GPS and XM / Wx-Worx

[Amos Magliocco]

Yesterday I had the chance to use XM / Wx-Worx in a chase situation for the first time and was very impressed. I use Delorme Street Atlas for GPS and have for a number of years, and so I don't have the GPS function enabled with Wx-Worx. But yesterday, while zoomed in on storms close enough to see the road grid, I wondered if maybe I should.

I'm wondering how many Stormtrack members use the GPS functionality with their Wx-Worx and how they find it compares to more conventional GPS packages like Delorme.

 

[Charles Allison]

I use the WX Worx GPS but I have been trying to get Street Atlas to run using a Serial Slpitter. Have not had any luck so far. The WX Worx system has pretty good mapping as far as main roads go but once you get close to a storm and need to venture on to dirts roads you are on your own. Would be interested to hear if anyone has gotten a serial splitter to work on this set up.

 

[Amos Magliocco]

In the early part of spring, there was a lot of talk about the problems with wx-worx and GPS, but I can't remember if the bulk of those threads were here or on WX-CHASE. Charles, might be worth your while to check the archives of both and see if you can find anything. As I remember, a few chasers solved those problems. I didn't pay much attention then because I didn't have Wx-Worx.

Here's the WX-CHASE archives page:

http://listserv.uiuc.edu/archives/wx-chase.html

And there's a search feature for this forum up on the top menu there. Good to know that many of the smaller roads are missing from their maps. That makes the decision to stay with Delorme easier. I'd like to spend less time on Bob's Roads, but I say that every year and still use them all the time.

 

[Bobby Eddins]

I use the WX Worx GPS but I have been trying to get Street Atlas to run using a Serial Slpitter. Have not had any luck so far. The WX Worx system has pretty good mapping as far as main roads go but once you get close to a storm and need to venture on to dirts roads you are on your own. Would be interested to hear if anyone has gotten a serial splitter to work on this set up.

I Finally got my Delorme GPS to work with both my WxWorx and Streetatlas 2003.

First I upgraded to Threatnet v1.2
Second I downloaded DeLorme's USB to Serial driver being careful to update Windows XP serial driver per the instructions at Delorme's site.

This got the GPS working with WxWorx.

Then to get both working I installed the Virtual Serial Splitter from
http://www.eltima.com/products/serialsplitter/
which allowed me to run both.
I have since gotten xport from curioustech to work and it's free.
http://curioustech.home.insightbb.com/xport.html
You need to download the com port splitter at the bottom of the page (xport.zip) and follow the instructions

Be sure to plug in the GPS before setting up the virtual ports which have to connect to whatever real port it hooks up to.

I had wxworx, delorme, and netstumbler all running off the delorme GPS at the same time.

Haven't gotten to use this on a chase but should work fine.

 

[Dave Crowley]

Sounds like Bobby got it figured out. I got my wxworx in April, and just got the 99$ Holux receiver at the same time. I've never had a single problem. I use the Eltima serial splitter also, and i run it on Delorme and Threat net at the same time, no issues at all. . It does suck that threat net won't work as well woth delorme, but everyone has complained about it, maybe they will fix before 05 season.

 

[Charles Allison]

I got a new laptop so I decided to try the WXworx/Delorme/StreetAtlas thing again and it worked. I have 2 USB ports on the laptop so I plugged the Delorme into that one and put an expander in the other slot and plugged everything else into it. I used the xport software that Bobby posted about above. I had WXworx/StreetAtlas running with GPS and also was able to connect to the internet with my sprint phone and USB cable all at the same time. Sprint has pretty poor coverage for internet but I was getting 115kbps which is pretty good for a cell connection.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

WX WORX

Amos i totally agree with you about the GPS. Thats why im hoping for the GPS reciver for X-mas if i dont get it then ill just get it any way alittle later. But i think it would prove very usefull. Keith Minor had his running when i was chasing with him in June the cool thing is it tells you when your getting to close to a dangerous storm. i mean what you do with the warning is up to you.