Your PDA as Driver Information System
Your PDA as Driver Information System
|
Driver information systems are expensive.
Too expensive. |
 German version |
But wouldn't it be nice if you knew the travel time and the distance covered so far as well as the average speed wherever you are.
There are also other interesting things like the time you spent waiting in front of red traffic lights or in traffic jams. And - oh, at which altitude over sea level are we right now? Which altitude difference did we cover? What was the maximum speed we reached? And into which direction do we drive at the moment?
Even information systems in best equipped upper-class cars wouldn't show these data.
So forget about it!
No! With GPS DIS every Pocket PC mutates to a car computer running a mega driver information system. All you need is the standard GPS receiver you are already using with your navigation system.
GPS DIS does not need any signals from your vehicle's electronics. It exclusively functions with the data it gets from the GPS receiver. It shows updated travel information and warns - when desired also acoustic - if you are exceeding certain speed limits.
Prerequisites
GPS DIS works with all PDAs running Pocket PC 2002 or higher. A standard GPS receiver must be attached, that supplies current data once per second in NMEA format.
Main screen
 GPS DIS Pro (Day view) |
 GPS DIS Pro (Night view) |
The main screen is divided into the following four areas:
Current valuesGPS DIS can show the values in the following units:
Elevation dataYou can change between different display units at any time.
GPS DIS also shows the Time to first fix. It indicates how long it took the GPS receiver to send valid data for the first time after programm start.
The program adapts the screen refresh rate automatically to the available performance of your PDA. When the performace is poor it updates the values not every second.
Reset display values
You can reset all values in the three lower display areas by clicking its key Reset.
When you reset the total values you get the option to change the total kilometer and/or meilage value. Please enter the total distance and afterwards the total running time in hours (e.g. 28.3).
With this time GPS DIS computes the
average speed. The total time in the display starts with 00:00:00, however.
You can set the gradient sum to zero by simply clicking the
value. Also the minimum and
maximum values individually.
Day and night view
While the PDA screen is best readable
with bright background at daylight, a dark background is substantially more
pleasant during night travels. You can with between bright day and dark night background with one click. The
colors are adjustable in the settings menu individually.
Switching off prevention
As long as data of the GPS receiver arrive, the PDA behaves, as if you would tap again
and again on the screen. So it does not switch off
while driving. If some minutes no
more data arrive from the GPS receiver, however,
the PDA switches off automatically.
Log file
To save the relevant received data as log
file simply press start log in the main screen. GPS DIS assigns automatically a file name, which consists of a prefix, date and time.
You specify the prefix in the file menu under log file
name. The prefix also contains a path name, which
must be below My document. GPS DIS attaches
automatically year, month, day, hour and minute and the extension .log to the file name.
While GPS DIS writes the data to the
log file, the buttons turns red until it is pressed again and
the log file is closed.
You can select an existing log file as data source and play back what you recorded.
Logbook
You can create a list of your drives with GPS DIS. If you press the button Logbook, GPS DIS records the time and the start kilometer or milage. To indicate that
the travel is being registered, the button changes its color on green.
When yo reached your destination you press the Button again.
GPS DIS asks to enter the purpose of the drive and stores it together with the data of the drive as one line in the travel book.
Each line contains the following data:
The information is separated by tabulator characters. So the data can be imported very simply into Excel. The file name of the logbook is the log file prefix with the extension .txt.
Please note that GPS DIS records all values using the currently selected units. If you switch the units between kilometers and miles, the recorded entries will not fit together.
You can display the logbook at any time, by display logbook in the file menu. From the file menu you can also remove all recorded logbook entries.
Saving and loading display values
You can save the current display values into a file with Save display values from the file menu. The
file name is formed according to the same rules, as described with the
log files; however with the extension .dis.
With Load display values you can load the saved values ito the display again. Simply select the desired data file. GPS DIS now uses the loaded values.
Closing GPS DIS
You can leave GPS DIS from the file menu with or without saving the current values. If you select exit without save GPS DIS will use the values saved with the last regular exit the next time you use it.
