birding-aus

GPS on Smartphones - caution

To: "<>" <>
Subject: GPS on Smartphones - caution
From: Bill Stent <>
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 17:35:16 +1100
Funny you should mention Bad Elf. I had to give a speech at a mate's 50th 
yesterday. He lives in a bit of a rabbit warren in Reservoir (Melbourne) so I 
stuck the Bad Elf into the iPod and had the sat nav get me there. Problem was, 
I forgot to turn it off when I arrived. The Bad Elf is a ripper little thing 
but it does chew the battery a bit.

After a couple of hours it was time to do the speech. Problem was I'd put my 
notes (you can probably see where this is going...) on my iPod.

A bit of a panic followed but I was saved by mate's daughter who had a charger. 

Good lesson though. Letting the GPSr run out of battery in the city is 
inconvenient. Letting it run out in the outback could be fatal. Always keep a 
backup.

Bill

On 07/10/2013, at 4:23 PM, <> wrote:

> Gidday Peter, 
> 
> In all my years of GPSing I've never had a straight GPS crash. This has 
> included severe cooking incidents in cars on Cape York in summer sun, long 
> drops onto sandstone, proper drenching, and sweat .... so much sweat! I 
> haven't relied on memory cards ever. It means the GPS can store less, but 
> it's useful enough for me with inbuilt maps, which I generally turn off 
> anyway. 
> 
> I have had two occasions when the GPS signal has clearly been scrambled when 
> my direction of travel changed suddenly on the GPS but not in actual fact, 
> and sudden loss of accuracy (up to 200m error). I suspect the time stamps 
> received by the GPS must have been diluted (not sure of correct terminology), 
> but these inaccuracies are otherwise inexplicable to me.
> 
> The GPS function on my smartphone, including with Bad Elf (which I think 
> someone mentioned earlier) is not yet in my "trusted equipment" list because 
> of battery drain, aforementioned crash, and general failure of some 
> associated applications to work with sufficient reliability. 
> 
> Hooroo, 
> 
> E
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Shute  
> Sent: Monday, 7 October 2013 2:40 PM
> To: Vanderduys, Eric (CES, TownsvilleATSIP)
> Cc: ; 
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] GPS on Smartphones - caution
> 
> Good point. Do dedicated GPSs ever crash and become inaccessible? I would 
> have thought they'd be less likely too, being simpler, but memory cards can 
> become corrupt in any device.
> 
> Apart from a data loss like yours, one has to consider what happens if you're 
> relying on it to navigate at the time.
> 
> Peter Shute
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On 7 Oct 2013, at 3:40 pm, "" 
>> <> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> Peter, I second your comments regarding the usefulness of GPS functions and 
>> various apps on smart phones. 
>> 
>> One caution: if your phone is an iPhone and crashes, it is a complete black 
>> box. Last year I commenced collecting certain types of field data on an 
>> iPhone 4s. After turning the phone off at end of field trip, and then 
>> turning it back on it asked to be reset. This, allegedly, wipes all data. 
>> The good news is I sent it to a forensic data recovery expert in Sydney who 
>> cracked it (his first successful 4s crack) and recovered all data for $250. 
>> Much cheaper than redoing the data collection (estimate $4-6k).
>> 
>> Lesson: even if you get back to camp at midnight, back up immediately to a 
>> computer, or cloud if in range. 
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Eric
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:  
>>  On Behalf Of Peter 
>> and Toni
>> Sent: Tuesday, 1 October 2013 2:40 PM
>> To: 
>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] GPS for vocalisation recording
>> 
>> I use several different Android smartphones and tablets for detailed GPS 
>> mapping.  The modern smart phones are brilliant in heavy forest.  Mine is 
>> capable of tracking more than 20 satellites, including the russian ones.  
>> Older GPS could only track 8 so quickly lost signal under cover.  
>> In heavy rainforest the phone kept a fix at all times when previous surveys 
>> had seen older GPS lose all signal.  Every year the phones get more 
>> sensitive.  For instance they will easily get a fix from inside a house, as 
>> long as there is a window in the room.  Accuracy and repeatability are far 
>> improved from older dedicated GPS I have owned, although I am sure newer 
>> dedicated GPSs have also improved.  I use Oziexplorer to manage maps and 
>> waypoints.  It can download the waypoints to excel for easy manipulation.  
>> There are similar programs available for Apple. Battery life can be a bit 
>> short, but I also carry a small battery pack that can recharge the phone if 
>> out all day.  Having your birding app, GPS and phone in one instrument makes 
>> juggling hardware a lot less of a problem.  As long as you don't lose it or 
>> drop it.
>> 
>> cheers
>> Peter
>>> On 01-Oct-13 12:41 PM, Merrilyn Serong wrote:
>>> Garmin handheld GPS units are very good.
>>> Here is a link so you can compare the different models.
