[OSM-dev] GPS Hardware Recomendation

[Oliver Eichler]

> 
> can you recommend any GPS hardware receiver (no maps, no nothing, just
> GPS) to use with notebook?

I own a Xaiox Xplorer, a Wintec WBT 201 and a i-Blue 747. From all three I like the i-Blue most. The used MTK chip is quite resistant against reflections. The NMEA protocoll has all information you need. And it has internal memory to record a track.

> 
> I especially mean stable and working driver, clear interface and
> output data ideally in latitude/longitude/altitude format.

All these devices are Bluetooth devices. As I use Linux I have no problems. On Windows you have to install some driver that makes it a serial port. The installation is as usual plug-n-pray. Sometimes it works, somtimes not, sometimes the driver has to be reinstalled. I am not an expert on Windows, I can't tell you why.

The shipped software is kind of sparse and mediocre. Usually you just need it if you want to change the recoding behaviour. 

You can read the recorded track with GPSBabel or record the NMEA output on the serial port. The NMEA protocol of the i-Blue 747 implements  next to time/lon/lat/elevation/dop the velocity and heading value. That's quite nice for post processing the track.

HTH

Oliver