Fwd: [FOSS-GPS] Foxtrot GPS track live refresh

[rolandas at rodali.lt]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Joshua Judson Rosen <rozzin at geekspace.com>
> Date: February 4, 2012 5:23:29 PM GMT+02:00
> To: "rolandas\@rodali.lt" <rolandas at rodali.lt>
> Subject: Re: [FOSS-GPS] Foxtrot GPS track live refresh
> 
> Rolandas,
> 
> I'd prefer to discuss this on the foss-gps list so that the other
> developers in the community can be involved; you're also likely to
> get better, more timely responses if you write to the list
> than if you write only to one person :)
> 
> As such, would you mind re-sending your message, but to foss-gps?
> 
> "rolandas at rodali.lt" <rolandas at rodali.lt> writes:
>> 
>> Dear Joshua,
>> 
>> We spent some time looking at FoxtrotGPS code structure with some code reverse engineering tools and at the moment believe that our needs of live plotting of friends tracks can be simply met by adding 1sec. timer controlled infinitive loop which calls loaded tracks redraw function. Further steps would be to modify track drawing function which would code airspeed, vertical speed, altitude and time difference between current time and track point time via track color, shape, etc...
>> 
>> Currently Cellular and WiFi networks suitable on the ground are very unreliable on board of sailplane or ultralight aircraft moving 100-300km/h at 1km heigh above ground, therefore we are developing GPS position broadcasting/retransmission/logging system via long range (100km) Radio-Modems. Also we believe that like separate gpsd GPS daemon system process is providing your current location, some other system processes can be used for obtaining coordinates/logs of the friends (via radioModems or wireless networks - it's responsibility of networking not geopositioning software),  and FoxtrotGPS should be in charge only for plotting positions/tracks of the friends. Whatever standard should be chosen for geo-location data exchange would be a matter of the final user of FoxtrotGPS software, not FoxtrotGPS developer.
>> 
>> We believe that by simply removing current friends finding functionality (communication with remote server of certain standard)  and adding some clearly defined standard of live plotting of multiple friends positions/tracks FROM LOCAL FILE SYSTEM could be very simple and elegant (UNIX way of modularity) solution, and could allow FoxtrotGPS developers to concentrate on current code perfection for map downloading/plotting and POI/track plus additional information presentation(visualization).  Geo-location data exchange could be achieved by independent separate system processes, and may be some existing Open Source code/projects already exists - in our case we are developing our own custom communication framework via long range radio modems connected to serial ports for airborne communications, and file synchronization over SSH on top of cellular/wifi TCP/IP networks is already implemented by open-source community and can be easily used for ground operations.
>> 
>> Best Regards,
>> Rolandas RAGAISIS
>> Kaunas, Lithuania
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 3, 2012, at 5:07 AM, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote:
>> 
>>> "rolandas at rodali.lt" <rolandas at rodali.lt> writes:
>>>> 
>>>> Hello FoxtrotGPS fellow developers...
>>>> 
>>>> We have spotted FoxtrotGPS as possible software for our embedded Linux
>>>> flight computer to be used in motorized ultralight gliders. We are
>>>> developing electrical motor monitoring software and after looking to
>>>> GPS/map application, believe FoxtrotGPS is very close to our needs for
>>>> additional features related to flight tracking.
>>>> 
>>>> As I understood Friends tracking feature currentluy is rudiment from
>>>> TangoGPS and is not working, as it is related to TangoGPS sever.
>>> 
>>> Yes, that's right--and with tangogps.org `parked' as it is,
>>> the friend-finder just causes a crash, so I've disabled it
>>> in bzr until we have another back-end to replace the tangogps.org
>>> service.
>>> 
>>> If you search through the foss-gps archive, you'll find some
>>> preliminary discussion about possibilities. I'd still favour XMPP
>>> (XEP-0080 geolocation; and possibly publishing location via MUC,
>>> or publishing location via PubSub and using MUC for `shared roster'),
>>> but will happily listen to other proposals from people interested
>>> in helping do the work :)
>>> 
>>>> We are developing some software which will synchronise files between
>>>> several flight computers ( on separate gliders flying within visibility
>>>> range)  via SSH ( SCP or SFTP) via WIFI adhoc network. FoxtrotGPS
>>>> tracks, could theoretically also be synchronised live at a rate about
>>>> once per second. If FoxtrotGPS would have an option to redraw selected
>>>> tracks constantly while track files are updated by other system
>>>> processes, we would have live picture of glider tracks flying close to
>>>> each other. For us important to see not only where another glider is
>>>> located (friend position), but also his track parameters lift/sink
>>>> during the flight.
>>>> 
>>>> The whole meaning of this idea is to broadcast flight conditions by the
>>>> first glider in the team for other team members to make decisions in
>>>> lifting airstream (thermals) searches.
>>>> 
>>>> Could you plese let us know if somebody would be interested to make slight
>>>> FoxtrotGPS modifications which would allow live redrawing of selected
>>>> tracks.
>>> 
>>> Sounds like a great idea; when we get the friend-finder working again,
>>> it seems like it should be relatively straight-forward to have it
>>> use the existing track-logging/-drawing (with slight modifications,
>>> as you say) to also log `friend tracks' in addition to the main track.
>>> 
>>> And if you're offering to help with work on reviving the friend-finder,
>>> that's fantastic :)

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