[OSM-newbies] Wiki documentation on GPS devices - please help answer some questions

[Sebastian Arcus]

I see battery life mentioned quite often in relation to using phones or 
tablets for gps recording. One option for extending battery lives on 
these devices (maybe not an ideal option, but an option nevertheless) is 
the external battery pack. I have what must be the largest universal 
external laptop battery pack - at 155Wh. This will power a small 
efficient laptop through 10 hours of continuous real-world use - such as 
watching dvd's, browsing the Internet over 3G etc. (plus the internal 
battery of the laptop on top of that). It is a monster of a battery, at 
close to 2Kgs - but it has USB output as well - so it can be strapped to 
a tablet or phone (or the other way around, considering the size) - and 
it will surely provide days of power for GPS recording.

Now, the above arrangement is a bit over the top in terms of size and 
weight - many might argue - but I just thought I'd mention it as an 
extra option.

As a side note, I've done GPS recording in the car and even on foot 
using the above battery pack, a small laptop and a usb gps receiver. It 
is a bit of weight to carry - but I already had all these pieces of 
equipment and didn't want to invest into new stuff at the time. If on 
foot, I'd recommend having a cheap SSD fitted in the laptop - walking 
around with a laptop writing to the hard-disk didn't prove to be a great 
idea in the long term :-)

Sebastian




On 26/01/13 02:35, Neil Taylor wrote:
> To pick up on Andrew's point. The battery life we have seen on lower end smartphones (Samsung Galaxy Pocket) deployed in the field (in Cebu in the Philippines) when using GPS to send regular location traces to a server (not OSM, but would be indicative of battery life of doing this) is 3-4 hrs depending on conditions and intensity of use. This is significantly less than 12 - 24 hrs achievable on dedicated devices and means the phone is also useless for anything else you want to do (email, text, phone, music) until you can charge it.
>
> Having lots of spare batteries can overcome this, but is operationally frustrating when working in the field.
>
> Best regards
> Neil
>
> Neil Taylor
> Associate
> Integrated Transport Planning Ltd.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From:Andrew Salzberg <andrew.salzberg at gmail.com>
> To:"newbies at openstreetmap.org" <newbies at openstreetmap.org>
> Sent:23/01/2013 4:02
> Subject:Re: [OSM-newbies] Wiki documentation on GPS devices - please help answer some questions
>
>
>
>
> I think this is a great topic to improve.
>
> When I first got into OSM my question was : why not use my phone? Aside from accuracy or any other issues, the best reason I've come up with not to is simply battery life. My garmin will easily last 12 hours, and a simple GPS logger 24 or more.
>
> So in that sense having an answer up front about smartphones vs. GPS units might be very valuable for a newbie (I know it was my first question). Again - I dont have definite proof of accuracy arguments, but the battery one (+ lower cost if you drop your logger in a lake vs. your iphone) seem to me to be the strongest/clearest arguments in favor of dedicated units.
>
> On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Dudley Ibbett <dudleyibbett at hotmail.com<mailto:dudleyibbett at hotmail.com>> wrote:
> The real split here is probably whether you just want to log data or you want to navigate using a gps, whether it is with a map or just following a gpx route you've loaded up.  I would also stick to dedicated gps devices.  There are to many other reasons as to why people buy a particular smart phone or tablet.  Top 5 things to consider when buying a gps perhaps?  I'll post my list when I've had time to think more.
>
> Dudley
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:01:28 +0000
> From: rob.j.nickerson at gmail.com<mailto:rob.j.nickerson at gmail.com>
> To: newbies at openstreetmap.org<mailto:newbies at openstreetmap.org>
> Subject: Re: [OSM-newbies] Wiki documentation on GPS devices - please help answer some questions
>
>
> Thanks both,
>
> Good points all round.
>
> The http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/GPS_Reviews page is a beast! It's more a catalogue than an buyers guide which I would rather see. I would imagine most people wanting to give GPS mapping a go will look for a low cost entry into it first - hence my questions about GPS on phones. Perhaps if we can get a buyers guide / top 5 list the  taht would be ideal. Help welcome :-)
>
> I'll see how I get on with updating the wiki page on Recording GPS Tracks first.
>
> Rob
>
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