Forums > Windsurfing   Gps and Speed talk

GPS Speedreader

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Created by boardsurfr > 9 months ago, 1 Jun 2019
boardsurfr
WA, 2202 posts
1 Jun 2019 8:31AM
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I have released a new application for GPS file analysis today. It's free to use, and runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It does not have all the features you find in GPSResults or GPS Action Replay, but it's a lot faster when working with large files. It supports files from the GW60 and GW52, the Motion GPS, and u-blox prototype. GT31 users would have to export or convert files to .sbp format first.

Besides fast analysis, another goal was to make posting to the GPS Team Challenge easy. There is a menu option to open a browser window with the results, which has a "Submit" button that will post results to GPSTC.

Results in most GPSTC categories will generally be very close or identical to results obtained with the other programs. In the 2 and 5x10 second categories, results should be identical, except for occasional differences in the last digit that are from rounding errors. In the other categories, results may sometimes vary a bit. For example, both GPSResults (with default settions) and GPSActionReplay filter out speeds below 5 knots for the 1-hour results. GPS Speedreader uses a 0.6 knot filter instead, so 1 hour results can be a bit higher, especially if you were not planing the entire time. Results can also be higher if you use a minimum speed setting on the GPS, which can cause incorrect results with other software. Additional details can be found towards the end of the online help at ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreaderHelp.html

There's a blog post with screen shots and a few notes at boardsurfr.blogspot.com/2019/05/gps-speedreader.html

Downloads are available at ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreader.html

The software does not require any license keys. If you like it and want to support the development, "beer money" donations are welcome. There's a Paypal button on the help page at https://ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreaderHelp.html. Note that the currency is US dollars, so you don't get a big surprise like a certain former dentist who shall remain unnamed .

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
1 Jun 2019 9:01AM
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Fantastic Peter.
What you didn't mention GPSspeedreader handles files of any length, unlike KA72 that seems to reject files if they are too long.

tbwonder wrote

Select to expand quote
Yes I have been uploading OAO files directly to KA72 since mid April. It has worked perfectly until the last one which was an 8MB file that it refused to accept. Not sure if it was the size or something else.


I've been using speed reader for a while now, and I'd forgotten just how fast it is until I used GPSResults yesterday to check alpha separations between watch and GW52, that seemed sooooooo slow.

Great that you've got it to the release stage and everybody can start using it.

As it's filters have been set up with the GPSTC in mind, GPSspeedreader is my personal preferred way to post.
It has been approved for GPSTC posts , but just hasn't got into the "rules" yet.

tbwonder
NSW, 639 posts
1 Jun 2019 11:19AM
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This is exactly what we need - I love it!
A simple program to produce results ready to post to GPSTC.
I loaded in my troublesome file from earlier this week and it instantly produced the exact numbers that took me 20 minutes of farting about converting files and loading into different programs earlier this week.

One little issue I see, is that when say your best 2 sec is selected, the Speed panel and Error panel have a vertical line that jumps to the spot, but the cross hairs on the Track view panel do not move to the highlighted part of the track.

Also I would l like to see the six categories that go to GPSTC highlighted in some way to make them easier to pick out.

tbwonder
NSW, 639 posts
1 Jun 2019 11:37AM
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I love the compare feature!

Top graph - speed
Bottom graph - Error
Red is GW60 on Wrist
Blue is Motion high on upper arm.
The error numbers from the Motion are fantastic

sailquik
VIC, 6068 posts
1 Jun 2019 11:58AM
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Andrew. This may help finding you best runs.
If you deselect the error window, enlarge the top map view window and deselect 'draw full track' in preferences, you can see the highlighted section of you best runs quite nicely. There is also an option to deselect 'colour by speed' which may help contrast.

But I agree, enhancing the highlighting of the selected results would be nice.

The 'cross hairs' are actually lat long lines I think.





sailquik
VIC, 6068 posts
1 Jun 2019 12:00PM
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Yes, the comparison feature has been a great tool for GPS testing and comparison. This is just one example that highlights the difference between the wrist worn GW-60 and other GNSS units worn elsewhere, especially on the head. We have to be a bit careful comparing these two though, as the error values from the Ublox device may be filtered. But it is very interesting to compare a GW52 worn on the head or upper arm, with a GW-60 on the wrist.

Note that this run was starboard tack with underhand grip, but on the right of the graph I am going back upwind with overhand grip and you can see the effect it has on error values. Note also the effect on the error during the Gybe. Blue = GW60, Red = GW52 on head.



tbwonder
NSW, 639 posts
1 Jun 2019 12:07PM
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Daffy, yes I think you are right about the lines being lat/long lines.
So new request is get rid of lat/long lines and replace them with cross hairs to mark the spot

boardsurfr
WA, 2202 posts
1 Jun 2019 10:09AM
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Select to expand quote
tbwonder said..
Also I would l like to see the six categories that go to GPSTC highlighted in some way to make them easier to pick out.

