I've been playing some more with Google Earth, and a GPS Receiver.

I use a program called GOOPS which tracks your progress, speed, distance etc, and overlays that information on Google Earth. Looks cool -

Here's the track of me going into town.


And the GPS Receive is so accurate, I never thought it would be this good. You can even see which side of the street you were travelling on.


It doesn't tell you which way to go in the way a Sat Nav would, but it looks pretty cool.

Panda

This is pretty dam nice.

Do you cache the maps before driving out? or have u got a permanent wireless broadband/something connection?

Yep, I've got 2 GB cached

I have collected the co-ordinates of some of the WAP's around town, and I have a wireless card with a decent sized antanna so I can drive around and windows switches from one WAP to the next as I drive past it - this way I get almost constant connection.

Of course it won't work out of town.

Panda

Few more q's:

What kind of WIFI antenna do you use and where do you put it in/on your car?
What GPS hardware do you use?

It's a D-Link 7dB Omni-Directional antenna. I've currently got it inside, but plan to move it outside when I get a longer cable

I use a TS-GPM008, from here Twig Solutions (scroll about half way down)

Panda

any usb gps reciever works. I use the Globalsat one i got at www.vmscarpc.com.au

i've just gone and got my gps and have started caching the maps.

I started doing it manually but realised it'd take frigin ages. Then i stumbled across this handy utility to help with it. It'l spare you your sanity + another week of your life

I've moved on from using Google Earth, to a proper Satellite Navigations program - Map Monkey.

Now, instead of just showing where I've been with Google Earth, I type in my destination and it guides me to where I want to go. This will all seem pretty boring to those who have used Sat-Nav before, but I've been trying to make this work for ages so I'm pumped.

It turns down the volume of the music or DVD and then gives me a warning 500m before the turn "In 500m turn right", then turns the volume back up and most importantly, if I miss the turn it will re-calculate the route.



Panda

G'day i have found a company that suplys both hard ware & soft ware &
backup and support for GPS , Voice control if needed from your PC &
phone and other GPS systems as nessary
its TrackRanger from Advantech Design
,i have been checking it out for a couple of days now its impressive
check it yourself it can cover national all the way or just local
WWW.advantechdesign.com.au
let me know what you think ,cheers

Looks like a good find... do you know if it provides voice and on screen instructions such as turn left 500m, at the roundabout take the 3rd exit, etc

If so i wonder if I can get a SDK for it to develop a touchscreen friendly version (or persuade them to do it otherwise) as it doesn't look to touch friendly as it is...