OpenStreetMap
Heres the plan...
I Have a contract to go to Nigeria ( once again ) late October. Nigeria really needs mapping - even just the main highways.
Public transport is great and highly efficient. You literally go to the local 'motor park' and there will be a car going to the next main town or exactly where you want to go to. The car waits till it is full and then goes. If you are in a hurry you just pay fo the empty seats.
So far so good, So imagine if I distribute 5 GPS data loggers ( i personally have a Garmin HCX ) to a motor park early one morning and collect them the next day or so, hopefully I should get some good traces of major highways.
The trick will be explaining to the Motor Park supervisors what I am up to and a small fee might be needed
I will be working in 4 or 5 cities in the North so should get a decent opportunity to add some badly needed traces - anyone any suggections on kit GPS loggers - I will likely just sell the kit once it comes back on EBAY - buying 5 HCXs will be costly
All suggestions welcomed
bri
Discussion
Comment from daveemtb on 28 September 2009 at 15:43
I think you're more quite a bit more trusting than I am! If it was me, I'd keep the GPSs with me :)
Comment from daveemtb on 28 September 2009 at 15:44
In terms of kit, though perhaps you could use one of the keychain logger type things that aren't too expensive?
Comment from daveemtb on 28 September 2009 at 15:46
(and no, I wasn't thinking of one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SHOPZEUS-Garmin-Handheld-Gps-Keychain/dp/B001B1XSLK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1254152725&sr=8-3-fkmr1) ;-)
Comment from davespod on 28 September 2009 at 16:18
I can heartily recommend the 747A+ (based on MTK chipset) to anyone looking for a cheap GPS logger. Accuracy is pretty good, and its battery life is great. There is also a great freeware application available (BT747) for managing it. If you are patient and astute in your use of ebay, you can get one for under £35.
Comment from SHoerth on 28 September 2009 at 17:43
my recommendation is royaltek rgm3800. this is a very accurate GPS data logger. It can log up to 35 days. You only need 2 additional rechargeable AAA batteries for changing after 6-7 hours of running.
Comment from Mungewell on 28 September 2009 at 19:57
I would ask the 'supervisor' to introduce you to a few of the drivers, and explain to them what it is all about. Show them a few maps of Nigeria verse other places and say that they can put 'it' on the map.
Most importantly explain how to turn the GPS on/off, I assume that their first impression is that you want to snoop on them. If they buy into the project that would be a great 'win' for OSM.
Yes, bribes (or 'tokens of appreciation') will work well too... ;-)
Comment from davespod on 28 September 2009 at 20:21
By the way, I meant the iBlue 747A+. Sorry for the typo. I suppose the only issue with this is that it is AGPS, using files you need to download over the Internet every six days. But I have found it usually finds a fix within 3 or 4 minutes if the AGPS file is out of date (if the file is up-to-date, it finds a fix in seconds).
Comment from wieland on 29 September 2009 at 10:00
I use the older version iBlue 747 and can recommend it too.
It can log 24 hours without recharge.
Comment from Unusual User Name on 30 September 2009 at 03:03
At work we got in a batch of QSTARZ travel Recorders, BT-Q1000X.
Somebody did some research and testing and decided these were the best for our purposes.
About AUD$100 or $150 I think.
They pick up a signal reasonably well, but the good thing is they are not attractive (ie likely to be stolen), there is no screen, just an on/off button and waypoint button. No-one can screw with your carefully chosen settings or delete tracks either.
If you don't have the password protected software you can't get anything off.
Comment from DanHomerick on 4 October 2009 at 17:01
If you want cheap GPS units, and especially if you happen to be in the USA, then I don't think you can beat these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16858194072
http://amzn.com/B001OAT9M0
Refurbished TomTom 130 units for $70 USD, and a $20 mail in rebate (limit one on the rebate, though). They include an excellent suction mount for attaching to a windshield, a car-charger, and a USB cable for connecting to a computer. TomTom units don't have a built-in data logger, but it's simple to add an open source 3rd party program to do it (just drop a few files in a folder to add programs).