below. Every slower rate follows this same logic.

  • 5s

  • 30s

  • 60s

  • 5 minutes

  • 30 minutes

  • 1 hour

Disable when Static

When this is enabled, GPS2IP will not send location data unless the device has moved. So, if if it doesn't move, no messages will be transmitted.

This can save data charges by reducing transmission of redundant information.

If this setting is disabled, data will always be transmitted according to the time interval selected, regardless of having received new data or not.

GPS Accuracy

You can select with what level of accuracy GPS2IP functions. The higher accuracy levels consume more power.

The levels you can select from are

  • The very best This mode uses quite a lot of energy. You should keep the device plugged in to avoid flattening the battery.

  • Pretty good Receives a location update approximately every 10m, and uses less power than The very best setting

  • Moderate A new location will be detected roughly every 100m of travel

  • Lazy This uses the lowest amount of power. But accuracy is very low - perhaps every 3km, or so

NMEA messages to send

GGA

Sends the GPGGA message. If desired, the time field can be transmitted with millisecond information by hitting the ⓘ info button, and enabling that option.

Without milliseconds, you might get a message like$GPGGA,193420,3351.80400,S,15112.66000,E,1,8,0.9,0.0,M,46.9,M,0,2*64

With milliseconds, you would get something more like $GPGGA,194900.882,3351.80400,S,15112.66000,E,1,8,0.9,0.0,M,46.9,M,0,2*70

Apple iOS does not support several lower-level values. Subsequently:

  • Horizontal Dilution of Position is hard-coded to 0.9

  • Number of satellites tracked is fixed to 8

Altitude is MSL.

RMC

Sends the GPRMC message. If desired, the time field can be transmitted with millisecond information by hitting the ⓘ info button, and enabling that option, in exactly the same way as GGA.

Magnetic variation is fixed to 3.1°W.

GLL

Sends the GPGLL message.

HDG

This displays the Heading Deviation & Variation. Only supported on hardware with an electronic compass.

HDM

This displays the Magnetic heading. Only on supported hardware with an electronic compass.

HDT

This displays the True heading. Only on supported hardware with an electronic compass.

Other messages

PASHR

This is a non-standard message, that transmits Inertial Attitude Data. Reference, here.

Heave is fixed to 0.0m Roll and pitch angle accuracy estimate fixed to 3.14159°

Using the True North setting in the General section, you can select between a True and Magnetic north output in this sentence.

GPTXT

You can enter a custom message (or ID) here, and it will be transmitted as other messages are. This was designed to associate a particular device with an IP address, if you are using multiple devices running GPS2IP.

Generally, this would be most usefully used with the Send in 1 transmission option enabled. With this option disabled, you would merely get a single packet containing this message. Probably not very useful..

For instance, if you have three devices running GPS2IP, and all transmitting to the same server, you could assign some unique text into this field, and it would be easy to determine which messages are from what device.

Your receiving software must be able to split a combined message into separate NMEA messages with Send in 1 transmission enabled.

General Settings

Operate in background mode

If this is enabled, GPS2IP will operate when the device goes to sleep, or another app is running in the foreground.

We highly recommend to enable this setting to continue to receive location data.

Operate when terminated if enabled

This automatically restarts GPS2IP after the device has restarted after having had flat batteries, or being turned off.

GPS2IP can use quite a lot of energy, and if this setting is inadvertently enabled when you do not require it, your device will This can use a lot of eneraccidentally use

True North

Here you can configure whether the PASHR message outputs True or Magnetic north. Whether you enable this depends on your software or personal preference.

Send in 1 transmission

This compiles all messages into one packet (chunk) and sends them at once, rather than indivdually.

Many apps cannot parse multiple messages at once, so this option is disabled by default. Enabled, you should see network traffic very slightly lowered.

This option would be essentially crucial when the GPTXT field is used, so that the incoming data can be associated with one device.

Lock with Password

You can configure a password so that no settings can be changed without re-entering the password.

As one example, if you have staff members that you need to keep track of, you can set up the device according to your needs, enable GPS2IP, and lock it with this feature.

The is an app designed expressly for tracking iOS devices, that does not require parsing NMEA. It is based on the same prinicples as GPS2IP. It is called 6signals, on the AppStore.

With the lock enabled, nothing can be changed, and GPS2IP cannot be turned off without the password.

Don't forget this password! You cannot reset this password!

Because nothing can be changed without the password, GPS2IP must be enabled first (check that you are receiving messages), then go back into Settings and enable the lock. To stop GPS2IP transmitting data, you must first unlock it.

Connection Method

In this section, you can configure how you will be connecting with GPS2IP.

Socket

When GPS2IP is operating as a socket, it waits and listens for something to connect to it.

Many different devices can connect to GPS2IP simultaneously, and when it transmits data, it will transmit to them all. In this situation, it is easy to receive the same data on different computers on your network.

There are different ways to connect using a socket, for example

Telnet or netcat

telnet 192.168.0.101 11123
nc 192.168.0.101 11123

Several marine apps connect to NMEA servers using this method. There are some examples on the GPS2IP website.

See the Socket section on the main GPS2IP website for more details about setting up sockets in general.

TCP Push

Using this method, GPS2IP transmits to any IP address and port that you enter, using TCP/IP.

In this situation, GPS2IP is 'pushing' to some other device - the other device is 'listening'. This could be a server on the internet, or something on your LAN. As long as there is a path through routers/firewalls, you should be able to receive data anywhere in the world from GPS2IP.

The address can be any valid IP4 adress, and also a URL such as receivenmea.com (http:// is assumed). The Port number should be the port that the other machine is listening on.

This method can be complex to setup. If it is not working, please don't give up, and give GPS2IP zero stars, and complain on the AppStore. This mode does work, and works well. Unfortunately, though, networking can be a very complicated subject. Get in touch, so we can try to help!

There is some helpful information on configuring TCP & UDP Push on the GPS2IP website.

UDP Push

This is exactly the same as TCP Push, but uses the UDP protocol. There are no other differences. Here is some helpful information.

Network Selection

To connect to GPS2IP, you must establish a network connection. You may choose from any of the following.

Wifi IP

This is probably the most common way to connect to GPS2IP.

Both the iOS device with GPS2IP and another computer will be on the same local wifi network, and communicate over that.

Cellular IP

If your network carrier supports it, and you have a plan with data, you might be able to transmit the data over your network provider's system.

This can be a very complicated method. Carriers differ greatly, and depending on which Connection Method you select, you might suffer from the IP address changing without warning. Please consider this option only if you are confident you can troubleshoot and spend some time to make sure it is operating correctly.

GPS2IP cellular data transmission does work, but it can be complicated to setup.

Hotspot

Bluetooth

If your computer and software support BLE, GPS2IP can act as a BLE peripheral.

BLE is not 'normal' Bluetooth. You cannot just connect GPS2IP to your computer to 'magically' have a GPS.

The software you use must be expressly designed to use BLE. The operating system (Windows or Mac) will not see GPS2IP as a Bluetooth GPS.

SeaNav, for example, has been written to take advantage of BLE devices, like GPS2IP.

Check out our Bluetooth Mode information page, and how to configure GPS2IP to use BLE.

NextTutorials

Last updated 1 year ago

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