Did you try the "View results in browser" function?

Otherwise, all results are from the GPSTC categories, with the only exception of 100 m added.

tbwonder
NSW, 639 posts
1 Jun 2019 12:16PM
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I just thought it would be nice on the main page if the 6 GPSTC numbers were highlighted to make them easy to find.



Yes I tried the "View results in browser" function, that is excellent when actually posting to GPSTC.

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
1 Jun 2019 10:17AM
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One of the features I particularly like is the hour algorithm.
No more 0 hours!
If you sail at 30kts average for 0.8 hour then crash and have to quit, you'll still get a 24kt hour.
And the algorithm gives the best hr unlike some of the other software.
EG here's one of my hrs from last month. It starts and finishes at 0 knots


This is the same as Realspeed.






But a lot different to GPSResults.


GPSResults doesn't start the hr at 0kts but does allow all those 0s in the middle, so the best hour is ignored.
As far as I know KA72 also does hours like this.

fangman
WA, 1238 posts
1 Jun 2019 11:05AM
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Just to add to the above. Congrats Peter on the release of GPS-Speedreader. Put simply, it's fab and its FAST! Even on my 10-year-old MacBook, it smashes out the numbers. Defo there is some lean and very efficient code under the hood!

boardsurfr
WA, 2202 posts
2 Jun 2019 1:48AM
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I have released a new version of GPS Speedreader (1.2.5) that addresses the suggestions made here. Here's a screenshot that shows the changes:
In the tracks panel, the current selection is now highlighted by a thicker line, and the crosshair is at the first point of the selection. I also added a popup menu to quickly change between drawing full tracks or partial tracks. As Andrew pointed out, it's sometimes easier to see the selection when only partial tracks are shown.

In the results table, the GPSTC category results are now highlighted in bold. That's not quite as obvious as highlighting with different background colors, but Speedreader already uses different background colors when comparing files.

Thanks for everyone who gave feedback.

Downloads are at ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreader.html

tbwonder
NSW, 639 posts
2 Jun 2019 8:25AM
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Brilliant! Great work Boardsurfr !

tonyd
QLD, 396 posts
2 Jun 2019 1:40PM
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Thats so cool thanks. Much needed app. Will use it for posting from now on.

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
2 Jun 2019 11:54AM
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Good one tbwonder, I really like your suggestions, and great timely implementation Peter. The right click, local and full track facility is so much faster than going to the menu.

This program just gets better and better.

Tony Polony
NSW, 337 posts
2 Jun 2019 7:26PM
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What an amazing yet simple application to analyse our tracks that (finally) works perfectly on the Mac.

Sincere thanks Boardsurfr.

morts
WA, 172 posts
20 Jun 2019 7:50AM
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Looking at buying something to post from when travelling. Would this work on something like a Microsoft Surface Pro 6?

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
20 Jun 2019 9:04AM
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I think so Jeremy, as long as it's got fairly recent java. I've no idea about the surface pro's resources, but in this day and age I wouldn't either memory or CPU would be a problem.

sailquik
VIC, 6068 posts
20 Jun 2019 12:03PM
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Another alternative for analysing results while travelling may be GPS-Logit. It contains an Android version of GPS-Results. I have only used it to analyse files recorded in the phone, but if you can transfer the .sbp file to the phone from your GW -52/60 or GT.31 (sbp only), I believe it will do the same thing.

Note that GPS-Speedreader does not open the GT-31 SBN files, but it does open the SBP file saved from the internal memory.

Go to GT-31 menu - MISC > SAVE > SAVE ALL and it will save the internal memory as .SBP and also the text file of your max and 10 sec runs to the SD card.

If you are going to do this, you should remember to do: menu - MISC > DELETE > DELETE ALL before your session which will clear the Genie and your previous sessions in the internal memory. Otherwise you may have to split your sessions in the file. (This procedure has no effect on what is already saved to the SD card)

morts
WA, 172 posts
20 Jun 2019 7:50PM
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Thanks Mike & Daffy

boardsurfr
WA, 2202 posts
25 Jun 2019 8:51AM
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I have just release a new version (1.2.8) that adds support for .sbn files from GT-31s. It also has a few improvements to the "Export to Google Earth" function that was introduced on version 1.2.7. There are a couple of example images with short explanations at boardsurfr.blogspot.com/2019/06/gps-tracks-in-google-earth.html

