being that the captivate is having gps issues, i thought i would try to use my bluetooth reciever with it. the only problem with this is android's lack of the SPP protocol. so i went looking to to find something to fill this role, and i didn't find find much. what i did find however was this:
appbrain.com/app/googoo.android.btgps
this program lets me link to my bt-359, but only while i am in the program. the functions of this program are limited.
now where this post comes into play is in finding out if this program can be linked to the gps part of the captivate, so that a bluetooth reciever can be used with programs like copilot.
thoughts?
Related
I know TomTom is good at on road navigation. Is there any Decent GPS software that uses OS maps, maybe 1:50000 or 1:25000 off road for hill walking etc.
I've tried most of them, and I reckon the best for O.S. maps is
http://www.memory-map.co.uk
They have a CD with all of them on it.
If you don't mid georeferencing them yourself, you might also try http://www.gpsdash.com or www.oziexplorer.com.
GPSDash is the only one that lets you georeference on your PocketPC. The others make you reference the maps on the PC and export them.
Ozi Explorer is faster, and re-projects maps from other formats into WGS84 (so you can use lat/long on OS maps instad of easings/northings). if you are using a bluetooth GPS, there is an issue with using Ozi on the XDA2 (see http://216.218.220.254/ozice/faq_ppc2003.html) which you can solve using Bluetooth Tools (see the article).
A free (but basic) alternative is www.locbrowser.com
One other thing to bear in mind is that TomTom 2.7 upwards will have messed up your bluetooth stack (unless you're running WM2003SE), so you need to soft-reset your Pocket PC after using TomTom before any other GPS program will work. It happens because Tomtom doesn't release the com port even after it has shut down.
Hope that's useful!
Thanks for the suggestions, I will have a look at them. What Would be perfect is a moving 1:25000 map with a cursor where I am. With waypoints and route planning in advance, like real GPS units do.
I have not had any issues with TomTom3 however i dont have any other GPS software to test it with. Yet.
Thanks. M8.
I use Memory-Map and it has all that you mention. 1:25000 is limited at present to National Parks etc but more areas are coming. We've full reviews on our site. You also get both PC and PPC clients so can plan on the PC, upload to the PPC and then copy the actual route you took back to the PC afterwards.
MM2004 has many additional features such as 3D bump mapping on the PC to give a virtual 3D respresentation of an area. Both PC and PPC Clients can be used with a GPS.
yes i like the look of this, will download over the weekend and trial it out in the parks 20 mile away.
Possibly a little late but the trial has no GPS functionality. Just in case you were planning to test this!
Doh, thanks for letting me know, i hadnt downloaded it yet.
Whats the point of a trial that doesnt trial the full software. Its just forces people to look elwhere.
To be fair few offer any trial at all so Memory-Map are to be applauded for offering something.
And as you can only 'trial' it with the small sample map they offer which is unlikley to be of your area then its only purpose is to show you the interface etc.
It is however the best in its field for good reason and I can highly reccomend it.
OK, will take a look at their software, and the maps, for the price it does look good value.
Many people seem to be having problems using a Bluetooth GPS with nav software on a Pocket PC. I have had a few issues and trawled the net looking for answers and there seems to be a lack of reference information on this. This forum is probably the best hope of getting a definitive reference document compiled.
My XDA Pro (Universal) did not have the GPS Settings control panel installed in Settings/Connections until I edited the registry to make it visible. Why was it not enabled originally? Does it not work?
What does GPS Settings actually do? (My premise is that it virtualises the GPS Com port is that right?)
I have set up my BT GPS to be on COM8 by adding a new Outgoing Port. Using GPS Settings-
in the Programs Tab set "Program Port:" to be COM1:
in the Hardware tab set "Hardware portP" to be COM8: (why no 38400 baud rate setting??)
Is it safe to assume that any program that wants to use the GPS should connect to the virtual port COM1: or the actual port COM8:?
From a software perspective when trying to configure a program to connect to a GPS invariably the software will offer a list of COM ports to use e.g......
VisualGPSce (a free GPS monitoring tool from www.visualgps.net) offers a set of COM ports and SER01-SER32. If I connect this to SER08: it works fine but when I look at the settings again it has changed them to COM1: - Drivers\BuiltIn\Serial_dbg. (I assume this is the affect of using the GPS Settings above). Interestingly if I choose an invalid port then choose COM1: it fails to connect until I select SER08: again!!
