Hi all,

I have tried that approach with a pair of cheap GPSs and wrote the software
to automatically do the add/subtract. Got absolutely rubbish results - even
with two of the same model of GPS. I guess it is something to do with them
not choosing the same set of satellites to use - certainly on inspection
they were tracking different sets. At one point I had three GPSs on the
table, reasonably clear location, and all three were drifting in different
directions from the true location. 

A mate also found this quote :

"Q. Can I post-process the data collected with my Garmin GPS unit to obtain
greater accuracy? A. Unfortunately not. Garmin GPS units and other handheld
consumer-grade units do not internally store the raw pseudorange data from
the satellites required to post-process differential corrections. This type
of capability is only found in survey-grade GPS equipment."

Would be very interested in at least an algorithm for doing this correction
... 

Simon 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben Discoe
Sent: Monday, 6 August 2007 1:44 p.m.
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Geowanking] Cheap post-process DGPS - why not?

Hi list,

Like a great many people, i can afford consumer GPS units (~$100) but not a
'professional' unit (~$4000-8000).  Of course, the well-known lack of
accuracy in consumer units (~10m) is nowhere near usable for many
applications.

The solution that springs to mind would be a cheap differential:
1. Buy a second consumer GPS unit.
2. Tie it to a post or other fixed object.
3. Walk around, gathering data with the first GPS.
4. Download data from both units.
5. Using the timecode to correlate, subtract the second unit's drift from
the first unit's coordinates.

>From everything i've read, it seems to me that would bring the 5-10m error
down to 1-2m.  However, i didn't find any software to do this simple
operation.

There is plenty of information out there about fancier DGPS using WAAS or
other things which are not widespread and/or not reliable
(http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/dgps.htm)  

There is high-end proprietary software like GrafNav
(http://www.novatel.com/products/waypoint_grafnav.htm) which apparently
costs thousands of dollars.

But it should be a really simple operation to subtract one track's offset
from another.  Is there some reason this simple approach wouldn't work?  Is
there some FOSS which will do it?

Thanks,
Ben
http://vterrain.org/


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