WeatherTAP Blog

Your GPS device must be able to output data in the NMEA standard format. All GPS devices that support this format will work with RadarLab HD. Specifically, there are three NMEA sentences that RadarLab HD is looking for. These are the GGA, RMC and GSA sentences. When your GPS device is connected to your computer either through a USB or serial port, you will be able to see your current location relative to the storm data.

In order to use the GPS capability you need to launch RadarLab HD from the new RadarLab HD GPS page. You can also get to the RadarLab HD GPS page from the regular RadarLab page. When RadarLab HD is launched from this page, you will be prompted with a security warning that you must accept. The warning is being prompted because Java needs to have access to the serial port on your computer in order to read the GPS data from it. Once RadarLab HD is running you can click on the Help button to read more information about the GPS tracking. If you want to have the GPS enabled version of RadarLab HD to be launch from your desktop, you need to delete your Java cache and re-launch RadarLab HD from the GPS page. Directions on how to delete your Java cache are here.

Mac OS X Users
To allow the GPS to work on a Mac you must check the following:

1. You must have the folder "uucp" in the directory "/var/spool". To check this, bring up the Terminal and type in the following command:

ls /var/spool

Now see if the "uucp" folder is listed. If not, you must create it by running the following command:

sudo mkdir /var/spool/uucp

You now need to set the proper permissions on this directory. Do this by running the following command:

sudo chmod 777 /var/spool/uucp

2. You should be a member of the "uucp" group. To do this run the following commands (it would be best to copy and paste these commands):

sudo niutil -destroyval / /groups/uucp users `whoami` (The ` in this line is the symbol listed to the left of the number "1" key)
sudo niutil -appendprop / /groups/uucp users `whoami`

3. The Last step is that you should have the folder "lock" in the directory "/var". To check this, in the Terminal type in the following command:

ls /var

Now see if the "lock" folder is listed. If it is not listed, then you must create it by running the following command:

sudo mkdir /var/lock

You now need to set the proper permissions on this folder by running the command:

sudo chmod 777 /var/lock

You should now be able to use the GPS functionality of RadarLab HD on your Mac OS X system.