Using an Android Phone as a GPS logger - ie the really poor gliderpilots GPS!!!!!

[kiwi ross]

Hi Everyone,

Logged my 1st OLC flight yesterday from my Android phone which I
thought was quite cool ... havent in the past ever got around to
having a personal GPS logger or PDA, just used the club ones including
the hassle of downloading from a Cambridge with a RS232 serial port ..
yuk especially when your old laptop dies.....

For anyone interested just downloaded XCSoar (which seems to have a
problem at the moment with the logging component but otherwise
generally works okay - good work guys getting it onto android) and the
Hang gliding software 'Gaggle' from the Android Market. Gaggle created
a good trace which was savable in IGC format and simply emailed the
file to myself and uploaded into OLC....

To get better phone battery performance attached a $10 solar battery
pack which had 2 Lithium AA batteries attached by USB -> mini USB ...
that gave a 4.5 hr GPS and moving map battery life on a previous
flight which seems to suffice.

Phone was pretty useless in full sunlight for seeing too much but all
up was pretty pleased with the result using standard phone ...

Anyrate maybe a simple solution that allows anyone with a cheap
Android phone to put a flight in OLC without any dedicated equipment
apart from their phone..... doesn't compare with a full glider GPS
solution but maybe a way to get more student pilots logging flights on
OLC.... thoughts anyone ..... anyone dug up other options in this
area ....

cheers
Ross

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightbook.html?sp=2011&st=olcp&rt=olc&pi=38463

[Mike the Strike]

On Jan 20, 12:47*pm, kiwi ross > wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Logged my 1st OLC flight yesterday from my Android phone which I
> thought was quite cool ... havent in the past ever got around to
> having a personal GPS logger or PDA, just used the club ones including
> the hassle of downloading from a Cambridge with a RS232 serial port ..
> yuk especially when your old laptop dies.....
>
> For anyone interested just downloaded XCSoar (which seems to have a
> problem at the moment with the logging component but otherwise
> generally works okay - good work guys getting it onto android) and the
> Hang gliding software 'Gaggle' from the Android Market. Gaggle created
> a good trace which was savable in IGC format and simply emailed the
> file to myself and uploaded into OLC....
>
> To get better phone battery performance attached a $10 solar battery
> pack which had 2 Lithium AA batteries attached by USB -> mini USB ...
> that gave a 4.5 hr GPS and moving map battery life on a previous
> flight which seems to suffice.
>
> Phone was pretty useless in full sunlight for seeing too much but all
> up was pretty pleased with the result using standard phone ...
>
> Anyrate maybe a simple solution that allows anyone with a cheap
> Android phone to put a flight in OLC without any dedicated equipment
> apart from their phone..... doesn't compare with a full glider GPS
> solution but maybe a way to get more student pilots logging flights on
> OLC.... thoughts anyone ..... anyone dug up other options in this
> area ....
>
> cheers
> Ross
>
> http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightbook.html?sp=2011&....

....and Google just announced they are going to support a barometer
function, which will likely be built in to newer phone models. It
shouldn't be too difficult to add pressure altitude logging when this
becomes available. I see no reason why this shouldn't be acceptable
for at least badge and OLC flights.

Mike

[GK[_2_]]

On Jan 20, 2:47*pm, kiwi ross > wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Logged my 1st OLC flight yesterday from my Android phone which I
> thought was quite cool ... havent in the past ever got around to
> having a personal GPS logger or PDA, just used the club ones including
> the hassle of downloading from a Cambridge with a RS232 serial port ..
> yuk especially when your old laptop dies.....
>
> For anyone interested just downloaded XCSoar (which seems to have a
> problem at the moment with the logging component but otherwise
> generally works okay - good work guys getting it onto android) and the
> Hang gliding software 'Gaggle' from the Android Market. Gaggle created
> a good trace which was savable in IGC format and simply emailed the
> file to myself and uploaded into OLC....
>
> To get better phone battery performance attached a $10 solar battery
> pack which had 2 Lithium AA batteries attached by USB -> mini USB ...
> that gave a 4.5 hr GPS and moving map battery life on a previous
> flight which seems to suffice.
>
> Phone was pretty useless in full sunlight for seeing too much but all
> up was pretty pleased with the result using standard phone ...
>
> Anyrate maybe a simple solution that allows anyone with a cheap
> Android phone to put a flight in OLC without any dedicated equipment
> apart from their phone..... doesn't compare with a full glider GPS
> solution but maybe a way to get more student pilots logging flights on
> OLC.... thoughts anyone ..... anyone dug up other options in this
> area ....
>
> cheers
> Ross
>
> http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightbook.html?sp=2011&....

- At one point of your flight logged as low as -325 meters below the
the take off point...

[Max Kellermann]

kiwi ross > wrote:
> For anyone interested just downloaded XCSoar (which seems to have a
> problem at the moment with the logging component

I can't find your bug report. Bugs don't get fixed unless somebody
reports it to our bug database.

http://www.xcsoar.org/trac/newticket

Btw. XCSoar is OLC approved, even when used without pressure altitude.

Max