Dzu's Blog (Einträge über gps)

More OpenStreetMap Fixes for Road Bikers

Detlev Zundel — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:16:47 GMT

OpenStreetMap Fixes for Road Bikers

Detlev Zundel — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 21:11:56 GMT

DEM data for QMapShack

Detlev Zundel — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 21:33:29 GMT

As noted in my previous post GPX Downloads from geocaching.com I still need to rework my workflows from QLandkarteGT to the new QMapShack tool as only the latter is available for a Debian Buster system.

For my use cases, knowing the height of a map location is very important and so providing QMapShack with digital elevation data (DEM for short) is an important step. I cannot remember exactly how I did this for QLandkarteGT in the past, but I remember a lot of web browsing to find and download the correct Shuttle Radar Topology Mission (SRTM) followed by some magic script invocations to package it up for QLandkarteGT. Switching to QMapShack seems like a good time to reevaluate how this can be done most easily.

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GPX Downloads from geocaching.com

Detlev Zundel — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 22:09:12 GMT

Geocaching was admittedly not very high on my priority list in the last years and so I hunted the odd cache only with the help of my mobile phone and the c:geo app. As I did not log into the web user interface of Geocaching.com it escaped my attention that there were changes somewhere along the way.

So yesterday I realized that free accounts now also can download GPX files that can be processed without any further intervention by my eTrex 30 device. Just copy the files to the GPX folder on the SD card and you are good to go. Also in comparison to the previously available LOC files, the (XML) GPX files contain Groundspeak Extensions (use "View Source" in a browser as the schema displays only as an empty page) that are understood by the eTrex device for a very nice geocaching experience:

This makes the special handling described in my own (old) post eTrex 30, QLandkarteGT and Geocaching on GNU/Linux superfluous. This is very nice as the instructions would need to be updated anyhow as the QLandkarteGT project is now dormant and replaced by the QMapShack project. Switching to Debian Buster forces me to relearn my workflows in this new tool, but I am not yet as fluent with it as I was with the old one. Somehow the top level approach of working with tracks feels counter intuitive for my tasks but maybe I just need more practice to get over this.

But all in all this new(?) development makes the eTrex much more attractive for hunting caches. The one thing that did not change is the precision of the eTrex device compared to my mobile phone. The former is still superior in this respect.

Trip Planning for Road Bikes

Detlev Zundel — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 18:36:21 GMT

I wanted to write this post for some time, but only now having seen the pretty impressive improvements on the GNOME Maps application I was reminded of the topic and took the time to finally write it down.

The issue addressed in this topic is how to plan a "nice" route when travelling larger distances, say more than 40 kilometers, on a road bike. As this type of vehicle does not like going over gravel or other rough surfaces, a "nice" route should have paved surfaces all the time. This requirement is somewhat easy to fulfil when using routes calculated for cars. Unfortunately this guarantees a journey in heavy traffic let alone sections on "Bundesstrassen" where the speed difference to the passing cars is that high that driving a bicycle becomes very uneasy, let alone enjoyable.

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Two road cycle tours uploaded to gps-tour.info

Detlev Zundel — Sun, 31 May 2015 18:35:00 GMT

Since I first registered at gps-tour.info in 2010, it helped me a lot to find good cycling tours in lots of different places. It's only now that I took the time to upload two very nice excursions that I did with my road cycle in the last weeks.

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eTrex 30, QLandkarteGT and Geocaching on GNU/Linux

Detlev Zundel — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:57:00 GMT

End of last year my trusty old Garmin eTrex Vista HCx landed hard on the asphalt once and failed to recognize any GPS satellites afterwards.

Searching relevant newsgroups it turned out that the exact failure mode was observed by other people also already [1]:

No GPS reception
Information screen shows GPS firmware as "0.0"
Update of device firmware fails after 13%

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