Comments on: In Search Of The Perfect Fieldwork GPS

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:42:40 +0000

as always, very useful information that i will pass along to my fellow members at Land Surveyors United. we always appreciate the valuable information on your blog. Thanks!

By: tlove

tlove — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:36:38 +0000

using a Nokia N810 with Maemo Mapper really opened my eyes to what is feasible today in the market and what a prosumer field GPS would look like. this is is very feasible; Arm processor, mobile linux distribution like Maemo, 4.5″ to 5″ screen at WVGA, lots of NIMH batteries (lithium is expensive), transflective screen or pixelqi screen, reasonably rugged, good GPS chip and antenna, all for less than 800$ more likely down to around 500$. this would not be precision gps but it would allow for a wide variety of GIS in the field applications. check out the GPS apps for UDIG and the new one for QGIS, ArcPad is great but its days are numbered as are the units garmin keeps pushing out. the cost, size, and power consumption on on all of these parts has been dropping so rapidly i will be surprised if we dont see some solutions along these lines in 2010.

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:39:20 +0000

I agree whole heartedly with the general needs of the community. Unfortunately, the scientific world is often torn by the complexity of the needs of their projects. In some cases, cm level accuracy for surveying is needed and in other times several meter accuracy is “good enough”. In all cases, ease of use and reliability turns out to be the most critical when collecting data. Like another reader, we have been Magellan’s MobileMapper for this. Unfortunately, Magellan (or Thales or now Ashtech) have to develop a good hardware solution and stick to it. I have an old Ashtech (SCA-12; now 13 years old) which works great even though it is no longer supported, but the 3 year old MobileMapper5 we invested in is now close to a paperweight due to end of life and lack of software support.

By: Getiem

Getiem — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:41:48 +0000

What is also nescessary is a GPS that doesn’t interpolate between waypoints. In a heavy building area they tend too lose sight on satellites. When going around a corner some GPS calculate their position from the last known point and guess where you are.. Very smart, but unwantable..: Walking around a square building, you get a track with rounded corners

By: Mats Elfström

Mats Elfström — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:13:55 +0000

Hi!
I absolutely agree with all the above, and as all the components are existing technology it would only be a matter of putting it together in a rugged shell. I definitely think there is a ‘prosumer’ market for this product, seeing what some high end units cost already.
I have serious doubts about the camera, though. I think that would add bulk to the unit and be susceptible to dirt and damage.
Geotagging if images is a great thing, but it would be better to build this into real cameras, perhaps with a NMEA bluetooth receiver.

By: Wolfgang

Wolfgang — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:11:46 +0000

Hi!
The biggest problem we have with consumer GPS units here in Germany is with projections. A unit (the GIS software) has to be able to convert the GPS coordinate to several national projections with an accuracy of at least 1 meter. In my optinion professional fieldworkers can do their work only with professional software, i.e. ArcPad, Digiterra Explorer or something similar. An then we are committed to Win Mobile units such as MobileMapper 6. In fact in my opinion the MM6 is the most suitable model for professional, not too expensive field work. The accuracy is amazing – we’ve tested it in forests with and without postprocessing. The Trimble and Garmin units in this price segment are not a quarter as good.

By: Leszek Pawlowicz

Leszek Pawlowicz — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:18:45 +0000

I guess I could add that the Magellan Triton 2000 has all the hardware needed except for the digital camera (it’s only 2.2 MP) and the omnidirectional antenna. It was built based on the Magellan Pro Mobile Mapper 6 platform, which runs applications that do most of what’s needed. They ran into huge problems by replacing the standard interface with an incredibly buggy “consumer-grade” one. If they went back to the professional-grade version, and added a better antenna, they’d pretty much be there. The model currently sells for $400 at Amazon. The Triton 1500 with no camera and compass but otherwise identical to the 2000, sells for $237; add the compass and a better antenna to the 1500, skip the camera, fix the software, and I think it could go for less than $400.

By: Silas Toms

Silas Toms — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:10:42 +0000

I’ve begun creating something like this by integrating a Garmin 20x receiver and Dell Mini netbook. The advantage is having a full hard drive and screen, plus WiFi and a decent battery life. The downside is configuring a Python module for reading the Garmin proprietary output. Anyone have any ideas on that front? I’ve found PyGarmin and will try to update it for use with the 20x. Has anyone done this yet?

By: Leszek Pawlowicz

Leszek Pawlowicz — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:48:31 +0000

Well, the Garmin model that comes closest to meeting all these requirements is the Garmin 550, which sells for $429 at Amazon. I would guess that hardware modifications would result in the largest cost increase, while software modifications would be relatively cheap. Here’s what you would need to do to make the Garmin 550 meet my requirements:

1. Nothing – already has a high-sensitivity chipset
2. Has a ceramic patch antenna, but the very similar Colorado series had a quad-helix antenna, so adding it shouldn’t require any major engineering.
3. Has a 3″ screen, and successive generations of Oregons have had better sunlight visibility, so this shouldn’t add much more to the cost.
4. Nothing – has a touch screen.
5. Minimal hardware cost, plus software.
6. Nothing – already has this kind of battery life.
7. Nothing – already waterproof and reasonably rugged.
8. Memory is dirt cheap, so the only significant cost impact would be in modifying the software.
9. Given all the freeware programs that can do this now, it shouldn’t be that expensive.
10. Nothing – Garmin has vector maps, and there are free/cheap programs that let you create your own maps already available.
11. Nothing – the Oregon lets you upload your own raster map imagery. Could use better software to do this, plus the ability to upload more maps and select between them.
12. Nothing – already has this.
13. The software required for 12 automatically extracts out the angle, so this is a minor software upgrade.
14. Audio recording would add something, but text notes would be a simple software upgrade.
15. Probably the most expensive upgrade, but given the prevalence of standard stand-alone digital cameras, I’d be willing to sacrifice this upgrade to pay for the other ones.
16. The Oregon already has the capability to exchange waypoints wirelessly with other Oregon units, though I don’t think it’s Bluetooth. Swap out the current wireless for Bluetooth, and you’re there.

Drop the camera to save money, and I’d guess you could sell such a model for somewhere in the range of $500. Expensive, but professionals might be more likely to pay that kind of money for a tool useful for work.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:28:02 +0000

I actually think that something like this might be lucrative for the GPS makers out there. The old consumer GPS market is rapidly losing ground to the cellular telephone. Who wants a separate GPS when your iPhone has one already built in?

If Magellan, Garmin, and the others want to stay in business, they’re going to have to come up with something new.