post-processing for GPS data loggers?

Dear group---
I'm planning a research project where I aim to study traditional
transport systems in the
Andes (South America) and I'd like to install a series of GPS units for
tracking. Some of these groups will be moving slowly through difficult
terrain (ie, llama caravans) and I'd like to get detailed info on
travel velocity with respect to slope. There is no WAAS in South
America, but we're ~150km from the IGS base station AREQ so I hope to
post-process using that data that can be acquired on the web.

I'm wondering if anyone can suggest GPS solution that has the following
characteristics:
- low energy consumption. Preferably no onboard interface, just a way
of downloading the data after the trip.
- changable batteries (AA hopefully) last 1 or 2 days per set
minimally.
- 2-5m horizontal accuracy with post-processing
- rugged and water-resistant
intervals (48,000 positions).
- low cost so I can install a number of them. Hopefully under $200 each
+ software costs if necessary.

I've found that Trimble doesn't make such a thing. All that they have
are antennas like the Pathfinder XB that connects with a PDA (too much
energy use, expensive and unnecessary). The perfect solution would be a
passive data logger connected to a Trimble unit like that and I could
recover the SSF files after the fact and post-process those. Another
approach that I'm looking at is getting a Garmin units with Rhino Rover
post-processing software. If anyone has experience with long tracking
projects with Garmins please let me know.

Finally there are a number of devices that are EXACTLY what I'm looking
for that have been used in commuter studies but none of them, to my
knowledge, allow for post-processing.

Perhaps a customized solution with datalogger connected to a Trimble
antenna would be the way to go.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

Nico Tripcevich

---
Nicholas Tripcevich
UC Santa Barbara Anthropology

ntripcevich@gmail.com wrote:

For the *logging* function you might contact Prairie Geomatics Ltd
http://www.prairie.mb.ca/gpsdatalogger.htm

Their standard unit would not be suitable for logging data format
required for post processing. But I'm under the impression that the unit
physically can accept any serial ASCII data stream. I would require
modified firmware. They, or their oem , may have already done something
similar.

wrote:

Take a look at
http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=18902&section=10047&beginIndex=0&forge_prod=BFF318E33E4FBBB576C2A90077934741&forge_prod_pses=forge_prod%3DBFF318E33E4FBBB576C2A90077934741%7E
GPS PostPro 2.0 & Earthmate GPS BUNDLE
And there is a forum about all aspects such as better batteries.
http://forums.delorme.com/index.php?c=19
The first one with software comes to 299 $ More extra GPSr's are cheaper (by
the dozen f.i.)

Piet
Piet

ntripcevich@gmail.com wrote:
This unit might get close to what you want:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=657


--
Regards,

Adrian Jansen adrianjansen at internode dot on dot net
Design Engineer J & K Micro Systems
Microcomputer solutions for industrial control
Note reply address is invalid, convert address above to machine form.

You might take a look at the Sony GPS-CS1 digital camera GPS unit. I
just got one for $95. It does most of what you want. Even though
it's designed to be used with Sony's CyberShot cameras, it's just a
GPS datalogger with the necessary software for updating jpeg EXIF
headers. It uses one AA battery, stores 32MB of data points in one
NMEA 0183 raw data format text file. That's suppose to be 15-30 days
of logging. I guess it depends on how long you leave it on each day.
With NiMH batteries, you get about 14 hours. I get over that with the
NiMH batteries I was using. The data points are logged at 15 second
intervals. You plug the GPS into your computer and it looks like a
disk drive so it's very easy to transfer the data file. I used
GPSBabel to convert the data to plot with Garmin Mapsource and Google
Earth. It's not as sensitive as my Garmin Nuvi, but it does exactly
what I want.

James


On 27 Oct 2006 08:43:27 -0700, ntripcevich@gmail.com wrote: