As well as knowing current energy usage, the program is
set up to show the current location along the race route that the scout
car drove the night before. This can be done by obtaining a live GPS
data link and using the GPS mapped data obtained previously. It is also
necessary to make sure that the GPS data taken in (typically in longitude,
latitude format) is converted to the same unit of measure of the map. This
can be accomplished using the gctp library. The gctp library has a set
of equations for conversions between most any type of map coordinate format
to any other. While I had live GPS data going into the program, I was unable
to get the gctp coordinates to match those returned by Sokkia's conversions.
For this reason, live GPS updates are not working in the Power Management
System at the time this thesis was written. One of the limitations of live
GPS data is that it is not differentiated. The user could only expect the
reported GPS position read to be within one hundred meters of actual position,
even in the best of conditions.
