DIY: Simple PSP-GPS hookup

[Kaiser]

deniska posted this rather interesting DIY guide over at his site (deniska.dcemu.co.uk) showing a rather interesting way to make your PSP connect and communicate with a GPS device.

Here is a farely simple way to connect your PSP to a GPS receiver:

You'll need:

- Holux GPSlim236 (~$100)
- Intec G6704 PSP Remote Control (~$11). Alternatively you can rip the connector of your original remote control.
- USB (Mini B) cable ($5-10) (don't use the included USB power cable)
- 1K 1/4watt resistor (>$1)
- Electric tape ($2 roll)

Tools:
- Soldering iron
- Multimeter (for checking the connector pins, alternatively you can use just a circuit made out of a low voltage bulb and a battery)
- Razor blade (to cut and clean stuff)


Basically, you just need to cut the USB cable and PSP remote plug, figure out which wires go to the connector pins, listed below, and connect them according to the diagram:

Use caution when connecting the wires, make sure all of them are carefully insulated. You don't want to short any of them, since this may brick your PSP or GPS device.
Also, GPSlim 236 spec says that the TXD voltage may range from 3.2 to 5 V, so 1K resistor may not be enough to lower the voltage in some cases. So buy a few resistors: 5k,3k,2k,1k and see if your circuit works with a bigger value resistor first..

Once your cable is finished, test your setup with a little GPS viewer program that I wrote:

http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/bin/gps_viewer.zip
The source code is included in the zip...
Note, the program is written to work in kernel mode, so I doubt that it will work on 2+ fw..
Perhaps someone can look in to how to adjust it...

Here is the screenshoot:

So, waht's the point you ask? I am planning to plug this in to the upcoming map viewer applcation, which, of course will be able to point your gps location on a google-like map in real time... and scroll the map as you move along...

Special thanks to Art and futaris for helpping me out with serial port comm problems...

Almost forgot a disclaimer: As always, I am not responsible for any damages...

[NoQuarter]

Beautifull piece of hardware and software hacking,awesome work Densika-keep it up man!

[Dickhead]

Maybe some company could make this cable and sell it on, I bet this could make some money

[felonyr301]

yea cause i sure as hell wont try that by myself lol.

[MikeDX]

That is genius using the remote control port to read the NMEA data.

[QueadlunnRau]

TIGHT ...

Now that I have my PSP mounted in my car (thank you 3m for duct tape). Soon I won't need to break into a car for a double din deck with navigation.

[tyranos]

i wonder what sony would think of this if they get to know of its existence. but this is really a nice hack defeat to sony more than firmware emulation,coz their gps isn't even out!!!!! great work dudes and to all great coders

[tophead420]

wow thats very interesting how in the he** did you think of that one well i dont know but good work man dam good work LMAO

[mr_nick666]

wow thats very interesting how in the he** did you think of that one well i dont know but good work man dam good work LMAO

/\ /\ Thats what I was wondering! How the hell would you even go about starting this in the first place??? Excellent work - be interesting to see how its used...

[F9zDark]

Well obviously, as you can see from the program output, this is far from 'navigation ready'. The only important information the program shows is longitude and latitude, which still requires an atlas with that on it.

I am not downplaying this achievement at all, but people seem to think that this will defeat Sony's firmware updates and GPS without even looking at the fact that the photos show a program with a bunch of useless numbers.

Yes this warrants alot of praise and will save people from having to update their firmwares to make use of Sony's GPS solution, but until a homebrew navigation program is produced to work with this, it is nothing more than an awesome hack.