I'm using QGIS with a Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 with inbuilt dedicated GPS. I can connect okay to the GPS using View –> Panels –> GPS information. Satellites and signal strength show up, but no GPS information shows up (i.e. no positional data or any other attributes) in the GPS information window, and no cursor shows on the map. The GPS reports positional data okay when connected to GPS Viewer tool, so the problem appears to be specific to QGIS and the Panasonic Toughpad. I have tried the solutions listed here (Using the Live tracking with internal GPS?) but they do not work for me. Does anyone have any other suggestions to fix this problem?
[GIS] Using GPS tracking with QGIS and Panasonic Toughpad
gpsqgistablet
Related Solutions
The comments below your question bring up some good points, especially about interpreting satellite data quality (# of satellites, signal strength), and you could use this information either on the mobile device or on the server to filter out "bad" GPS values. The question comes down to two parts: 1) how do you define a spurious GPS reading, and 2) how do you define a stationary state.
Let's start with a couple of parameters:
- stationary_speed = if the mobile unit is going slower than this, then it's stationary
- too_fast = if the mobile unit is going faster than this, then it has given a bogus GPS reading
It's tricky to calculate these speeds with accuracy. Say that you calculate the speed as the / between the previous reading (at t0) and the current reading (at t1). If the time delta is great, and the unit goes around a curve, then the actual distance traveled will be greater than the calculated distance. Also, if you get two spurious readings in a row, and they are near enough to one another, then you can get unpredictable results.
Once you have the speed, just compare it to your parameters to see if the GPS reading is spurious or if the unit is stationary.
You can do more sophisticated filtering with Kalman filters, but that can be much more involved.
I'm not familiar with the 62 series, but I suspect the issue is similar to or the same as with the 60/76 series. The problem is that GPS unit can only use a specific communications protocol that is not widely supported (Garmin PVT) when connected via USB. It supports a variety of communication protocols over serial, including NMEA, but not over USB. This may differ for the 62s, because from what I can tell they don't have serial ports, just USB. However the issue is still going to be communication protocols.
The first thing to check/make sure of is that when you plug the GPS into the tablet you do not connect it as a Mass Storage Device. That allows you to access stored gpx and other files, but not the GPS receiver portion of the device.
The next thing to check is what communication protocol it is set to - NMEA, Garmin, or something else. You may be able to set the 62 to NMEA and have it work. On the 60/76, when you connect via USB it automatically goes to PVT and the Serial Data Format option where you could set a NMEA option is ignored (because it's USB, not serial). The solution is an old driver/program Garmin produced called Spanner which creates virtual serial ports to interface with the device over USB. I'm seeing references that the 62/78 series actually have a Spanner Mode option in the interface settings of the unit itself rather than needing a separate program/driver. Note you may need to update to a newer software/firmware version per that discussion thread. Another alternative to Spanner is GPSGate which is mentioned in the answer to this question.
Best Answer
I managed to solve this. Turns out QGIS does not handle NMEA data with the prefix $GN, only with the prefix $GP. The GPS chip on the Panasonic Toughpads is a u-blox M8, so I installed u-blox “U-Centre” software, opened and connected to the COM4 port. Then:
Now it works perfectly with QGIS live tracking :)