This is a simple receiver that is to be connected to any computer. Delivered with a driver for most recent Windows. To make it run under Linux, just compile your kernel with support for pl2303 serial-to-usb (as a module or into kernel), then everything should be fine with GPSd.
franson gpsgate 2.6 serial 112
The unit is solid, well constructed and quite compact. It is waterproof (useful if it rains, or for other forms of wet mapping) It contains a non-replaceable rechargeable li-ion batteries with a maximum battery life of 32 hours. The standard version comes with a car charger as standard. Both models have a USB serial connection for upload and recharging. The ability to recharge via the USB cable is a very nice feature. It also comes with a standard adaptor for recharging from a car and the most compact and nifty 240 volt mains adaptor I have ever seen.
It comes with a simple Windows application for uploading/downloading routes, waypoints and trackpoints. Installation of the USB serial driver was a bit fiddly, but otherwise it works fine. In the software "Version 1.1 B20060228" there are two main download options (Oziexplorer/GPX/CSV and Waypoint+) in addition to the raw NMEA files. This software version also uses GPSBabel to export the data in KML format suitable for use with Google Maps and Google Earth. There is a backup/restore function which creates a 512k binary file which I suppose is a dump of its flash memory.
For Linux users, the Windows application appears to work OK using wine. The USB interface on the device is supported by the pl2303 driver and appears as a serial port (e.g. /dev/ttyUSB0) providing raw NMEA data for gpsd or gpsdrive. Some further Linux information is at NaviLink for Linux. This page includes a link to a page describing a Perl script that can be used in place of the Windows program provided with the device.
First you need to load two modules, usbserial and cp2101 which are included in kernel 2.6.20 (probably earlier versions too, didn't check it). If the device gets plugged you'll get a device like /dev/ttyUSB0 to access your device (don't forget to give yourself permissions accordingly). The device has to be in LOG mode. It gets recognized in the other modes too, but didn't work! In case you use gpsd use
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