Ronny,<br><br>If I use a car on a long trip (mapping), a small laptop/notebook is definitely an advantage in mapping because of the wider screen (as long as you have somebody typing for you). You can see farther and visually plan your target area. You save gas because you don't go to areas further than necessary. You ride in tandem, so that one concentrate in driving as-centered-as-possible to the road (for quality tracks), while concentrating on safety and minimizing traffic obstruction; while the other person concentrates in typing directly on laptop with good eyesight for the correct spelling of the POI, far signboards and street signs. You can do more with less movements if you do a buddy while mapping.<br>
<br>I use an Eeepc that runs on 12v DC (3A). the older eeepc that runs on 9v is easier to power since it's fairly resistant to the voltage drops (9-10v) from the car's cigarette lighter plugs (every now and then). You will notice your laptop (switching in-and-out of battery power) which is very annoying. Clean/regulated 12v DC is hard to achieve (from a 12-13.5v power source); so I am forced to use a less elegant solution: DC-AC converter (bulky aluminum case).<br>
<br>Neil (my good navigator encoder) suggested that I use a "voltage multiplier" to push the voltage up to maybe 17-20v DC then force it back down again to 12v using any cheap commercial lighter-plug DC regulator. That way, the laptop won't notice the voltage drops. Your digital VOM will not tell you how dirty your car's voltage is. I had to bring an oscilloscope to our garage to verify this (out of desperation). I will work on this DC regulator project next week. I need help from any ECE or electronic hobbiest here. :-)<br>
<br>BTW, I'm a windows users, so Nroute works best for me because I can easily load OSM's latest garmin map as reference in the background; and it can do 1-sec tracklogs. Garmin stopped support for nroute, so you may need to download it somewhere. Equivalent linux mapping software will also work, and it may be worth it because of the bigger-screen size advantage of laptop.<br>
<br>For antenna, you can use an ordinary standalone-garmin receiver placed on your dashboard, connected to your laptop via serial or USB cable. Advantage: it's easy to use. No need for GPSproxy. the garmin signal is read directly by Nroute. Disadvantage: older garmin receivers need separate batteries to power itself, unlike the newer ones that can be powered via USB from your laptop. I think you may also use a magellan receivers paired with gpsproxy. <br>
<br>But for my case, I just bought the cheaper generic gps USB roof antenna (amazon @ $30+ sent via balikbayan box) that can be placed at the left edge of the car (nearest the center of the road). The advantage of a roof mounted antenna can be realized when entering urban canyons (streets with high buildings on both sides). Sometimes, one of the few available/critical satellites are positioned 45-degrees at the back of your car. A dash-mounted antenna cannot see this satellites. <br>
<br>Downside of this is when you go out of your car every few stopovers. If you shutdown your laptop, you have an additional program (gpsproxy) to turn-on before you run nroute again. (it will take a minute or so before you can drive again) unless your navigator can do it for you always. Solution: buy the original garmin external usb antenna to get rid of gpsproxy, but this is expensive because it is bundled with a software.<br>
<br>Other issues: laptop generates heat. Bring a thick leather folder or clipboard that can be placed on the lap of your navigator to insulate from heat. His hands are free anyway (to eat, and to type) since he doesn't need pen, paper and a clipboard to write data, as he is encoding POI's directly to nroute in real time.<br>
<br>Always bring a backup gps if you have a spare, eg a phone gps. (it's like your sidearm when your long firearm runs out of ammo). When there are road obstructions, eg. broken glasses, road repairs, road blocks, etc. You can supply the missing tracks by going out of the car... walking to the end of the street and unpassable alleys.<br>
<br>Another advantage of laptop mapping: it also serves as props when explaining to the guard that you are a mapping-volunteer etc (and not a spy). (With a smiling face) talk about google, the internet, mapping, ignorace of LGU's, etc, etc. Normally, the guards don't want to hear your tech stuff and politics blah blah, he will just let you in. Sometimes, saying that it would be disadvantageous for their marketing people, subdivision owner, and the existing residents that their area is not yet on the city map. In under 5mins of convincing, you will normally be allowed to roam freely inside the gated community. :-)<br>
<br>But I'm telling you, laptop mapping is not for everyday mapping. Dragging your dc-ac inverter and your roof cables to your car every now and then can be a hassle. You may want to try using those cheaper bluetooth sirf very sensitive antenna (no wires, no roof cables, and very long battery life that is sold on amazon around $45). All you need to do is rig a permanent clean-12V DC cable plug in your car. Just bring out your laptop from your bag, place the BT antenna on your dashboard, and you are good to go. <br>
<br>Rally<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 5:27 AM, Ronny Ager-Wick - Develo Ltd. <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:raw@develo.ltd.uk">raw@develo.ltd.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<tt>Rally, <br>
This "mobile mapping rig" sounds interesting!<br>
Any info about that would be great as I'm looking at making a low cost
setup like that in the near future.<br>
I've never connected a GPS to a Linux laptop (well, any laptop
actually) before so </tt><tt>it's good to know about what has already
been done to avoid unnecessary compatibility problems.</tt><br><font color="#888888">
<tt>Ronny.<br>
</tt></font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
maning sambale wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Did anybody got a picture of the GPS units we used?
@ rem, can I get a copy of Rally's mobile mapping rig (laptop, gps,
encoder, etc.)
On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 1:54 PM, Andre Marcelo-Tanner
<a href="mailto:andre@enthropia.com" target="_blank"><andre@enthropia.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Ah great video! suggestion ko lang yung first image yung old map ng tagaytay
tapos biglang fade to black tapos yung mga tracks natin tapos fade back sa
new map :)
Eugene Alvin Villar wrote:
Great start for the video! I knew you couldn't get your hands off in trying
the mapping party video renderer, maning. Hehehe.
On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 10:42 AM, maning sambale
<a href="mailto:emmanuel.sambale@gmail.com" target="_blank"><emmanuel.sambale@gmail.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Mapping party preview video;
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/esambale/3537844490/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/esambale/3537844490/</a>
@ ed, Please send me your gpx so I can add them in the video.
To all, please edit this week so the output map in the last segment is
updated.
Thanks to all who attended.
On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 12:34 AM, Andre Marcelo-Tanner
<a href="mailto:andre@enthropia.com" target="_blank"><andre@enthropia.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Hi all,
I want to congratulate everyone on a job well done today as we went
around Tagaytay and mapped the place out. It was a pleasure meeting all
of you: Maning, Eugene, Ian, Rally, Neil, Ed, and the photographer guy
from the Inquirer whose name I forgot (sorry!) and the family members
who were there. It was fun, exciting, and also a great learning
experience. This is only the beginning and I know we'll be able to do
more events to bring OSM Philippines to a wider audience and map more of
the Philippines than anyone else could have imagined.
Best Regards,
Andre
P.S. Pa post ng pics sa Facebook or somewhere :)
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<pre>--
cheers,
maning
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<pre> </pre>
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