Serious GPS logging...
Monday, May 4, 2009 at 7:17AM You may have seen the ScreenCastsOnline show where I used the iPhone for GPS logging to allow me to geotag my photos.
As I've a fair amount of travel planned for this year and I've got a new shiny camera to record it all, I'd love to be able to properly log all my photos and assign geotags.
Following on from discussions on the ScreenCastsOnline forum and various emails, I decided not to rely on the GPS tracker applications on the iPhone and go with a dedicated GPS tracker. One that I could just switch on in the morning and just forget about. The theory being I could forget all about GPS signal acquisition and not worry about running the battery down.
I toyed with the idea of getting a camera with GPS built in but they are very few and far between and the one I did consider, the reviews I found indicated that the GPS would have an adverse effect on battery life on the camera.
So what to do?
In the end I decided to get a dedicated GPS logger and went with the Wintec WBT-201, the recommended GPS tracker to work with Houdah Geo, the application I'll be using to merge the GPS data and photos. I figured I'd get one for the trip to the US later this week so I could put it through its paces.
So the device has arrived and after fiddling with it for a couple of days, I've decided that GPS tracking is not for the fainthearted and certainly not ready for prime time! The issue may well be that the device has no native Mac software supplied with it and the instructions are very poorly written, but I consider myself fairly tech savvy and have to admit, it's been a struggle trying to work out exactly what I need to do to set it all up. I even resorted to installing VMFusion on my MBP to run the Windows based software to see if that helped but even that is problematic and extremely complex.
There are some open source cross platform applications that allow you to access and configure the device but when I tried to download some of the apps and image files, I'm finding missing DMG files, broken links and even if I find the files, do I really want to build and compile code?
Perhaps I've been spoiled with all these easy to use Mac apps?
Eventually, I've been able to connect to the device using USB via Windows but I've no idea if I need to change any of the default settings. I've taken a walk round the block and managed to record a GPS track, load it into Google Earth and look at it on a map, but I seem to have waypoints all over the place but at least, they appear in the general vicinity of the walk I took.
It now looks like I can use HoudaGeo to import the track information via USB but I doubt I'll have much time to play further before leaving on Thursday. I'll try and play/research a bit more but I've no idea how or if I need to reset the device, how often to download the data to the Mac and just really if I'm doing all I need to.
Fingers crossed it will all work out but if anyone has links for the definitive guide to using the Wintec WBT-201 with a Mac or some simple hints and tips, I'd really appreciate it!
Update: After reading the really useful comments below, checkout my update
Reader Comments (12)
I got the similar BT-Q1300 device and I did get it working with Houdah Geo a few times. But it is cumbersome to say the least. Also I have not a clue how to flash the memory so that I can start again, or how much memory there is left.
To be honest, for me the easiest method for tagging (especially after the 8.02 update) is to also make a photo with the iPhone. And then just copy and paste the location (new in 8.02) from the iPhone photo to the photo's you took with your camera.
For me that has the highest usability.
I got the same tracker after watching the Screencasts Online video and, like you, found it difficult to set up. In the end, I found that just connecting via Bluetooth did the trick and it's worked very well with HoudahGeo or HoudahGPS (The latter is a good option for just getting the files off the device to store for later I find.) All the faffing with Windows and compilers was a red herring you don't actually need to go down. Forget USB, go Bluetooth. It works fine.
But there are some problems. I used the device on a trip to York and found that there were some timing issues and, occasionally, it would place me in a field about 20 miles away. Although I ended up with a lot of data from the trip, I spent a lot of time correcting the photos' location.
I just got back from a two-week trip to China where I used the device everyday ending up with an 8Mb file and about 900 photos! (How did I ever cope with film?)
Getting the data off the device was not so easy this time largely, I suspect, because of the file size. So I'd suggest, if you have the means, getting the data off at regular intervals rather than waiting till the end of the trip if you're doing a long one.
I remembered to set my camera's clock to Beijing time but it seems the GPS system is set to GMT (I figured this out by opening the file in BBEdit and looking at the data).
But there were other issues - HoudahGPS had huge gaps in the GPS data so that some photos were assigned a location and others weren't. And while some photos seemed to be "right" others most definitely weren't.
I exported the GPS data to a KML file and opened it in Google Earth. This took some time and resulted in an awful lot of data points (again, a good reason to get the data off each day rather than in one go) but what was interesting was that Google Earth appeared to have my whole journey plotted pretty much correctly, while HoudahGeo didn't, even after changing the time of my photos to -7 hours.
In the end I lost patience and used iPhoto to set the location of my photos on an "event" basis - so a day at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, or at the Great Wall, were all set at the same generic location rather than specifically for each photo. In the end, this turned out to make more sense. I like the idea of being able to see the actual street corner a photo was taken on so I can see a map with them all over it, but the time and effort required just wasn't worth it.
I like my camera (Canon DSLR) so am not keen to upgrade to a GPS-enabled one. I'll give the GPS unit and HoudahGeo a few more goes but so far I've not been impressed.
But... here's another option. I just saw that there's an SD card available with GPS built in! Sadly my camera doesn't use SD but if yours does, that may be an option. I believe it's available on the Apple Store - may be worth checking out...
Jonathan
Would love to hear that you got this working Don, but one of the issue's I have been having is that it appears to be a little hit and miss. Most of the posts I have read say the same thing too.
Good luck and safe travels.
