Hello,
Since this is my first post, let me start off by saying I LOVE exiftool. Such a fan. Thanks for making it!
My question is this: What do people use to log GPS data beyond simple Lat, Long and Altitude. Like Speed, Bearing, etc.
Relative to GPS Tags, Exiftool provides so many tag options that I would love to use. However, I cannot find a product (or mobile app) that will log anything beyond a simple GPX.
I think that includes Lat, Long & Altitude. That's it. It doesn't include bearing, compass or any of the other goodies that Exiftool can accommodate.
What do people use to record and log such data.
Also, I use a Sony A7RII, so there is no OEM or aftermarket hotshoe-GPS for the camera.
Personally, I have a Magellan eXplorist, a AMOD AGL3080, and an iGotU GT-600. I only really use the lat/long/altitude output from these. The Magellan battery life was the shortest, and it only lasted about 8 hours between charages. The AMOD AGL3080 was better (15 hours), and it was my favourite logger (it had the ability to log just about anything you wanted), but it became unreliable and eventually wouldn't do anything but show an error code when I turned it on. My current logger is the iGotU GT-600 which has a battery that lasts a week or more because it sleeps automatically and has a motion sensor to wake it up (and enough memory to hold 90 days of logging at 10 second intervals for 8 hours/day).
I could go on and on about these, but I'm a bit short of time so I'll just leave it at that for now.
- Phil
Thanks Phil!
For what it's worth, I thought I'd report back that I found an app for iOS devices that logs: date, time, latitude, longitude, altitude, datum code, heading (deg), heading (mils), elevation angle, and horizon angle. You can export all of it to a KML file. It's called Theodolite.
I've asked the developer for a sample of the KML output before I buy it but I'll post again, if it works. If anyone has opinions on this app (good or bad) I'd love to hear.
Thanks.
Quote from: dgood on December 08, 2016, 02:33:58 PM
It's called Theodolite. I've asked the developer for a sample of the KML output before I buy it but I'll post again, if it works.
Well, this was the developer's response.
QuoteHi, exported KML only contains position and altitude. The log export
also includes space-delimited text with the full complement of raw data.
Most people use that, either directly, or with a script to tailor the
export to the desired format (so you could make a custom XML or KML file
from that). I included a paste from a sample log export that shows the
header and one line of data.
DATE_TIME LAT_DEG LON_DEG ALT ALT_UNITS DATUM HDG_DEG HDG_MILS
HDG_TYPE VERT HORIZ VH_UNITS NOTE
2016.12.08_14.38.42 38.0938 -78.3872 16 FEET WGE 95 1689 TRUE -37.9
-1.2 DEG 'test point'
The exported log contains coordinates in whichever datum the app is set
to (above, "WGE" is code for WGS-84). The exported KML only shows
coordinates in WGS-84 for compatibility.
regards,
So, the data is there, but alas, more scripts to write :-\
I wonder if Geotagger would read that format. You could also look into GPSBabel.
I forgot to mention I also have an Android app called GPSLogger that produces ExifTool compatible GPX files (and NMEA or KML files too if you want), but it is hard on the phone battery life so I can't use it all day without recharging.
- Phil
Quote from: Phil Harvey on December 07, 2016, 08:55:58 PM
... My current logger is the iGotU GT-600 which has a battery that lasts a week or more because it sleeps automatically and has a motion sensor to wake it up (and enough memory to hold 90 days of logging at 10 second intervals for 8 hours/day) ....
- Phil
Phil, can you get stuff of that device without using the easy to use software interface? On a mac? I'm thinking along the lines of
cp /Volumes/tracker/logfile .
Hi Alan,
That is one reason I really liked the AGL3080 -- it had a standard USB mass storage interface. Too bad it died. The eXplorist also had this. I did a lot of research, and couldn't find anything with abattery life as good as the iGotU and a mass storage interface.
Unfortunately I have to use other software to download from the iGotU. On mac I have igotu2gpx. It has a GUI, but looking underneath I see a command-line utility (https://launchpad.net/igotu2gpx):
Usage: igotu2gpx info|dump|clear|diff [OPTIONS...]
Options:
--action arg info: show GPS tracker configuration
dump: output trackpoints
clear: clear memory of the GPS tracker
diff: show configuration differences relative to an
image file
-d [ --device ] arg connect to the specified device (usb:<vendor>:<product>
(Unix) or serial:<n> (Windows))
-i [ --image ] arg read memory contents from file (saved by "dump --raw")
--gpx output in GPX format (this is the default)
--details output a detailed representation of all trackpoints
--raw output the memory contents of the GPS tracker (be sure
to redirect output to a file)
--segments for output in GPX format, group trackpoints into
segments instead of tracks
--utc-offset arg time zone offset in seconds
--help output this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
-v [ --verbose ] increase verbosityp
But unfortunately the "clear" function doesn't work for the GT-600, so I still need to use the Windows software (running in a VirtualBox) to clear the memory after downloading. Apparently there is a branch of the igotu2gpx code that fixes this problem (lp:~charlesf/igotu2gpx/gt600), but I have to figure out how to build the app to be able to use it. (The binary distributions don't include this patch.)
- Phil
Edit: After a bit of work I managed to compile a patched version of igotu2gpx on OS X, but I haven't tested it yet to see if it works. With any luck it will fix the clear problem and a year-2016 bug.
Edit2: Nope. The patched version won't connect to the iGotU. ... some debugging to do. :(
I started logging my tracks using a Garmin Geko 201 quite a while back (around 2005). Drawback was the short battery life and decreased precision in urban areas or none indoors.
Today I use my Android Phone using an app called Geo Tag Photos Pro, which is available also for iOS. The nice thing about the app is that it can sync the track logs to GPX to Google Drive or their site (no need for cables!) http://www.geotagphotos.net (http://www.geotagphotos.net). As well as I can control the app using my smartwatch. As with many logging apps, battery use is an issue, so I usually carry a small external USB battery in my camera pack for my phone. As with most modern phones, my Android phone (a Nexus 5x) is supposed to use the U.S. GPS as well as the Russian GLONASS satellites to get a location fix, as well as using WiFi/Cell Networks for establishing a location fix when satellite signals are unreliable.
When I travel abroad, I also use also Foursquare's Swarm app to "Check in" to locations to keep track of the places I visited.
Post Processing: I use GeoSetter (http://www.geosetter.de/en/ (http://www.geosetter.de/en/)) for geotagging the photos with the tracklog (which uses Exiftool). Using a KML export of the Foursquare Checkin History I also add the location names to the photos. Recently, using Exiftool, I started adding the Foursquare Venue URL to some of my photos using the "Location Created Location Id" tag.
Sample photo metadata: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmoliver/32109067735/meta (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmoliver/32109067735/meta)