What is NMEA?

Gordon Burns said:

Playing around with memory Map and I come across NMEA. What is it? I can
import it to my maps, but what does it do? Is it any real use, or is some
geekish facility that ordinary blokes don't need?

The NMEA (http://www.nmea.org) has developed a standard system of
communications between marine electronic devices, and that standard
will apply to data transfers between mapping software and the device.
Garmin and Magellan, I believe, use their own protocols, but other
manufacturers will likely use NMEA.

Colin

In article <[email hidden]>,
Colin MacDonald <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Gordon Burns said:

Playing around with memory Map and I come across NMEA. What is it? I can
import it to my maps, but what does it do? Is it any real use, or is some
geekish facility that ordinary blokes don't need?

The NMEA (http://www.nmea.org) has developed a standard system of
communications between marine electronic devices, and that standard
will apply to data transfers between mapping software and the device.
Garmin and Magellan, I believe, use their own protocols, but other
manufacturers will likely use NMEA.

Garmin has their own protocol but also can talk NMEA. Magellan uses an
extension of the NMEA standard.

Almost all GPS receivers with a serial port support NMEA output for
real-time tracking / logging.

Memory Map can use NMEA input to display the current position on the
map. It can also 'play' stored NMEA data files on the map. I think that
is probably the importing mentioned in the original post.

I suspect it will also retrieve / store waypoints / routes using NMEA
with a receiver that can use NMEA for data transfer (as opposed to
real-time output).

--

Dominic Sexton