Mapping bus stops using Treo 680 & GPS

[jeffq]

I'm trying to figure out how to use my Treo 680 and a GPS device to map bus stops along my favorite routes. Ideally, what I'd like to do is ride each bus and tap some application's screen every time I pass a bus stop. The app would record the GPS coordinates at that moment. When I get home, I could export the collected coordinates to some format to use in a mapping application. My preference would be to convert, possibly by writing my own conversion script, to KML for import into Google Maps, but I'm flexible. Getting the latitudes and longitudes into an open (non-proprietary) data set is an important requirement.

So far, the usual applications that go with GPS receivers (like the Garmin Mobile 10x) seem to be geared toward looking for places you can describe, not recording lat/long for places you are at or passing. The ones that allow you to record "tracks" seem to do this by snapping the current location every X amount of time, not each time that the user pokes the screen. That's fine if you want to see your overall trail, but not if what you care about are the specific points. (Timing the "snaps" is critical because I wouldn't have time to add labels to each stop, since they pass by quickly. Each point must represent each stop -- no extra points, no missing stops.)

Has anyone done something like this, or know how to do it with an off-the-shelf, Treo 680-compatible GPS receiver and (possibly additional) software? I have no problem writing conversion scripts for anything data I can collect, but I don't want to have to hack Palm GPS software and create my own user-driven point-capture application. Thanks.

[jfa02]

welcome to treonauts jeffg. That sounds like a great idea I hope that you get it figured out. It sounds like you are a lot more tech savvy than me.

[LotusLord]

That is interesting. I'm not aware of anything, but don't be too surprised if someone knows of a software package that would work for you.

[TazUk]

TomTom allows you to create POI's, (Points Of Interest), based on current GPS position. You could store them all in a new POI category callled say Bus Stops and then export the POI file to your PC. There are plenty of online docs that explain the TomTom POI format.

[jeffq]

Thanks, TazUk, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what "TomTom" means in this context. They seem to offer both hardware and software, both of which are needed for the GPS-less Treo 680. Clearly the software would be needed, but so far all the hardware offerings I've found from TomTom are display-based units that duplicate functionality in the Treo (and charge you for it), making the combination absurdly expensive. (The display-less Garmin Mobile 10x is currently available new on Amazon for about $130.) Do you know if TomTom offers a GPS Bluetooth receiver without a display that uses the Treo for its display and user input? Or if their Navigator software works with the Garmin units?

[LotusLord]

Have a look at the Freedom Keychain GPS

[jeffq]

Originally Posted by LotusLord

Have a look at the Freedom Keychain GPS

That sounds extremely promising! It's not only much more affordable, it's also very convenient -- something you can pocket instead of having to get another belt holster for. It lists quite a few software packages that it apparently works with ("TomTom Navigator, The AA, Active Pilot, BlackBerry Maps, CoPilot Live 6, Destinator 6, Gate 5, Google Maps, Mapquest, Memory Map, Navigation Mobile, Navman, Nokia/Smart2Go, Navicor, Route 66, Spot, Telenav, Wayfinder"), which provides another avenue of research I'll be checking into.

Does anyone know if this works with Pathaway or PrettyMap, which aren't in its list? I'm particularly interested in Pathaway support because they also seem to provide a service for tracking fleets, and I'm ultimately hoping to sell some area public-transportation systems on the value of their customers receiving real-time information on where the buses and trains are while they're trying to catch them. (Duh!)

I found that an Amazon search for "Freedom Keychain GPS 2000" also yielded some similar products: Holux GPSlim 240, Holux M-1200, and B-Speech Keychain. The Holux units claim Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) compatibility; the B-Speech doesn't say. Neither has much info, like whether they work specifically with Treo 680 (or any particular PDA), but that's fairly common for Amazon pages of lesser-known products. More to investigate...

Thanks for the tip, LotusLord!

[LotusLord]

No problem. Please let us know how it works out for you. I know a few people who might be interested in such a product.

[jfa02]

Indeed

[Mooncoder]

PrettyMap can do that (GPS log, online track, edit POIs, synchronize maps, export to KML, GPX), and much more. Soon available for WM, too.

PrettyMap