OSM GPS

From OpenStreetMap

I (SpeedEvil) am contemplating manufacturing a GPS unit for use with OSM.

Comments welcome - after line at bottom - please sign. --SpeedEvil 18:27, 1 April 2008 (BST)

Firstly, what it cannot have.

Large colour touchscreen - too expensive, too hard to drive, too hard to make robust in a simple case.
Full qwerty keyboard - simply too large, or hard to fabricate in small sizes.
Open source hardware. Sorry. (Though wave large amounts of money...)

My current idea is along the lines of.

Case around 4cm*10cm*4cm. Weight around 150g.
Robust
- Will take drops from a metre repeatedly onto concrete.
  - (there may be visible marks on the case after this, but it will work)
- Resistant to moisture or driving rain, not resistant to submersion.
  - Moisture on the lens will of course cause picture problems.
GPS - SIRF III chipset probably, with internal antenna.
Camera
- 2MP stills (georeferenced)
- 320*240@30FPS MJPEG.
- Due to financial, size and other limitations, this is a 'mobile phone' camera - it will produce acceptable results in good lighting, but low light performance will not be good.
- Normal user-triggered mode of up to 2MP
- ,Time-lapse (0.3/1MP JPEG per 1/5/10/60 seconds/minutes),
- Distance-lapse every 10/20/30m (if this does not exceed the capture rate
Several buttons.
MicroSD/HC socket - removable - but will be a bit fiddly.
USB interface.
- Press one button, it acts like a mass-storage device with pictures and movies.
- Press another, and it's a GPS, streaming NMEA.
- Press another, and it downloads GPX tracks.
- USB charging in an hour or two
User replacable battery (widely available - probably 18650)
At least 12h battery life (or several thousand pics).

This would be around 80-90 quid my sale price in qty 1-10, and 60 quid in 25s. (please note - I haven't costed rigourously all parts - this might change)

Now - stuff that will add a little cost, I'd like feedback as to what's wanted.

16*2 char LCD, or 128*60 1.5" mono display. - 15 quid
- Display either simple positions or with the graphical display a crude map.
Microphone/speaker - 8 quid.
- This would allow both spot recording - press a button, take a picture and dictate something, and continuous mode, or geotagged audio clips. All in 8 bit 8Khz sample rate.
- Also would allow voice feedback to waypoints, for example.
Accelerometer - 6 quid.
- This would give an orientation of the device to make it ignore tilts, and may be useful for logging.
Magnetometer - 10 quid.
- Compass - in combination with the above, in good conditions away from magnetic objects this will give accurate pointing information as well as GPS coordinates.
  - 56.12N 3.07W, 20m, pointing 342 degrees (NNW) 10 degrees down.
Torch - 5 quid.
- A 1W LED for some reasonable light - perhaps also usable as a flash for the camera - but don't imagine you're going to light up street-scenes with it.

Whatever else you can think of - ?

Did you see Talk:Hardware_Guide? Sam there is also talking about something like this. --Colin Marquardt 21:55, 2 April 2008 (BST)

That device sounds likely to be significantly over 80ish quid.

GSM adds a fair amount of cost to the device. --SpeedEvil 23:20, 2 April 2008 (BST)

I'm not suggesting you should copy them, but maybe having a contact there would give you cheaper suppliers for your own stuff, or could bundle orders... --Colin Marquardt 23:56, 2 April 2008 (BST)

If a keyboard: maybe one of these rubber keyboards from really cheap calculators? Then use it like a cellphone keyboard. --Colin Marquardt 23:56, 2 April 2008 (BST)

Some form of serial port would be really nice (RS232 or TTL), this would add the ability to add perherials such as radio/GSM modems for data links or things like TCM recievers. You would probably need a debug terminal anyway, if you were worried about interfacing you could place it inside a battery bay or the like. --Mungewell 00:05, 3 April 2008 (BST)

That would be another - related - product probably. --SpeedEvil 14:58, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

External GPS antenna with phantom power. --Mungewell 00:07, 3 April 2008 (BST)

5/8th thread for tripod mounting... just kidding --Mungewell 00:09, 3 April 2008 (BST)

actually having something like this could be useful - really. The ability to reuse different camera mountings would be nice. MarkWilliamson

DGPS receiver for more accuracy.

Plain-old Standard USB connector for charging / Computer connection.

Yes - that's likely, any otehr charging scheme is silly today. --SpeedEvil 14:58, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd really like a Li-ion battery, and a *much* longer battery life -- something around the week mark.

Probably a related product. --SpeedEvil 14:58, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Absolutely masses of space for GPS traces - preferably on the SD Card (FAT formatted?)

Absolutely masses of space for raw GPS data - that way, it can be post-processed with DGPS data in a computer with internet connection, increasing the accuracy of the traces. Also, if an accelerometer and/or magnetometer would be included, save the raw data from them too. Ivansanchez 23:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

8G microSDs are available now. Of course all data would be logged. --SpeedEvil 14:58, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Allow for DOP-values to be displayed on the unit to have an indication of accuracy --ivom 22:29, 10 April 2008 (BST)

Put in some audio device which signals loud enough to be heard during cycletrips at about 20km/h with headwinds or while driving a car. The signalling could be triggered with large DOP values, indicating that what you are mapping is possible inaccurate. --ivom 22:28, 10 April 2008 (BST)

Kill the USB mass storage ideas, rely on a (micro)SD/HC card for both the photos and the data. Ivansanchez 23:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Err - no. The device appears as a mass storage device when you plug it in. --SpeedEvil 14:58, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Personally: microsd++; lcd_screen++; camera--; microphone--; accelerometer++; magnetometer++; torch--; external_antenna_connector++; Ivansanchez 23:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)