An updated version of GPS Tracking for both python 2 and 3.7 that was created by shiyazt

ConnectionV2.py

# This code is only workable on python 2 
import httplib, urllib
import time
from GPS_API import *
import serial


ser = serial.Serial("/dev/serial0")  # Select your Serial Port
ser.baudrate = 9600  # Baud rate
ser.timeout = 0.5
sleep = 2 # how many seconds to sleep between posts to the channel

key = '<YOUR WRITE API KEY>'  # Thingspeak Write API Key
msgdata = Message() # Creates a Message Instance
 
# This Function will upload Latitude and Longitude values to the Thingspeak channel
def upload_cloud():
    temp = get_latitude(msgdata)
    temp1 = get_longitude(msgdata)
    params = urllib.urlencode({'field1': temp,'field2': temp1, 'key':key })
    headers = {"Content-typZZe": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded","Accept" : "text/plain"}
    conn = httplib.HTTPConnection("api.thingspeak.com:80")
    try:
        conn.request("POST", "/update", params, headers)
        response = conn.getresponse()
        print("Lat:",temp)
        print("Long:",temp1)
        print(response.status, response.reason)
        data = response.read()
        conn.close()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        print("Connection Failed")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    start_gps_receiver(ser, msgdata)
    time.sleep(2)
    ready_gps_receiver(msgdata)
    while True:
        upload_cloud()
        time.sleep(sleep)       

ConnectionV3.py

# This code is for python 3 and above 
# You would need to install http.client with pip3 install http.client 

import http.client, urllib.request, urllib.parse, urllib.error
import time
from GPS_API import *
import serial

ser = serial.Serial("/dev/serial0")  # Select your Serial Port
ser.baudrate = 9600  # Baud rate
ser.timeout = 0.5
sleep = 2 # how many seconds to sleep between posts to the channel

key = '<YOUR WRITE API KEY>'  # Thingspeak Write API Key
msgdata = Message() # Creates a Message Instance

def upload_cloud():
    temp = get_latitude(msgdata)
    temp1 = get_longitude(msgdata)
    params = urllib.parse.urlencode({'field1': temp,'field2': temp1, 'key':key })
    headers = {"Content-typZZe": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded","Accept" : "text/plain"}
    conn = http.client.HTTPConnection("api.thingspeak.com:80")
    try:
        conn.request("POST", "/update", params, headers)
        response = conn.getresponse()
        print(("Lat:",temp))
        print(("Long:",temp1))
        print((response.status, response.reason))
        conn.close()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
         print("Connection Failed")             
             
if __name__ == "__main__":
    start_gps_receiver(ser, msgdata)
    time.sleep(2)
    ready_gps_receiver(msgdata)
    while True:
        upload_cloud()
        time.sleep(sleep)

GPS_API.py

# This File consists of API calls for the GPS Parsing Functionality.This section parse the GPS values from the GPS Module.
# pynmea2 is Python library for parsing the NMEA 0183 protocol (GPS). To get that thing : pip install pynmea2

import threading
import pynmea2
import sys

class Message:
    def __init__(self):
        self.msg =''

# Gps Receiver thread funcion, check gps value for infinte times
def get_gps_data(serial, dmesg):
    print("Initializing GPS\n")
    while True:
        strRead = serial.readline()
        if sys.version_info[0] == 3:
            strRead = strRead.decode("utf-8","ignore")
            if strRead[0:6] == '$GPGGA':
                dmesg.msg = pynmea2.parse(strRead)
        else:
            if strRead.find('GGA') > 0:
                dmesg.msg = pynmea2.parse(strRead)

# API to call start the GPS Receiver
def start_gps_receiver(serial, dmesg):
    t2 = threading.Thread(target=get_gps_data, args=(serial, dmesg))
    t2.start()
    print("GPS Receiver started")

# API to fix the GPS Revceiver
def ready_gps_receiver(msg):
    print("Please wait fixing GPS .....")
    dmesg = msg.msg
    while(dmesg.gps_qual != 1):
        pass
    print("GPS Fix available")

# API to get latitude from the GPS Receiver
def get_latitude(msg):
    dmesg = msg.msg
    return dmesg.latitude

# API to get longitude from the GPS Receiver
def get_longitude(msg):
    dmesg = msg.msg
    return dmesg.longitude

Hi @dextersiah, Thanks for making the revisions! I have been able to output the latitudes and longitudes on my Pi but it is followed by:

(400, 'Bad Request')

and nothing is uploading to the Thinkspeak.

Do you possibly know why I am getting this?

Hi @adhityaven, have you added your API key yet in line 14 without the angle brackets? If yes maybe u can try test if the connection to Thinkspeak has been connected by using Postman like so.

Write to ThinkSpeak
GET https://api.thingspeak.com/update?api_key=WRITEAPIKEY&field1=0

Thanks for the help! I removed the angle brackets and it is now uploading to my Thinkspeak.

Quick question because I cannot find a way to get it done..
Your script seems to work fine for my setup, thanks for sharing :)
How would one make it run on/ after boot?

Both via systemd or crontab, I am getting some error of

Initializing GPS

GPS Receiver started
Please wait fixing GPS .....
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "ConnectionV3.py", line 36, in
ready_gps_receiver(msgdata)
File "/home/pi/Documents/gps/GPS_API.py", line 35, in ready_gps_receiver
while(dmesg.gps_qual != 1):
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'gps_qual

Could you please hint me in the correct direction?

Dear author

I am also getting the following error after running your script

nitializing GPS

GPS Receiver started
Please wait fixing GPS .....
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "ConnectionV3.py", line 36, in
ready_gps_receiver(msgdata)
File "/home/pi/Documents/gps/GPS_API.py", line 35, in ready_gps_receiver
while(dmesg.gps_qual != 1):
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'gps_qual

Any hints please.

Hello @kazim425 I have same error with you, did you already fix your error?

Hi @danii998 sorry this is quite a legacy code that I had used back in my school. I took a quick look at the code and google and can u try this piece of code of it does solve the issue?

def ready_gps_receiver(msg):
    print("Please wait fixing GPS .....")
    dmesg = msg.msg
    while not hasattr(dmesg, 'gps_qual') or dmesg.gps_qual != 1:
        dmesg = msg.msg
    print("GPS Fix available")