Is there a phone ap for taking data from a Garmin Edge?

[yello]

What I want, what I really really want, is some kind of light weight data logger to offload the data from my Garmin Edge 305. I don't want to carry a laptop around, no matter how small. The ideal device would be a mobile phone since I'd carry one of those anyway.

I don't think such an ap exists so what might be involved in writing one?

There is software that takes data from the Edge (gpsbabel & garmintools) so perhaps these could be ported... perhaps??? Off the top of my head I'd foresee issues the whole way along from connectivity (could a mobile device access the USB port on the Edge?), through software compatibility of gpsbabel/garmintools (both are written in C) to data storage and retrieval. Personally, whilst I reckon it would be doable, I think it'd be a hiding-to-nothing task. But honestly I don't know.

So fellow geeks, fancy brainstorming it?

 

[dodgy]

Sounds like a lot of effort. Why not just use a GPS enabled smartphone with strava, runkeeper, garmin or similar installed? Take the Garmin Edge out of the equation altogether?

 

[yello]

I know there are alternatives and I suspect ultimately they'd be the way to go.

I just want to explore the mobile ap possibility.

 

[zizou]

You dont need to upload the data from each ride straight away (at least with the 800 i think it will be the same with the other models), you can save individual ride data onto the internal memory until you get a chance to connect to a computer. There is plenty of space too, i generally do between 1-3 rides in between putting the data onto garmin connect, but all my 'old' rides are still on the device memory - over 200 rides, so i can still access and upload that data if needs be.

 

[Dan B]

There are a number of issues

1) USB is asymmetric: you have a host and a device (or many devices), and most phones are usually devices not hosts - i.e. they take the role of the thing-you-plug-into-computer, not the role of a computer. USB OTG ("On The Go") introduces the concept of a USB endpoint that can switch between the two modes: you need hardware and software support to make this happen. Some Android phones can do this in hardware (not sure which) but you'll almost certainly need a custom ROM because (according to google) it's not compiled into the default software even in Ice Cream Sandwich

2) gpsbabel would probably not be that hard to port to Android: lots of the OS-level tools are already written in C, so no problem there, and libusb already exists (again, according to google)

3) you would probably want to put some kind of pretty interface on top of it, because typing unix shell commands at a soft keyboard is not all that pleasant or efficient.

 

[yello]

Zizou - the Edge 305 overwrites itself after around 400km... or 600km... can't remember which off the top of my head. Either way, WAY short of the 1500km I'd be looking for.


Dan B - thanks!, Exactly the sort of response I was looking for. You've given me some leads to follow up.

Issue 1 would have to be resolved before even looking at other issues. The whole idea is a non-starter if the 2 devices won't talk. Issue 2, I thought C would port to some flavour of mobile though I might see if gpsbabel (or whatever) could be slimmed down to only the options I'd need. Issue 3, you're right and I don't think that's a problem.... not compared to the other issues anyhow!

 

[sunnyjim]

If you want a teenyweeny dedicated mobile computer and an interesting excercise in geekology you might consider making you own with credit card modules based on Atom/ARM processors - something like these http://www.toradex.com/node/825/Robin/Robin_Modules/Robin-Z510-S and these http://www.toradex.com/En/Products/Colibri. I've use something similar for a work project & am tempted to buy one for hobby messing (not bike- wifi ethernet stabilised camera/compass/gps at the top of a boat mast) As they can run linux, programming can be Python, which is easier for us non proper softies. Basically a barebones no-screen no-keyboard netbook - another option is to buy a tesco netbook and take the guts out...
There's a fair bit of info on garmin-linux on t'internet. GPX files are actually XML as far as I can see, so reading the data once you've solved teh USB protocol isn't a problem.
A problem I've found with my edge305 is the battery life is less than a day, not so good for touring use unless you wire up an additional battery. I'm not sure if the 305 will record route data while connected to a USB host, so might need a bit of surgery.

 

[yello]

I've ordered a raspberry pi, so I'll experiment with that when it arrives. I've already got a script that uses the garmin_tools software to take data from the Edge (as both .gmn and .tcx files) so I'm hopeful that I'll get something working.