Re: Linux connection with Lowrance Airmap 100?

[John Peterson <jaypee@netcom.com>]

On Tue, Sep 14, 1999 at 11:52:05PM +0200, Amos Shapira wrote:
> From: "Gregory W. Ratcliff" <gwr@edaind.com>
> > There _used_to_be_ a whole bunch of users
> > doing moving map stuff on sailboats, with source
> > code and everything to do the standard NMEA
> > protocol...what most of the gps boxes output,
> 
> Thanks, but I was looking more at the other way around - i.e. create a
> land map on a PC (under Linux, using scanned maps if possible) and be
> able to UPLOAD it into the GPS, because that's the most I can take
> with me for a flight or a drive or a hike.
> 

   I'm not real familiar with the Lowrance units, but I was under the
impression that most GPS units use "vector style" map data.  Namely a
database of points (airports, navaids, polygon vertices for airspace
boundaries, roads, rivers) and associated lat/lon values.  Note that
you need to have this data around somewhere for the unit to be able to
calculate distance to waypoints, etc.  I beleive the map you see is
rendered on the fly from the vector data by the unit itself.  If so,
raster maps like you get when you scan from a paper chart would be
useless.

> Also, it looks like Lowrance are open enough to document their serial
> protocol (LSI-100, IIRC), but as far as I skimmed through it it
> doesn't describe a way to upload maps.
> 

   Neat. Sounds like Lowrance has a customer friendly idea of "fair use",
unlike most hardware manufacturers who have seemed to have adopted the
Microsoft model instead. Look for a description of how to update the
database, that might shed some light on the question / answer.

Regards, John

-- 
 ___|___  | John C. Peterson, <jaypee@netcom.com> | "Once you have flown,
  -(*)-   | you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there
  o/ \o   | you have been, there you long to return." -- Leonardo da Vinci.
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