Dependencies and Installation

Python 3.6. This uses f-strings. It depends on float results in division. It clearly separates text and bytes.

PySerial, version 3.3.

pip install pyserial

Download NMEA-Tools.

You can install it. It’s doubtful, however, that it does exactly what you want. Since you’re going to tinker, it’s best to work directly in the repository that you forked from Git Hub.

export PYTHONPATH=/path/to/NMEA-Tools

Testing

Note that nmeatools must be visible. When we run tests/test.py, the tests directory is local and the overall distribution kit directory isn’t visible. By setting PYTHONPATH we make sure the top-level project directory (the directory which contains nmeatools is visible.

MacBookPro-SLott:NMEA-Tools slott$ PYTHONPATH=. python3 tests/test.py
..........
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 10 tests in 0.007s

OK

Driver

I use the driver for by BU-353 GPS antenna. See http://usglobalsat.com/s-122-bu-353-support.aspx I don’t know if this is required. If your NMEA-0183 interface device doesn’t seem to work, you may beed an appropriate USB driver.

Using

Once installed, you can mess with

  1. Wiring up the NMEA-0183 to USB connector you’ve chosen. See Background.
  2. Playing with nmeatools.nmea_data which has two simple capture-and-display functions: nmeatools.sample_CP() and nmeatools.sample_GPS().
  3. Capturing waypoints and routes using nmeatools.nmea_capture.
  4. Converting NMEA sentences to GPX using nmeatools.waypoint_to_gpx.