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:

http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/psp_gps.JPG


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:
http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/PSP_GPS_CONNECTION.jpg


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:
http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/gps_viewer.JPG


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!!!!! :D 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! :o How the hell would you even go about starting this in the first place??? :confused: Excellent work - be interesting to see how its used... :p

[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.

[F9zDark]

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

The remote controller is a typical Serial port. In theory, one could take a serial mouse and make it work on the PSP so long as a program was made to interpret the information and decipher it in a way the PSP can understand( read: driver)

[deniska]

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.


Dude, you should read the whole post before you comment on it...
I pretty much finished a program that plots your location on Google maps based on Lat/Lon coords...

You can see the details on my site @ dcemu

[emuking]

Dude, you should read the whole post before you comment on it...
I pretty much finished a program that plots your location on Google maps based on Lat/Lon coords...

You can see the details on my site @ dcemu

you got everything figured out man :) , could you find a simpler way of doing this though without soldering, later :)

[thePavelish]

a lot of us could just use ur navigational software =p

id love to have a copy of NYC map with zoom views and being able to locate places through address to find my way around this zoo.

only having to store NYC map to save space would be perfect +D

[F9zDark]

Dude, you should read the whole post before you comment on it...
I pretty much finished a program that plots your location on Google maps based on Lat/Lon coords...

You can see the details on my site @ dcemu

Sorry about that, completely missed that last part where you mentioned it... :o

[Psyberjock]

Deniska,

Would I be able to use this in Japan? <--- Does your program include maps of Japan or could I add in my own?

If I can load up a map of Osaka, I will definitely be building one of these.

[deniska]

Deniska,

Would I be able to use this in Japan? <--- Does your program include maps of Japan or could I add in my own?

If I can load up a map of Osaka, I will definitely be building one of these.

You should be able to fit good portion of Japan on 1Gb stick (with street level detail).
I'll provide linux/cygwin scripts to generate the maps together with installation instructions...
You'll need to enter the gps (lat/lon) location and the size of the map.. and the rest will be taken care of...
Just out of curiocity i generated a small map for some location in Japan (not sure what it is since I don't speak japanese). The map took ~4 minutes to generate.. Here is some screenshots of it inside the PSP mapviewer (this is a dev version so never mind the zeros in the debug line):

http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/japan1.jpg

same location zoomed out:
http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/japan2.jpg

[ModMan24]

Thats AWSOME. I dont have a need for a GPS at the moment but I have to give you some props thats a seriously cool hack.

[pspfan]

Good stuff, I wish someone would sell these, though, because I couldn't make one...

Anyway, how much space are the maps going to take up on the MS?

[jwilds73]

Lots of motorcyclists purchase car gps units and mount them on their motorcycles because they are considerably cheaper then the "motorcycle" units. I'd love to mount my PSP to my motorcycle and have it do GPS navigation.

[Video_freak]

Lots of motorcyclists purchase car gps units and mount them on their motorcycles because they are considerably cheaper then the "motorcycle" units. I'd love to mount my PSP to my motorcycle and have it do GPS navigation.

make sure it doesnt fall off lol :rolleyes:

this is great! i lov how much the homebrew community is developing software hacks but also hardware hacks. i probably dont have the skills needed to make one of these, but if i did, i would make it anyday :)

[Arellano]

theres going to be a new update on psp firmware 3.0 on november 13

[Psyberjock]

You should be able to fit good portion of Japan on 1Gb stick (with street level detail).
I'll provide linux/cygwin scripts to generate the maps together with installation instructions...
You'll need to enter the gps (lat/lon) location and the size of the map.. and the rest will be taken care of...
Just out of curiocity i generated a small map for some location in Japan (not sure what it is since I don't speak japanese). The map took ~4 minutes to generate.. Here is some screenshots of it inside the PSP mapviewer (this is a dev version so never mind the zeros in the debug line):

http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/japan1.jpg

same location zoomed out:
http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/japan2.jpg


Sweet! I'll definitely build one next pay day. One more question though: Can I use a different GPS unit? It might be hard to find that same one here in Japan, and ordering overseas in a major pain in the a$$.

FYI: I'm not sure where the first map is, but there are lots of hospitals and clinics and stuff (plus a family mart! It'll be great to have convienence store locations on there!) And the second map is of Shinjuku, which is part of Tokyo.

