GPS Stick support for Mac?

GPS/GNSS Development Boards
1

The GPS Stick that SFE just started selling claims support for the Mac, however, the CD that comes with the device has no Mac-specific instructions or drivers.

I was expecting to be able to plug it into my Mac and see a /dev/tty(SOMETHING) that I could connect applications to for NMEA data. I can’t see any new tty when I plug it in. Also, I don’t see any mac usb drivers on the CD.

As far as I can tell, GPS Stick doesn’t work with the Mac despite the claim. What am I missing?

2

Go look at the [product page.

There is a link to the [Prolific USB driver page that has Mac OSX drivers.](http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31)](http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8703)

3

Thanks, but unfortunately prolific download page bombs:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers (and other .net stuff)

I went to thegpstick.com but nothing on that site related to Mac usb drivers.

Will try the prolific link later and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

4

landon:
Thanks, but unfortunately prolific download page bombs:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers (and other .net stuff)

I went to thegpstick.com but nothing on that site related to Mac usb drivers.

Will try the prolific link later and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

The Prolific page was working when I posted the reply so I assume they’ll get it fixed soon.

5

Thanks, I figured it was so.

Given all their contact info is Taiwan and China, suspect the wait may be tonight or tomorrow (hopefully.)

6

It looks like the Prolific site is working again.

But just in case, I mirrored the file → [md_pl2303H_HX_X_dmg_v1.2.1r2.zip](http://www.etracer.net/download/md_pl2303H_HX_X_dmg_v1.2.1r2.zip)

7

Thank you. I emailed several of their contact email addresses to ask them to look at it. Thanks for the notification. Appreciated.

8

Ahhh…a thing of beauty.

I downloaded the mac usb drivers dmg and installed it (requires restart) on my iMac (intel/leopard).

After it restarted to figure out what device it adds, before plugging in the gpsstick, I did a:

ls -1 /dev >/tmp/devs-before

then plugged in the device to my mac keyboard usb port and did:

ls -1 /dev >/tmp/devs-after

diff /tmp/devs-before /tmp/devs-after

revealed:

cu.usbserial

tty.usbserial

So, seeing that it pumps NMEA at 38.4bps, I did this:

screen /dev/tty.usbserial 38400

Whalaa - NMEA data streaming in. Most excellent. :slight_smile:

Need to try it on my PPC powerbook, but so far so good.

9

Tested it on my PowerBook G4 also - works perfectly.