Announce: GPSData program

[rwsmith123]

Here's a program I wrote which will display most of the gps data that you can receive from the gps api.

Some of the data is redundant in that you can see it from the QueGPS screen, but you can also see some information such as your vertical velocity. Could be interesting to see how fast you're ascending or decending on an airplane, or in a car down a moutainside.

[Holgado]

Thanks for the programe, indeed, will be of interest for GPS users.

[prjohnsonjr]

Thanks for the program.
The information is fascinating.
This GPS experience has just been great!


Paul

[Bokkie]

Thanks Rich.

One small thing, the download did not append the .zip suffix. For a second I was wondering if the download file was what I hotsynced, but editing the file revealed the "PK" signature. I mention this just in case it confuses a total newbie.

A bit like me. I start off the day as a complete newbie, and it takes a while for my brain to reboot and I have the attention span of a garden slug attending a lecture on Grecian vases 320-305BC.

[DeWat]

Hi Radio Bokkie...

I think this may be in how your system is configured, I've seen the same thing. When I click on attachments to use the default IE to download, I get the proper name. However, if I click on the attachment, and specify to download it with Download Accelerator, I get a strange numbered file with no extension. Like you, when that happens, I've had to look at the file in hex view to examine its header and content to see what it should be.

Take care,
DeWat

[tobor]

Good job! Thank you!

[apersson850]

Originally posted by DeWat
I think this may be in how your system is configured... While reading that, I first thought you're referring to "...I have the attention span of a garden slug ..." by that radio station!!!:o

[LeRoux Strydom]

thanks for the app, rwsmith.

I just used it on an airplane, and it was fun to watch the ascent and descent rates while flying, up to 20km/h vertical speed :eek: I also liked the extra decimal points in the velocity and altitude measurements.

Can your app also show which satellites are being detected, locked or used and why, e.g. signal strength. The track is also shown in -180 to +180°. maybe you could change it to the more conventional 0 to 360° ?

thanks again.

LeRoux

[jonasolof]

Garmin's developer app GPS information has info in table form which was shown by apersson850 the other day. It displayes data in table form which includes SNR in the format 4000 for 40 dB, elevation, azimuth and three columns marked e, d, u, r whose significance isn't quite clear.

e goes from 0 to 1 when a sat is included in calculation
d is when sat is included in waas diffrential I think
u?
r?

It would be neat to have CN/O (snr) ratio together with elev and azim as a step towards a palm version of Skyview, a soft for win NT that tracks satellites as they go over the sat screen and changes the tracks colour as SNR varies. It would make a real life image of antenna directional sensitivity.

[stevevo]

Thanks for the program.:)

[rwsmith123]

Originally posted by LeRoux Strydom
thanks for the app, rwsmith.

I just used it on an airplane, and it was fun to watch the ascent and descent rates while flying, up to 20km/h vertical speed :eek: I also liked the extra decimal points in the velocity and altitude measurements.

Can your app also show which satellites are being detected, locked or used and why, e.g. signal strength. The track is also shown in -180 to +180°. maybe you could change it to the more conventional 0 to 360° ?

thanks again.

LeRoux

I kept the track at -180 to +180 because other than unit conversion I didn't try to interpret or modify the data. The reason being is this app is mainly just to see what data is coming from the api, so if some gps program (either from garmin or 3rd party) isn't behaving as expected you can use GPSData to see if it's the api or the program which is mis-behaving.

Yes, I'll add the individual sat data that the GPSInfo program (mentioned below) provides.

Now that I have my feet wet, I'm going to work on a program that will provide the data in a much more user friendly format.

[rwsmith123]

Originally posted by jonasolof
Garmin's developer app GPS information has info in table form which was shown by apersson850 the other day. It displayes data in table form which includes SNR in the format 4000 for 40 dB, elevation, azimuth and three columns marked e, d, u, r whose significance isn't quite clear.

e goes from 0 to 1 when a sat is included in calculation
d is when sat is included in waas diffrential I think
u?
r?

It would be neat to have CN/O (snr) ratio together with elev and azim as a step towards a palm version of Skyview, a soft for win NT that tracks satellites as they go over the sat screen and changes the tracks colour as SNR varies. It would make a real life image of antenna directional sensitivity.

e, d, u, and r are boolean values.
e=1 means that epheris data has been received from that sat.
d=1 means that waas info is available.
u=1 means that the sat is used in gps calculations.
r=1 means the sat is rising, 0 means it is setting.

