motomappr

I blogged my recent trip in Australia over here. My plan was to test out various geoblogging technologies; Garmin Zumo GPS, Scala Rider bluetooth headset, iPaq GPRS with Magnalox client and server software. I envisioned riding through the country with a real-time KML file published on the blog and links to route a call to my headset through Skype forewarded to a local mobile number. I shared this plan prior to this trip, and interestingly several commented on their concern if the save the live feed stop moving.

In the end it was moot. Setup of the GPS with a hardwire connection to the motorcycle battery took about an hour, and anxious to get on the road, I deferred the additional hardwire connection of a power supply for the iPaq (I never completed this task, and relied on battery power alone). The Garmin Zumo worked well, especially through the city of Sydney. I did use the POI search for gas and lodging, and was able to target a motel for one night using this feature. Finding a gas station by searching for fuel stops worked, but did not list all the gas stations. This is good fortune, as in one case I don’t think I would have made it to the published gas station location.

The Scala Rider headset was very helpful for voice navigation from the Zumo. This was my first experience using a GPS on a bike, and I now can’t imagine doing it without the voice navigation feature. I tested the connection to the mobile phone and found the quality of voice communication to be excellent when stopped at the side of the road. While travelling it was inhibited by wind noise. I plan to do additional testing to see if there is a better configuration to avoid the peripheral noise.

Without setting up a hardwire connection to the iPaq, I unfortunately did not activate the live feeds to be published to a KML file. I’ve tested this functionality in the past and has worked well.

My intentions was to have the live feeds stored, converted to GPX format and published to my blog. Without the live feeds, I did the plotting and publishing of routes with a series of tools. I started with Google Earth and plotted a route by using the directions feature. If my route was not clear city to city, I would do a series for plots. I would then save these “places” (routes) as a KML file and convert using GPX Visualizer. If there were a couple GPX files, I would splice them together with an editor. To publish with Google Maps, I used the exising API key that I had for motomappr.com, and loaded up the GPX Viewer script. I added a variable to pass a file name, and then simply loaded the GPX files into a folder on my blog and used an iframe setting to integrate into a blog entry. This worked well thanks to the great script work at notions.okuda.ca. As noted the blog is over here.

It was a great trip and excellent roads on the east side of Australia. I hope to be back soon and do further testing with these tools.