GPSGate Review

GPSGate has been available for a number of years, and was developed in the days before GPS usage on Pocket PC's was commonplace. Its development was an attempt to simplify the process of distributing and sharing GPS signals among those applications needing them.

The current build is V2.5, and there are versions available for Windows, Windows Mobile (touchscreen)and Windows CE .net . There are discounts available for multiple platform purchases. There is also a free Java version for Mobile and Smartphones which allows only the use of the positon sharing facility. We are testing GPSGate Standard, but GPSGate Express is available for those wishing to dispense with many of the more complex features, and who want to service no more than two applications. Upgrading from Express to Standard is a matter of updating the license key, as the same executable program is used for both. A 14 day free trial is available; entering the license key updates the program to the purchased version.

Thanks to Johan Franson of Franson Software for providing the software and Kevin Doel of Talon for the review offer.

Supplier	Franson Software
Product	GPSGate
Compatibility	Integrated, External Bluetooth or Cabled GPS Receivers
Test Device	HTC Trinity WM6 with Integral GPS Receiver
Cost	$29.95 Discounts for extra platforms. 14 day free trial.
Supplier Web Site	Franson Software

What does GPSGate do?

The core function of GPSGate is to make a GPS signal available to any application requiring it. Prior to Windows Mobile 5, this was the only way to allow multiple applications to use a GPS signal simultaneously. Windows Mobile 5 introduced the GPS Intermediary Driver (GPSID) as part of the operating system. This is designed to achieve the same result as GPSGate's core function, and has been carried forward into Windows Mobile 6. Many users however, find the GPSID system unreliable, and a number of applications seem unable to utilise it. The reasons for this are outside the scope of this review (and my detailed understanding!)

How does it work?

In its simplest incarnation, GPSGate will connect to an incoming GPS Port, be it from a cabled connection, a Bluetooth GPS COM port, or an inbuilt GPS receiver. The intercepted GPS signal is redistributed via Virtual COM ports set up during installation. Any number of applications can be served by the virtual COM port, or a number of virtual COM ports can be set up to serve each application with its own port. There are independent settings for Input and Output signals and each have comprehensive options.

It needs to be understood that GPSGate is not a GPS Display application- it provides GPS data to applications such as road, marine or aviation navigation programs, leisure applications, or to satellite tracking applications. It is also compatible with Google Maps. The program does not have any screens showing GPS status, apart from its connected/fixed icons. The only standalone feature provided is the ability to connect to the GPSGate tracking service, which shows a journey on a Google Maps screen; this requires a data connection to be open from the receiving device and the GPSGate website, and has implications for data costs.

Additional Features

In addition to the core function of distributing GPS signals, GPSGate has a number of enhancements and features. Some of these are aimed at hardcore GPS users; others may be useful means of logging, tracking and replaying journeys.

Share signals between computers on a network

Share signals over a Bluetooth link

Show a journey on GPSGate's Location website

Share your location with your 'Buddies'

Show a 'Buddy's' location in your own GPS application

Record a journey's GPS data

Playback recorded GPS data

Use GPS Simulation by entering waypoints, which GPSGate translates to NMEA data for playback

Use GPSGate Developer tools to embed GPS tracking into a website

I'll cover these options in greater or lesser detail later in the review. Nb: NMEA stands for National Marine Electronics Association, and is an internationally agreed standard for describing and recording satellite signals.

Installation
The GPSGate installation is initiated from Franson's website. Clicking a download link requests the user's email address, and then opens the download page. For Windows Mobile, this can be via the PC using ActiveSync/WMDC, or via a cab file to run direct from the device. An email containing links to all the GPSGate helpfiles is sent immediately the download request is clicked. The installation file is 1.5MB and the installed application is 2MB in size. It must be installed into device main memory.

Opening GPSGate for the first time initiates a configuration Wizard which will search for available GPS ports, or allow you to manually configure the connections. Once the settings are entered, these form the basis of the GPS Input to GPSGate. The automatic seek takes a little time, but it did detect my inbuilt GPS on COM9; Once the COM port is detected, the Wizard then goes on to select an Output in the form of a Virtual COM port. This defaults to COM2, which is fine for most devices. Once these settings are configured, each GPS application needs to point to this Virtual COM port- TomTom sees it as 'Franson COM2'; Multiple applications can point to the same Virtual COM port at the same time, and GPSGate will distribute the signal. A word of warning- if you initiate the Wizard at any time, you must take it through the full auto or manual configuration- aborting it will not result in your previous settings being maintained.

