GPS for DS
I have connected a Lassen iQ GPS module to my serial interface.
Maps are downloaded from Google Maps servers with a small script. Google maps consist of 128×128 pixel tiles. You have to specify your address, so that map tiles around your area are downloaded. There is also a parameter for number of tiles you want. Zoom levels are possible but require to have a few tile-sets, one for each zoom level.
EDIT: Note that maps are downloaded to the CF card using the computer. DS WiFi is not reverse engineered yet.
GBAMP (GBA Movie Player) is used to store the program and data on a CompactFlash card (special thanks to chishm and DarkFader). Number of tiles is only limited by memory size of CF card.
Here is the CF folder for a map around my area consisting of 64 google tiles. I used this for testing. As you see, tiles are just ordinary GIF images.
If you are wondering, there is a formula to go from latitude and longitude (which are provided by GPS) to Google tile number.
Code will be published later after a few things are cleaned up a bit 
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:10 am
Wow, this stuff is just amazing. It’s making me regret the fact I went for wifime instead of a PassMe.. I have a USB 2.0 802.11g adapter, and seeing how you got the bluetooth to work, I wouldn’t be suprised if the same could be achieved with 802.11..
August 3rd, 2005 at 1:27 am
This is precisely what I was waiting for. I’m anxiously awaiting for more info.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:23 am
The fact that you can connect almost anything to DS rocks 😀 When will the library be ready so we can make our own applications to access things like GPS.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:38 pm
You’ve outdone yourself yet again, good work. All we need now is a way of connecting a phone line to it for use as a tone phone 😛 (just an idea)
August 3rd, 2005 at 8:01 pm
The PassMe is a very worthwhile invention
It’s turned out to be a good thing that Nintendo made homebrew developers have to do this, because otherwise this wouldn’t have ever happened so quickly…
This is amazing. Keep up the good work!
How much do those gps modules cost, anyway?
August 3rd, 2005 at 8:37 pm
i like the idea of useing it as a tone phone but that would require a lot of excess hardware 2 limit the voltages (when the phone rings the line voltage is almost 110v ac!)
but y not use the wifi and a port of skype (www.skype.com) i think that would be better!
August 3rd, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Well Darth, first you would have to get the wifi to work… and that in itself would be a challange and a half… which is why there is a $1700 bounty on it 😛
Also, 110V AC is a little extream, i believe normal current is around 2v and jumps to around 6v when it rings… There is no way those copper lines would support such high voltages.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:06 pm
Hi
very interesting project, I am interested in the google map download script and in using google maps for GPS application. please if someone is interested in that, contact me at http://staff.aist.go.jp/f.tappero/contact.html
thanks
fabrizio
PS Dovoto, please contact me !
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:48 pm
autualy google the voltages and you will see that it is 90-110 ONLY when it rings
around 6 when a conversation is taking place
and i know there is a large bounty on the wifi..this was another thing for developers 2 get thinking about… maby another bounty? or increase the expectations for the wifi bounty or add another catagory 2 the bounty…
maby a bounty on the first one 2 sned a text/ audio message over the internet (pictochat with audio over the internet)
befire i get any flaming email/posts here i know this is a VERY LARGE feat
just saying…wouldnt it be cool
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:35 pm
I guess i stand corrected on the phone voltages. Cheers.
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:43 pm
Way cool! Natrium you can also use it to update the real time clock!
August 3rd, 2005 at 11:30 pm
[…] t. Zoom levels are possible but require to have a few tile-sets, one for each zoom level. Natrium42’s Site Submitter: lstr Nick – 08.04.05 | […]
August 4th, 2005 at 4:21 am
GPS Goodies
If you’re interested in developing applications which make use of GPS hardware, be sure to cehck out Sparkfun. They sell all sorts of parts, including tiny GPS receivers, cellular and Bluetooth communications modules, development boards, LCDs, …
August 4th, 2005 at 6:32 am
[…] GPS para NDS
Agosto 4th, 2005
Natrium nos cuenta en su weblog que ha conseguido conectar un GPS a través del dispositivo serie que creó hace un tiempo usando l […]
August 4th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
[…] are on a great moment and the projects will just keep on growing hopefully. Now we have a GPS for the DS. It uses Google Maps to get the information and images of the adress you want. It has some lim […]
August 4th, 2005 at 5:16 pm
[…] salir juegos que aprovechen esta caracterÃstica y pueden analizar como funciona. Link | Natrium 42 VÃa | The N Project No se encontraron temas de interes relacionados […]
August 5th, 2005 at 5:08 am
Natrium, this one definetly rocks! Hope this will get big so it can be used via WiFi or a cartridge that features e.g. whole Europe, this would be stunning
August 5th, 2005 at 5:16 am
Good one! I posted about it here:
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2005/08/google-maps-nintendo-ds-cool-physical.html
I’d be interested in you contacting me – head over to my blog and look for the contact info section – my email is there. I think we’re in the same city and I wouldn’t mind checking this out for myself!
