[ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

http://stage.rubyx.co.uk/columbus/status-landscape.png

This is a little app I've been working on over the past few months on and off. Currently its' most notable features are NMEA data streaming over network, bluetooth or as a USB serial device.

More screen shots at: http://stage.rubyx.co.uk/columbus/index.html

It's available in extras-devel now, stay tuned for updates and let me know what you want feature wise or bugs you find here.

(Enjoy! MERRY CHRISTMAS)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Very nice looking application. How stable is the current version?

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

It's pretty stable, it's quite nice on power as well. So if you lock the screen it'll log/stream data quite nicely and not effect your battery too bad.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Looks nice, atleast a program with nice ui

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

hi, cool app I´ll give it a try. thanx for your work.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Sorry for the ignorance, but what would I actually use this for? I've never really used the GPS before.

If you were explaining the use for it to someone who has not used gps, how would you describe it?

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Well, it allows you to use your N900 as a Bluetooth or a USB GPS dongle. It also allows you to log your journeys. It will soon have waypoints, so you can save locations like bookmarks and make it easy to navigate back to them. It has and will have better support for trip statistics, averages etc. good if you like cycling, walking or other sports where it may be interesting to find out stats.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

wow thats nice, i like it, i think it only needs maps .
nice job man .

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I think that this app definitely has the potential for nautical navigation use (with sea charts / waypoints etc. support). Very nice work! :)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

That's what I'm aiming at, it already has a Nautical units mode in the options menu ;)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Columbus did'nt have maps too ;)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

With so many mapping applications already available, it wasn't a major concern to me. I much rather wanted to create a user experience like using a hand held GPS receiver like a Garmin for instance.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I'm faily sure Columbus didn't have an N900 either :p

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

But if he did, I bet he'd use my app! :D

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Okay, an updated version is in extras-devel now: http://maemo.org/packages/package_in...umbus/0.8.2-1/
Which has two silly fixes in it, one was a segfault when disabling the bluetooth server service. And the other was a dependency problem in the packaging control file.
My plan is to, once validated that this code is stable, promote it to extras-testing. I will then continue unstable development in the extras-devel repository and once I reach my v1.0 feature landmarks I'll promote that to proper extras.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I only have two words about this app:
Good stuff.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

hi, can i save the NMEA data in a txt file??? it would be nice for me

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Why, yes you can :) In the menu there's the "Logging" dialog, it saves logs date stamped to: /home/user/.cache/rx/columbus

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Merry christmas Tom.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

This has me so excited. I've been waiting for a garmin type app all my life (well 9 months since I said bye to the iphone). Just downloaded it and had quick play, is there or will there be the option to enter co-ordinates to use with real maps, you know, the ones made of paper? Would love to use it for hiking. Thanks again. F**k me it's cold in Ireland

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Configuring and saving waypoints/landmarks is the next feature I plan on implementing.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Wow is all I have to say and I don't say that very often. Brilliant interface and very receptive too. I will give it a proper try on the hills on thurs and report back. Hats off :)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

A wonderful app with an excellent UI, though it has a small annoying bug; a missing donate button ;)

Oh and Merry Christmas everyone :) I don't celebrate it, but still :P

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

btw. Have you made any power comparison between different GPS log apps on N900? Any powertop analyzes? How does this app compare to (while n900 is locked) other loggers on power consumption?

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I have not, though I would be interested in the results if you're offering :)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I'll try to do some calculations to get a better GPS fix. And it's easier for me if I have data in NMEA format. (something like DGPS)

thanks and Merry christmas

Joaquin

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Well, it should work fine for you. At the moment NMEA is all I support for data logging but I plan to implement more data formats in the future.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Very nice UI, sea maps for nautical use would be very appreciate.
Thank you.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I'll see what I can do. I was thinking of putting in some form of charting, but it probably wont be conventional maps. (Though, never say never). Charts/Maps? will be added after 1.0 so you might be in for a bit of a wait :(

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Do you have a publically visible SCM? I'd like to use your BT code in my own project and track any changes you make.

Regards,
Dave

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I plan to put it into gitorious soon, haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll post here when it's ready, probably some time over the next few days.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Gonna install this and have a play about.

It actually reminds me of an app that I used to use on the N95. Can't remember what it was called, but it was available from Nokia Betalabs.
I actually tracked my whole 300 mile journey from Suffolk to Exeter and back again. Glad they had power points on the trains so I could recharge my battery. :p

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

When starting the program while not connected to a network, & with Network Connection disabled in Tools, N900 prompts to select a network connection.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I'd like to have it display the GPS time.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Assisted GPS, unfortunately that's out of my control :/

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Yeah, I'll add that, it's been on my minor tweaks list for ages as well ;)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Congratulations on the interface. Technically impressive and efficient. And at last a replacement on the n900 for the uninstallable mini-gpsd.

Waypoint averaging would be nice....

A festive time to all.....
HA

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

gave it a go this evening on my way home from work. Worked quite well, but a few suggestions, if I may.

A zoom or scroll function for the tracker screen, so the whole track can be reviewed would be nice.

Also the ability to save tracks for future reference at a later date. Would also be a nice touch if it was possible to "play back" saved tracks as well.

Otherwise, everything's looking good so far. ;)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

Yeah, all those features are intended for v1.0 so expect them soon. On startup it'll load your previous logs when you've enabled file logging.

Zoom is currently available though not complete, you first have to press on the track view. Then you can use inc/dec buttons (aka volume keys) to zoom in and out. :)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Columbus Navigation Toolkit
 

I would like to request the option of having the default maemo status bar visible. It has the potential to be remarkably ubiquitous, give that it has controls to flashlight and the status bar icons can contain things that the user may wish to see on a regular basis (wifi signal applet, cpumem applet, camera lens reminder - don't use that last one but I know many do). Even more ubiquitous due to MohammadAG's mod of hildon-desktop and hildon-home that allows you to have the status menu come out of the status bar in portrait mode.

At the same time, I understand from using your program that that's probably not very convenient, because right now Columbus Navigation Toolkit is really well designed, and most of the UI elements are placed in a way that leaves little space for a status bar. So I don't recommend making that the default behavior.

But it would be nice if it was possible to have another button to bring out the status bar, or a settings option where you can chose whether or not to have the status bar showing.