[Wayne] wrote in to share an item he just finished working on, an I2C GPS shield for the Arduino. While other GPS solutions have existed for quite some time, his caught our eye due to its feature list.
The shield removes a good bit of the hassle associated with parsing raw NMEA data from traditional GPS addons. While you have the option to communicate with the GPS module over serial in order to obtain the raw data, the use of the I2C interface makes getting the most commonly used GPS data a breeze. The GPS module itself can be set to update at anywhere from 1 to 10 Hz, and [Wayne] says that the I2C bus blows away the oft-used 9600 baud serial interface. While I2C is primarily used for receiving data, it can also be utilized to configure the GPS via its control registers, allowing for on the fly settings tweaks.
While he does sell the units pre-assembled at a competitive price, [Wayne] also provides a full schematic, making this an easy afternoon project once you have sourced the proper components.
Filed under: arduino hacks
