This is the description of the Visual Basic .NET API bindings for the GPS Bricklet 3.0. General information and technical specifications for the GPS Bricklet 3.0 are summarized in its hardware description.
An installation guide for the Visual Basic .NET API bindings is part of their general description.
The example code below is Public Domain (CC0 1.0).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | Imports System
Imports Tinkerforge
Module ExampleSimple
Const HOST As String = "localhost"
Const PORT As Integer = 4223
Const UID As String = "XYZ" ' Change XYZ to the UID of your GPS Bricklet 3.0
Sub Main()
Dim ipcon As New IPConnection() ' Create IP connection
Dim gps As New BrickletGPSV3(UID, ipcon) ' Create device object
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT) ' Connect to brickd
' Don't use device before ipcon is connected
' Get current coordinates
Dim latitude, longitude As Long
Dim ns, ew As Char
gps.GetCoordinates(latitude, ns, longitude, ew)
Console.WriteLine("Latitude: " + (latitude/1000000.0).ToString() + " °")
Console.WriteLine("N/S: " + ns)
Console.WriteLine("Longitude: " + (longitude/1000000.0).ToString() + " °")
Console.WriteLine("E/W: " + ew)
Console.WriteLine("Press key to exit")
Console.ReadLine()
ipcon.Disconnect()
End Sub
End Module
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 | Imports System
Imports Tinkerforge
Module ExampleCallback
Const HOST As String = "localhost"
Const PORT As Integer = 4223
Const UID As String = "XYZ" ' Change XYZ to the UID of your GPS Bricklet 3.0
' Callback subroutine for coordinates callback
Sub CoordinatesCB(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3, ByVal latitude As Long, _
ByVal ns As Char, ByVal longitude As Long, ByVal ew As Char)
Console.WriteLine("Latitude: " + (latitude/1000000.0).ToString() + " °")
Console.WriteLine("N/S: " + ns)
Console.WriteLine("Longitude: " + (longitude/1000000.0).ToString() + " °")
Console.WriteLine("E/W: " + ew)
Console.WriteLine("")
End Sub
Sub Main()
Dim ipcon As New IPConnection() ' Create IP connection
Dim gps As New BrickletGPSV3(UID, ipcon) ' Create device object
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT) ' Connect to brickd
' Don't use device before ipcon is connected
' Register coordinates callback to subroutine CoordinatesCB
AddHandler gps.CoordinatesCallback, AddressOf CoordinatesCB
' Set period for coordinates callback to 1s (1000ms)
' Note: The coordinates callback is only called every second
' if the coordinates has changed since the last call!
gps.SetCoordinatesCallbackPeriod(1000)
Console.WriteLine("Press key to exit")
Console.ReadLine()
ipcon.Disconnect()
End Sub
End Module
|
Since Visual Basic .NET does not support multiple return values directly, we
use the ByRef
keyword to return multiple values from a function.
All functions and procedures listed below are thread-safe.
BrickletGPSV3
(ByVal uid As String, ByVal ipcon As IPConnection)¶Creates an object with the unique device ID uid
:
Dim gpsV3 As New BrickletGPSV3("YOUR_DEVICE_UID", ipcon)
This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetCoordinates
(ByRef latitude As Long, ByRef ns As Char, ByRef longitude As Long, ByRef ew As Char)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the GPS coordinates. Latitude and longitude are given in the
DD.dddddd°
format, the value 57123468 means 57.123468°.
The parameter ns
and ew
are the cardinal directions for
latitude and longitude. Possible values for ns
and ew
are 'N', 'S', 'E'
and 'W' (north, south, east and west).
This data is only valid if there is currently a fix as indicated by
GetStatus()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetStatus
(ByRef hasFix As Boolean, ByRef satellitesView As Byte)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns if a fix is currently available as well as the number of satellites that are in view.
There is also a green LED on the Bricklet that indicates the fix status.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetAltitude
(ByRef altitude As Integer, ByRef geoidalSeparation As Integer)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the current altitude and corresponding geoidal separation.
