Skytraq GPS

Today I got my latest gadget, a Skytraq Venus 6 GPS 3in1 Device. It calls itself a GPS-Mouse, a data logger and photo tagger and comes in a small box for ~ 30 bucks.

lsusb calls the device like this

Bus 004 Device 006: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port

and dmesg recognizes this few lines

[1852094.908529] usb 4-5: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 6
[1852095.120971] usb 4-5: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
[1852095.120993] usb 4-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[1852095.121004] usb 4-5: Product: USB-Serial Controller D
[1852095.121012] usb 4-5: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
[1852095.121168] usb 4-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[1852095.124034] pl2303 4-5:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[1852095.161116] usb 4-5: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Data logger

The data logger keeps your track records stored inside the gps module. To edit the config and access the logs, you need the open source tool skytraq-datalogger.

A simple

skytraq-datalogger --dump > gps_new.gpx

will store any logging to gps_new.gpx in GPX format. To use the route in googleearth, it must be converted to KML, using gpsbabel. The small script below reminds me of the commandline

#!/bin/bash
# convert the data logger data to google earth compatible format
gpsbabel -i gpx -f $1 -o kml -F $1.kml

Problems

At least in my car, the cigarette lighter adapter doesn't work. The control led turns red on plugging in, but as soon I also plug the GPS module in, it is off and my tracks weren't recorded.

Skytraq GPS

Data logger

Problems

Links

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