Explorer's Pal

Within the project "eXplorers Pal" we develop a mobile logging device for house numbers and POI's. To store GPS Tracks is also an active target of this project. The idea is that a mapping person would simply press a button while passing houses along a street. POI's should be selectable using a menu structure. This should help to acquire all data right out in the field.

Read more on our Homepage: www.explorerspal.org
Photo of the current hardware]

Features

Computer rendering of prototype Explorer's Pal circuit board assembly.

• Mobile, handy, can be operated while walking
• Operation for more than 40 hours on three (3) AA cells
• Liquid crystal display for direct editing
• Duplicate push-buttons for operation with either left or right hand
• Built in GPS receiver
• Mass storage on removable microSD card
• Firmware licensed under GPL

Technical Data

• Graphic liquid crystal display, 240x64 pixels (Sharp)
• Four push-buttons for the left or right thumb
• Numeric keypad in the center
• Soft keys next to the display
• RS-232 serial interface
• Mass storage microSD card
• 8-bit microcontroller, Atmel ATmega1280 (128 kB/256 kB Flash, 4 kB EEPROM, 8 kB SRAM)
• 40k RAM
• UART-friendly operating frequency 14.74MHz
• USB interface for data exchange with a personal computer
• Reserved plug-in area for a GPS module

Links

• Atmel ATMega1280 microcontroller
• Secure Digital (SD) Card
• Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI)
• Navilock NL-501ETTL
  • Navilock NL-501ETTL Datasheet
  • Sirf Navilock NL-501ETTL chipset reference manual
• Berlios gpsd project — GPS Standards reference page
• explorerspal.org — firmware and other documentation