[tecman]

rwsmith123:

Great job. A great little utility.

Thanks

paul

[tgales]

WOW! Another fantastic utility for my iQue! Geeze, memory is filling up fast.... and I can't remember when it was more fun!

Thanks RW!

[eric777]

He said it all! Thanks.

Originally posted by tgales
WOW! Another fantastic utility for my iQue! Geeze, memory is filling up fast.... and I can't remember when it was more fun!

Thanks RW!

[kenspice]

Good job RW! Just being a part of this forum makes owning an iQue worth the bucks!

[RGCT92]

Thanks for the program. Very good!!!

[rwsmith123]

If ya'll like this program, just wait until my next one!! :)

[DeWat]

Originally posted by rwsmith123
If ya'll like this program, just wait until my next one!! :)

Garmin must have put you on the Release 4 team:D :D :D

DeWat

[rwsmith123]

Originally posted by DeWat
Garmin must have put you on the Release 4 team:D :D :D

DeWat

I wish. The api's they provide only allow access to gps position, time and velocity data. There is no way to access the map data, poi's, etc. So my release 4 request is to add an api to access map data.

For instance someone said they would like a program that displays a map and your position at the top of the screen, then a compass and pointer to a waypoint at the bottom of the screen. Right now there is no way to write such a program (unless you work at Garmin and have access to all the internal api's they have).

So give us some more API's!!!

[stephanpls]

Great application, RW! Thanks!

Good that you also put the height with respect to WGS84 in your screen. The difference between that value and mean sea level is the geoid height. The difference I get that way is 46 meters for my position in the Netherlands, a value that corresponds to the value in modern Dutch geoid models.

This knowledge leaves me puzzled about the height values the QueGPS screen gives, which are systematically about 10 m too low. This is my impression while driving, and I concluded it as well after 2 hours static logging with CetusGPS. But the geoid height the iQue uses is OK, I conclude that from your GPSData screen, RW. Puzzling! I plan a longer static logging session for next weekend to investigate it further.

One little request:
Please could you take into account in your next more user friendly version a toggle or something like that, to switch from imperial units to metric units? Your application has also continental European users and probably other users in "metric" countries.

One final question:
Do you know how to get hold of the GPS satellite almanac the iQue holds? I read the iQue developers kit information, but it was not mentioned. Using that almanac an any time any place satellite position prediction could be made. Such a prediction also includes the various positional accuracies to expect, due to the fact that that the positions of the satellites with respect to the iQue determine (for a part) the accuracy.

[Holgado]

GPSData in Preferences you can change to meters.

[rwsmith123]

Originally posted by stephanpls
Great application, RW! Thanks!

Good that you also put the height with respect to WGS84 in your screen. The difference between that value and mean sea level is the geoid height. The difference I get that way is 46 meters for my position in the Netherlands, a value that corresponds to the value in modern Dutch geoid models.

This knowledge leaves me puzzled about the height values the QueGPS screen gives, which are systematically about 10 m too low. This is my impression while driving, and I concluded it as well after 2 hours static logging with CetusGPS. But the geoid height the iQue uses is OK, I conclude that from your GPSData screen, RW. Puzzling! I plan a longer static logging session for next weekend to investigate it further.

One little request:
Please could you take into account in your next more user friendly version a toggle or something like that, to switch from imperial units to metric units? Your application has also continental European users and probably other users in "metric" countries.

One final question:
Do you know how to get hold of the GPS satellite almanac the iQue holds? I read the iQue developers kit information, but it was not mentioned. Using that almanac an any time any place satellite position prediction could be made. Such a prediction also includes the various positional accuracies to expect, due to the fact that that the positions of the satellites with respect to the iQue determine (for a part) the accuracy.

I metric option is available under prefrences.

No, the only data available is what is described in the SDK which is the azumith, elevation, and if the sat is rising or falling.

[stephanpls]

If I watch the GPSdata screen I see that the update rate of the data varies, and it is very high sometimes, say 2-4 times a second. How come? As far as I know the iQue's update rate is once a second.

[rwsmith123]

Originally posted by stephanpls
If I watch the GPSdata screen I see that the update rate of the data varies, and it is very high sometimes, say 2-4 times a second. How come? As far as I know the iQue's update rate is once a second.

The position data from the gps updates once a second (every 5 seconds when in battery saver mode). The time data is updated continiously. However I update the information whenever I get a nilEvent. I tell the system I want a nilEvent at least once a second, but it will send more if the system is idle.