GPS logger / field data collection

[Abdelrazak Younes]

Hello Brian,

Brian Wilson wrote:
> Jim wrote:
>> I was kind of surprised that gpsd didn't give me a simple way to just get the current location, I
>> had to capture 5 sentences to do that simple thing
>
> I tried to used gpsd with my GPS base station my recollection was that
> it was totally useless for that. I assume that it will be useless for
> this project too but it's a starting point.

No need for gpsd for a binary logger, see below.


>> XML would be able to do that but I agree probably too verbose, how about tokenized XML?
>
> Very interesting idea, could be the way to go, I will look at it.
>
> On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Bert Hartmann<BertHartm at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> In my toyings with TangoGPS, I know it can produce logs, I don't know the format
>> at all, it may just be the raw GPS output or not. I do know it does all the
>> pedometer functions you were asking about (maybe not min speed, but definitely
>> max and avg.). Perhaps you should look into that project.
>
> I will, thank you. I have no interest in inventing a new binary
> format. There should be something out there that is open and compact.
> ("There should be", he said. Ha)

IMO, just use the raw Ublox binary format. It's rather simple to decode. 
I have already implemented a binary decoder for the Ublox binary format 
based on Ublox open documentation of the protocol. My plan is to release 
this code under the GPL at some point.

Once I receive my free runner I will start by releasing a binary 
decoder. In the time being I can probably release a Windows only 
converter from this Ublox format to a csv format if you are interested.

>
> I've tried TangoGPS, it's a nice program.

I've read about it on its web site and looked at the source code. 
Problem is that the GUI source code is GTK and very hard to follow IMHO. 
I am personally proficient in Qt4 so I am interested in participating in 
a project that will create a GPS navigation app in C++ using Qt4.

Here is my roadmap more or less:
1) port my Ublox decoder to linux and openmoko. I plan to use CMake as 
the build system.
2) add some logger functionality to the program above so that some Ublox 
logs can be requested.
3) implement an ephemeris and almanac saving and restoring solution
4) do the same as above for some SBAS messages if possible (not sure it is)
5) implement a simple Qt4 navigation program using openmap.

I hope I have something to show next month.

Cheers,
Abdel.