>>> https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/cOnTheTrail-cHandheld-p1.html
>>> They are not cheap, but if you want a good one...
>>> Cheers,
>>> Merrilyn
>>> 
>>>> On 1/10/2013 11:59 AM, David Richardson wrote:
>>>> One of the points mentioned in the original post was that the GPS be 
>>>> capable of deep forest satellite acquisition.I don't know much about 
>>>> iphone or camera GPS functions but I doubt they would operate 
>>>> accurately in situations other than clear sky satellite 
>>>> acquisition.That is why a dedicated GPS unit,and a very good one at 
>>>> that,would be of more use.
>>>> perhaps someone on list who has knowledge of this could post a relpy 
>>>> addressing that point?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 10:27 AM, Peter Shute <> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> I suspect that the main difference between a phone GPS and a 
>>>>> dedicated one, apart from not using up the battery of your precious 
>>>>> communication device, is accuracy. I'm told I shouldn't expect 
>>>>> better than 30m accuracy from an iphone.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I suspect Google Earth coordinates can be off by that much too, if 
>>>>> the difference between the images of roads and the corresponding 
>>>>> linework is anything to go by.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Peter Shute
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 1 Oct 2013, at 9:06 am, "Martin Butterfield" 
>>>>> < <>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> If you don't have a mobile phone, my camera (Panasonic TZ40) has a 
>>>>> GPS function which - if activated -  includes geocoordinates with 
>>>>> images.  I suspect many other mid-range cameras now have this 
>>>>> functionality.
>>>>> 
>>>>> It seems that the need for a dedicated GPS for simply recording 
>>>>> point locations is well gone.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Martin
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 1 October 2013 08:30, Peter Shute <<mailto:
>>>>> >> wrote:
>>>>> If you mean you want to save and name a way point so that you can 
>>>>> just read out the way point name into the microphone, then I would 
>>>>> have thought most would allow that. Some probably just 
>>>>> automatically number the way points, but you could read out that number.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I just use my phone's GPS (have never tried a dedicated GPS), and I 
>>>>> read out the coordinates directly at each new location. I could 
>>>>> mark a way point and then later copy its coordinates into the 
>>>>> metadata, but it seems just as quick to type it out while I listen 
>>>>> to the coordinates I read out.
>>>>> It gives
>>>>> me two chances to get it wrong, but it also means the coordinates 
>>>>> aren't as likely to get separated from the recording.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'm hoping I can find a way to get the phone to read out the 
>>>>> current coordinates so I can just hold it up to the mic. That 
>>>>> should eliminate the first kind of error, but it's inspired more by 
>>>>> laziness.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Peter Shute
>>>>> 
>>>>> ________________________________
>>>>> From: <mailto:
>>>>> > [
>>>>> <mailto:
>>>>> >] On Behalf Of Roger 
>>>>> McNeill [ 
>>>>> <>]
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, 1 October 2013 7:52 AM
>>>>> To: 
>>>>> <
>>>>> au
>>>>> Subject: [Birding-Aus] GPS for vocalisation recording
>>>>> 
>>>>> All,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I know this has been raised a few times over the years, so 
>>>>> apologies for that, but the technology and brands keep changing and 
>>>>> it is difficult to keep up.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I need a Handheld GPS to support my vocalisation recordings. The 
>>>>> main requirements other than the obligatory battery life, 
>>>>> ruggedness, light, international maps, deep forest satilite 
>>>>> acquistion, etc, is the ability to input multiple way points and 
>>>>> link them to a specific recording.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Most of the units I see on line seem to have a detailed  drill down 
>>>>> menu but what I am looking for is a compact unit whereby I can 
>>>>> quickly enter a location, note the 'location reference' in my 
>>>>> recording and then weeks later when I am back home, download that 
>>>>> way point into my computer when I am doing my Meta data?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Up until now I have been doing it after the fact off Google Earth 
>>>>> and this is getting very old.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Also, the ability to pre-load waypoints is probably standard, but 
>>>>> also required.  I am a hand held GPS novice, if that is not already 
>>>>> evident by the questions, so any and all help is appreciated.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Roger
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Roger McNeill
>>>>> Samford Valley, SEQ
>>>>> ===============================
>>> 
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