Fugawi offers COM1: - COM8: but only works when I select COM8: Is this 'not playing the game' because it is talking to the real port and not the 'virtual one'?
A friend has Pocket Nav (Memory Map) which only offers a set of COM ports COM1,2,3,6,7,9 (all of which are named with the kind of device except 7) and none of them work. Is this software only offering COM ports that it believes to be active? It also seems to be not playing the virtual port game (If my premise above is correct). Why doesn't it see the GPS on COM8:?
Sorry for the long posts - lots of questions, a few suppositions and not many answers from me. I just hope the gurus who frequent this forum can provide some good technical answers which will benefit many frustrated (both by things not working but also through lack of techincal reference documentation) people.
Thanks
Clive
hi i'm experiencing the same problem, did you solve it ?
I can't find a useful COM port to connect to my java application using a Qtek 9000 with WM 5 and Creme JVM.
thank you.
I will surely spend a lot of time on this question in my forthcoming Bluetooth Bible (still don't know when to publish).
are you serious ..
or it was sarcastic ?
Yes, maybe i was not so clear writing my question, but i didn't want to write the same words clive_j wrote ...
I'm running a java application on a Qtek 9000 running Windows Mobile 5.1.1700 (build 14354.0.1.1) and using a Java Virtual Machine "Creme 4.12 for PocketPC".
While, via bluetooth manager, I'm able to connect my BTGPS (i.e. bluetooth GPS) only on COM0, or COM4, or COM8, my application can open only COM1, or COM2, or COM3, or COM6, or COM7, or COM9.
I configured GPS Settings on WM 5 just like clive_j did, and still i can't receive any data from the GPS, while VisualGPS can connect and receive data from SER08.
Did you have any idea ?
I found how to solve the problem.
don't know if menneisyys is interested.
I have some questions about coding specifically, this seems like something to put in the development forum, but its rules seem to specify that it is not.
I am making some GPS applications currently for my phone and would like to have some tips on being "friendly" with other GPS programs.
I have created a program that does GPS tracking and records coordinates and speed while driving. When I run this at the same time as Google Maps, it loses the ability to query the GPS device intermittently. What I would like is to be able to see if the GPS device itself is available. Currently I am using the GPS library provided by the Microsoft Sample with some edits (it was doing some unfortunate thread locking that it had no right to know about for a class library).
My hope is that my GPS app can recognize that another program is using it, OR it can recognize that the GPS device has been disabled by another program and turn it back on. Currently the sample library is either Open or Closed but does not actually seem to query the device to get these device states back.
Does anyone have some good example code for this? I intend to keep coding it, but right now it seems I will have to ignore other software on the phone that might be using it until I can get some help on this.
Hello,
I am new to the forum and also the owner of an HTC Fuze. I have been playing around recently with the GPS on the phone and got me thinking. I live in NY and we have a CORS network of gps base stations that are fed by the use of ntrip.
I was wondering if their was any way to use the gps signal on my phone and the connection to this CORS network to give me sub inch accuracy on my phone...then not sure what I would do with it then. But I do live on a farm and I would like to see some type of precision agricultural use.
I guess I need a way to have the GPS on the phone talk with the GNSS internet radio and then give me spot on guidance and such.
Please let me know your thoughts or if I need to explain better.
Thanks,
Clayton
bump
bump. Any ideas? Anyone
Great idea cwrisrey !
That will save the cost of a geodetic device, which is many times the cost of a Fuze. Further, it will lead the accuracy of the buildin GPS into millimum class.
Not dig into this further, would you go further to tell these:
Is that CORS data encrypted?
Is that accessible through public internet or VPN?
Is there copy right or intellectuall property right issue involved? (I don't think so, but better make it clear first)
Once again, great idea. Please do remember to update this thread once you got any progress. Thanks.
More info
Hello wg5566,
This site would probably answer alot of your questions clearer than I could:
http://www6.nysdot.gov/spiderweb/frmIndex.aspx
* Is that CORS data encrypted?
-I don't believe so, I think that it is just a form of compression, to distribute across the internet.
* Is that accessible through public internet or VPN?
Yes, the NYS CORS anyway. It accessible from the public internet (although they require you to register with them) But I believe there are other free streams. I also believe it was modeled after being able to be sent threw GPRS.