Special functions
With Signals from the settings menu you can select, whether GPS DIS signals
certain conditions acoustically or coloured.
As acoustic signals you can use all wav files stored
in the Windows folder. Please select a file from a list. If you want to use special sounds you can simply store it as wav file in the windows folder.
You can adjust two different speeds for color changes of the speedo and additionally a speed for acoustic signaling.
 Settings Menu GPS DIS Pro |
 Signals Screen GPS DIS Pro |
All settings remain after exiting the program.
Selection of the data source
You can select the Source for the GPS data with Data
Source in the file menu.
With Send init you can tell GPS DIS to send
CR/LF three times when the serial port is opened
for the initialization of the GPS
receiver. Some GPS receivers supply
data only if they were initialized.
 Files Menu GPS DIS Pro |
 Data Source Screen GPS DIS Pro |
The baud rate (bits/s) must match the baud rate of your GPS receiver.
Alternatively you can use a log file or the navigation program Navigon Mobile Navigator as data source. However, with the Mobile Navigator GPS DIS only evaluates the signal validity, the speed and the direction. Unfortunately the altitude and the number of satellites are not available from the interface.
An interface to TomTom Navigator does not exist. You can create log files in TomTom Navigator, however, and analyse these files with GPS LOG comfortably at home.
Regardless of which data source you use, GPS DIS shows in the text field at the button of the data source screen the incoming data. Right beside it the received and relevant data record names appear. The data records GGA as well as either RMC or VTG are necessary.
Many GPS receivers do not include the 'Geoid Seperation' in the elevation values. Therefore you can determine a altitude deviation in the data source screen. Please enter 48, if GPS DIS displayes constantly 48 meters too much in your region. This value is the normal deviation for Germany. If your GPS data stream contains the Geoid Seperation, you can simply check Auto instead.
Many GPS receivers determine the altitude only inaccurately. The data can vary also with resting receiver around several meters. This becomes apparent with the sum of all altitude differences covered in slopes . You can therefore determine a tolerance limit. Only single altitude differences covered in slopes exceeding this value are computed into the displayed sum.
Hardware recommendations
The program was developed with a FSC pocket Loox 600
(XScale 250, 400 MHz, pocket PC 2002) and with a Lact GPS-002 receiver. According to feedback of users the program also works perfectly with the following systems:
I am always
interested in reports with other hardware and comments on this program.
Send your feedback to u.gerlach@web.de.
Please indicate which PDA, which GPS receiver and which navigation system you use and whether
your PDA runs PPC 2002 or PPC 2003.
| The German Pocket PC Magazine printed a very positive review of version 1 of this program in edition 1-2/2004 on page 36. |  |
| GPS DIS Pro (English) | GPS DIS Pro Installer (English version of GPS FIS) for PPC created 29. February 2004 (ca. 573 kByte) |
| GPS FIS Pro (German) | GPS FIS Pro Installer (German version of GPS DIS) for PPC created 22. February 2004 (ca. 579 kByte) |
| VB Runtime | VB runtime files for PPC2003 by Microsoft |
| GPSFIS-Testlog.log | Test log file (ca. 50 kByte) |
The installation works as usual with pocket PC:
You can transfer the test log file e.g. into the folder My documents to the PDA. So you can test GPS FIS without a GPS receiver.
The Download version can be started only 15 times. If you want to use
GPS LOG further, please transfer
14.99 Euro to:
Indicate your E-Mail address. Replace @ with blank AT blank. You will receive the full version via e-mail.
| Purchase by credit card with direct download of the full version at Pocketland.de. |  |
Thank you for your support!
Note: If the test version of GPS LOG does not run on your PDA, also the full version will not work!
A program for the off-line analysis of GPS log files offering similar data is GPS LOG. You can evaluate the log files comfortably when you are back at home. In addition you will see, at which time and milage the maximum and minimum values were reached.
Distribution
This software may be copied and used in the test
version for private purposes free of charge. Publications on magazine CDs
are welcome. Each commercial use may take place only with
written agreement of the author, however.
For links to this site, please use http://gpsdis.webhop.net, only.