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Testing Out The New Gps - A Weekend Report


Jennifer
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So, I used my new GPS this weekend extensively going from Indy to Chicagoland - and back to Indy - and back to Chicagoland - and back to Indy.

 

On Thursday, I was going to Addison, IL after work for a concert. Due to time constraints, I needed to take the evil-I, as I had very little time to spare. A storm had rolled through Chicagoland in the afternoon, but it was going to blow through, so I figured the show would still go on.

 

As I entered Chicago, I got caught in a massive 2nd storm. I-294 was totally backed up and I used my GPS to find when the heck the next exit would be. It helped me maneuver my way around unknown areas, especially helpful with the bad weather and precarious road conditions. The festival had been canceled due the prior storm that afternoon anyway (little did I know). I turned back at 10:00 PM to head back to Indy...traffic was horrendous due to the weather and I used my trusty new GPS to book off the nasty evil-I when traffic was backed up solid on I-80 to I-65. 12 miles to I-65 and traffic was at a crawl! So I went down US 41 into Schererville, Crown Point & Merrillville, to US 30. Unfortunately, the weather turned even worse and we had to pull off under a bank overhang - there were lighting bolts everywhere! We managed to get a room near I-65, and I slept for a few hours, then slabbed it back to Indy at 5:00 AM for a conference. Then, we headed back up as we expected the concert to be Friday night instead...it turned out to be Sunday night, but we went back anyway to spend the weekend. We had more time, so I took US 52 up to Joliet; unfortunately, along the way, I got caught in some flood water! Thank goodness the battery didn't die, though my battery light was flickering. I think by now, my floor is dry, and my fan was only temporarily shorted out. I know now not to drive through water...it didn't look that high, but the floating feeling we had, I think it was after all. :sDOH:

 

I also used it over the weekend to navigate around Chicagoland, it was pretty cool! I don't like SA2008's autorouting on the handheld. I think I should play with it so I can know how to make it route the way I want. I can do this easily on the desktop, I need to figure it out on the handheld.

 

Anyway, it was very helpful, and I like the tracking logs. Pretty interesting information...

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So, I used my new GPS this weekend extensively going from Indy to Chicagoland - and back to Indy - and back to Chicagoland - and back to Indy.

 

On Thursday, I was going to Addison, IL after work for a concert. Due to time constraints, I needed to take the evil-I, as I had very little time to spare. A storm had rolled through Chicagoland in the afternoon, but it was going to blow through, so I figured the show would still go on.

 

As I entered Chicago, I got caught in a massive 2nd storm. I-294 was totally backed up and I used my GPS to when the heck the next exit would be. It helped me maneuver my way around unknown areas, especially helpful with the bad weather and precarious road conditions. The festival had been canceled due the prior storm that afternoon anyway (little did I know). I turned back at 10:00 PM to head back to Indy...traffic was horrendous due to the weather and I used my trusty new GPS to book off the nasty evil-I when traffic was backed up solid on I-80 to I-65. 12 miles to I-65 and traffic was at a crawl! So I went down US 41 into Schererville, Crown Point & Merrillville, to US 30. Unfortunately, the weather turned even worse and we had to pull off under a bank overhang - there were lighting bolts everywhere! We managed to get a room near I-65, and I slept for a few hours, then slabbed it back to Indy at 5:00 AM for a conference. Then, we headed back up as we expected the concert to be Friday night instead...it turned out to be Sunday night, but we went back anyway to spend the weekend. We had more time, so I took US 52 up to Joliet; unfortunately, along the way, I got caught in some flood water! Thank goodness the battery didn't die, though my battery light was flickering. I think by now, my floor is dry, and my fan was only temporarily shorted out. I know now not to drive through water...it didn't look that high, but the floating feeling we had, I think it was after all. :sDOH:

 

I also used it over the weekend to navigate around Chicagoland, it was pretty cool! I don't like SA2008's autorouting on the handheld. I think I should play with it so I can know how to make it route the way I want. I can do this easily on the desktop, I need to figure it out on the handheld.

 

Anyway, it was very helpful, and I like the tracking logs. Pretty interesting information...

 

Jennifer,

 

That has got to be the road trip from heXX! I'm going to read your other post in a second, but I feel sorry for you guys! Bank overhangs, lightning, canceled concerts, 5 am..., don't tell me more. I wasn't there and even I want to forget it!

 

I'm hoping the other report has a happy ending!!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Most of the road trip reports posted here make me want to run out and duplicate them but not this one. I can't imagine what concert justified all that. Rolling Stones opening for Springsteen? Glad the GPS made it tolerable.