Cheers,
Morpeth – over at Google Maps Mania.
August 5th, 2005 at 10:09 am
This is way over my head, but it’s still amazing.
Can you actually assign the DS buttons and or touch screen to act as a pan/zoom function for the GPS?
That would be wicked.
August 5th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
Wow, Its Is INCRIBLE!
But, Im dont have a DS…
August 7th, 2005 at 6:01 am
:O
wow
August 8th, 2005 at 7:09 am
[…] 8/8/2005 GPS over DS Classé dans: General — site admin @ 1:09 pm Un hack pas si idiot que cela: un module GPS connecté à une DS gavée de données google map et voici une n […]
August 9th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
DAMN!! THIS IS AWSOME!!!
I REALLY NEED ONE 😀 hehehe
can it be so, that he can find gps devices with bluetooth? (offcourse you will need a bluetooth chip in it 😉 )
but is it be possible? 😀
August 9th, 2005 at 6:57 pm
Yo that junk is so freakin hot i need one of those
August 10th, 2005 at 9:14 am
You should talk with this guy http://www.msh-tools.com/GBA/gbagps.html. I have a GBA Movie player, but I don’t want to make a JTAG or buy a passme. I have a bunch of GBA link cables laying around, so if you two could “merge” these two projects, that would be awesome.
August 10th, 2005 at 9:21 am
Aaron, I already sent this guy my site.
DS doesn’t have a serial port like the GBA does, so no hardware can be shared.
I also don’t see that his software does anything more than what I have.
August 10th, 2005 at 10:31 am
I realize that the DS doesn’t have a serial port, I was just wonting your GPS connection solution (I have a Pharos GPS-360) with the Google maps and GBA movie player that he is using.
August 10th, 2005 at 10:55 am
Any GPS receiver can be connected as long as it has a serial port with NMEA output. If the serial port uses RS232 levels, a level converter is needed.
EDIT: Actually I looked at Mikhails site again, and the Pharaos has internal CMOS-level serial port, so no level converter is needed.
August 10th, 2005 at 11:56 am
so will your software work on the GBA (so I don’t have to make the Passme/Serial Adapter)?
August 10th, 2005 at 12:24 pm
No I don’t think it will. I mean it uses both screens :p
August 10th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Aaron, it’s possible to port. Right now I read files from CF card, but it could use GBFS instead and run in GBA mode. Also, the screen mode has to be changed since I use mode 5 with 16-bit color.
When I opensource it, somebody could definitely port it… It’s not a whole lot of code to go through.
August 10th, 2005 at 3:24 pm
Awesome
August 10th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
This is what happens when you are doing too many things at once. After reading back on my posts I realized that I mistyped a few things. What I meant to say was I was just wanting HIS GPS connection solution (GPS to the GBA Link connector) with the Google maps and GBA movie player solution that YOU are using.
I guess I will just wait on a port to GBA… or I may break down and get a Passme card and a serial connector (or go all out and go Bluetooth)
August 14th, 2005 at 5:48 am
Where can i buy it?
August 14th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
lol, thought I recognized the spot in the map.
Ole ‘Loo
August 26th, 2005 at 2:41 am
Hey,
Are you intending to sell prebuilt GPS things to put in the DS slot?
August 27th, 2005 at 3:43 pm
How thick is the passme?
need this info to make one my own.
p.s. info need precise!
p.p.s. if theres any spelling mistakes sorry i’m danish.
