Winter project - GPS laptimer

[maff]

Back in december i was looking for a little project to keep my brain alive over the winter months and i thought id knock up a bit of GPS lap timing software, at this time id not seen Virtual Cup :oops:

Anyway, the softwares got to a fair usuable state so i thought id share the fruits of my labour.

Local circular route, with lap times displayed

Close up showing a tight left turn at a junction, coloured lines indicate laps

Same junction but using cublic splines to show more acurate guestimated curves between points, this is actually a cheat at the moment as its not weighted by speed.


Each cube you see or node, is a data packet from the GPS hardware, and they come roughly 1 second apart, as a lot can happen in a second especialy on track databetween these points will all be calculated.

At the moment without calculating between points its acurate to the nearest second, but that refinement will come.

Software will run on any modestly grapically endowed pc/laptop that will handle DX7 3D modes. GPS interface should be any serial NMEA standard device (including USB ones with emulated coms ports).

The screen is formatted 800x600 as orignally i had inteded to write it for a sort of touch screeny incar pc, but ive decided driving the car round tracks is more fun than wiring in pc components
:-D

Please apreciate its fairly earley on in this softwares development cycle and itll be buggy and do daft things, Its by no means up to the levels of Virtual Cup, but its a fun little thing that keeps my brain working, if anyone wants to try a copy, PM me your email address and ill send a copy over with a keyfile.

Id apreciate any feedback posative and negative (dont worry you wont offend, our testing department at work are evil) you can give + any data youve recorded

If your laptops not up to the 3d mode then you can run the software in record mode, and then analize it on the home pc later.

I thought id keep this in the members area for the moment till its a little more 'stable'/

Have fun

Maff

[TonyB]

Nice one Maff,

I will drop you a PM in a few weeks when I get a bluetooth GPS unit as my current one is hardwired into the PDA only.

Some stars heading your way for your generosity for sharing this :thumb:

[PhatBob]

Awesome stuff Maff.

[slarty bartfast]

Very cool, well done... 8)

[kev@tga]

really good maff and as above thanks for sharing this :thumb:

[maff]

Its cold out again and standing out in the shed has little appeal (well at least till Bens ready to give up his brakes ) so its indoor project time again. Ive bolted on a couple of bits to this:

Overlayed maps:



At the moment you have to jiggle the map to fit your self, but eventually itll just pull the right data from google maps. (probably).

And now at the touch of a button it gives you a list of all the 0-60s you did during the recorded run.

Ive lost the screen shots above so i cant remember where i was up to, but it now imports prerecorded NMEA sentences (which is what most satnavs use) so if your satnav can record (like MioMap) then it'll load those files in save having to have a laptop in the car.

If anyone wants a copyn to play with PM me.

Maff.

[duncan]

Maff - can I see this in action next week at the meet?

[maff]

You can have a copy now if you like, ill try and get to the meet though

[TonyB]

PM Sent, Looks great

[Gerry H]

Does it come with idiot proof instructions?

Be happy to be the numpty guinea pig if you need one:)