James McParlane's Blog

There Is A New Version Available – Click Here

Update: I just fixed 2 bugs – one handle leak and a bug that could stop it from scanning serial ports. Seems I left in some debug code on both counts.  If you downloaded this in September, then download it again – its been updated.

Here (Download) is the latest version (Build 8) of the MetaWrap time converter which replaces the previous version (Build 7)

This build fixes some reported bugs in the timezone data and adds a major new feature – GPS integration and a GPS API accessible via AJAX, JSON, CSV and UDP.

If you enable the GPS menu option the application will lock onto an authoritative GPS source. Either a standard serial port/USB style NMEA 0183 gadget attached to your computer or a device that broadcasts NMEA 0183 over UDP that is plugged into your local network. The application will auto hunt for the hardware, no configuration is required.

If it finds an authoritative GPS source it will rebroadcast it for other time-converters to receive. These other time-converters don’t need to have GPS enabled – they will simply pick it up off the local Ethernet segment.  You will be UDB broadcasting your location and IP address if you enable GPS, for most cases this should not be a problem as it will only be broadcast to your local area network. If you are on a cable network that enables UDP broadcasts then you may want to firewall UDP port 7305.

Your location will be tracked on the time-converter world map (above) with a small dot. If its salmon colored then its receiving GPS data, but the GPS quality is 0. If its green it has a quality or 1 or higher.

Three APIs are provided.

1) A Windows COM service is provided, so once the time-converter is installed, if a web-page in IE tries to access the “MetaWrap.TimeConverter” Object, the executable will be automatically launched.

2) For web-browsers such as Firefox and Opera, an HTTP service is provided via localhost which can be accessed via AJAX or JSON. This is designed to be backwardly compatible with the MeHere API.

Comma Delimited- http://localhost:7305/csv

JavaScript – http://localhost:7305/js

XML – http://localhost:7305/netlink

Google Earth – http://localhost:7305/kml

I’ll add more of these formats on request.

3) The third API isavailable on UDP port 7305 . The application will broadcast its current known GPS location as a string.

This test page will test the values being put out by the time-converter via the COM interface.

This test page will integrate with Google maps and track you as you move about.

Mike Cornelius was able to use a fast 3G data modem and this example code/testcase to track himself driving from Sydney to Wollongong.

Test pages for the AJAX and JSON code are under construction – but most JavaScript coders should be able to figure it out for themselves.

To upgrade you can either,