This data is only valid if there is currently a fix as indicated by
GetStatus()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetMotion
(ByRef course As Long, ByRef speed As Long)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the current course and speed. A course of 0° means the Bricklet is traveling north bound and 90° means it is traveling east bound.
Please note that this only returns useful values if an actual movement is present.
This data is only valid if there is currently a fix as indicated by
GetStatus()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetDateTime
(ByRef date As Long, ByRef time As Long)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the current date and time. The date is
given in the format ddmmyy
and the time is given
in the format hhmmss.sss
. For example, 140713 means
14.07.13 as date and 195923568 means 19:59:23.568 as time.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetSatelliteSystemStatus
(ByVal satelliteSystem As Byte, ByRef satelliteNumbers() As Byte, ByRef fix As Byte, ByRef pdop As Integer, ByRef hdop As Integer, ByRef vdop As Integer)¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Output Parameters: |
|
Returns the
for a given satellite system. Currently GPS, GLONASS and Galileo are supported.
The GPS and GLONASS satellites have unique numbers and the satellite list gives the numbers of the satellites that are currently utilized. The number 0 is not a valid satellite number and can be ignored in the list.
The following constants are available for this function:
For satelliteSystem:
For fix:
BrickletGPSV3.
GetSatelliteStatus
(ByVal satelliteSystem As Byte, ByVal satelliteNumber As Byte, ByRef elevation As Short, ByRef azimuth As Short, ByRef snr As Short)¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Output Parameters: |
|
Returns the current elevation, azimuth and SNR for a given satellite and satellite system.
The available satellite numbers are:
The following constants are available for this function:
For satelliteSystem:
BrickletGPSV3.
Restart
(ByVal restartType As Byte)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Restarts the GPS Bricklet, the following restart types are available:
Value | Description |
---|---|
0 | Hot start (use all available data in the NV store) |
1 | Warm start (don't use ephemeris at restart) |
2 | Cold start (don't use time, position, almanacs and ephemeris at restart) |
3 | Factory reset (clear all system/user configurations at restart) |
The following constants are available for this function:
For restartType:
BrickletGPSV3.
SetFixLEDConfig
(ByVal config As Byte)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the fix LED configuration. By default the LED shows if the Bricklet got a GPS fix yet. If a fix is established the LED turns on. If there is no fix then the LED is turned off.
You can also turn the LED permanently on/off, show a heartbeat or let it blink in sync with the PPS (pulse per second) output of the GPS module.
If the Bricklet is in bootloader mode, the LED is off.
The following constants are available for this function:
For config:
BrickletGPSV3.
GetFixLEDConfig
() As Byte¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the configuration as set by SetFixLEDConfig()
The following constants are available for this function:
For config:
BrickletGPSV3.
SetSBASConfig
(ByVal sbasConfig As Byte)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
If SBAS is enabled, the position accuracy increases (if SBAS satellites are in view), but the update rate is limited to 5Hz. With SBAS disabled the update rate is increased to 10Hz.
The following constants are available for this function:
For sbasConfig:
BrickletGPSV3.
GetSBASConfig
() As Byte¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the SBAS configuration as set by SetSBASConfig()
The following constants are available for this function:
For sbasConfig:
BrickletGPSV3.
GetSPITFPErrorCount
(ByRef errorCountAckChecksum As Long, ByRef errorCountMessageChecksum As Long, ByRef errorCountFrame As Long, ByRef errorCountOverflow As Long)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the error count for the communication between Brick and Bricklet.
The errors are divided into
The errors counts are for errors that occur on the Bricklet side. All Bricks have a similar function that returns the errors on the Brick side.
BrickletGPSV3.
SetStatusLEDConfig
(ByVal config As Byte)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the status LED configuration. By default the LED shows communication traffic between Brick and Bricklet, it flickers once for every 10 received data packets.
You can also turn the LED permanently on/off or show a heartbeat.
If the Bricklet is in bootloader mode, the LED is will show heartbeat by default.
The following constants are available for this function:
For config:
BrickletGPSV3.
GetStatusLEDConfig
() As Byte¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the configuration as set by SetStatusLEDConfig()
The following constants are available for this function:
For config:
BrickletGPSV3.
