How Soon Could We Get Gps?

[Vince2501]

Thinking realistically, how soon after launch (unless a dev is working on the feature right now) could we have GPS on the Pandora? I know writing the drivers for the dongle could be challenging, but how difficult could it be for maps to be downloaded onto the device?

 

[emil10001]

I googled around and found this article:

http://blogs.srijan.in/2008/01/19/bluetoot...ces-with-linux/

I don't expect that it should take too long to get this stuff working. If nothing else, there are some maemo packages that could be ported over, since that functionality started in the community. Also, maemo mapper is a really nice nav app.

 

[ledow]

Thinking realistically, how soon after launch (unless a dev is working on the feature right now) could we have GPS on the Pandora? I know writing the drivers for the dongle could be challenging, but how difficult could it be for maps to be downloaded onto the device?

USB / Bluetooth GPS dongles would work almost immediately, with standard gpsd software (possibly a matter of days/hours for someone to compile it, if it isn't already). The software for those is incredibly basic (they appear as a serial device, so you'd need a kernel serial module, which may or may not be included by default but is simple to enable given the kernel source code), and a program to read from that serial device and interpret NMEA text. That's all command-line, non-specific stuff for which the programs are incredibly simple. That gives you the GPS co-ord, speed, altitude etc. You could probably do it without having to write a single line of code.

Maps etc. are a bit more tricky. Again, it can be just a matter of someone compiling something like roadnav or the other million-and-one free navigation programs. The problem is that this wouldn't be like your TomTom... the maps for GPS on any non-famous / free navigation program are taken from OpenStreetMap, or by reverse-engineering some very specific versions of a famous navigation program (which invariably change with the next update to stop you doing that). Free sources of map data are usually incomplete, out of date, very limited in their coverage and often useless for navigation (speaking for the UK, OpenStreetMap doesn't have more than 5% of the roads in the busy Essex town where I live, just minutes from London - the ones it does have don't have name data).

And although, technically, the TomTom devices use a version of Linux, it's not as simple as just "copying" the TomTom program across and running it. You will also have a hard time just buying the map data to plug into a free piece of software - the manufacturers want you to buy THEIR GPS device, not your own.

So basically, it'll "work" almost immediately. If you intend to drive your car by it, you're better off buying a SatNav device.

 

[juanvvc]

There is no problem with drivers. I know nothing about the Pandora, but since typical GPS units use only serial communications I'm absolutely sure that the Pandora can use GPS out of the box. In fact, the Gp2x can without installing anything special, you know.

The tricky things are a nice navigator and (specially) maps. If you can find good, WGS84-compatible maps for free or just a few bucks, you have 9/10 of the way. Check in your local store: maps cost hundreds of dollars/euros. There are good reasons for that.

Of course, you can use GPS without maps to track down treasures or routes, specially for hill walking or biking. This is a simple application to write in a weekend. Anyway, you can use a mobile phone for that, as I do.

PD: ledow, you're fast, man.

 

[ledow]

PD: ledow, you're fast, man.

One of the applications I would love the Pandora for would be GPS, actually, but not navigation (waste of time, you're paying for the maps more than anything else). But if you can stick a wifi card on it and run kismet, then that gets you into "follow centre" functionality (where you can locate the radio "centre" for each access point - i.e. the access point's location), so I can wander around places, knock on doors and say "Hey, nice wifi, I get a good signal from it over there." I work in schools, so it would be great fun for tracking the odd "rogue" point. The staff like to sneak them in, the kids sneak them in, the laptops are supposed to have it disabled etc.

I wonder if I can convince a school to buy me one instead of an EeePC?

 

[fahrstuhl]

You could use the navigation programs used by the OpenMoko project like TangoGPS which uses the maps of the OpenStreetMap project. Both are open source.

 

[moshansky]

Total stab in the dark but...
Would it be possible to use map files if we already have them for use with a navigation program? I have street maps of North America on DVD from GM and I was wondering if it would be possible to somehow rip them, put them on a flash drive, and have a program use them for good navigation? (For that matter use any pre-done navigation maps from a major company?)

 

[Squidge]

Sure, if you know the file format and how to read them, but typically, the file format is proprietary, so it would take a good amount of reverse engineering.

 

[olafvdkruk]

Thinking realistically, how soon after launch (unless a dev is working on the feature right now) could we have GPS on the Pandora? I know writing the drivers for the dongle could be challenging, but how difficult could it be for maps to be downloaded onto the device?

two months maybey

 

[gibberish]

Thinking realistically, how soon after launch (unless a dev is working on the feature right now) could we have GPS on the Pandora? I know writing the drivers for the dongle could be challenging, but how difficult could it be for maps to be downloaded onto the device?

two months maybey


you have inside knowledge or was that a pointless comment?

 

[Chip]

Thinking realistically, how soon after launch (unless a dev is working on the feature right now) could we have GPS on the Pandora? I know writing the drivers for the dongle could be challenging, but how difficult could it be for maps to be downloaded onto the device?

two months maybey


you have inside knowledge or was that a pointless comment?


It was a pointless comment. GPS functionality could be available anywhere between at-launch to never. There are several programs available for Linux, but somebody has to do the grunt work of porting one of them. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has yet volunteered for the task.

 

[peca]

If we have JRE plugin, than we have GPS navigation instantly: http://www.google.com/gmm.