Last weekend Kevin & I set out on a roadtrip to Llano, TX to test out our car-based electronics (and really to eat at the famous Cooper’s BBQ, which was excellent). I took the following in a tote bag:
While driving in Switzerland and Italy, this setup will give me real-time navigation with driving instructions, while also recording (aka data logging) our trip path. The recorded GPS data can be used to tag our photographs (geotagging) with location information, so twenty years from now I can look at our digital photos and see exactly where they were taken on a map.
Here is how they all connect: The Wagan SmartAC plugs in the car’s DC power outlet. The EEE’s AC electric plugs into the Wagan. The GPS connects to the EEE by either USB cable or bluetooth. USB is my preference, just because it uses less power and seems anecdotally more reliable.
The little GPS unit does not have a screen, it actually looks like a pager (remember those?), so it has to hook up to a PC or mobile phone that has a map program to show location data. On my EEE I have Microsoft Streets & Trips loaded for US maps, and Microsoft AutoRoute loaded for Europe maps — these are essentially the exact same program just with different maps. Both allow me to create and save detailed trip routes with driving directions, route times, and POIs with as many en route stops as I like. When I connect the GPS unit, the software recognizes it and will show me, in real-time, exactly where I am on the map, where my turns are, and how fast we are moving. It even has built in voice. Cool!
Taking the practice roadtrip was a very good idea, because it failed. By failed, I mean I could hook up everything and all the devices were in operation, but I could not get the EEE to recognize the GPS — an essential operation in this plan! I have made this all work before, but on another computer, so I knew I must be missing some device driver, etc. Spent a lot of time sitting in the passenger seat mucking around to get it working with no luck, and missed a lot of the pretty Spring wildflowers. Never could get it to work at all. Argh.
After a few days of thinking about it, the solution finally dawned on me. It wasn’t that I was missing any drivers or software, it is that I wasn’t connecting things in the right order. For future reference, here is the solution:
- GPS must be off.
- On pc, open the Gisteq PhotoTrackr software.
- Still off, connect the GPS via USB cable to pc.
- The Gisteq software will recognize it and turn it on as a COM port device. Bingo!
- Open Streets & Trips or AutoRoute software. Go to the GPS pane and choose to connect. Have it scan your COM ports, it will find it and list it. Choose the correct port from the list and complete the setup.
- Hopefully, for the time you have been connected the GPS will have acquired a satellite fix. If not, let it do so now. Done!
I’m going to give this process a run through this weekend when I go to the San Marcos outlet malls. Now that I remember the secret to connecting, I don’t believe I will have any problems.