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First mapping done

Posted by xoft on 29 May 2008 in English.

Whoa!

I never thought GPS devices are SOOO inaccurate! The first walk was a bit of a failure, we decided with my Lady to go out for a little walk and map the forrest footways. The GPS tracklog jumps here and there, 15 meters not a measure. Luckily enough i had two devices recording simultaneously so i was able to reconstruct at least some of the data by averaging.

And i have to say, JOSM sucks a bit less than i first expected, it has some neat functions, but still needs some serious work. What a pity i don't do Java...

I wanted so badly to see my first submission in the live data that i followed the directions in the wiki for requesting a re-render for either map renderer, but with no luck. Neither would rerender anything, Mapnik even laughed at my face with one tile finally rerendered but still with old data contents. What a disappointment. There should be a power tower in the map!

Location: Kobylisy, Prague, obvod Praha 8, Capital City of Prague, Prague, Czechia
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Discussion

Comment from andrewpmk on 30 May 2008 at 06:57

Newer GPSes are much more accurate. My eTrex Legend HCx is usually accurate to about 5m with WAAS/EGNOS on and after acquiring a good fix. Perhaps you should consider upgrading, it'll only cost a little over $200.

Comment from hatzfeld on 30 May 2008 at 10:28

About GPS devices: My (not very recent) bluetooth GPS mouse is quite inaccurate, too. Two things helped me: Since it receives best when it is put horizontally without any obstacles around it, i have mounted it on the top of my bicycle helmet. Yet it is still quite inaccurate (especially the altitude) when I start biking, but after some 100 meters it is getting better; therefore I begin my excursions with some turns on an open space place before I start logging.

Comment from hatzfeld on 30 May 2008 at 10:31

About JOSM: I have the impression that one needs time to discover and to get used to some very useful features, especially combinations of keys and mouse clicks.

Comment from lhahne on 30 May 2008 at 11:57

It's usually a good idea to wait patiently for a good fix (~10 sats) before starting to walk around. And another thing is that it's often pretty hard to get a proper track in woods.

Comment from RichardB on 3 June 2008 at 09:54

Mapnik re-renders only once per week. Just be patient!

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