This is a great step for PSP homebrew! Thanks Deniska! You're even bridging the gap between homebrew and hardware mods. Excellent!

Once I build this, I'll be happy to help you test. I live in a big city and I do lots of walking.

Oh, thought of one more thing. I recognize those maps, will this program be able to preserve address information as well? Typing in an address would be a nice way to find things on the move sometimes. Or perhaps include some way to flag certain locations. That way I can flag them at home and be able to locate them on the map and reach them when I'm traveling.

Thanks again!

[F9zDark]

I too have thought about building this. I found alot of the GPSlims on ebay, for anyone that is interested in finding them. They sell for around 65 USD and ship to US for 20 USD.

Don't know about overseas though...

Will this program show the route highlighted or will it function like most other GPS programs with actual directions (ie Left turn in 2 miles)?

[deniska]

Sweet! I'll definitely build one next pay day. One more question though: Can I use a different GPS unit? It might be hard to find that same one here in Japan, and ordering overseas in a major pain in the a$$.


In theory you should be able to use any GPS device with serial port. Just make sure that the specs are comparable to GPSlimg 236, check the output voltage, check the baud - you may need to recompile my test program with a different baud value (currently it is set to 38400).. and.. make sure your receiver is self powered. PSP can only provide 2.5 volts to external devices, which is not enough for most GPS units outthere...and you don't want to carry a box with batteries and extra wires in your pocket ;-)




FYI: I'm not sure where the first map is, but there are lots of hospitals and clinics and stuff (plus a family mart! It'll be great to have convienence store locations on there!) And the second map is of Shinjuku, which is part of Tokyo.



Both maps should point to the same location at different scales, unless I screwed something up during the screen capture...



Once I build this, I'll be happy to help you test. I live in a big city and I do lots of walking.


Let me know if you succeed - I may need a few people to test the map viewer before I release it...



Oh, thought of one more thing. I recognize those maps, will this program be able to preserve address information as well? Typing in an address would be a nice way to find things on the move sometimes. Or perhaps include some way to flag certain locations. That way I can flag them at home and be able to locate them on the map and reach them when I'm traveling.



Perhaps I can implement this in the future. At the moment my goal is just to release a basic GPS capable mapviewer.
I did code, so called "attractions" feature, where the application can compare the coordinates of the cursor with a list of coordinates from a file and plot a small icon if there is a match...
So technically you can have your customized file with your favorite locations...

Well it is a pretty big project.. and since I am the only coder - don't expect all the features right away... ;-)

[deniska]

Will this program show the route highlighted or will it function like most other GPS programs with actual directions (ie Left turn in 2 miles)?

Defenitelly not in the inital release...

I don't think it will ever do route calculation on a fly - I simply don't have the data for it...

What can be implemented is the ability to import a premade route over WIFI or as a file. The program then will be able to compare the set of waypoints to your current location and display a message "TURN LEFT" once you get close to a nearest way point...

[Krazzy Roy]

i cant wait for the map to be released man thank you

[F9zDark]

Perhaps there is an open-source GPS project that may contain this data? Being a Window's controlled world, I doubt any of the GPS makers would have a version available for Linux, but there might be something to look around for to maybe get any information for later releases.

[F9zDark]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxcar

This may be of some use, but like your program is still in development.

I am wondering how the other GPS devices handle route detection. Is everything preprogrammed or does it actually do calculations itself?

If its preprogrammed, well, that would certainly be a daunting task...

[deniska]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxcar

This may be of some use, but like your program is still in development.

I am wondering how the other GPS devices handle route detection. Is everything preprogrammed or does it actually do calculations itself?

If its preprogrammed, well, that would certainly be a daunting task...

I took a quick look at the docs and the code - I don't think they touched the route calculation part yet...and they don't seem to explain which data they planning on using for it....

[QueadlunnRau]

[QUOTE=Video_freak]make sure it doesnt fall off lol :rolleyes: [QUOTE]

Two words ... Duct Tape, because it works miricles I swear God invented it.

[A Fn NOOB]

Hi, I got a cable and GPS unit ready to go but I need help figuring out how to change the bitrate of the program from 38400 to 4800.