 

I believe that time stamps are the only way that tracking logs can be coordinated with photos so you want to be sure you synchronize the time in your camera and PDA.

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I was driving around 465 this weekend and saw one of the overhead digital signs saying, basically, "Because of flooding, stay the heck off of I-65 if you're going to Chicago."

 

I'm sure sorry you had to deal with the bad weather up that way. Sounds like you experienced the textbook case of "white-knuckling it."

 

jim

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I was driving around 465 this weekend and saw one of the overhead digital signs saying, basically, "Because of flooding, stay the heck off of I-65 if you're going to Chicago."

 

I'm sure sorry you had to deal with the bad weather up that way. Sounds like you experienced the textbook case of "white-knuckling it."

 

jim

 

On the way up, I knew I wanted to avoid that area, that's why I went up US 52 (great choice in this case!)...but I was amazed it was still closed on Sunday night. At least I avoided the evil-I on the way back!

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Most of the road trip reports posted here make me want to run out and duplicate them but not this one. I can't imagine what concert justified all that. Rolling Stones opening for Springsteen? Glad the GPS made it tolerable.

 

I believe that time stamps are the only way that tracking logs can be coordinated with photos so you want to be sure you synchronize the time in your camera and PDA.

 

 

I do need to understand the time & time zone settings. I have the system time set properly on my Palm. In the handheld version of SA2008, under GPS settings > State, I have it set to Indiana, which automatically has -5 for the GMT offset. Other options are "Last Location" and "screen center". I don't understand whether I should leave it set to Indiana all the time, since that is the location & time my Palm is set to. Should I leave it that way even when I am out of state or my time zone?

 

When I have looked at some of the logs I have created and viewed on the desktop, the times are all messed up, but I have two today with the time correct (both within Indy).

 

And as to the concert, it is unlikely that any of the guys here would have been lured into the trip...but any ladies here, that's another story........ ;)

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And as to the concert, it is unlikely that any of the guys here would have been lured into the trip...but any ladies here, that's another story........ ;)

 

Jennifer,

 

Now where is my collection of hot rod magazine covers with the bikini babes......bet I can increase visits ten fold! :lol:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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So that's what it takes to make an otherwise sane woman drive through submerged urban regions with white capped waves lapping hungrily at her door sills. :D

 

For the purposes of geotagging, you want your PDA/GPS to behave as much like your camera as possible. I imagine that means avoiding settings like "last position" & "center". The camera doesn't know what time zone it's in so the PDA/GPS shouldn't either. One of my first insightful observations (probably the only one:-) after getting my first GPS was that it was the only device I had that told me the time without me telling it first. A GPS unit functions by knowing (actually being told by a satellite) exactly what the current time is. You can offset the display by values like -5 (to indicate five hours behind GMT) but you can't fiddle with the minutes and seconds. I'd say set the PDA/GPS to avoid any automatic time zone changes and then make sure your camera is set to the same time.

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So that's what it takes to make an otherwise sane woman drive through submerged urban regions with white capped waves lapping hungrily at her door sills. :D

 

Whether I am "otherwise sane" is a matter of opinion! LOL

 

For the purposes of geotagging, you want your PDA/GPS to behave as much like your camera as possible. I imagine that means avoiding settings like "last position" & "center". The camera doesn't know what time zone it's in so the PDA/GPS shouldn't either. One of my first insightful observations (probably the only one:-) after getting my first GPS was that it was the only device I had that told me the time without me telling it first. A GPS unit functions by knowing (actually being told by a satellite) exactly what the current time is. You can offset the display by values like -5 (to indicate five hours behind GMT) but you can't fiddle with the minutes and seconds. I'd say set the PDA/GPS to avoid any automatic time zone changes and then make sure your camera is set to the same time.

 

That makes sense...so essentially, if the GPS is set to Indiana, which automatically offsets GMT by -5; then if I am in Illinois on central time taking photos at 1:00 PM, when I get home, the time in the logs will actually be reflected as 2:00 PM (Eastern)? My PDA won't know about a time zone shift. I guess I'll have to play with it. I need to get a program which will geotag the photos too.

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I need to get a program which will geotag the photos too.

I suggest taking a look at http://wwmx.org . I downloaded their LocationStamper (only) and successfully used it to add location info to photos from a Garmin track. In the short time I tried it, I never did succeed in tagging more than one photo at a time but that may be operator error. LocationStamper is somehow connected with a larger Microsoft project involving an online collection of photos. I did not look into that or any of the other WWMX software.