Configuration and Basic Operation

Once installed and with the GPS receiver configured, you can set the basic options. These are Input, Output and Advanced. Input: Sets which GPS Source is to be used. For most of the time, this is likely to be the GPS receiver itself, but there are a number of other options I'll explain in a later section. There are some 'Advanced' settings visible if the relevant button is pressed in the 'Advanced' tab. There are on a per Input basis, so each input can have its own configuration. Probably the most useful of these is the 'Close when Idle' checkbox. This will turn off a GPS receiver when there are no applications requesting data. Once a GPS application is opened, GPSGate senses the call on the Virtual COM port and opens the physical port. There appears to be about a 10 second time lag here. There is also a 'Close Input on Power Off' checkbox. On my device with internal GPS, this is redundant because internal GPS receivers always turn off when the device is in standby, but with external GPS receivers, this would be a way to ensure a data stream was being captured, even with the device in standby, which may be useful for position tracking or logging. The Input (MUX) setting is only used if you connect to more than one GPS receiver, and wish to multiplex the data to a single stream.

Output: If the installation Wizard completed correctly, a Virtual COM port will have been created in the Output tab. You can add other Outputs to the list, or remove unwanted Outputs. For most purposes the Virtual COM port is all that is needed. There are advanced options for data filtering, but these are only used in specialised circumstances, and are not relevant in everyday use. Tapping any of the entries in the Active Output list will show their status.

Advanced: Sets whether the Advanced Options show in the previous screens, and has options for 'Start GPSGate after soft reset' and 'Display Brighter Tray Icon' both of which are self explanatory. The upper pane is called Instance, and is only relevant if you are running multiple GPS receivers into GPSGate, allowing you to change the parameters for each connection.

With GPSGate running, the only indication you will see is a small icon in the Tasktray. This is coloured Red when GPSGate is loaded, but with no active input, Amber when there is an active input, but no satellite fix, and Green when the satellite signal is fixed. I've found that GPSGate consistently acquires a full fix faster than any of my other GPS applications. The Tasktray Icon can be set for standard, or bright within the advanced settings. So, that's pretty much the story for basic operation. The last used settings are reapplied when GPSGate restarts, so most of the time, no further configuration will be needed. Start GPSGate, Start your GPS/SatNav applications and all should function as planned. Personally, I have GPSGate to start automatically after a reboot, but to 'Close Input when Idle' so it is always waiting in the background, but doesn't have the GPS receiver open, and consuming power until it is required.

Additional Features of GPSGate

These revolve around the available Inputs and Outputs in the Settings screens. Some are interdependent but I'll do my best to explain each one logically. Tapping the GPSGate Tasktray icon opens a context menu allowing access to the Settings, or accessing the recording functions. The most common input will be the one set up to take data from the GPS receiver itself; others are designed to achieve client/server connections between devices running GPSGate, simulate a GPS signal using a prerecorded track, show a GPS signal from another user of GPSGate.com, or play a track entered as waypoint information by a user. Activesync: 2 devices running GPSGate and connected by Activesync can share a GPS signal. The receiving device uses Activesync as its Input and the sending device has Activesync as an Output. In real terms this would mean a PDA with GPS link would act as the ActiveSync Server, and the host PC would have its GPSGate Input setting as Activesync. TCP/IP or UDP: As above, but with these settings, a whole network can share GPS signals. Again, the device with the GPS connected is set with the relevant Server protocol in its Output, and the other devices would have the relevant protocol as Input. Bluetooth GPS: Again, as above. The GPS connected device can be set as a Bluetooth GPS server in its output, and other Bluetooth devices running GPSGate have Bluetooth GPS as their input. The above 3 connection types take most of the work out of configuring Server/Client settings, as GPSGate itself handles the connection parameters. I have to admit at this stage that I've not used any of these facilities.

Replay of a prerecorded NMEA track: GPSGate itself, and some other GPS programs can create a log of a journey in a special text file format conforming to NMEA standards; GPSGate can read one of these files, and treat its contents as a 'live' satellite signal. This can be played in any Satellite Navigation program, such as TomTom Navigator, and there are options for speed of replay, starting point and finishing point. This process is instigated by tapping the GPSGate Icon, selecting NMEA Logger, then Play, which shows a dialogue box of all available tracks. Selecting one of these shows the Play screen. This automatically changes the GPSGate Input to NMEA Logger <track name>; once a track has been loaded, its name remains in the available Inputs, so allowing a quick repeat play.

GPSGate.com: A feature of purchasing GPSGate is that the user is able to create an account at GPSGate.com. As well as being able to view your current track or position on a Google Map display, you can select other users to be 'Buddies' and once they have given agreement, their tracks/positions are also available to see on the Map (as long as they are transmitting that data of course!). Tracks are all archived so all your and your Buddies' previous journeys can be viewed at a later date. Additionally, you can set one of GPSGate's Inputs to GPSGate.com. When the input is opened, you are taken to a screen where you input your GPSGate.com credentials and a Buddy's name; his GPS position is then treated as the 'live' GPS signal. Again, this allows a satellite navigation program to show a Buddy's position in real time. This overall feature could be useful for families, groups of friends or companies tracking movement. Use of the online facilities obviously requires an active data connection, requiring a WM6 Professional/Phone Edition device or a link to a data enabled mobile phone.	Click this image to see a larger version

Simulator: Tapping the GPSGate tray icon allows the Simulator function to be opened. This allows the user to manually enter a series of waypoints in Latitude/Longitude/Altitude format. GPSGate can translate these into a GPS Track which sets the Input to the Simulation series, showing the result on any connected Satellite Navigation program.

