NAME
    GPS::Lowrance - Connect to Lowrance and Eagle GPS devices

REQUIREMENTS
    The following non-standard modules are required to use this
    module:

      Carp::Assert
      GPS::Lowrance::LSI
      GPS::Lowrance::Trail
      Parse::Binary::FixedFormat
      Win32::SerialPort or Device::SerialPort

    GPS::Lowrance::Trail requires these modules:

      Geo::Coordinates::DecimalDegrees
      Geo::Coordinates::UTM

    If you want to use the screen capture function, you also need
    the following module:

      GD

    This module should work with Perl 5.6.x. It has been tested on Perl
    5.8.2.

  Installation
    Installation is standard:

      perl Makefile.PL
      make
      make test
      make install

    For Windows playforms, you may need to use "nmake" instead.

SYNOPSIS
      use GPS::Lowrance;
      use GPS::Lowrace::Trail;

      $gps = GPS::Lowrance->connect(
                Device     => 'com1',
                BaudRate   => 57600,
              );

      $trail = $gps->get_plot_trail( plot_trail_number => 0 );

      $gps->disconnect;

REVISION HISTORY
    Changes to this package since v0.01:

    0.10  5 Mar 2004
	- added callbacks to read_memory and get_plot_trail
	- various changes to POD
	- added gps_to_unix_time and unix_to_gps_time functions
	- exports functions from Geo::Coordinates::MercatorMeters
	- added get_number_of_icons method
	- added get_a_waypoint and set_a_waypoint methods
	- added capture-screen.pl example file
	- added GPS::Lowrance::Screen module to extract screen
	- added test case for MercatorMeters.pm to MANIFEST
	- added extract-trail.pl example file
	* get_num_of_plottrails renamed to get_num_of_plot_trails for
	  consistency with other names
	- minor changes in POD formatting

DESCRIPTION
    This module provides a variety of higher-level methods for communicating
    with Lowrance and Eagle GPS receivers.

    This is an experimental module with only a partial implementation to
    read data from the device.  It is documented, however.

    More detailed information can be found in the POD.

    Examples can be found in the "eg" directory in this package.
    
CAVEATS
    This is a beta version of the module, so there are bound to be some
    bugs. In the current form it is also far from complete.

    This module was tested with "Win32::SerialPort", although it should use
    "Device::SerialPort" on non-Windows platforms. However, this has not yet
    been tested.

  Known Issues
    The protocol uses little-endian values, and due to some quirks in the
    decoding functions, they may not be converted properly on big-endian
    machines.

AUTHOR
    Robert Rothenberg <rrwo at cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    Copyright (C) 2004 by Robert Rothenberg <rrwo at cpan.org>.

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.2 or, at
    your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.