GetChipTemperature
() As Short¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the temperature as measured inside the microcontroller. The value returned is not the ambient temperature!
The temperature is only proportional to the real temperature and it has bad accuracy. Practically it is only useful as an indicator for temperature changes.
BrickletGPSV3.
Reset
()¶Calling this function will reset the Bricklet. All configurations will be lost.
After a reset you have to create new device objects, calling functions on the existing ones will result in undefined behavior!
BrickletGPSV3.
GetIdentity
(ByRef uid As String, ByRef connectedUid As String, ByRef position As Char, ByRef hardwareVersion() As Byte, ByRef firmwareVersion() As Byte, ByRef deviceIdentifier As Integer)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.
The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g' or 'h' (Bricklet Port). A Bricklet connected to an Isolator Bricklet is always at position 'z'.
The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.
BrickletGPSV3.
SetCoordinatesCallbackPeriod
(ByVal period As Long)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the period with which the CoordinatesCallback
callback is triggered
periodically. A value of 0 turns the callback off.
The CoordinatesCallback
callback is only triggered if the coordinates changed
since the last triggering.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetCoordinatesCallbackPeriod
() As Long¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the period as set by SetCoordinatesCallbackPeriod()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
SetStatusCallbackPeriod
(ByVal period As Long)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the period with which the StatusCallback
callback is triggered
periodically. A value of 0 turns the callback off.
The StatusCallback
callback is only triggered if the status changed since the
last triggering.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetStatusCallbackPeriod
() As Long¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the period as set by SetStatusCallbackPeriod()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
SetAltitudeCallbackPeriod
(ByVal period As Long)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the period with which the AltitudeCallback
callback is triggered
periodically. A value of 0 turns the callback off.
The AltitudeCallback
callback is only triggered if the altitude changed since the
last triggering.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetAltitudeCallbackPeriod
() As Long¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the period as set by SetAltitudeCallbackPeriod()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
SetMotionCallbackPeriod
(ByVal period As Long)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the period with which the MotionCallback
callback is triggered
periodically. A value of 0 turns the callback off.
The MotionCallback
callback is only triggered if the motion changed since the
last triggering.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetMotionCallbackPeriod
() As Long¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the period as set by SetMotionCallbackPeriod()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
SetDateTimeCallbackPeriod
(ByVal period As Long)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the period with which the DateTimeCallback
callback is triggered
periodically. A value of 0 turns the callback off.
The DateTimeCallback
callback is only triggered if the date or time changed
since the last triggering.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetDateTimeCallbackPeriod
() As Long¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the period as set by SetDateTimeCallbackPeriod()
.
Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by assigning a procedure to an callback property of the device object:
Sub MyCallback(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3, ByVal value As Short) Console.WriteLine("Value: {0}", value) End Sub AddHandler gpsV3.ExampleCallback, AddressOf MyCallback
The available callback property and their type of parameters are described below.
Note
Using callbacks for recurring events is always preferred compared to using getters. It will use less USB bandwidth and the latency will be a lot better, since there is no round trip time.
BrickletGPSV3.
PulsePerSecondCallback
(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3)¶Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered precisely once per second, see PPS.
The precision of two subsequent pulses will be skewed because of the latency in the USB/RS485/Ethernet connection. But in the long run this will be very precise. For example a count of 3600 pulses will take exactly 1 hour.
BrickletGPSV3.
CoordinatesCallback
(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3, ByVal latitude As Long, ByVal ns As Char, ByVal longitude As Long, ByVal ew As Char)¶Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered periodically with the period that is set by
SetCoordinatesCallbackPeriod()
. The parameters are the same
as for GetCoordinates()
.
The CoordinatesCallback
callback is only triggered if the coordinates changed
since the last triggering and if there is currently a fix as indicated by
GetStatus()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
StatusCallback
(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3, ByVal hasFix As Boolean, ByVal satellitesView As Byte)¶Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered periodically with the period that is set by
SetStatusCallbackPeriod()
. The parameters are the same
as for GetStatus()
.
The StatusCallback
callback is only triggered if the status changed since the
last triggering.
BrickletGPSV3.
