The Unofficial XCSoar Manual

Hardware/Gps

From XCSoar

The GPS is the most important part of XCSoar hardware (apart from the [../organiser/ organiser] itself). The GPS can come in many forms and most of them can be used by XCSoar.

Almost all GPS units provide a serial output standard NMEA signal. Almost all [../organiser/ Organisers] provide a serial port, usually by purchasing another cable. In theory any GPS capable of serial or bluetooth that can output NMEA should work, once you have the right cable and settings.

Some [../organiser/ Organisers] have built in GPS units and you can also get Compact Flash and Secure Digital versions.

Alternatively there is also Bluetooth input to organisers, and many new models of GPS provide Bluetooth connections.

Some of the GPS units we will talk about are often referred to as 'Chip sets'. This is because technically they are made by one manufacturer but are often rebadged and repackged by many companies. There is often too many of these to list.

Garmin
Magellan
Volkslogger
FLARM
Cambridge Varios/Computers

1 Garmin
2 Magellan
3 Volkslogger
4 FLARM
5 Cambridge Varios and Computers
6 Other GPS Units
7 Compact Flash GPS Units
8 Secure Digital GPS Units
9 Bluetooth GPS Units
10 Other resources and links

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Garmin

Garmin GPS receivers have been around a long time and in the early days made were a big part in the promotion of the NMEA in serial ports.

Unfortunately the bad news for the future of Garmin is that they are dropping support for NMEA and going more proprietary. PVT is an alternative format, which would in theory be fine for support in XCS, except that it does not allow the interlacing of other existing NMEA strings (such as those from [../varios/ Varios]).

To use a Garmin you need a Garmin Serial and Power cable, probably a null-modem adapter and a serial cable to suit your organiser. You also need to make sure the settings of your Garmin interface is NMEA Out (refer to your Garmin manual - or google).

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Magellan

In the early days, if you din't have a Garmin then you had a Magellan.

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Volkslogger

For those world record attempts, it is a good idea to have an IGC approvded logger. It just so happens that the Volkslogger also outputs the NMEA GPS stream which can be used in XCSoar.

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FLARM

Safety is an important aspect of our sport. FLARM has made an excellent collision avoidance system that can be used also as a stream of NMEA data for XCSoar.

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