The Nomad goes on a fossil hunt!

Recently, three colleges converged in western Nevada for four days of field paleontology. Over thirty students participated in a series of field tasks that represented different kinds of field scientific work. The tasks ranged from classic description to modern collection techniques. For the latter, the students mapped a trilobite-rich area using a [...]

Why can’t my Tablet-PC read my USB-connected GPS receiver?

I’ve written several times about COM ports and GPS receivers. Interestingly, in the last two days, I have spoken with four different folks about how this works, particular in regards to setting up a GPS receiver through a USB port on a tablet computer. It is valuable to understand how this works to [...]

Setting up an external Bluetooth GPS on a ToughBook

As I have written in a previous blog, I am not very pleased with the integrated GPS on the new Toughbooks. However, the Bluetooth is very stable and opens up a variety of GPS options. The following goes through the steps of setting up an external GPS on a Toughbook 19 running Windows [...]

The “Mystery of the Shifting COM Port”

I had an interesting case this past week that while unique, might shed light on some problems. A researcher has been using a CompactFlash GPS card in a Recon handheld computer without problems for nearly a year now. He e-mailed me that the GPS was working, but was coming in on a different [...]

Comment on ABC News: How accurate is your GPS?

Recently, ABC put out a news snippet about the “child killing” inaccuracies of GPS vehicle navigation units. Glossing over the semantically misleading title, the report did a decent job of quickly summarizing the obvious—navigational software is prone to errors. It is not that the receivers are inaccurate, but rather the GIS programming behind [...]

A marriage of convenience: GPS and cameras

What is the latest trend in GPS? For my money, there will be an expansion of ‘geocoded’ cameras; cameras that record the current longitude and latitude and affix this data onto the image. While the technology has been around for some time, both on the commercial market and as open-source software, the market [...]

Power levels and GPS receiver quality

Here’s one of the lessons you learn the hard way.   Sub-meter GPS receivers, like the popular SX Blue, keep an internal power source running so the computer can maintain clocks and other functions.  While personal computers do this as well, the drain is much more significant on the GPS receivers.  So, make sure you keep [...]

Great free software for calculating your GPS accuracy (DOP)!

In the last blog, I gave an introduction to dilution of precision or DOP and explained when you need to know it and when you don’t. This time, I want to show you a very cool, free program to calculate your DOP values throughout the day. All you need to know is your [...]

What in blazes is ‘dilution of precision’ (DOP) and why should I care?

GPS receivers are so cool because you turn them on, wait a few minutes, click a button, and bingo—there is your location. For most applications, you don’t even need to care how accurate the location is because either accuracy isn’t important to you or you are using maps where the scale is so large, [...]

The costs and benefits of using field computers and GPS receivers

Recently, I ran into an old professor of mine and we chatted about the use of computers in field geology. Both of us were trained using little more than compasses, 1:24,000 topographic maps and aerial photo interpretation. And we both agreed that students need to be trained in these methods. “So,” he [...]