* Is there copy right or intellectuall property right issue involved? (I don't think so, but better make it clear first)
-I believe the ntrip is based on a GNU, I think the source code is available. http://igs.bkg.bund.de/index_ntrip_down.htm
Windows CE version:
http://www.ilmb.gov.bc.ca/crgb/gsr/downloads/installGNSS.CAB
Please, let me know your thoughts...
Thanks,
Clayton
My fast thoughts:
First make sure there is no satisfied freeware currently available for WM.
If so please ask a moderator to move this to the development & hackings section. And Add tyis sentence on the title: Call for developers for revolutionary GPS app!
I'm sure somebody here can develop this. You know the geodetic device was invented many years ago with very weak profiles comparing to current WM devices. The hardware on our phone should be capable to deal with these calculations, and the WM Pro platform should be capable to support such an app. Anyway it should not be a biggy for many masters here. But it is a biggy for gps users with high accuracy demand for any reason.
Edit: Did you try install that wince cab on your phone? I think some of WINCE apps can just run on WM. Please backup your data first.
Edit2: I tried to install it on my device, at first it did not show up in start menu, then I found the cab just put files and shortcut in the folder names in French. But there is no registry involved in the cab. Only three files. And then program UI itself is in English. Just run the executable from the folder will go right out of the box. So please try it. I did not try to connect & loggin yet, due to not registered account.
Edit3: Looks like the cab is only access the data from internet, convert the data format and export the data, but we still need a geodetic/gps software to process/use the data.
Disclaimer: I attatched these three files for the only purppose of exchanging software developement infomation. Anybody if download it please do not use it for any purppose other than this. Thanx.
Some thoughts on the subject
Hi All,
The idea of using NTRIP to make a Windows Mobile GPS device sub-meter accurate crossed my mind. After some research I found this thread.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any software capable of doing this. My idea is that it should be possible to accomplish this goal, using a combination of existing tools (which would be really cool!).
As wg5566 notes, there is a (WM) tool called GNSS Internet Radio, which is capable of downloading NTRIP corrections. It turns out this software works, but does have some flaws. Someone wrote another open source tool which is better (?), but unfortunately it isn't built for Windows Mobile (see: http://lefebure.com/software/).
More searching revealed a (dead?) project on codeplex: SharpGPS. It's an unfinished demo. It does however seem to be designed to do exactly what we're suggesting in this thread.
My idea: Completing the WM version of SharpGPS with parts of GNSS Internet radio / lefebure NTRIP client should result in a tool that's capable of upgrading a WM devices' gps signal to sub-meter accuracy through RTK/DGPS corrections over NTRIP.
Any ideas / suggestions about this?
It's already been done for the commercial market
Land surveyors, construction companies, and farmers use RTK GPS and RTK GNSS correction services on a regular basis. Some are free and some are paid subscription. They can be either NTRIP protocol with casters or individual TCP or UDP connections. Examples of software available are Carlson SurvCE and MicroSurvey. Read Carlson's support site for how they deal with the data flow using such networks on SurvCE (Windows Mobile and CE).
I have worked in land surveying using such equipment, and it generally requires dual frequency receivers, RTK corrections, and high quality antennas to achieve 1-2cm 95% CI horizontal precision. The current GPS chips in cell phones are only single frequency and so the best you could expect under ideal conditions is 2'-3' precision using some form of differential correction like WAAS or beacon or DGPS via NTRIP. Under average conditions, the precision will likely be in the 10-20' range. The dual frequency receivers take care of the large errors caused by radio waves traveling through the ionosphere.
Due to the limitations of batteries, antennas, and space for more chips in cellphones, the future of location accuracy will likely include some combination of GPS/GLONASS and cellular radio signal frequency timing calculations from cell towers. True Position, with its U-TDOA technology, is one example of measuring the time differences of cell phone radio waves using cell towers with known coordinates. Rumors (from surveying journals) have it that there are current patents in place that can allow for sub foot precision using such methods when sufficient cell towers are present for multilateration.
Has anyone found success on this topic? WM or Android...
Would be very interested, since there is a free NTRIP feed available in Switzerland... anyone?
*bump* it up
Been there still trying. Problem is no carrier phase off internal gps.
Grimli said:
Hi All,
The idea of using NTRIP to make a Windows Mobile GPS device sub-meter accurate crossed my mind. After some research I found this thread.
