Attempting to access the GD-8200 GPS

[Stuart Blake Tener]

List-members,

It has surely been a while since I posted to this list, but I still do read it.

I am running Kali Linux on a General Dynamics (Itronix) GD-8200 laptop, which I recently became aware has a GPS board in it with a Leadtek LR9548S (module) as one of the board's components.

I installed the suite of gpsd and its associative utilities thereupon, however I am trying to get my arms around fully configuring gpsd so I can leverage it to it's maximal extent. Towards the end of this epistle I shall instantiate the /etc/default/gpsd file that I am using. Any suggestions that might allow me to more greatly optimize it would be most greatly appreciated.

As such,I do have some several questions for the group:

1) After attempting to use gpsmon, I noticed it wrote some json on the screen then drew curses right on top of it in a very unaesthetic manner. I presume this may be related to the TERM variable I am using, which is "xterm-256color", the default for the GNOME terminal application. Moreover, gpsmon spews all these binary sentences that I'd like to turn off the output on as well, is there a manner by which I can achieve this also?

2) Is seems there is no way to get GPS sentences from the receiver unless gpsd uses 4800 baud, is there a way to get gpsd to use a higher baud (and for the GPS receiver to abide by it too)?

3) My GPS receiver seems to be having some problems, as I get GPS sentences from it but no longitudinal or latitudinal data. Is there a manner by which I can "reset" the GPS so it obtains the new almanac and ephemeral data? If so, is this a function gpsd can handle for me? I know that a GPS needs to be reset sometimes if it has not been used in a while or was moved (whilst powered off) a great distance. I would presume that gpsd could assert such a command but I stand absent any guidance or documentation that is indicative of a methodology that could function in pursuance of effectuating such a condition or state.

Maybe the GPS receiver board needs to be replaced? I suspect it may need to be, as it stands absent positional data nor is it noticing any more than a singular satellite. Can anyone suggest any meaningful diagnostic procedures I can exact to determine authoritatively what might be underpinning instigate to the lack of functionality described herein above?


4) What, if any, inexpensive USB GPS receiver could I use that would offer PPS functionality?

5) How can I determine if my current GPS can support and/or configure PPS functionality?

 

# Devices gpsd should collect to at boot time.

# They need to be read/writable, either by user gpsd or the group dialout.

DEVICES="/dev/ttyS2"

 

# Other options you want to pass to gpsd

GPSD_OPTIONS="-n --speed 4800"

 

# Automatically hot add/remove USB GPS devices via gpsdctl

USBAUTO="true"

 

Thanks in advance to anyone that can offer some guidance and I pray everyone here successfully can avoid the China Virus and the thugs running amuck these days.

 

Very Respectfully,

Stuart Blake Tener, BScCS, N3GWG (Extra), MROP
Computer Scientist / FCC Licensed Radio Operator

Las Vegas, NV / Philadelphia, PA

(310) 358-0202 Mobile Phone
(215) 338-6005 Google Voice