I'm looking to integrate a GNSS receiver with a Smartphone app. I've found only GNSS receivers that are meant to communicate only with their mobile interface, they don't provide any documentation for integrating smartphone apps in the workflow of using GNSS receivers.
Any ideas about communicating with existing GNSS receivers? If not, what are the available options ?
Best Answer
It's been a while (i.e., years) since I've looked at this, but the last time I researched this the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) was your best option. If there isn't any explicit documentation for an interface, you basically have to hope that the receiver outputs its data via the Bluetooth SPP, and that your Android device supports SPP.
There are known issues with this, though, depending on the receiver manufacturer and specific Android device. See the following:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5543638/how-to-get-bluetooth-rfcomm-to-work-consistently http://zornsoftware.codenature.info/blog/pairing-spp-bluetooth-devices-with-android-phones.html
There are some Android apps that claim to do this out-of-the-box:
...although I haven't personally tried them, and depending on your specific devices your mileage may vary.