Mar/April 2009

As GPS products becomes smaller, cheaper and more ubiquitous, there is an increasing demand for reliable ways to test them. This, anyway, is the view of Racelogic, which has launched a system which it says is set to revolutionise GPS testing.

Its LabSat device can record, replay and simulate GPS RF data, and is therefore able to represent real-world GPS activity, the company says. You just connect your PC to it via a USB 2.0 port, and it records raw signals from a GPS antenna directly to hard disk. There are no limitations on the number of satellites being tracked or the length of the recording.

When the data is replayed, your GPS engine will faithfully re-create the movement and satellite reception encountered during the test, including all original multi-path, satellite obstruction and atmospheric effects.

LabSat is not cheap, coming in at prices starting from £5,950, but RaceLogic says it represents a very powerful competitor to larger, more expensive systems.