Downloads for Mac, Linux, and Windows (including Surface thingies) are at ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreader.html
It's free to use, but "beer money" donations are much appreciated. There's a "Donate" button on the help page at. ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreaderHelp.html

hardie
WA, 4077 posts
25 Jun 2019 9:08AM
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Select to expand quote
boardsurfr said..
I have just release a new version (1.2.8) that adds support for .sbn files from GT-31s. It also has a few improvements to the "Export to Google Earth" function that was introduced on version 1.2.7. There are a couple of example images with short explanations at boardsurfr.blogspot.com/2019/06/gps-tracks-in-google-earth.html

Downloads for Mac, Linux, and Windows (including Surface thingies) are at ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreader.html
It's free to use, but "beer money" donations are much appreciated. There's a "Donate" button on the help page at. ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreaderHelp.html


Peter may I call you a "Genius"

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
25 Jun 2019 9:32AM
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Select to expand quote
hardie said.. Peter may I call you a "Genius"


Why not? It's an apt description.

Julien informed us yesterday that GPSAR now supports OAO files, so I gave it a try, on this old linux box. It took over 3minutes to calculate the results for a 3mb file. GPSspeed reader processed the same file in 10s. That's an amazing difference, if Yann is smart, (and he must be GPSAR is a very nice program), I think genius may be understating it.

boardsurfr
WA, 2202 posts
25 Jun 2019 9:40PM
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Nice of you to say things like that, but it's experience, nothing else. The basics are taught in every decent "Algorithms 101" class and boil down to "avoid methods with N-squared (or worse) performance". An explanation is just a Google search away: avoid nested iterations. I probably learned that in college, but really appreciated the importance only after working on methods for large datasets for a few years. Maybe I picked up a few tricks over the years, but it's not rocket science. The bigger difference might be that I like to do very long sessions, and am too impatient to wait a few minutes for results .

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
26 Jun 2019 8:22AM
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Also the difference may not be as great on a non linux machine, other people testing gpsar haven't experienced my 3min + process time

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
26 Jun 2019 9:10PM
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Here's today's tracks from the latest speedreader.


I've made use of the adjustable line width and increased it to 3pixels, on this big scale 1pixel is just too thin. Nice for shorter more compact runs though, shows up the individual tracks better.
I also experimented with the results colours, I changed the 2s from white to red, forgetting that the max speed colour is also red. Not a good option, but in this case I got away with it because the 2s result is in the NM, so red on orange does show up.

ned321
78 posts
27 Jun 2019 3:35AM
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Would be very nice, to have a version for Chrome OS too.
Or an extension for Google Chrome.

More and more chromebooks, and ever less windows machines.

fangman
WA, 1238 posts
27 Jun 2019 7:39AM
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Select to expand quote
ned321 said..
Would be very nice, to have a version for Chrome OS too.
Or an extension for Google Chrome.

More and more chromebooks, and ever less windows machines.


Lifted from Wikipedia " .. ChromeOS is built on top of the Linux kernel..., in 2018 Google announced that desktop Linux apps were officially coming to Chrome OS...." So it might be worth trying the Linux version of GPS Speedreader and see how you go.

decrepit
WA, 11828 posts
27 Jun 2019 8:02AM
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As GPSspeedreader runs in Java, it should work fine. I think the main differences between operating systems is how java starts.
Edit just checked and it seems chrome books don't come with java installed, but there's a few sites that tell you how to do it. Here's one of them.
www.techjunkie.com/chromebook-install-java/

If you get that done OK, just download GPSspeedreader and give it a go

boardsurfr
WA, 2202 posts
1 Jul 2019 9:21AM
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I've just uploaded a new version (1.2.9) to ecwindfest.org/GPS/GPSSpeedreader.html

This version fixes a problem that sometimes can happen when the GW-60 turns the time back sometime in the first 10 minutes of a run (probably a leap second adjustment when a watch is new, or the battery was completely drained). It caused Jacko to get a 35 knot 2 seconds with 5x10 speeds in the mid-20s, which made him rather suspicious and helped me find the bug. Thanks for pointing it out!

This version should also run faster on Linux, without having to pass options to java to make that happen. One speedsurfer who sent beer money ( thanks!!) pointed out that the Linux version ran quite slowly if you did not know about the "top-secret" speedup flag that could be set in a script. That should not be necessary anymore, the Linux version should now run nicely when just double-clicking on the downloaded jar file.

aussieboats
NSW, 342 posts
10 Jul 2019 12:41PM
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i have just installed the latest software onto my lap top but when i go to see results in browser it opens up in word pad , any suggestions on how to fix it , using windows 8 .

works fine on my desktop compt , been using it for a while now ,



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Forums > Windsurfing   Gps and Speed talk


"GPS Speedreader" started by boardsurfr