I have a Pharos gps-360/microsoft (sirf ii) that came with Streets & Trips with an already hacked up cable from when I was experimenting with APRS, so I put my headphone/remote cord under the knife.

I just cut the cord in the middle. The wires are very thin and hard to strip. I read a great tip somewhere that works for this - Dip the tips of each wire in a hot puddle of solder, it melts the insulation and beefs up the tip of each wire at the same time.

Anyway, I dont know much about programming a PSP. The source code has a line specifying 38400 baud. Can that be changed to 4800 and recompiled? Or is it not that simple?

[deniska]

Hi, I got a cable and GPS unit ready to go but I need help figuring out how to change the bitrate of the program from 38400 to 4800.

I have a Pharos gps-360/microsoft (sirf ii) that came with Streets & Trips with an already hacked up cable from when I was experimenting with APRS, so I put my headphone/remote cord under the knife.

I just cut the cord in the middle. The wires are very thin and hard to strip. I read a great tip somewhere that works for this - Dip the tips of each wire in a hot puddle of solder, it melts the insulation and beefs up the tip of each wire at the same time.

Anyway, I dont know much about programming a PSP. The source code has a line specifying 38400 baud. Can that be changed to 4800 and recompiled? Or is it not that simple?


Yeah , just change that line and type "make" (make kxploit - for 1.5 eboot)
let me know if you run in to troubles - I'll compile it for ya....

[1adam1]

I have looked at this tutorial and great work but I have few questions. I read you soldered 2 wires but in the photo I see the headphone jack is soldered to something else as well if so explain a little more if you dont mind. Or is my vision screwd up and it just the 2 wires

[1adam1]

Also can We use this program to get the psp gps to work with map this 0.4.

http://www.soft32.com/download_126639.html

Simple GPS Tester will automatically detect your USB or serial GPS device and display the COM port and baud rate settings required to use it.

[Russoxley187]

Whats wrong with the green screen prog that deniska wrote?
But then again I think it only works for a GPSlim 236.

I used it and tested mine before finishing up my cable..

[1adam1]

I am so new to this it took me a little while to realize what you were saying. There is nothing wrong with the green screen he wrote I didnt know they did the same thing.I have not used any of this b4. I am considering buying the japan psp gps and was wondering if we could change some of the settings in mapthis and make a new eboot and use mapthis with psp gps.I have cygwin with psptoolchain.I see in the earlier post someone was asking about changing the baud rate in the source code.What file is that setting in as well as the com port
I just tried to compile a new eboot and I get I get
[ main.o ]ERROR 1
anyone get this I looked for the main.o file didnt see it maybe that the prob

[F9zDark]

In theory it should be possible to make MapThis work with Sony's GPS device. However there are factors of practicality to consider:

1)People would need to dump their own 3.x firmwares to get the PRXes needed for the GPS.

2)If you are using Devhook with 3.x emulation and get the Sony GPS device then you already have a working GPS solution without needing to use MapThis.

Now there is certainly a bonus to using MapThis:

1)User defined maps

As far as I know, Sony's GPS solution only has maps for Japan. Obviously thats of little use to anyone of us not living in Japan, which is where MapThis trumps Sony in that department. Using a program to download the maps of one's choosing is certainly beneficial over Sony's solution.

The map downloading program, which can be found over at Deniska's forums on this site, is a little tricky at first and I didn't get it downpat (for instance, really small streets on my maps don't have their name's displayed; I am just too lazy to screw around with it anymore). But I did get maps of my area and half of my state (NJ) so its fairly useful (and I even used the program before I had the GPS, I was sitting in the passenger seat of my friend's car directing him as we drove around).

[1adam1]

Im using mapthis without the gps and have made local maps.I like it alot. I was trying to decide if I should buy the psp gps or the holux.If I can get the mapthis to work with the psp gps that would be great.It is probably easier to just make the cable.
One last question where is the code ( which file ) to change the baud rate because Im probly going to buy the holux 240
Being able to make your own maps is very good reason


NEVERMIND I found it config.txt thx
So in theory I can change the baud rate in config.txt to 4800 and use the holux 240???

[F9zDark]

NEVERMIND I found it config.txt thx
So in theory I can change the baud rate in config.txt to 4800 and use the holux 240???

I suppose so, I haven't really done anything with Config.txt, so I don't know for certain.