Introducing the Freerunner Navigation Board

[Helge Hafting]

Christoph Mair wrote:
> Dear community,
> 
> we are proud to release a hardware extension for our beloved Freerunner: a 
> navigation board!
> 
> What is it?
> The Freerunner Navigation Board is a small PCB which is able to measure 
> rotations as well as the magnetic field in 3D respectively (i.e. compass and 
> gyroscopes integrated). The navigation board can be integrated in the existing 
> Freerunner case.

Will the magnetic sensing work with any orientation of the FR?

One use for this is to help the GPS in difficult places. The FR
is usually placed with the GPS antenna facing up. When the gps
signal is good, this can be used to calibrate intertial
eqipment. (I.e. automatically figure out what orientation the FR has 
with respect to the vehicle, how much the vehicle magnetic field
distorts the earths field, and how much the local magnetic field
deviates from true north.)

For cars, one can get USB equipment to read the odometer pulses (and 
lots of other stuff besides that.) A similiar sensor can be
made for bicycles - having an input for that on the board
would be very useful. (And given the slow cpu, a pulse counter
so the software won't have to rely so much on pulse timing.)

This is great for driving in tunnels. There are many mountains
and tunnels where I live. Having navigation work inside tunnels
would allow mapping them accurately for openstreetmap. And also have 
underground navigation - some tunnels have got
intersections/roundabouts inside, with several possible exits.

And then there are cities with too many tall buildings, and things like 
parking houses.


Helge Hafting