I put together a small conversion Basic program in OpenOffice to convert the logfiles to have real date (instead of GPS time, which is Time of week in seconds, and week number since 1/1 1980). This tab separated file I had to upload for conversion online, to get a GPX file. It was then opened with the Traxmeet uploader program, that then uploaded it to my account at traxmeet.
Yesterday I received sourcecode that I requested from Fasttrax. It is c-code for talking to their GPS modules (which is inside the Suunto GPS Pod). The source code actually has more functions than the compiled .exe version that you can download, and now supports GPX writing directly from the GPS Pod!
What does this mean?
I should be able to compile this to a new .exe file which has GPX export directly, and also I could compile it (with some modifications of the serial port handler, which is made for windows) for OS X, and Linux and even other systems.
All commands are possible to send, to set or get the time for example, and also to extract the almanac and ephemeris as I was talking about earlier.
I will experiment with this, and get back on it when I have something usable. I'm also planning to make an adaptor, that could be put on the opened Pod to get an USB-serial port connection, without any soldering!
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Hi Anders,
ReplyDeletethis is genius!!! This is the reason for me to finally get a GPS pod!
By the way ... do you know if it's possible to change the memory on the GPS POD. I hav not been able to locate the module on your pics, so I suppose it is on the other side of the connectors.
I ask because running 2hrs36min is ok, but before I finish my marathon in that time ... I'll need to adhere to some reincarnation-encompassing religion :o)
And for cycling I'd need anything up to 6-7 hrs.
Anyway: great job!
John
Thanks John,
ReplyDeletethe GPS-module only have integrated/internal memory, and I don't think there is an easy way to expand it.
The only way I can think of is the SPI interface that the module have, that you could program to use an external SPI EEPROM or MMC card, but then you need to do your own firmware. To do that you need the SDK for the module, which I don't have, but you could probably ask for it from fasttrax.
Regarding the time avaiable for logging:
The size needed for every log-point is not fixed, but depends on how much info that is stored in each.
If you configure it to log only position, time and maybe elevation, it would be less bytes each "log-point", and you could have maybe 4 hours. but I must test this to give an exact number.
I think the specified battery time is 10 hours, if you dont use lithium batteries, which would have maybe double that time - so make sure you start off with fresh batteries...
Handling the SPI would be quite straightforward with something like an arduino which has support for writing to flash storage. Probably a little big for running with but there are clones that are much smaller once the kinks are worked out.
ReplyDeleteWow this is great!! This is the function I've always wanted with my t4!! When you make an attachment, i'll buy one off you.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteAny change you could compile the logtool for linux, or edit the sources so I could compile them? My knowledge of coding is very minimal, and I can't get it working. I allready modded my GPS pod to work with my Suunto T6 -cable, but I hate to have to boot to windows to use LogTool.
I got LogTool working with wine. Now I'm compiling wine with usb support so I can get Moveslink to work in Linux.
ReplyDeleteHi anyone still has details on how to do this with the t6 cable? Thnks
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