[Qgis-user] QGIS on Windows 8 with GPS

[Alex Mandel]

On 05/16/2013 10:26 AM, Markus Honegger wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'd like to use QGIS on a Windows 8 tablet pc which has a GPS inside.
> Unfortunately, this sensors does not send a NMEA protocoll over a
> virtual COM port. Instead, it uses the Windows "Location API" (see:
> http://ker.li/locationapi ).
> Does anybody have any experiences in using such a GPS sensor with QGIS?
> How can the Location API be converted into a QGIS-known-GPS-device?
>
> Many thanks and kind regards,
>   Markus

This appears to be a known issue that people are complaining about with 
basically all software that used to work on windows with GPS units.
http://gcoupe.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/microsoft-does-it-again/
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wdk/thread/c83dd941-0e03-448c-a438-33c573a6a22d/

There is a way to map the Location API to NMEA but Microsoft seems to 
have decided that each developer will need to do it themselves.

So thanks for reporting, I'll check if we have an open ticket on the 
issue but I can't promise when this might be resolved. Hopefully someone 
will release an open source lib that does the conversion.

Thanks,
Alex