GPS Dashboard displays navigation information from a serially connected GPS on the Mac. Gauges display track direction and speed, and digital readouts display latitude, longitude, altitude, and time. An odometer provides a display of distance travelled. The dashboard also shows which satellites are being tracked, and if the GPS has a 3D fix.

GPS Dashboard can synchronize with Apple Maps application providing periodic location updates, as well as show the current position on Google Maps.

The Record Track feature can save GPS tracks and waypoints to a file (GPX or CSV). 

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GPS Dashboard provides multiple display themes, and the user can customize the location, distance, altitude, and speed units.

Screenshots

Features

• Decodes NMEA 0183 messages from any serially connected GPS device

• Selectable data from GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo GPS receivers

• Supports devices connected with Serial-to-USB converters and Bluetooth serial devices 

• Compass gauge displays GPS track (north up or direction up)

• Speedometer displays GPS speed

• Displays satellites currently tracked and if the GPS has a 2D or 3D fix

• Latitude, Longitude, Altitude display

• Maximum and Average speed display, resettable

• Resettable Odometer tracks distance travelled

• Integrated internet-based Maps including street, satellite, topographic, and nautical

• Synchronizes with Apple Maps, providing periodic GPS position

• Sends position to Google Maps

• Real-time graphs of speed and altitude

• Displays raw NMEA strings

• Displays GPS position in decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes, or degrees/minutes/seconds

• Displays altitude in meters or feet

• Displays speed in knots, mph, or kph

• Configurable speedometer range

• Shows distance in nautical miles, miles, kilometers, meters or feet

• Records GPS tracks in CSV or GPX format

• Record GPS waypoints

• Sky-view of satellite constellations and position history with azimuth/elevation cursor

• Display of satellites tracked according to GNNS type

• Sun and Moon positions and Moon phase

• Sunrise, Zenith, Sunset, Moonrise, and Moonset times

• Real-time graph of satellite signal level (SNR)

• Option to prevent computer from sleeping

• Displays magnetic and true directions and magnetic declination

• SNTP Time Server

• GPS Simulator

Supported Devices

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GPS Dashboard supports any GPS device with serial NMEA 0813 output. If your device has a 9-pin serial output it can easily be adapted to the Mac using a FTDI serial-to-USB adapter or Prolific serial-to-USB adapter. It has been tested to be compatible with:

• Bluetooth connected BadElf GPS Pro BE-GPS-2200

• GlobalSat BU-353-S4 (USB)

• Garmin GPSMap 478 via a FTDI and Prolific serial to USB adapter

• HiLetgo VK172 uBlox-7 USB GPS/GLONASS receiver

• Canmore GT-730F USB GPS Receiver

• Dual XGPS150A Bluetooth GPS

Version History

Version 1.0 for MacOS    

• Release February 25, 2019

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Version 1.1 for MacOS    

• Release March 16, 2019

• Add Maximum and average speed display

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Version 1.2 for MacOS    

• Release April 17, 2019

• Real-time graphs of speed and altitude

• New ocean-blue theme

• Removed speed value in GPX file (for compatibility with GPX 1.1 format)​

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Version 1.4 for MacOS    

• Release May 13, 2019

• Add support for GLONASS and Galileo GNSS satellites

• Constellation map of satellites and history

• Sun and Moon positions, Moon phase on Constellation map

• Real-time graph of satellite SNR

• Option to prevent computer from sleeping

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Version 1.5 for MacOS    

• Release September 16, 2019

• Added magnetic track indicator on Constellation map computed from NOAA world magnetic model

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Version 2.0 for MacOS    

• Release December 18, 2019

• Add integrated maps with position overlay, using online map servers

• SNTP server to serve time sourced from GPS

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Version 2.1 for MacOS    

• Release January 2, 2020

• Add USGS topographic map and blank map options

• Map updates include breadcrumb trail, map scale, and adaptive centering

• Update to NOAA 2020 world magnetic model

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Version 2.1.1 for MacOS    

• Release January 7, 2020

• Fixes a bug where the world magnetic model could not be loaded in MacOS Catalina

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Version 2.1.3 for MacOS    

• Release February 23, 2020

• Minor bug fixes

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Version 2.2.1 for MacOS    

• Release April 27, 2020

• Waypoints with cool icons! Drag waypoints around the map or set as a destination

• Set a Destination, see the great-circle course to reach it on the map

• Distance, Bearing, and ETA to destination

• Copy mouse and waypoint coordinates to clipboard

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Version 2.3.0 for MacOS    

• Release October 16, 2020

• Cache maps for fast access

• Pre-Download map regions for later offline use

• Zoom level shown on map

• Fixed an issue preventing sending position to Apple Maps app

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Version 2.4.1 for MacOS    

• Release April 8, 2021

• GPS Simulator: simulate GPS messages and control the simulation position, speed, altitude, and track

• The Track gauge now displays tenths of a degree

• The Constellation View panel now displays magnetic declination, sunrise, sunset, noon (zenith), moonrise, and moonset times

• NTP jitter estimate

• Decode and display fix quality

• Fixing bug displaying mouse coordinates when moving mouse across the 180th meridian

License Information

Licensing and usage of GPS Dashboard is subject to the standard Apple End User License Agreement

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THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE LICENSES

Several open source software libraries are built into GPS Dashboard.  These are subject to the following copyright and license terms:

The Java Runtime Engine (JRE) is subject to Oracle's license terms.

The JSSC Library  is licensed by the GNU Lesser General Public License

The JPX library is licensed by the Apache license.

The Commons-Suncalc is licensed by the Apache License.

The Apache Commons libraries are licensed by the Apache license.

The JXMapViewer2 library is licensed by the GNU Lesser Public License

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Waypoint Icon Credits to:

https://www.designcontest.com

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