Hi - I am working on a GPS receiver project and I have managed to connect the electronics (GPS receiver, Sparkfun mini shield and Arduino pro mini). I connected this to my laptop (Apple) using the FTDI breakout board and I was able to link via the Arduino App. I can use the Arduino App to run a basic Blink test, which worked, and I was able to load the TinyLibrary++ successfully into the Arduino App and sync to my project.
My question is how to run the device to track the GPS location details using the TinyLibrary software? In other words, how do I know if I am receiving data?
I followed the instructions on the Sparkfun website on how to load the TinyLibrary software, but I am unclear on how to use the software on my device.
Also, I am unsure if any lights on the Sparkfun mini shield should light up when the device is on and tracking satellites. The Arduino pro mini shows lights when connected, but there are no lights shown on the Sparkfun mini shield (NB: there was a blue light appearing on the Sparkfun mini shield when it was initially assembled, but this light went off when I synced the device with my laptop).
Just to clarify, by TinyLibrary, do you mean the TinyGPS++ library?
If so, theres a few function calls from that library that should get you started. I’d take a look at this GitHub repository for some examples (specifically the Device Example in the Example folder).
There is a pretty neat code snippet in there that will gather and display all of the info from the GPS reading as a string(s) that can be read on the Arduino serial monitor!
while (ss.available() > 0)
if (gps.encode(ss.read()))
displayInfo();
Hi - thanks for your help. I managed to connect my device to my laptop and I can use the Arduino app to upload software. However, I have connected my device and went outside and I can’t seem to get satellite connection. The serial monitor message reads “No GPS data received. Check wiring”. I have checked the solder of all boards to make sure they are in good shape. Is there a way to confirm the GPS pro mini shield board is connected properly…other than getting the satellite signal?
1 - is there supposed to be a light on the pro mini shield board when connected to my laptop? The Arduino Pro Mini has a red light that stays on…but no lights appear on the pro mini shield.
2 - do I use the HW-UART or SW-UART switch on the pro mini shield? When I use HW-UART the message above appears in the serial monitor (i.e., no GPS data received). When I use the SW-UART the serial monitor seems to continuously search for a signal.
There is an LED connected to Pin 7 on the Mini GPS Shield which will light up when you’ve got a GPS fix.
If you’re trying to get it to show on your serial monitor via USB, set the switch to SW UART. You can’t use the Hardware UART pins for both the GPS shield and USB communication.