I have mentioned above some of the Output options associated with GPS Sharing. There are some additional outputs which require explanation: File Recorder and File Recorder/Filter: These are used to record an NMEA track suitable for later replay via the NMEA Log Input, or via applications such as Google Maps. File Recorder takes a raw data stream and saves it to the specified location. This file can be large- a recent 30 minute journey produced a file of 700KB. To reduce the size of the saved file, it is recommended to use the File Recorder/Filter option. This also saves in NMEA format, but has options for which data to save, and how often to save. Franson recommend setting the filter to 'Block everything but' and then select $GPRMC data only, at an interval 5 seconds. This is the only data needed for a mapping track, and it reduced the same journey to a file size of 35KB.

GPSGate.com: If you have created a GPSGate.com account, setting this as an output sends your GPS stream via a phone connection to GPSGate’s server. I assume this uses a filtered output, as the GPRS data equates to about 250KB per hour. This will show your track on the map interface, and will be available to any of your Buddies online, or using your username as their GPSGate.com Input (see above).

GPSGate Browser: This is a new feature, aimed at web designers and company websites. Using a special Developer Toolkit, web designers can program a web page to show a GPS position. For the position to be visible, the Output needs to be set to Browser. This is advanced usage, and probably won't concern casual PPC users. Any number of Outputs can be used simultaneously, so one could have a Virtual GPS port, an NMEA Log and a GPSGate.com connection all working at the same time. This will be dependent on processor or memory resources but I have had all 3 running, with TomTom and CamerAware running as clients, and not seen any slowdown of operation. Instances: GPSGate can be run as multiple instances, with each running version set up to have different parameters. Theoretically, you could have one instance taking a GPS signal and sending it to your GPSGate.com account, allowing a colleague to locate you on his PC or PDA. You could also have an instance set with GPSGate.com as its input, showing you your colleague's position on your PDA! Far fetched maybe, but interesting. You could also have an internal GPS and a Bluetooth GPS unit each connected to an instance of GPSGate, with one outputting to the Virtual OM port, and the other to a Bluetooth Server. Quite why you may want to do that is a moot point, but possible nonetheless!

Problems?

There are a few operating niggles which I've encountered, and fed back to Franson, who are working on updates. The first is that when opening the NMEA Logger application, there are Play and Record buttons. Tapping the Record button gives a dialogue box saying 'Set an Filter as a valid Output', which I took to mean I needed to do that before hitting Record again. In fact, in GPSGate V2, the Record button is redundant, and setting the Output is all that is needed. It would be better to change to button to a small text box explaining how to record. I had a lot of difficulty initially in recording and playing back NMEA logs. By default, the system is set to record to My Documents/GPSGate/GPSLogs/****.nmea. However, the Play file selector failed to locate any valid files. Moving the files to My Documents did show them in the selector, but trying to open them gave an error message. Changing the location of saved files to My Documents, or My Documents/GPSGate overcame both these problems, so this is either a WM6 File system glitch, or a local file management error in GPSGate. It has been reported that other applications can have difficulty opening documents stored deeper than 3 levels of subfolder in My Device, so this may be an OS limitation.

Once a file is successfully opened for Play, pressing the Play button doesn't start the playback until the fast forward button is pressed; once started, normal play can be resumed if required.

Help: There is no local help on the device. There are a number of Help files on the Franson Website, and there is a downloadable full help pdf file. The help files on the website are individual for Windows and Pocket PC devices which is good, but the layout of the help system is not very intuitive for a first time user, and it can take some time to find the relevant topic. I understand that this is being addressed.

Summary

Pros

Does exactly what it sets out to do

Useful extra features

Trial available

Comprehensive options

Cons

Some minor operating glitches

Help system needs revamping

Conclusion

GPSGate is, on the face of it, a simple program with a simple objective. The course of this review has shown me how much more it can do once the complexities of Inputs and Outputs are fully understood. Apart from a small number of minor irritations, this program has performed faultlessly, and I have no hesitation in giving it a wholehearted recommendation. It has allowed me, at last, to have a Satellite Navigation program (TomTom or iGO2206) running reliably at the same time as CamerAware, something the Windows Mobile GPSID was unable to achieve. The price of $29.95 may seem a little high in comparison to many Windows Mobile programs, but it is justified by the facilities offered. The lower priced GPSGate Express may suit users with less damanding needs and is excellent value for money