[OSM-talk] South Downs Way

[matthew-osm at newtoncomputing.co.uk]

Hi,

On Sun, Jul 09, 2006 at 01:40:54PM +0100, OJW wrote:
> Which is why I suggested that if someone's logging an epic journey for OSM 
> then someone else could drive out to meet them every few days for an evening 
> in the pub and a tracklog download session.  Again, that would be more 
> practical on the south downs than in remotest scotland, based on how many 
> people OSM has got in each area.

Quick introduction; I "discovered" the OSM project a week ago, dug out my Garmin
GPS12, and have been busily mapping Loughborough and Leicester. It's quite
convenient, as I commute each day on my motorbike, so now haev an excuse to find
new interesting routes ;-).

I have the problem that the GPS12 only stores 1024 track points, and I've
realised that "auto" just isn't good enough for the quality that I'd want to
add. Therefore at 2s intervals I only get 33 minutes of recording.

So I've also dug out my Palm VX and the lead I made up a year or so ago to
connect it to the GPS. A quick internet search leads to CetusGPS (and TrackLog).
CetusGPS will happily record NMEA data as fast as it arrives (once every 2s),
and then TrackLog will convert the resulting PDB file into GPX or other formats.

The Palm is 8Mb, and I've just tested the system today and recorded 1000 points
in 22k. By my calculations if you assume you only have 6Mb memory free, you
could record for over 6 days continuously before running out. Of course, the
Palm battery then comes into consideration, but it's probably fairly easy to
charge that up each night, unless you're really out in the middle of nowhere.
Batteries are always going to be a problem. Last time I looked Palm Vx's were on
eBay for around 50 UKP, so that might be a cheaper option. (Careful, as the Palm
V is only 2Mb).

Back to mapping Loughborough...

-- 
Matthew