 

LocationStamper is free. At the bottom of the WWMX download page are links to some alternative software. Some have free trial downloads even though full or permanent versions cost something. I didn't look into any of those.

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Jennifer,

 

Now where is my collection of hot rod magazine covers with the bikini babes......bet I can increase visits ten fold! :lol:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Let me know if we need to increase bandwidth on the forum to accommodate. We aims to keep our members happy here. :cheers:

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You're a brave man, roadmaven.

 

Nope...

 

Or crazy. There's a fine line. ;-) jim

 

Yep! :lol:

 

 

Let me know if we need to increase bandwidth on the forum to accommodate. We aims to keep our members happy here. :cheers:

 

 

What a funny guy! :happyguy:

 

Apples to oranges, guys...since my photo was fully clothed, your babes best be too! LOL :P

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I suggest taking a look at http://wwmx.org . I downloaded their LocationStamper (only) and successfully used it to add location info to photos from a Garmin track. In the short time I tried it, I never did succeed in tagging more than one photo at a time but that may be operator error. LocationStamper is somehow connected with a larger Microsoft project involving an online collection of photos. I did not look into that or any of the other WWMX software.

 

LocationStamper is free. At the bottom of the WWMX download page are links to some alternative software. Some have free trial downloads even though full or permanent versions cost something. I didn't look into any of those.

 

Thanks, Denny. I got Location Stamper last night but I am still having difficulty creating a GPX log in DeLorme. I thought I followed the steps in the users guide, but when I imported the GPX file in LocationStamper, there were no tracks.

 

Another odd thing I discovered is that when I view a log on my Palm, the time is correct, but when I sync it back to my computer and view it, the time is off by 4 hours (behind actual time). My Palm and camera are matched up OK, it's just the time as it views on my desktop is off. I wonder if there's some sort of offset I should do in the desktop version of DeLorme? Or just use the offset feature in Location Stamper? I don't really care if the time views wrong on the desktop version of DeLorme, as long as I can offset it. But first, I need to properly create a GPX file!

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But first, I need to properly create a GPX file!

You've quickly exhausted my ultra-thin knowledge of GPX, Time Stamps, and tracking files. I'm at work and only have SA2006 to look at and it seems (from searching on line DeLorme manuals) that GPX export was added at SA2007. I'll take a look tonight if you don't have it sorted by then.

 

Well at least you now know where you are - you just don't know when.

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You've quickly exhausted my ultra-thin knowledge of GPX, Time Stamps, and tracking files. I'm at work and only have SA2006 to look at and it seems (from searching on line DeLorme manuals) that GPX export was added at SA2007. I'll take a look tonight if you don't have it sorted by then.

 

Well at least you now know where you are - you just don't know when.

 

 

I did a test for the photo geotagging...I created a log along a quick route and took several photos. I managed to export the .gpl file to a .gpx file using DeLorme. <I need to do it again and document the steps for myself, because if I don't do it very often, I'll forget!>

 

I imported the .gpx file into Location Stamper, imported the photos, adjusted the timestamps on the photos (see below) and figured out how to stamp the location information into the EXIF data. Voila, the precise locations of the photos showed up in Location Stamper. When I uploaded the photos to Flickr, the location information wasn't there, but after several attempts, I found that my Flickr account settings needed to be adjusted to allow uploading of location data.

 

The only slight snag (that I can deal with) is the fact that the track logs on my Palm are fine, but in all applications on the computer (DeLorme, Location Stamper, etc.), the log times are 4 hours behind. I wish I knew how to fix that, but the simple solution is to make sure that my Palm and camera are in sync and to do a 4 hour offset and change the timestamp on the photos.

 

All in all, the Earthmate BT-20 in combination with my Palm is an excellent combination. There are many things I still need to figure out with both the desktop and handheld versions of DeLorme, but so far, so good!

 

Oh, and for the visibility issues, I found some non-glare film: Non-Glare Protective Film for laptops & PDAs. This might also be of interest to laptop users, who are dealing with visibility issues, since it is available for laptops as well. I searched every computer store in Indy and couldn't find this, but ordered it Friday and it should be here anytime soon. It shipped within an hour or so of my purchase!

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I'm sure glad you figured it out. I did try exporting GPX from SA2008 on Thursday evening but failed so completely that I could only have posted words of discouragement.

 

I will be trying some bulk geotagging soon and I'll probably come to you with some Location Stamper questions. It sounds as if you've mastered doing multiple photos which is something I failed at.

