Virtual GPS 1.55

A GPS receiver simulation software for about 40 dollars is certainly a great acquisition for developers and testers to utilize. Virtual GPS can output 10 various NMEA sentences to a serial port or UDP port of the computer with variable baud rates. Simulation of GPS receiver can be achieved through setting of numerous parameters and you can also simulate constellation of the 24 GPS satellites that are orbiting the earth. With Virtual GPS, you can simulate the motion of a car moving at a particular speed, at a particular altitude and towards a particular direction. The software computes the necessary information to be transmitted. It’s great that you can use it like a GPS receiver when you don’t have a signal which makes it ideal for indoor experiments and study. It is compatible with any GPS mapping software.

There are 2 modes of operation – simulator and file. In the simulator mode, latitude and longitude is incremented in regular intervals with various other parameters set – like, navigational parameters, magnetic parameters and dilution of precision. Steps in which latitude and longitude are to be incremented as well as the interval can be set in the user interface. In the file mode, data is loaded from a text file containing NMEA sentences.

The mapping software which you want to use must be connected to the serial port. Simulated data can be sent to either a physical or a virtual port interconnected with this port. A null modem cable can be used to get the output of the simulator. Bluetooth can also be used to broadcast. There’s a facility to save the output data into a log file.

All in all it is a great tool not only for developers and testers but also for users who want to learn navigation software.