GPS Data Logging

[NCC1701]

Let's suppose you have a long trip planned.
Maybe 13-14,000 miles and 8-9 weeks on the road.
Let's say you want to get a GPS log of the entire adventure.
And, you want to be able to access the data with a map program, such as MS Streets & Trips on your desktop.
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I have MS Streets & Trips with GPS and it works OK. But, after running for long periods on my notebook it does seem to have problems. I don't know if it is because my notebook is overheating, or what, but the map starts blinking on and off, and I have to save and restart the program. Also, I recently replaced a fuse to the 12 Volt port and my notebook is a prime suspect.

I've been checking out DashDAQ with GPS, which may do the job. They claim it can log months worth of data on a 4 GB SD card. And, it will log more parameters than just GPS. But, it costs as much as a head unit with GPS built in, and I can find nowhere on their site that the data can be used with a map program on my desktop. The other features of the DashDAQ are great, including the Navigation. But, it is pricey. And, I'm not sure it will do what I want it to do.

I like Streets & Trips and paid something like a hundred dollars for it. But, if a logger which fit the bill in every other way has a cool mapping application that would be ok too.

None of the indash navigation head units I've examined have logging capaability.
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In a nutshell: GPS data logger with large capacity and mapping software. Navigation is a huge plus.

Any suggestions? TIA.

EDIT: Checked out TracWise (pricey), TrackStick Pro (capabilities).
If I could just figure out what the problem is with MS S&T on my notebook ... then, I'd have found the solution. Just not reliable enough as is.

[The_Q_Man]

I've been thinking about getting a geotagger for multiple purposes...one being to geotag my photos that I take and the other to track trips and allow uploads to Flickr.

I've found this little tagger here and have read quite some good reviews! It is $59.95 from a vendor on Amazon which is cheaper than any price you can find elsewhere.

Click here to see the vendor store.

Click here to see the vendor store.

It seems to do quite well. Only bad thing I heard is that it can be slow to upload your tag data. But, that many points, what do you expect? Also, it only has 32,000 points vs. some that are over 500,000, but I like the built in rechargeable battery.

If I get it, I'll let you know how it goes.

[SmartJoeMN]

If you have a PDA/Windows Mobile Phone, check out NoniGPS. Very simple program that imports into Google Earth. Used it to track my lunch laps at Road America and was very accurate.

[NCC1701]

I decided to buy the Visiontac VGPS-900
It costs only about 20% as much as another unit I'd been eying, and I think it will do just what I want from it. I took a little spin with it today to get a data file for playing with. Here are the results.

[smartHHO]

pretty interesting program. Is it just software or another GPS stile item that you have to buy. As in software, my Pioneer logs where it goes, and you can just download the CVS file to look at. Can you import something like this? Thanks bud.

[NCC1701]

The Visiontac VGPS-900 stores its data in csv files, which can be opened with MS Excel, then saved as xls files. The xls files can be imported (not opened) by Microsoft Streets & Trips. One technicality doing this which took me a while to figure out, is one column in the xls file must contain information identifying the region, i.e. United States.

The photographic tracks were done on Google Earth, and it requires KML or KMZ files. The software which ships with the Visontac will convert from its native csv to kmz.

Google is your friend. Search for 'convert' + the relevant file extensions. I saw a number of GPS conversion programs out there, some free. But, you need to find out what format your Pioneer stores the data to proceed. CSV is is a really fundamental file structure which, it seems, most converters can take as input.

This site may be useful. I haven't used it myself, but I found in in a Google search as I described above.
GPS Visualizer: Map a GPS data file with Google Earth

I see from your post here that the Pioneer stores in CSV files. That's not a bad thing. Search for something to convert CSV to KML or KMZ, you can then open the tracks in Google Earth, which is free.

Microsoft Streets & Trips sells for Less than $50 since you don't need the GPS version. There are a number of other mapping programs out there for GPS data. I've only talked about the ones I'm somewhat familiar with. Google.

EDIT: Oh, I just thought of something. You MIGHT need MS S&T with GPS to do this. I'm not sure, I don't have the basic version so I can't easily check that out. You should be able to find out online though. The GPS version is a little more expensive and comes with a USB GPS receiver to plug into a notebook.

[Woody14619]

There are a number of free GPS software solutions out there that can import data from a number of different GPS units (or use computer based USB dongles) to display and contort in all kinds of fun ways.

Enjoy!