Star shine Technology

Anyone who has used a great GPS system, including a great motorcycle GPS system, will know how user friendly and useful a good GPS can be. With modern GPS technology coming of age and modern digital mapping technology improving, a great motorcycle GPS can turn a ride into a pleasure.

What is GPS? For those who don’t know, GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is a navigation and positioning technology pioneered by the US army, that has been taken to it’s ultimate and turned into a complete user friendly modern navigation solution. Whilst in the past GPS was really just the province of the military, the technology is now so good, and so cheap, that anyone needing the ultimate in navigation can afford it.

That includes motorcyclists, modern motorcycle GPS has also come of age.

Basically GPS works by cross referencing the signals from a number of satellites above the head of the user and using those references to plot the user’s position on the globe. It will only work where there are available satellites, so if you can’t pick up the signals your GPS won’t work.

Modern GPS is accurate, depending on the number of satellites available, to within less than a yard. So anyone seeking to navigate by use of a GPS system can obtain extremely accurate positioning. And this is now user friendly. In the past this information was only available as a longitude and latitude figure. This was only really useful to someone with the technical expertise to actually use this to plot the position on a map.  Read more...

A GPS Navigation Device can be used for anything from giving you directions, finding fish, tracking your your child, and even on the golf course. There are different types of GPS navigation devices, such as GPS Systems for your car to map your route, Marine GPS Systems that are able to give topography and water depths, Amber Alert Systems and many more.

A GPS Navigation Device has become a necessity for many people because of their numerous advantages. They can tell you where something or somebody is, and they are now being installed in cell phones or laptops and come in handheld units, in addition to the traditional fish finder in a boat, or car mapping GPS systems.

There are several makers to consider when you are looking for a GPS Navigation Device. One of the leaders in the market is Garmin, who has been manufacturing fish finders for a number of years. Other names are Nokia, TomTom, Magellan and Amber Alert Child Tracker, just to name a few, in this growing market.

The advantages of a GPS navigation device are varied, depending on the use. You can use it to keep from getting lost, for hiking and camping, driving across country, improve a golf game, find fish, navigate through the ocean or track your child, wherever they may be.  Read more...

Jeff Sanders
Garmin GPS Navigation Systems
www.GpsFrontier.com
04/05/09

WAAS-Enabled GPS System

WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) was developed by the Federal Aviation Administration to augment the Global Positioning System to improve its accuracy, integrity, and availability. WAAS was originally intended to enable aircraft to rely on GPS for all phases of flight, including the precision approach to airport’s within its coverage area. The WAAS system typically provides better than 1.0 meters laterally and 1.5 meters vertically throughout most of the contiguous United States and large parts of Canada and Alaska. This accuracy is capable of provideing aircraft with the precision needed for safe approaches and inflight navigation for all weather conditions. Integrity of the WAAS information is no more than 3 seconds of bad data per year allowing the system to be considerd safe by the FAA for instrument flight rules.

Although orignally developed for aviation, WAAS is not just limited to the aviation industry, any GPS receiver that is capable of receiving the WAAS signal will be able to benefit from it’s correction data, making the GPS positioning more accurate. In fact a WAAS-enabled GPS receiver can even give you directions right down to the lane your car is traveling in (as long as the maping program supports “lane assist” directions). Because the Wide Area Augmentation System is quickly becoming standard in the GPS industry, most new GPS receivers today are WAAS-enabled. Just like with the conventinal GPS, the WAAS system doesn’t come with any extra cost or fees to use. All that is required is that the GPS receiver be WAAS-enabled so it can receive and decode the data then be able to apply corrections to it’s position. Currently the WAAS service is limited to the U.S.A., Canada, Alaska and Hawaii. Although independant from WAAS, Europe and Asia are working on their own supplemental GPS correction systems. Europe has the “Euro Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service” (EGNOS) and Japan is working on their “Multi-Functional Satellite Augmentation System” (MSAS) .  Read more...

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have been changing the way the world works since its inception as a tool for soldiers during World War Two. Although the design may have been different, the idea of GPS has been around for over half a century.

The design of the GPS is based on similar radio navigation systems, called the Decca Navigator, and were first used in the 1940’s. When the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite “Sputnik” in 1957, U.S. scientists discovered that radio transmissions sent from the satellite could be used to pinpoint where the satellite was in relation to the earth. Thus, the idea of the birth of the modern-day version of the GPS was created.

The very first satellite navigation system, which was used by the United States Navy, was tested in 1960. As the technology developed, so too did advancements in locating your position in the world. In the 1970’s, the Omega Navigation System became the first world-wide radio navigation system. It was not until 1978 that an experimental Block-I GPS satellite was launched into space, ushering in a new era for civilian use of GPS. The amount of satellites using GPS’ have increased over the past 30 years, and as a result, many people have benefited from the use of navigation tools used by the GPS.

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In the first part of this series of 10 articles I explained the differences between GPS Navigation Systems and GPS Tracking Systems, and how they are two completely different of implementations of Location Based Services. In this second article I will develop some additional concepts related to the elements that constitute a GPS Tracking System. There are 3 main parts to a GPS Tracking System:

- A GPS device or GPS Tracker, which receives the location information and then delivers it to a software application.

- A data transmission system, which takes the information provided by the GPS Tracker, and delivers it to the software application.

- A Software Application, which presents to its users the data recollected by the GPS Tracker in several formats including maps and reports.

This article will present the main components of a GPS Tracking Solution, and will start expanding on the first component: GPS Trackers. It will take me this article and the next one to go in detail over GPS devices.

GPS Devices

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In this section I will define what a GPS Device, and how they work; after that I will present the types of GPS Trackers, including most of the features that these devices offer, and my opinion in regards to each type.

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