August 28th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
[…] de nunca acabar. Cada día, descubrimos más y más utilidades, curiosidades o experimentos. Alexei Karpenko, ha desarrollado un doble hack, por un lado un script capaz de descargar los mapas de Google […]
August 28th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
cool
August 28th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
hey yall thsi looks pretty ghetto fabulous so i just wanted to say that my brother conor is totally awesome
August 29th, 2005 at 2:24 am
i think it can’t work n but it’s usable
http://freshmeat.net/projects/ttlinux/
August 29th, 2005 at 8:39 am
ONE QUESTION I FOUND THE GPS, ONLY 56€ BUT I WONDER IF I COULD USE MY FLASH 2 ADVANCE FLASHCARD INSTEAD OF A GBA MOVIE PLAYER ???? BECAUSE I ONLY HAVE FLASHCARD AND NO MOVIE PLAYER…. I KNOW IT COST NOT TOO MUCH BUT IF I COULD MAKE GPS WORKS WITHOUT GBAMP IT WOULD BE BETTER
GREAT JOB GO AHEAD AND MAKE US SURPRISE YEAH
August 29th, 2005 at 10:12 am
It’s possible with some code modification. But you would have to rewrite the whole GBA flashcart each time you want to add or replace map tiles.
September 3rd, 2005 at 7:19 am
Will you publish the code soon please, I want to play around with this
Leo
September 6th, 2005 at 1:19 am
wow im very impressed with this hack i have been doing similar stuff but didnt get it to work cant wait to see your code and get this up and running on my DS
September 13th, 2005 at 4:48 am
Hey, very impressive work, yet again. Keep up the good work, i hope to have a little play around with some of this when i get time.
October 5th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
Hey Can my linksys work for wifi, im not reallly bright and some more info is its a 802.11b wireless router that i need help knowing if itll work
October 24th, 2005 at 9:24 am
Good job man
November 9th, 2005 at 3:53 am
hello,
when do you think you will release the source of your code running on GBAMP? can you please point me to some example of similar code for the GBAMP.
thanks
fab.
November 22nd, 2005 at 12:07 pm
please, can you post the script? i think is very useful get google maps to my gp32 or any pda , etc…
December 6th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
Hi all. I’m 12 years.I live in Ukraine
It is interesting and the durability it GPS of the device is great?
Because if to go прогулÑÑ‚ÑÑ with it there is a probability to fall and as a result khan GPS.
December 6th, 2005 at 6:45 pm
I’m sorry.
прогулÑÑ‚ÑÑ – to walk
December 11th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
what???????
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:14 am
[…] am | Por Navi | En Consolas y Videojuegos | | TrackBack Según leemos en Natrium42, han conseguido conectar un módulo GPS y usar mapas de google maps guardados en una c […]
December 28th, 2005 at 4:51 am
hello, this project is very intresting and when looking at it i thought a great idea(in my oppion)
why use google maps? when you have a better way to get map data
and sat. imagery
NASA World Wind
it uses basic jpeg online in a huge data base and maps it on sphere
(like google earth, but has the abillity to access raw image data files)
with nasa’s data we can actually map a ball inside the DS
and pin point your position on THE WORLD
and even rotate the world and zoom in
also makes more sense to lower the zoom levels and have the ds resize images instead
well anyway lot of ideas that can be used in these great inventions combined
maybe you can sell a pass me mod to make it easy to attach use the gps moddule(i would buy it ;))
-swimgod
December 29th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
Hello! I am very interested in all homebrew gaming and hardware hacks. I’ve searched on google and found lots of websites but then the articles confuse me because they just assume you know things. Can someone please give me links to some beginner homebrew and hack sites I don’t care what system or what hardware I’m just trying to learn about programming and circuit boards. Please email me at digidevin@gmail.com. Thank you.
January 14th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
I have windowes xp on my ds
January 28th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
[…] . « Year of the Dogg WOW From Mike: GPS on DS This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2006 at 10 […]
January 28th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
[…] . « Year of the Dogg WOW From Mike: GPS on DS This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28t […]
February 21st, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Where Can i get files to do this, I would like to make my own, Thanks
March 6th, 2006 at 10:40 am
please, can you post the script? i think is very useful get google maps to my gp32 or any pda , etc…
March 7th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
I have windowes xp on my ds
March 10th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
yo
March 25th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
It is certainly interesting!
Типа интереÑно мне, что же дальше?
