GPS Question From A Friend

[Kumaki]

I had a friend ask me about GPS capabilties on the Pandora, and I honestly could not answer him, I told him I'd ask over here and get back to him.


this was his question...


Does the device have a GPS receiver too or is that based on something else? I know there are some tricks to mimic a GPS based on proximity to wireless networks...

So...how DO the GPS apps on Pandora work?? I hear you can download the data so that they can be used offline, meaning you do not need to be connected to the Net. so, exactly how does this thing pinpoint your location on these maps if you are offline? I thought it was a pretty good question.

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[Znirk]

The pandora doesn't have a built-in GPS receiver, but it does have an USB port where you can plug in some add-on GPS equipment.


GPS delivers no maps though. All you get from GPS is a position; you can only display a map showing the surroundings of that position if you either already have that map stored on the device, or can go online to download map data as needed.

 

[Binky]

A useful GPS app requires:

• Maps/satelite photos
  
• current location information
  

The later must come from a GPS reciever chip (either built in, or (in the case of the pandora) with a USB dongle


The former can either be downloaded from the internet on the fly, or saved to disk for later use

 

[TrashyMG]

I use a Bluetooth GPS, the setup takes a bit of work though. There isn't any software yet that would be good for driving.. however this may change.

 

[WizardStan]

There isn't any software yet that would be good for driving.

What have you tried and what needs to change? I thought Navit had potential, but I haven't actually used it for driving, I just ran the demo route.


edit: actually, with Android installed, I wonder if google maps would work well with a USB GPS unit.

 

[Kumaki]

A useful GPS app requires:

• Maps/satelite photos
  
• current location information
  

The later must come from a GPS reciever chip (either built in, or (in the case of the pandora) with a USB dongle


The former can either be downloaded from the internet on the fly, or saved to disk for later use

that actually answers my question. thanks.

 

[TrashyMG]

There isn't any software yet that would be good for driving.

What have you tried and what needs to change? I thought Navit had potential, but I haven't actually used it for driving, I just ran the demo route.


edit: actually, with Android installed, I wonder if google maps would work well with a USB GPS unit.

You actually have Navit that launches? the one installed from the Angstrom repo just gets a blank screen.. my attempts at porting from source code, while it compiles it fails to launch anything.


The only software I have that works is FoxTrotGPS.. It's good, but you need to use coordinates instead of street addresses to plot directions.

 

[WizardStan]

Huh. How odd. I was working on it back in 2011, I remember I had something that seemed to work, and then I guess I lost interest and moved on. Man, I really suck at this.