GX 440 and Windows Location API

Hey everyone,

I have a client that’s using GX440 devices on a number of vehicles. Devices are connected to a PC on board each vehicle, and I’m looking into developing a Google Maps app to guide the vehicle, using GPS data from the GX440.

I’ve put together a web-based prototype that runs on any HTML5 browser, using the Geolocation API. The thing is that, on Windows computers, the Geolocation API relies on the OS Location API to get coordinates, and the router doesn’t seem to feed that information by default. This makes some sense, as the connection is made over Ethernet, and all communication is done through IP traffic. On the other hand, I find it difficult to believe I’m the first person ever to be interested in using an Airlink device like this, specially on Windows being such an ubiquitous OS.

My question is whether I should start working on this from the ground up (nothing short of a driver, I’d say) or if there are any existing pieces of code that could help me do this. I understand that another take on this would be to program everything in Java, and use the ALEOS framework to get the GPS data, but it does seem to be overkill… using Java and an entire framework to accomplish the same I would with just an NMEA string sounds like a lot.

Anyway, this is my first contact with this technology and I’ll certainly keep doing my research to try and find the best approach.

Thanks in advance for any help!

PS: I don’t have the actual device with me to do testing, I’m inferring this from the information I found around the web. If there’s something huge I’m missing, I’m all ears.

Are you using JScript in your app?

If so, seems like it supports sockets:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452977.aspx

So probably you can set GPS reporting thru TCP/UDP to get the location info thru sockets.

Here’s the ALEOS user guide for reference:
http://www.sierrawireless.com/Support/Downloads/AirLink/GX_Series/~/media/Support_Downloads/AirLink/docs/User_Guides/4114768_ALEOS%204.3.5%20Software%20Configuration%20User%20Guide_r1.ashx

Hope this helps.

This is a great lead lotam! Thank you, I’ll take a look and report back. Maybe the findings can help others.