[aprssig] Re: Delorme Earthmate

[Stephen H. Smith]

Floyd.Gene at mail.dc.state.fl.us wrote:

>I know that my Earthmate came with USB-serial drivers that theoretically
>allow it to be seen as a virtual serial port in the computer so that you can
>use it with non-Delorme products. I haven't tried it with any other programs
>yet. I mainly use Street Atlas 2005 and Maptec Offshore Navigator, but have
>been too busy lately to do much testing on anything but SA. I wonder if
>these same drivers would enable it to work with APRS?
>
>_______________________________________________
>  
>
 They WILL work   IF....

1)   Your computer has USB ports.

2)   Your operating system properly supports USB; ie Win98SE or later

3)   You are running APRS on a computer.


The USB-interfaced GPS is TOTALLY USELESS when you want to connect a GPS 
to a hardware device such as a TInyTrak, KCP3 TNC used as a dumb 
tracker,or a TH-D7 or D700 running in standalone (no computer used) 
mode.    The virtual serial port is entirely a creature of WINDOWS-BASED 
drivers intercepting the USB data stream.  If you use a GPS with a 
non-Windows device, the GPS must have an actual serial interface. 



Stephen H. Smith             wa8lmf (at) aol.com
                                                    
Home Page:                   http://wa8lmf.com

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