AltitudeCallback
(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3, ByVal altitude As Integer, ByVal geoidalSeparation As Integer)¶Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered periodically with the period that is set by
SetAltitudeCallbackPeriod()
. The parameters are the same
as for GetAltitude()
.
The AltitudeCallback
callback is only triggered if the altitude changed since the
last triggering and if there is currently a fix as indicated by
GetStatus()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
MotionCallback
(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3, ByVal course As Long, ByVal speed As Long)¶Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered periodically with the period that is set by
SetMotionCallbackPeriod()
. The parameters are the same
as for GetMotion()
.
The MotionCallback
callback is only triggered if the motion changed since the
last triggering and if there is currently a fix as indicated by
GetStatus()
.
BrickletGPSV3.
DateTimeCallback
(ByVal sender As BrickletGPSV3, ByVal date As Long, ByVal time As Long)¶Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered periodically with the period that is set by
SetDateTimeCallbackPeriod()
. The parameters are the same
as for GetDateTime()
.
The DateTimeCallback
callback is only triggered if the date or time changed
since the last triggering.
Virtual functions don't communicate with the device itself, but operate only on the API bindings device object. They can be called without the corresponding IP Connection object being connected.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetAPIVersion
() As Byte()¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the version of the API definition implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.
BrickletGPSV3.
GetResponseExpected
(ByVal functionId As Byte) As Boolean¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.
For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled,
because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration
functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by
SetResponseExpected()
. For setter functions it is disabled by default
and can be enabled.
Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.
The following constants are available for this function:
For functionId:
BrickletGPSV3.
SetResponseExpected
(ByVal functionId As Byte, ByVal responseExpected As Boolean)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled.
Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.
The following constants are available for this function:
For functionId:
BrickletGPSV3.
SetResponseExpectedAll
(ByVal responseExpected As Boolean)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.
Internal functions are used for maintenance tasks such as flashing a new firmware of changing the UID of a Bricklet. These task should be performed using Brick Viewer instead of using the internal functions directly.
BrickletGPSV3.
SetBootloaderMode
(ByVal mode As Byte) As Byte¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Sets the bootloader mode and returns the status after the requested mode change was instigated.
You can change from bootloader mode to firmware mode and vice versa. A change from bootloader mode to firmware mode will only take place if the entry function, device identifier and CRC are present and correct.
This function is used by Brick Viewer during flashing. It should not be necessary to call it in a normal user program.
The following constants are available for this function:
For mode:
For status:
BrickletGPSV3.
GetBootloaderMode
() As Byte¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the current bootloader mode, see SetBootloaderMode()
.
The following constants are available for this function:
For mode:
BrickletGPSV3.
SetWriteFirmwarePointer
(ByVal pointer As Long)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the firmware pointer for WriteFirmware()
. The pointer has
to be increased by chunks of size 64. The data is written to flash
every 4 chunks (which equals to one page of size 256).
This function is used by Brick Viewer during flashing. It should not be necessary to call it in a normal user program.
BrickletGPSV3.
WriteFirmware
(ByVal data() As Byte) As Byte¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Writes 64 Bytes of firmware at the position as written by
SetWriteFirmwarePointer()
before. The firmware is written
to flash every 4 chunks.
You can only write firmware in bootloader mode.
This function is used by Brick Viewer during flashing. It should not be necessary to call it in a normal user program.
BrickletGPSV3.
WriteUID
(ByVal uid As Long)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Writes a new UID into flash. If you want to set a new UID you have to decode the Base58 encoded UID string into an integer first.
We recommend that you use Brick Viewer to change the UID.
BrickletGPSV3.
ReadUID
() As Long¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the current UID as an integer. Encode as Base58 to get the usual string version.
BrickletGPSV3.
DEVICE_IDENTIFIER
¶This constant is used to identify a GPS Bricklet 3.0.
The GetIdentity()
function and the
IPConnection.EnumerateCallback
callback of the IP Connection have a deviceIdentifier
parameter to specify
the Brick's or Bricklet's type.
BrickletGPSV3.
DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME
¶This constant represents the human readable name of a GPS Bricklet 3.0.