As wg5566 notes, there is a (WM) tool called GNSS Internet Radio, which is capable of downloading NTRIP corrections. It turns out this software works, but does have some flaws. Someone wrote another open source tool which is better (?), but unfortunately it isn't built for Windows Mobile (see: /lefebure.com/software/).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lance lefebure is a really cool guy I'm sure he wouldn't have any problem building a wm version but it is going to takea lot more than that to get rtk to a cell phone.
Very good ,thanks.
Ed hardy bikini said:
Very good ,thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are confused just ask questions and I will do my best to answer them. I am in the ag industry and deal with RTK networks and different ways of connecting them and tons of different gps units on a daily basis.
Look at this:
http://stakemill.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/ashtech-mobile-mapper-100-supports-esri-arcpad-10-0/
and this:
http://www.ashtech.com/-2359.kjsp?RH=1272644205746&RF=1270806507068
Is that still a phone !?
wg5566 said:
Look at this:
Is that still a phone !?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope PDA with support for external GPS with a builtin reciever that even sees glonass satellites (russian constelation). That was made specifically to do RTK mapping. It does have a GSM radio for data to connect to the cors.
Phone positioning using CORS
To perform a CORS (Network Reference correction we need a GGA stream from the GPS in your device. This allows us to remove the anomalies and provde the correction stream. As phones use a sirf II chip or similar they do not have input capability to output the NMEA stream to achieve this.
This one works great! it will connect to an Rtk receiver and get the nmea string from it or will use the internal GPS to be able to register on the CORS network. It will then stream the corrections over Bluetooth to a receiver or even a repeater radio. It won't however correct the internal GPS. http://antrip.dyndns.biz/Home/DownloadTrial
I have a gps-500 (a usb based GPS receiver) from when my laptop worked and wondered if some guru out there found a way to make it useful with the tablet.
For the price, $19 or so to purchase the 'sensor', it would make the tablet become a cool GPS for any others where tethering is not an option.
(http: preceeds the line below, since I'm too new to post links)
//linux-tablet-pc.dhs.org/2010/12/13/gps-receiver-microsoft-pharos-gps-500-iii-gps-receiver/
googling "pharos gps-500 linux" turned up quite a few places of interest
I also wanted to thank the devs for the wonderful work they are doing to let us use with our newest toy.. i mean tool
Regards,
fuzzy
i'm using a bt-1000x travel recorder, it's a bluetooth gps, i't working great, all i have to do is use a special program on the gtab so it knows about the gps, works perfectly with google maps
fuzzyfuzzy104 said:
I have a gps-500 (a usb based GPS receiver) from when my laptop worked and wondered if some guru out there found a way to make it useful with the tablet.
For the price, $19 or so to purchase the 'sensor', it would make the tablet become a cool GPS for any others where tethering is not an option.
(http: preceeds the line below, since I'm too new to post links)
//linux-tablet-pc.dhs.org/2010/12/13/gps-receiver-microsoft-pharos-gps-500-iii-gps-receiver/
googling "pharos gps-500 linux" turned up quite a few places of interest
I also wanted to thank the devs for the wonderful work they are doing to let us use with our newest toy.. i mean tool
Regards,
fuzzy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
was wondering if you had gotten this going yet? I have a BU-353 usb gps receiver and haven't gotten it to work yet. also haven't found (so far) any threads in the Gtab forums talking about if usb gps work or not with the modified firmwares.
Nothing working for mine so far. I had looked at this,
wiki.navit-project.org/index.php/Navit_on_Android
it "works", as in 'it wont crash', no maps show though. I have not yet posted any questions or such to see if anyone knows a way to make the program take its input from my gps receiver. Though it may be as simple as linking the programs expected input device to /dev/USB (or whatever the proper syntax is)
The nasty thing is I had to get the Google Market working on the dev kits virtual device so I could use the virtual device to download a supplementary apk which was required by Navit (a text to speech apk) ...(the market via my tablet couldn't find it, or GPSTether either)
And found this as well, still no joy
androlib.com/android.application.com-gpstether-xAzq.aspx
I'm so new to all this android stuff, 3 weeks, but I'm having a wonderful time playing and experimenting
Regards and have fun,
Fuzzy
Was there any more info on this? I just bought one of these GPS units and can't get it to work.