OpenStreetMap
My BGT-31 (new SIRF-III NaviGPS with Bluetooth) arrived yesterday from StorageDepot.
It look exactly like the BGT-11 but is far more able to get, on hold, signal. My tracks look pretty good and without, even when heading down narrow alleys and under dense tree cover.
Setting up was simply a case of inserting the SD card, turning it on and turning on logging (which I actually forgot to do).
Like the 'beta' firmware I have on my BGT-11, it is able to dump tracks from internal memory to SD card.
Thanks to 'pope' TomH the latest release of GPSBabel (1.3.5) includes support for the NaviGPS, both directly and from the dumped files. Simply use 'navilink' as the input format - but don't forget the -t flag to get the tracks off.
Getting the latest GPSBabel into Ubuntu Hardy was easy once I knew what I was doing; use 'alien' to convert the .rpm package to .deb. I also had to make a symbolic link in /usr/lib pointing libexpat.so.0 to libexpat.so.1 - presumably there's a better solution but it seems to work, which building from source didn't.
So my tracks were salvaged. Unfortunately my mapping was cut short when the point of a drawing pin (thumb tack for you Americans) pierced my front inner tube - the third puncture I've had to repair on that, second within a month.
Discussion
Comment from Teaandkale on 15 May 2008 at 12:43
without gaps, that should say...
Comment from amapanda ᚛ᚐᚋᚐᚅᚇᚐ᚜ 🏳️🌈 on 16 May 2008 at 14:27
Cool. I've ordered a BGT-31 aswell, but mine hasn't arrived. This is my first GPS device. I'm really looking forward to it.
Comment from Rodney on 16 May 2008 at 19:57
Sweet. Got mine this afternoon. When that puppy's charged I'm going out to make tracks. That's really bad luck about the puncture, drawing pins lying around on roads isn't really common, is it? Now for my bad luck... it's been glorious weather all week but just now a huge dark storm has rolled in, just in time. Apparently it's here to stay for the weekend. Well at least the GPS is waterproof. GPSBabel 1.3.5 compiled fine for me on Debian. I did a "apt-get build-dep gpsbabel" before trying though. I'm interested in the accuracy of the SiRF III. Perhaps you could take both the BGT-11 and BGT-31 mapping with you and compare the tracks?
Comment from Muz on 18 May 2008 at 09:33
Sadly mine won't arrive until end of May at the earliest. Seems like they were snapped up as soon as they arrived. I have the GT-11 at the moment but it doesn't like tree cover at all. I also have a Garmin 60CSX which is good if bukly and doesn't give DOP figures. Comparing tracks from the 60CSX with the GT-11. The 60CSX (SiRF III chipset)seems to record sharp changes of direction more faithfully so bends are mapped in the correct place. Hopefully the BGT-31 should give similar results but with the advantage of DOP recording and less bulk.