After the SCO show on GPS tracking it got me thinking about how cool it would be to track our Harley rideouts. I downloaded Track and while on a trip into the Alps a couple of weeks ago I turned on the tracking for the trip home. The battery on the iPhone was about 3 quaters full. When I got home the iPhone was dead, which is what I expected. When I charged it up and checked tracker, it had managed to track around 50km before the batter died. Not great but the acuracy was pretty good. This would be really useful if I can find something that would last the whole trip.
Showing the route on our website with where all the pictures were taken would be very interesting.
I was also thinking about the GPS enabled camera. At least with a camera you can carry spare batteries and you're only using the battery when the camera is on, which is only when you're taking pictures. My only concern would be how quick the camera's GPS can establish it's location.
Martina is usually on the bike taking pictures while we ride so I'm sure she'd love the tracking idea too.
I'm thinking out loud here so I'll let you know what we end up with.
The iPhone has one HUGE advantage over other stand alone GPS systems in that it has Assisted GPS. Especially when you travel around a lot, it helps to get a fix quickly. Especially when during photography. That makes me skeptical of (new) cameras with build in GPS. I really started to appreciate assisted GPS.
I have experimented with Geotaggiing for a few years now when it was even more in its infancy. But using the PC for most of the work until last year. HoudahGeo is definitely the best. It's the only software I have found that will actually embed the position information into a RAW file. Most other applications will produce a sidecar file which has to be associated with the original image.
I gave up using small tracker type GPS's as I could never find one that I trusted to run all day and behave itself. Main problem was you couldn't see what was happening out and about. I think there may be more geotagging devices becomming available that can be setup without a computer. A good place to follow this sort of equipment is here http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/ . I generally use my trusty Garmin GPS (GPSMAP 60CSX). I used it last year on a trip to Menorca for a week. It's very sensitive, has built in maps and can be used for a lot more than just geotagging. With permission I even tracked the flight on the plane there and back. It struggled with height, but thats because it has an aneroid type altimeter built in. Doesnt work well with a pressurised cabin.
When I got home the geotagging worked a treat using Houdah Geo. I had forgot to alter time zones etc. No problem, you can add any offset on import. Keep all your GPS track information safe in the same way you would keep original images.
I've had my Wintec for a couple of weeks. Got it after watching your screencast on HoudahGeo.
The instructions are awful. But having played with it for a while I now find it pretty easy to use. Switch it on, press the power switch again to switch off Bluetooth, then place it somewhere where it will see the signals. I find it continues to work in my back pocket once it's locked on.
When home, I run HoudahGeo and select Geocode > load GPS data from device, then select the Wintec bluetooth interface. A couple of minutes later the tracks are loaded into HoudahGeo and away we go. That's it.
I agree it's not for the faint-hearted, but really only because the instructions are so bad.
I looked into this some time ago and recently bought a tracker from Maplin - the igotU - http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=227620&DOY=4m5 Whilst not Mac compatible, if you have a VM setup anyway this is not an issue. It's a great little device with better battery life than most and standard format GPS output - currently on offer at £39.99. Buy one.....
I'm working with a guy to try and get this working natively on the Mac but no luck as yet - https://launchpad.net/igotu2gpx
I recently bought a Nikon P6000 which comes with a GPS installed.
I took the camera with me on a 4 day trekking trip in Turkey and sightseeing to New York.
I found that GPS worked very well during trekking ie. in open spaces. It took about 1-2 minutes on first opening to locate position and then about 15-20 seconds when I turned the camera on to take a shot. Positioning the antenna (which is located on the side of the camera towards open sky speeds up the connection).
The battery lasted me day and a half with GPS on intermittently - ie. continously on when I thought I would take pictures frequently for a while, then turning GPS off when the landscape was not so interesting. I carried a spare battery with me in any case. I took RAW pictures all the time.
Manhattan though was a nightmare - tall buildings made it almost impossible for the GPS to work. In the end I gave up.
All in all, I would say geo-tagging is feasible when you are trekking, biking, skiing, sailing - in short all outdoor stuff but not for sightseeing in New York or London or similar and needless to say indoors.
Thanks so much for the comments, it's great to be able to benefit from the shared experiences of others.
I did some more playing based on the comments and discovered that it actually wasn't as hard as I thought. It just goes to show how important good documentation is.
You can see my update here - http://myownreality.eu/2009/05/gps-update/
I am using Houdgeo for a while now. Since I found a non documented way to add coordinates in LightRoom without exporting I like it even more. One of my cameras is a Lumix LX3 and its RAW format is not supported by HoudahGeo, but I convert into DNG when I import into Lightroom and use HoudaGeo to update the .DNGs directly. As a GPS I use a nüvi in the car and a ForeRunner on the bike hike and small boat (tracking speed). Both work great but battery sucks. I looked for a alternative logger with 48+ hours breath and there are many choices but not one for a mac user. I have Parallels but I hat to start it because it reminds me of work. I then heard about the I-GotU 100 (Win support only) and a free utility for the Mac named igotu2gpx. It worked great right away for weeks now. As long as you are happy to configure it on a PC (recording intervall, speed a which shorter interval is used - really smart!!, etc.). I am now getting a recording time of almost 60 hours. I would be great if the developer would add a function to wipe the units log from igotu2gpx. For that I need to start Paralles now which I hate. BTW don't put the unit at the bottom of your camera bag the tracks become very course. If you want to smoothen tracks or eliminate recordings from indoors whith very "jumpy" tracks I use TrackRunner to clean up things and split by days for publishing on Google or elsewhere.
Does anyone know how to change the default settings on the Wintec? I'm going away for a week long vacation and want to geotag throughout the trip, but I don't know how frequently a trackpoint is taken (I think I read somewhere that it takes one every second - even with 130K trackpoints, that's only about 36 hours). Thanks!