 

That anti-glare film is something I'm anxious to hear about. I do break out the laptop on occasions of complete confusion and it is next to unreadable in anything resembling sun light.

 

Sounds like you've got a really good setup. Glad it came together.

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I'm sure glad you figured it out. I did try exporting GPX from SA2008 on Thursday evening but failed so completely that I could only have posted words of discouragement.

 

I will be trying some bulk geotagging soon and I'll probably come to you with some Location Stamper questions. It sounds as if you've mastered doing multiple photos which is something I failed at.

 

Yes, my test of nine photos worked out fine with some tweaking. I did the test so that when I need to do the real thing, I'll be ready. This weekend will be the "real thing" as Pat and I are going on the Missouri Motor Tour. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works.

 

When you are ready, I can tell you how I did it in Location Stamper.

 

That anti-glare film is something I'm anxious to hear about. I do break out the laptop on occasions of complete confusion and it is next to unreadable in anything resembling sun light.

 

I'll let you know how that turns out. My Palm is the same way...as KTSoTR knows, the screen is glass, and it's extremely reflective. I hope the anti-glare / anti-reflective film works, as that is what the description specifically states. Everything else I have found is really a clear screen protector which "reduces" glare. Maybe a little, but nothing significant at all!

 

Sounds like you've got a really good setup. Glad it came together.

Thanks, me too!

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That anti-glare film is something I'm anxious to hear about. I do break out the laptop on occasions of complete confusion and it is next to unreadable in anything resembling sun light.

 

Quick update...the anti-glare /anti-reflective film by Photodon works well. It creates a matte/frosted finish to the screen which reduces glare and reflectivity alot, and definitely improves visibility to a tolerable level. If the screen is in direct sunlight, it would still be difficult to see of course, but it improves visibility by a large percentage. Definitely worth it.

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Wow! This is awesome! I don't know what I did wrong before (nor what I just now did right) but I just uploaded the logs from this last weekend and and "added" them to Location Stamper. Then I added a days worth of pictures (152) and clicked "Apply Tracks". A few minutes later every picture was tagged and plotted on the map. And they were almost in the right locations. It seems that, after stressing to Jennifer to synchronize her camera and PDA, I spent the entire weekend with my camera thinking it was seven minutes earlier than it really was. :blush: See Jennifer? I told you it was important.

 

I know I could straighten it out with offsets and a rerun but I'm thrilled to be that close - and to prove the concept. I don't know that I'll tag every photo I take or even many of them but it's sure nice to know I can.

 

And maybe I'll look into some of that anti-glare stuff, too. Can it get any better?

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Wow! This is awesome! I don't know what I did wrong before (nor what I just now did right) but I just uploaded the logs from this last weekend and and "added" them to Location Stamper. Then I added a days worth of pictures (152) and clicked "Apply Tracks". A few minutes later every picture was tagged and plotted on the map. And they were almost in the right locations. It seems that, after stressing to Jennifer to synchronize her camera and PDA, I spent the entire weekend with my camera thinking it was seven minutes earlier than it really was. :blush: See Jennifer? I told you it was important.

 

I know I could straighten it out with offsets and a rerun but I'm thrilled to be that close - and to prove the concept. I don't know that I'll tag every photo I take or even many of them but it's sure nice to know I can.

 

And maybe I'll look into some of that anti-glare stuff, too. Can it get any better?

 

Isn't that the way it goes when you learn by doing? Location Stamper wasn't that difficult, for me it was creating GPX files from GPL, but I have that down now.

 

I set my Palm and camera, but I inadvertently set the camera to AM, not realizing it sets on a 24 hour clock. So I offset my photos by 12 hours, in my test batch as well as some photos I took yesterday in Indianapolis. I have now synchronized both cameras with my Palm.

 

I also figured out how to rerun Location Stamper when you goof up. You can reset the timestamp anytime by doing an offset, but once I set the (wrong) location, "Apply Tracks" was grayed out. However, when I closed the program and restarted it, brought back in the track and the photo, I was able to apply the track again and it was in the right location. With the Palm and camera in sync, the locations are very precise. The concept does work, and it is important!

 

Also, if anyone out there happens to follow my setup, I would recommend a very fast SD card. I had a 2GB 50X card with my initial load of maps. It seemed OK, but then I read I should get a faster card for better performance....indeed! I now have two 2 GB cards which I am going to load the maps on (probably divided by eastern / western US). One card is 133X (the one I have in there now) and the other is 150X. With the 133X card, I noticed a BIG difference in the access speed as the maps draw when I pan across the map, especially when the map is zoomed out.

 

Jennifer

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