solotripper wrote on Oct 28^th, 2015 at 1:41pm:


Sure, fish finders don't just find fish anymore. Now they hold rods, and/or cups, they net your fish, the list goes on. They have taken virtual tripping to a whole new level. Kind of nice to sleep in my own bed, no bugs, at night.

Way out of my depth here, but it's fun to learn new things. I was wondering IF a combo GPS/Fishfinder could help with some of that data like water temp?

I have a buddy who has a combo unit and it measures water temp, marks the location and he can plug in a USB stick and download data. It even allows you to use the Ethernet and send the info to tablets/lap tops or a smart phone in real time.

Too technical for me, I'm just curious that's all.

Probably not easily and maybe not how you are thinking about it.  I know of no GPS that can accept input data like water temp and display it on a map.  But GPS can output location data to an application running on a computer.  That application could also be taking input from your sensors.  The application could then take your sensor and GPS data and use it to plot information on a map.  But you would need someone to write that application (which would need to include knowledge of the actual protocol the GPS uses when it outputs its location data).

hey QJ,
Dumb question time.

Can GPS receivers, or maybe GPS software on a computer take input, not from a keyboard or mouse but from a separately running application ?   We have an experiment that generates data from environmental sensors submerged in water behind a moving boat and would like to display the produced data on a GPS map in real-time.   The env data includes water temp, dissolved oxygen, ph, methane levels,  etc.     Thanks QJ, and as always thanks to DB for the great site.    --paw