Support for UDP connections in GPS Widget

[qgib]

Author Name: jtornero - (jtornero -) Original Redmine Issue: 9373

Redmine category:unknown

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Sometimes NMEA data (not only GPS but sounders, etc) data is feeded through UDP datagrams. This is common, for instance, in research vessels.

It would be nice for QGIS' GPS panel to have an option for UDP connections.

Best regards

[qgib]

Author Name: Jürgen Fischer (@jef-n)

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Could you include pointers to any specs please?

[qgib]

Author Name: jtornero - (jtornero -)

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Hello,

What kind of specs should be needed (ports, hosts...?

AFAIK It depends a lot on the R/V, but basically the most widespread schema is to send UDP datagrams with the same format as a NMEA sentence; In fact, what they do is a just a multiplexation of different instruments through the net. You can catch them simply listening to UDP datagrams at a given port. Those datagrams can be catched by any computer on the net, so I guess an UDP broadcast/multicast is sent.

Jürgen Fischer wrote:

Could you include pointers to any specs please?

[qgib]

Author Name: jtornero - (jtornero -)

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--------- THIS MESSAGE IS OLD AND SORT OF NONSENSE AND YOU CAN SKIP IT TO THE NEXT ONE -----------

Well, this is what I've made so far, maybe someone can take a look at it (sorry about coding, I'm not a C++ guy):

https://github.com/jtornero/QGIS/tree/UDP_GPS_Support

Basically:

1. Created a new class+files(cpp+h) called QgsGpsUdpConnection, which basically mimicks QgsGpsdConnection.

2. Made some changes to the GUI (radioButton for UDP plus configuration (port and host so far) lineEdits, plus one checkButton (to possibily add broadcast/multicast if needed, currently figuring out how UDP GPS works)

3. Added logic for managing UDP radioButton in qgsgpsinformationwidget.cpp, which also mimicks the behaviour for GPSD radioButton

4. Added logic for management of UDP connection in qgsgpsdetector.cpp, in the same way than the GPSD connection is managed but creating a QgsQGpsUdpConnection instead of a QgsGpsdConnection. (some parameters are passed to the udp connection but not used yet.

Success degree so far: Well, coding some debug strings mostly in qgsnmeaconnection.cpp:

src/core/gps/qgsgpsdetector.cpp: 169: (advance) Conexion UDP
src/core/gps/qgsgpsudpconnection.cpp: 33: (QgsGpsUdpConnection) ᎊ
src/core/gps/qgsgpsudpconnection.cpp: 34: (QgsGpsUdpConnection) localhost
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 62: (parseData) numBytes:67
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 75: (parseData) endSentenceIndex is -1
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 76: (parseData) dollarIndex is -1
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 77: (parseData) mStringBuffer length is 0
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 78: (parseData) Firstchar is
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 92: (processStringBuffer) endSentenceIndex is -1
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 93: (processStringBuffer) dollarIndex is -1
src/core/gps/qgsnmeaconnection.cpp: 94: (processStringBuffer) mStringBuffer length is 0
src/core/gps/qgsgpsudpconnection.cpp: 41: (~QgsGpsUdpConnection) entered.

Seeing this homemade debug dump I think I can say:

1. The overall proccess works because I get bytes (67) when the GUI is properly configured, in my case, with port 5002. When I configure another port, no bytes are received/read

2. But I'm not able to put that data into mStringBuffer. So after that, the call to processStringBuffer(); doesn't work and it happens that QGIS thinks that the connection can¡t be stablished.

3. I suspect that it has to do with the way UDP is read, but can't be sure. I'm stuck here, but still trying to solve. Any help would be appreciated

Best regards

Jorge Tornero

[qgib]

Author Name: jtornero - (jtornero -)

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Dear all:

I've made a PR !#11172 regarding to this issue. I hope that everything is OK, but I have some doubts with the code and how it works (mainly regarding to QgsGpsDetector class).

Anyway, the patch makes it work as expected: QGIS is now able to listen to an UDP port and get broadcasted NMEA sentences.

Despite this is my initial patch and maybe (well... for sure) it need some refinement, I want to thank to all the people who has been so patient with me in these days with this stuff and related (git et Al.)

Best regards

Jorge Tornero

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• category_id was configured as C++ Plugins
• pull_request_patch_supplied was changed from 0 to 1
• fixed_version_id was configured as Future Release - Nice to have

[qgib]

Author Name: Alexander Bruy (@alexbruy)

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• category_id removed C++ Plugins

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• easy_fix was configured as 0

[qgib]

Author Name: Jürgen Fischer (@jef-n)

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• category_id was configured as Unknown

[anbj]

Until QGIS supports this, one solution is to use gpsd to listen to the UDP broadcast and then connect QGIS to the gpsd instance. E.g. for a UDP broadcast on port 5000:

gpsd [options] udp://0.0.0.0:5000