Missileworks T3 and U-blox u-center software

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Buckeye

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Has anybody successfully connected the Missileworks T3 NMEA data stream into U-blox u-center software on Windows? I can get VisualGPS to connect and read through the Bluetooth COM port, but u-center and Mapshere will not. They will connect briefly, raise an error, then disable the COM port completely. I then need to restart the T3 RX (and perhaps re-pair the HC-06) for the COM port to appear again.

I suspect Windoze 10 and/or the Bluetooth adapter are the problem, but at least one software (VisualGPS) works and connects through the COM port at 9600 baud rate. I installed the latest drivers for the Bluetooth.

I've used all the Android phone apps with the T3, now I want to play with a "base station" on my laptop. Of all the freebo software, u-center looks to be the most powerful.

I guess this same question can apply to Eggfinder users as well.

Thanks.
 

I'll give it a shot this weekend. I was using U-center a lot for 3DR trouble shooting. I whip out the T3 and see if I can get it going. I think I had at one time to
check if it was GNSS enabled. If I recall, it's only U.S. GPS enabled which is what you want to use the T3 with the standard Android software.

I'll see how easy it is to connect again. Kurt
 
Well shoot. This is challenging. I was going to apologize and say I didn't get it going but turns out UCenter is rather Squirrely. WinBlows assigns 2 comports to HC-06 and HC-05 devices and I select the lower of the two pairs. In my case it was 15/18. I tried UCenter for awhile but failed. Went to the ham radio app APRSISCE/32 and selected 15 as the base GPS and got this map with the rocket sitting in the all-season's room out back:
T3.jpg

I shut this program down and gave UCenter another shot and was able to select com 15 at this time (the ports must be 9600bps) The program "took" and I got this picture:

ucenter.jpg

I updated to 8.28 and can't resize the screen components like I had in the past:
ALL.jpg

The picture above was a 3DR with a GPS/Glonass receiver. Can add precision but GPS is perfectly fine for our purposes. (v8.26 of UCenter.)

So it can be done but it looks like the UCenter program can be squirrely. I used a Win7 Professional machine.

The T3 is GPS only and I wouldn't try switching it on using the commands in UCenter. I've diddled with commands with Clone GPS chipsets and if the Chinese say it's GPS/Glonass, it usually is. But............ You dork a $7.00 chipset no big deal. Dork a retail chipset $79.00 on up and that hurts.

Don't try commanding the GPS on the T3 to monitor GPS/Glonass (might not be in there anyways) as though it gains accuracy you'll lose the ability to use most of the tracking programs.
Rocket Track nor GPS Rocket Locator can "see/read" a GPS/GNSS receiver. I know 'cause I played with it with the 3DR radios with GPS/GNSS chips and neither can decode the stream.
They won't display anything.......... Except if one runs the receive strings through the B/T GPS app on Android and pair an external B/T GPS for local position. (Your devices internal GPS
is useless here.)

You fire up B/T GPS, get it running monitoring your incoming tracker strings, minimize it, Open GPS Rocket Locator or probably RT will work (haven't tried that though) and it will pipe the GPS/Glonass strings to GPS Rocket Locator as the "Blue Dot" local position. The outboard B/T GPS (you could Velcro it to a ball cap.) you pair and it becomes the rocket now "red pushpin". The assignments are reversed. It can work. Have fun.


Kurt
 
Thanks, Kurt. Ok, so you did get u-center to work. Yes, the lack of window sizing sucks. I have Win 10.

I see two COM ports (9 and 10) assigned to the HC-06. One says "incoming", the other "outgoing." I was messing with those assignments and thus not sure how correct that is. Outgoing is usually the smaller COM number and also says "rev b." This is the port that works with VisualGPS, but fails with u-center and Mapshere. The 2nd port (10) never works for me with any software.

I am not looking modify anything with u-center, just read and plot the T3 data stream.

Do Eggfinder users have the same HC-06/Bluetooth/COM port/software issues on Windows?
 
Yes, I chose 15 and it worked like shown in the second screen save above. That was after I closed down the first app in the first screen save. I don't know if some sort of initialization occurred when I ran that aprs program, that allowed me to fire up Ucenter or what. I'll try again tonight and see what happens. I'll report back as soon as I pull it off thank you. Kurt
I forgot to mention again that it's Windows 7 I'm using not Windows 10. With Microsoft stuff that can make a big difference.
 
I tried it again this morning and couldn't get it to connect to UCenter at all. It would connect to my Ham radio apps as the "local" position meaning as long as I chose the lowest numbered port the data would stream accross fine.
All's I can say is Ucenter connection is "dicey" with the T3 at least on my Win 7 machine.

I have noticed this behavior when I tried to use the HC-06 with the 3DR receivers. It seems the HC-05 worked better in that respect. I'd say it's an application fart and the T3 works fine with the Android tracking apps for me. Kurt
 
Yep, same here in Win10. Can't connect u-center (or Mapshere for that matter) no matter what I do. I guess I'll stick with VisualGPS.
 
I didn't answer this question sorry: Do Eggfinder users have the same HC-06/Bluetooth/COM port/software issues on Windows?

I haven't had any problems reading the streams from the HC-06 B/T modules on Windoze with the EggFinders. Of course Ucenter isn't going to work as the EggFinders use a Maestro Sirf IV chipset and it won't connect to a SirfIV datastream. I tried it and the program just goes blank. That said, I've had no trouble bonding the EggFinder LCD to Windoze and use APRSISCE/32 to track by feeding the the NMEA Eggfinder strings into the "Local" NMEA port. When the rocket is down, I am going to open a second instance of the program and it will be bonded to a local B/T GPS source I can send via internal network to the first instance to get both positions on the map for recovery. Now that's the lazy mans way to do it.

YAAC (https://www.ka2ddo.org/ka2ddo/YAAC.html) had potentional as I asked the author if it was perhaps possible to monitor two NMEA strings? He promptly obliged me and the setup included a local GPS port and one to monitor another "remote" (rocket) port. With a wired USB receiver it was great but the program couldn't handle two B/T datastrings so that killed that possibility. Winblows incompatibilty again! Curses!

If that weren't the case. You'd all have a live mapping/tracking/navigation app in your hands that would run on small WinBlows tablets right now. A non-Ham would be in no trouble at all using the program for the 900Mhz ISM trackers.

I was excited initially as I had the wired devices working in 10 minutes on YAAC. Bluetooth unfortunately was the killer. I had YAAC working I believe in Linux with B/T as it handles the ports a heck 'va lot better than 'doze but lost interest as I didn't want to have to carry around a laptop to a recovery site. A real pain. Besides, I don't think many on the board here gets too excited about the prospect of working in Linux anyways but the Xastir program can be hacked to map these NMEA trackers too and monitor in real time. That's how I got experience watching descents live on the map seeing rockets doing weird things on the map that one couldn't see visually. (Besides being able to know where to go to pick them up.) Kurt
 
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