dsPic GPS - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2016, 02:05:49 pm
content: Hi GuysI’m here to shamelessly show off my dsPic GPS mapper.. which doesn’t have any GPS hardware yet, but that’s the easy partI should probably check what sort of CPU the handheld GPS units use, I think it was some type of ARM.There is so much easy room for improvement, I think I can double the speed. The current topographic map is a 1Mb file.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 03:30:56 am
content: HiI tested outdoors yesterday, and think 42 seconds is a pretty good time for cold position fix.As far as I know I'm the only one in the a World to do a mapping GPS with Microcontroller... otherwise I'd like to see it.https://youtu.be/qEyZdGWASl8

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 03:40:58 am
content: I skimmed through your youtube video, initially. Approx half way through, you seemed to pour a very flammable liquid onto your creation (electronics). Then set it on fire, and then repeatedly smashing it with a hammer.I was expecting some kind of technical explanation...So I am confused as to what was going on hereMaybe sometime I will watch the video, completely, but I am put off by the violence shown to the helpless microcontroller and stuff.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:06:18 am
content: The smashed one is not the same hardware, just similar looking.The current one is the second iteration, and there will probably be a third (only to get it much smaller).That makes more sense in with the context of other videos around it.My videos usually aren’t supposed to be a “how to” so to speak, but don’t lack technical explanation either.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:14:02 am
content: Quote from: @rt on October 17, 2016, 04:06:18 amAs others have said in the youtube comments, and probably why you are getting so many downvotes for the video. Other people (me included), don't really like to see things like that, in the middle of serious and hopefully otherwise enjoyable videos.I accept that you don't want old projects to pile up, so you are binning them, I'm fine with that.But showing it being destroyed, in the middle of the video, seems to be spoiling an otherwise, potentially interesting video to watch.I like the graphics, where the text and stuff wobbles around like that. It look really cool. I'm surprised at how bright the back lighting was, even though it was shot outdoors, in bright conditions.A cool project, anyway

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:23:08 am
content: ThanksI have noticed that people don't like it,but the reasons for it are always very positive.It always means that I finished something, and need what I learned much more than retaining the hardware,or I found a better way, and was not so lazy as to struggle down a dead end rather than put in the real work of starting over.The same applies to software.Sometimes the reason for it is to ensure that I don't go back to something I'd perceive to be going backwards, which is just laziness.It would be evident it's almost always my own stuff... unless some Chinese junk.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:27:18 am
content: Funny in the last video (in the mountains) I mentioned how carefully packed and well treated it is (ESD protection and all), even though I know it gets the hammer in time, because I know it can be smaller.So at least that's consistent with my explanation

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:37:36 am
content: One way of thinking about it, is to think of some kind of 150 in 1 Electronics Play Kit.After spending a while making a circuit on it (using springs and wires, or similar), at some point you will want to move on to another of the 150 experimenters projects.So in order to do that, you will have to "destroy" the existing circuit.Therefore what you are doing, is similar to that.In a sense, software is "destroyed". Because you load it up into your computer/MCU, and at some point (probably) change it to something else (another game or something), or switch the computer/MCU off, and the ram "forgets" it all.I suppose the video is showing an accurate depiction, of your real life activities. So although not liked by everyone, the destruction's at least tell a story.Anyway, seeing the sudden fire and hammering, came as a really big surprise or shockSorry if I over-reacted slightly.GPS is probably a mystery (as to how it works) to most/many people. So making your own, is a very interesting and impressive thing to do.Next step is to buy a giant firework, and send your own GPS satellites up. That will be REALLY impressive

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:41:57 am
content: No apology needed. I don't expect that to go down well with everybodyOr really try to promote my channel.I really only try to show off individual projects.Well the GPS no one really builds.. it's a self contained module.Just the vector mapping to make use of it is the creation.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:52:59 am
content: I thought you were probably using a GPS module, but I was not sure. Because I remember, recently reading on this forum, details on how to do your own (raw) GPS system. Literally by decoding the GPS signals yourself.I only very quickly skimmed through it, so could easily be mistaken. I think it needed FPGA's, and sample/example data could be downloaded from the internet. So one can practice with software to decode it.It's rather cool adding GPS to projects.I'm also impressed with you showing the map. Because that is not so obvious, either. Maybe there were examples on the internet, and you went from there ?Also 1 Mb seems so tiny, for presumably detailed map information.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2016, 11:14:17 am
content: Yay! I got my 15 mins of fame Hackaday featureThis one is playback of a GPX track log file with positions loaded in place of real GPS coordinates:MK14, I didn’t see that last question at the time..Vector files are smaller in their nature, they are a list of points and labels drawn to screen at run time.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2016, 04:16:27 pm
content: Quote from: @rt on November 09, 2016, 11:14:17 amThat makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation.On reflection, I was being a bit naive (i.e. not thinking about it enough). I believe the highly detailed UK GPS maps, are something like 0.5 Gbytes (from memory, I may be way out). So a much less detailed and much smaller area, can be something like 1 megabyte. I was being a bit foolish.1 Million bytes, just sounded too small. Even a short music MP3 file, is around 3 million bytes. So it just sounded too tiny a file.I liked the video above. It is amazing the functionality and components, the Chinese put into things like that (MP3 players), for (usually) such small amounts of money.I think you probably deserve any hackaday awards or moments of fame.

author: jaromir
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 15, 2017, 10:05:35 pm
content: Sorry for reliving this older thread, but author seems to be still around.Quote from: @rt on October 17, 2016, 03:30:56 amhttps://get.google.com/albumarchive/111890741167251011072/album/AF1QipPNpebtuwm8Lbs6OOkStBTLyqIuT5LiV-OGXbGI?source=pwaI've done a few GPS based devices few years back, this one was the "most advanced". I used maps from local openstreetmap.com branch, rendered into 256x256 bitmap tiles in 15 zoom levels, so I can get whole country or single street on the display. There are hundreds of tiles in convoluted directory structure, taking few gigabytes of SD card space. MCU takes GPS position and from given zoom level calculates which tile to draw on the screen and draws pointer to mark current position. I included logger function, made few outdoor tests, but never got myself to build permanent enclosure for that.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 05:49:27 am
content: NiceI don’t think I’d ever go for image maps myself. I mainly have togographic in mind with GPS.Someone did it with the Sony PSP back in the day, and it was a nice job, but the data was also huge!I can see myself doing the same thing again at some stage with something similar to Pic32 though.Both the MP3 Player and vector GPS I’d like to do with a colour screen and modern controller one day.Even for this one I toyed with the idea of decompressing the JPEGS from MP3 ID3 tags and displaying album covers in 64x64 monoMainly for a joke in the case of this display, but there’s just not enough resource left now to do it.For a beefier controller and colour display it would be almost a given though.If anyone else is interested, I’m working on schematics to make available now. There is also someone I’m working with to design a PCB.I’m making the drawings exclusive to him while the PCB design is happening, but in the end, all open source.ps. I did one for iPhone that used 4 tiles of satellite view bitmap, and then drew the vector topographic over the bitmap.That was easy to deal with because it only covered a single national park. I’d like to do that again for Pic32 maybe.