GPS Tracking on Droid

[LtKen]

So we're sitting around thinking of fun things to do with the Droid, and we were hoping we could get this done.

If we took the Droid up in an F-16 with us, is there any way to record the latitude/longitude every time interval, so we could then later overlay our path with a real map?

We know Maps wouldnt work, because we dont have a data signal, but with a sat signal, we should be able to keep track of our GPS coordinates....

 

[Vancelot]

I recently flew to New York and tried to use the "My GPS Status" app. I had the phone in airplane mode, but had gps enabled. I could not get a gps lock. Has anyone else had any luck with using the gps on this phone while on a plane?

 

[KevinJ]

I had a similar question last week. I was out doing some photography in the country, away from the "big city" and I wanted to be able to pinpoint my lat/long somehow, so when I got home I could see exactly where I was.

Someone pointed me to "My Tracks" app, but it didn't work for me. Perhaps it might work for the OP.

I'm still looking for a way to "save current GPS coordinates" to some kind of map, for later reference.

 

[bloodstains]

I would love to have my tracks laid out on a map if I'm flying somewhere. I tried turning it on a couple weeks ago on a plane from California to Florida but got nervous, I wasn't sure if we were allowed to have GPS stuff on. Didn't pick up a signal in 30 seconds so I turned it off.

 

[takeshi]

Someone pointed me to "My Tracks" app, but it didn't work for me. Perhaps it might work for the OP.

It might initially need data but I can't say for certain. I've used My Tracks without data coverage with no problems but I did start the track in an area with coverage. There are certainly other tracking apps out there though.

 

[LtKen]

Starting with data isnt a problem, we can get a signal on the flightline, but we'll likely lose it after takeoff. We'll give it a shot.

 

[slayda]

I had a similar question last week. I was out doing some photography in the country, away from the "big city" and I wanted to be able to pinpoint my lat/long somehow, so when I got home I could see exactly where I was.

Someone pointed me to "My Tracks" app, but it didn't work for me. Perhaps it might work for the OP.

I'm still looking for a way to "save current GPS coordinates" to some kind of map, for later reference.

I have Pinpoint Pro to use for this. It is not automatic but allows you to send an email with the lat/long automatically included. Since the Droid camera is not optimal, I plan to use my good camera then the Droid camera & attach the Droid picture to the email to myself. That way I can correlate the pictures to the emails & positions when I get back home. I've experimented around the house but have not put it into real practice. It is a manual process but meets my requirements. I really only want the position associated with the picture, not necessarily have the position shown on a map.

On another note, most GPS devices I've used need some time to locate the necessary number of satellites to provide a position. I suspect that most airplanes are moving too fast to get enough satellites "fixed". If the GPS was on & position established prior to takeoff, you would have a better chance of an app like tracks working, IMO.

 

[sst45jeff]

eye-fi card

slayda - why don't you look into a eye-fi card. ($100.00) It goes into your camera and if you get the explore model it will give you Geo tagging for free for life.

You can use the Droid as a hot spot and it will automatically send the pictures from you camera to you computer and they will be Geo tagged in the EXIF file for each picture.

they stay on the card after sending them to your computer until you delete them.
We use this for work and it works great.

 

[KevinJ]

I have Pinpoint Pro to use for this. It is not automatic but allows you to send an email with the lat/long automatically included. Since the Droid camera is not optimal, I plan to use my good camera then the Droid camera & attach the Droid picture to the email to myself. That way I can correlate the pictures to the emails & positions when I get back home. I've experimented around the house but have not put it into real practice. It is a manual process but meets my requirements. I really only want the position associated with the picture, not necessarily have the position shown on a map.

What I'm simply looking for is a way to set a point on maps (or some other app) and then when I get home refer to it. I usually put my photos on Flickr, and - even though you can drag-n-drop - you can't get exact positions.

When I shot last week I had Maps running along with GPS Status. I had to find a piece of paper and write down the GPS coordinates, and then later enter them into the computer.

But slayda, you gave me an idea. Until I can figure out how to input a data point, I'll just take a photo of the GPS Status readout, then I can access it at home.

 

[slayda]

slayda - why don't you look into a eye-fi card. ($100.00) It goes into your camera and if you get the explore model it will give you Geo tagging for free for life.

You can use the Droid as a hot spot and it will automatically send the pictures from you camera to you computer and they will be Geo tagged in the EXIF file for each picture.

they stay on the card after sending them to your computer until you delete them.
We use this for work and it works great.

Thanks Jeff. That looks nice except that my camera, a Panasonic DMC-FZ30K, only accepts plain SD, not SDHC, and only up to 2GB. Eye-fi Explore apparently only comes on an SDHC 4GB card.

 

[Brokn68]

That would be awesome. My Garmin hand held GPS does that and would be a welcome addition to the Android.

 

[streetkid]

I'm still looking for a way to "save current GPS coordinates" to some kind of map, for later reference.

me too, seems like such an easy thing to do. Geo caching has some apps that get close, but I haven't used them too extensively.

I go camping and riding, and a thing we like to do is ride out to some remote area and bury a bottle of booze. Mark the coordinates, then come back on another trip and dig it up and drink it . -- I guess that is some form of Geo caching

 

[sst45jeff]

eye fi

slayda - why don't you look into a eye-fi card. ($100.00) It goes into your camera and if you get the explore model it will give you Geo tagging for free for life.

You can use the Droid as a hot spot and it will automatically send the pictures from you camera to you computer and they will be Geo tagged in the EXIF file for each picture.

they stay on the card after sending them to your computer until you delete them.
We use this for work and it works great.

Thanks Jeff. That looks nice except that my camera, a Panasonic DMC-FZ30K, only accepts plain SD, not SDHC, and only up to 2GB. Eye-fi Explore apparently only comes on an SDHC 4GB card.

Take a look on Ebay there are some older refurbished versions of the explore in 2GB. They are SD and not SDHC.

 

[sst45jeff]

the eye fi can upload to your flicker or other account if you want and the geo tagging will be part of the picture EXIF file the sites are using this info to pinpoint maps for you or there are other programs that can do it for you like google maps.

I have Pinpoint Pro to use for this. It is not automatic but allows you to send an email with the lat/long automatically included. Since the Droid camera is not optimal, I plan to use my good camera then the Droid camera & attach the Droid picture to the email to myself. That way I can correlate the pictures to the emails & positions when I get back home. I've experimented around the house but have not put it into real practice. It is a manual process but meets my requirements. I really only want the position associated with the picture, not necessarily have the position shown on a map.

What I'm simply looking for is a way to set a point on maps (or some other app) and then when I get home refer to it. I usually put my photos on Flickr, and - even though you can drag-n-drop - you can't get exact positions.

When I shot last week I had Maps running along with GPS Status. I had to find a piece of paper and write down the GPS coordinates, and then later enter them into the computer.

But slayda, you gave me an idea. Until I can figure out how to input a data point, I'll just take a photo of the GPS Status readout, then I can access it at home.

 

[slayda]

On further investigation, the Eye-fi uses "Wi-Fi Positioning System from Skyhook Wireless, or WPS, for geotagging purposes." Since the pictures I would want geo-tagged are usually out in the boonies, this wouldn't do me any good. I'll just stick with my original, cludgy idea using the Pinpoint app and manually tagging.