Tig och lid!

I recently bought a GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Lite DPL700 from Semsons.com, shipped to Norway by FedEx in just a few days. Excellent service from both FedEx and Semsons.

I’d like to share my experience with getting the gps-logger to work on my Mac. The accompanying software from GiSTEQ is quite sub-par, but at least it lets me download my tracks to GPX-files which I can use in other programs later.  This works fine.

Looking around the net, I’ve searched for different software to handle GPX-files, geotagging RAW-pictures (I’ve got a Canon 500D) and generally create a good workflow when tagging pictures.

I had quite a few problems getting other software than GiSTEQ’s own to recognize the PhotoTrackr. It turns out that none of the programs I’ve tried automatically recognizes the USB-to-Serial interface, so I’ve had to hint which one to use manually. In my case, the PhotoTrackr connects as /dev/cu.usbmodem3d11.

Using the iTU4l program, I got it to work using this command: iTU4l.pl -d /dev/cu.usbmodem3d11. Without forcing the device, it would recognize the PhotoTrackr. Then it was no match using sr2x program to convert it to GPX.

I’ve also tried BT747 GPS logger software. Also with this program, I had to force the device by editing the bt747_macosX_j2se.command file and changing the last row to $JAVA  ${MEM_OPTION} -Djava.library.path=${RXTX_BIN_PATH} -Dbt747_port="/dev/cu.usbmodem3d11"  bt747.j2se_view.BT747Main $*. Then it worked like a charm.

To edit my GPX-files, I’ve found that myTracks is very nice. That, combined with the GPS Visualizer gives quite nice results.

Currently, I’m using GPSPhotoLinker to geotag my photos. It seems to have all the features I need without anything unnecessary bloating it down. After geotagging, I import my RAW pictures into Aperture.

All in all, the PhotoTrackr seems pretty good tracking the satellites. As with all GPS equipment, the altitude measurement is not quite a measurement by rather a guess. And a pretty bad one as well. Oh yeah, GiSTEQ states on their homepage that the PhotoTrackr has an external antenna connector. That is not true. And stay away from their software, it’s not very good. At all.