Using a Columbus v900 as a tethered GPS with OSX
At the Baltimore OpenStreetMap Mapping party Russ from CloudMade showed us a small GPS the Columbus v900. Here is a link to his review of the device. I had been using my iPhone to contribute to OSM, but found it problematic if I need to do something else with my phone while I was mapping. I ordered the v900, liking the low price and the many features. Up until this point I’ve mostly used the way point feature, but intended to eventually hook it up to my laptop.
Hooking the device up to my laptop running OSX was relatively easy. To make things work you need to download gps2ge and GPSd. GPSd is an easy dmg install, you just have to follow the typical wizard install instructions. Gps2ge is a tar file and to get it working you just have to unpack it and drag the file into your applications folder.
The next step is to connect the GPS unit to your computer through Bluetooth. Go to the Bluetooth setting under “Hardware” in your System Preferences. Make sure the unit’s blue light is flashing if the unit is already on but the light is not flashing press the power button on the top of the device quickly. It should beep and the blue light should begin flashing. In the Bluetooth menu select “Set Up New Device…” which will launch the Bluetooth Setup Assistant. Press continue and the next screen should ask you to “Select Device Type” choose “Any Device” and it will begin searching for devices. I device called “Columbus GPS” should appear in the menu you, select it and press continue. Your computer will now collect information about the device when it is done press “Continue.” On the next screen it will ask for a passkey which is “0000” at the time of this entry. Enter the passkey and press “Continue” this should complete your pairing and you can press “Quit” to leave the “Bluetooth Setup Assistant.”
To test out the connection launch “gps2ge” and press “Start gps2ge.” You should begin seeing coordinates in the application window.
This is how the gps2ge displays the coordinates it is collecting.
By default gps2ge saves its files in your tmp directory if you wish to save them somewhere else you just press the “Settings” button and then select “Files” and you can browse to another directory.
File Settings screen of gps2ge
When you switch directories a Start/Stop of the tracking is required, but gps2ge will do it automatically. By default it creates 4 files gps.kml, track.kml, pos.kml, track.txt. If you want to view your current position open the GPS.kml file. I used Google Earth to view my position for real time tracking you need Google Earth Pro, but if you were to select refresh on the GPS.kml file in Google Earth it will show your latest position. Repeatedly hitting refresh would be annoying for real-time navigation but just to test out the v900 it works.
This is the first GPS I’ve used with a laptop since my days as a GPS Technician. It was relatively straight forward to set-up and to start mapping. I will do a more in depth review at some point after I’ve experimented with all the features.
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May 16, 2009
Posted in: GPS, OSM
3 Responses
There is a great deal to learn. Regarding the tracking products what’s more effective GPS or GSM?
This post very diverting! Keep up the worthy work!
GPS is very useful specially the ones that are put on the Car dashboard. it can really help you drive on unfamiliar places.;,’
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