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john parrott
United Kingdom
60 Posts |
 Posted - 28/08/2011 : 12:16:14
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Up to now, I have been using paper maps and a GPS for field surveying. But I am wondering about investing in a PDA, and what device might be suitable. I would welcome advice...
Can I run MM on any PDA? how accurate is the GPS facility compared to a Garmin GPSMap60?
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Joe
USA
62 Posts |
Posted - 31/08/2011 : 22:38:32
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I once tried loading MM onto a resource grade GPS running Windows CE. It didn't work, I assume you need to have Windows OS. A while back I advocated for a chopped version of MM for GPS data collection. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to perform data collection, analysis, and map production all with MM?
Joe Thompson
Wildlife Biologist
Ramona, CA |
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Irvine
United Kingdom
51 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2011 : 17:12:23
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John
You could ask your local FCS office. The last time I was out with an FCS forester checking mutual boundaries he had a map on a PDA and a separate GPS receiver that communicated with the PDA by Bluetooth. He was of course using Arcview. I don't know how many functions his system had as all he was doing was checking our position against the mapped boundary.
Irvine |
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paknight
United Kingdom
6 Posts |
Posted - 29/09/2011 : 10:37:35
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There is a quite a range of software available for data collection on Mobile devices – try a Google for “GIS data collection”, or “GIS data collection PDA” and you will see for yourself. You will notice the famous Trimble ruggedized Handheld devices, and other similar devices, all costing thousands of pounds. But most of these are simple running (expensive!) GIS data collection software on Windows CE or Windows Mobile – mostly Windows Mobile 5 or 6. ArcPAD from ESRI is another (expensive) alternative.
One great solution is a piece of software called “CyberTracker”, which runs on Windows (Win 2000 – Win 7), and can “output” the data collection system to a Handheld device - PalmOS, PocketPC and Windows Mobile Devices – but at present only Touchscreen Devices are supported. The software is designed for flora/fauna data collection so GIS data collection is a doddle for it. You have to “program” the software to create your own data collection system – but no real programming skills are required. You can even emulate what it will look like on the Handheld, and how it will operate – even down to emulating the GPS system.
This GPS system on the Handheld is also interesting, At a given Point of Interest (POI), CyberTracker can be programmed to take “x” number of readings over “n” number of seconds, during which time the software takes a statistical average of the readings, rejecting any that are wildly inaccurate. If you have a clear sky and a WAAS/EGNOS DGPS device (and many of the modern £50 GPS units now are) you have an initial accuracy of 5m - 2m, and probably down to 1m under ideal circumstances with a long GPS averaging time (say 1 minute).
At present File support is limited. CyberTracker uses the Microsoft Access MDB format, and can therefore export out to CSV and TXT, but most usefully Shapefile SHP format is available as an output. The system can output both the POI SHP data as well as the GPS SHP ‘path’ taken during the data collection. I haven’t tested this yet, but I would suspect that it is entirely possible to link the CyberTracker database to a MM Layer so that GIS readings such as Range and Azimuth to a “target” POI would be correctly deployed on a map.
CyberTracker is constantly being developed, and updates are regular, usually once per month. There is a large Yahoo User Forum, to which the software developers input, and help resolve problems. A running “Wish List” is also in-place, and end-users can see which of the wishes have been implemented in newer versions. GPX Data Format is on the Wish List I believe.
The software is free, but requires an explanatory email to the developers outlining the proposed usage of the software. Upon acceptance, an unlock code is given to allow the output from the PC software to the Handheld. http://cybertracker.org/ is the place to visit!
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Joe
USA
62 Posts |
Posted - 29/09/2011 : 18:42:37
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Another software option for your PDA is gvSIG mobile: http://www.gvsig.org/web/
Joe Thompson
Wildlife Biologist
Ramona, CA |
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paknight
United Kingdom
6 Posts |
Posted - 30/09/2011 : 13:29:55
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| Thanks for the Link - an interesting piece of software! For anyone popping off to the Link, it's in Spanish, but click on the Union Flag near the top Menu to change to English. We have run it on a couple of PDSs, and two immediate problems have come to light: 1) in Win Mobile 5/6 an External GPS Bluetooth COM Port can be remapped to a Virtual Port, allowing several Apps to access GPS data simultaneously. gvSIG Mobile crashes when attempting to use a Virtual Port - a 'fix' is to use the 'real' GPS Hardware Port. 2) gvSIG supports only JPEG/PNG/ECW/GIF Raster File, it doesn't support TIF/TIFF or GeoTIF Files. A get-around is to use MMs Convert Raster Utility. |
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Joe
USA
62 Posts |
Posted - 30/09/2011 : 22:50:11
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Thanks for the report, Peter. I've never used gvSIG mobile, since I already have ArcPad on my GPS, but I've been curious to know how it performs. Aside from the issues with the comm port, did it function OK and were you able to collect useful data without wanting to smash your PDS into a tree?
Joe Thompson
Wildlife Biologist
San Diego, CA |
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paknight
United Kingdom
6 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2011 : 16:53:31
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| Hi Joe. I know what you mean about running such software on PDAs. We have tried ArcPad and TerraSync on HP iPaqs, the HX4700 and 214's which have 4" Screens and a decent Processor, but it is a slow process to say the least.... But gvSIG is a little faster, and the data we did log seems to be reasonable accurate. We may certainly try it again before our Winter hits in, we just need to convert a few of our GeoTIFFs into ECWs first. My prime concern is how well the software deals with WAAS (EGNOS here) Differential GPS Data from our GPS Devices. Anyway, I'll report back as soon as we have run some more exactling tests. Peter Knight, Wiltshire Walks, Marlborough, Wilts., UK |
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Using a PDA for surveying
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