April 28th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
i got a ds but psp kick ass
May 22nd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Windows XP ? o0 could u explay more plz…..by the way awesome stuff natrium42^^
May 24th, 2006 at 4:08 am
oué cool je veu le méme but,imdont have a DS
sniffffff
May 24th, 2006 at 4:11 am
😉
:
May 26th, 2006 at 6:27 am
Hi! can you post your source code plz? i’m very interested!
Thx a lot!
May 27th, 2006 at 12:30 am
COOL
June 11th, 2006 at 12:42 am
I have published source code and schematics for a GBA GPS using the Trimble Lassen iQ module – it uses Trimble’s proprietary TSIP binary protocol at 9600baud to communicate with the GPS module.
check out http://www.pixelproc.net
June 12th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Realmente tengo gusto de este Web site. Usted todo ha hecho un buen trabajo.
June 19th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Very interesting, I have a DS Lite and I am very interested in putting GPS on it.
This system looks like a very good one. Do you have details on exactly how to make this system and have you finalized the source code?
I appreciate and help, thanks again.
June 28th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
I think youve out done your self again. All the DS needs now is an internet so you can go to web sites. Your a genius
August 8th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Any more updates or software releases, instructions….etc….???
September 11th, 2006 at 2:42 am
Haha Grey Silo Golf Course. RIM park!
September 16th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
This is interesting natrium has not made any other mention to this gps thing how ever someone did make a real gps for gba…which i think natrium got that idea. from him.
September 16th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Your point being?
Please use real sentences…
October 29th, 2006 at 11:24 am
i want to upgrade my ds but have only little money
October 30th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Any news when your serial adapter will be available? GPS would be awesome.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:11 am
The original post is more than a year old.
Is there any update on this GPS hack?
A finished product would be great but just access to the projet would be good
December 15th, 2006 at 7:22 am
I don’t have any problem till now…and yours a good job indeed….that made think about ours one…..
Fan of Don Lapre
larisa@larisajoyreilly.com
January 6th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Hi all
Please use real sentences…
January 28th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
So…, has this code been published anywhere yet?
I want to build a gps for my ds lite, but i have two questions:
a) Where/ When will we have acces to the code (if ever)?
b) How do i download the individual tiles from google maps?
Thanks
February 19th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Hi!
i want to build a gps for my ds lite!
how can i do?
how components and software may i use?
April 28th, 2007 at 9:17 am
well, i say its REALLY REALLY SUCKS, I MEAN CANT U SEE IT GUYS,ITS POINTLESS, YOU STILL NEED A GPS DRIVER TO ACTIVATE A MAP, WHY NOT GETTING A GPS THEN,
WHAT WILL REALLY ROCKS IS BE ABLE TO PLUG IN A TV OUTLET INTO THIS DSERIAL AND THEN YOU CAN DISPLAY THE WHOLE DS SCREEN ON TV BY USING THE SLOT 2 DEVICE FOR FLASHCART, I MEAN THAT WILL ROCK.
September 4th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
How do i get the maps on the CFC.
And when i do what do i do with it
September 4th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
i got this great idea there is this great tracking device used for tracking a person kind of small kind of range limired if we put these 2 technologies together the possibilities are endless
November 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
how do you get the maps? are they images or does a program runs them?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Any news about this?
May 27th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Sir,any news about GPS?
July 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
GPS Mice, aka “Smart Antennas”, are complete GPS receivers without a user-interface. They are also connected to your pocketPC by a cable and get their power from the pocketPC, but you can not use them independently, without the pocketPC.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I have been doing a bit of research into this, and I was wondering if it is possible to connect a Trimble Copernicus GPS module into the Slot-2 of the DS (the Trimble Copernicus is the same brand as the one you are using above).
This would be really good because it would allow all those people who have a slot-1 flash card to run GPS software with a gps in slot 2.
It would also give you more room to put a GPS unit in (the Trimble Copernicus is only 2cm by 2cm by 2.5 mm), allowing a closed unit to be made, and therefore expanding the practicallity of this project.
Also, are you planning to release your source code for the GPS app? If so is it possible to integrate DLDI so it can be used with a slot-1 card?
October 6th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Can’t you see he’s never going to post the code?
Come on. More than 3 years have passed. Wi-Fi is cracked. A new DS, the DS-i has been made. GIVE UP, HE’S NOT RELEASING THE CODE!!!!!!!