[OSM-talk] Cheap Recorder

[Andrew Gregory]

> Sorry to be off-topic, but has anyone looked in to building "the perfect  
> OSMGPS logger" from parts? I wonder if the overall price would be less  
> than $40if we put together a GPS chipset, an SD card slot, and a simple  
> microcontroller.
> No screen, just one mode: record every second to the SD card.

There has been some talk of this on the wiki:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_GPS

I do some electronics and PIC programming as part of my work and for  
personal projects, so I've decided to try to make a small geotagging  
camera. I've already purchased a camera and GPS, and am now trying to  
shoehorn those, plus PIC, power supply, two AAs, SD card and connector,  
and a couple of switches into the smallest (currently 65x60x40mm) IP67  
sealed (clear lid for camera) box I can. If I can figure out how to fit  
everything, I'll design a PCB or two and start on the firmware.

Some pricing context:

GPS: Globalsat EM-408: USD$48
Colour VGA camera, Electronics123: USD$48
Add the PCBs and it's probably another USD$50. Add the box, PIC, other  
components and freight and you'll probably get another USD$50.

When it comes to electronics, you cannot compete with the economies of  
scale of the mass-market.

Having said all that, *would* anyone be interested in a ~USD$200 640x480  
geotagging camera and GPS logger? I'm not doing this particularly with the  
idea of going into production. I'm doing it mainly because I've always  
wanted to get some experience interfacing to SD cards. I have to admit  
it's also a pretty cool idea. ;-)

-- 
Andrew Gregory <mailto:andrew at scss.com.au>