iPod nano GPS hack ensures that you and your MP3s make it home safely
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Apr 30th 2009 4:57PM
posted Apr 30th 2009 4:57PM
We've seen iPod hacks run the gamut, from the useful to the just plain absurd, but no matter how rough around the edges such a project may seem, we always get a kick out of the ingenuity and hard work involved. Today's DIY wonder comes from a cat named Benjamin Kokes, who's using his engineering chops to put together a GPS peripheral for the iPod nano. As the project stands right now, he's taken a reference board sporting a Nemerix GPS and written a screen driver for it, allowing it to do its thing on the handheld. Apparently, all this bad boy is capable of doing right now is finding a satellite and displaying your latitude and longitude -- but we'd like to see your old nano do that! Hit the read link for the whole, sordid tale in geek-tastic detail, or to speak with the developer if you'd like to give this a shot your own self. Tell him Engadget sent you.
[Via Technabob]
[Via Technabob]
Sucks.
Not really. It's actually a cool ass hack. I likes.
Hehe, ass hack.
Uh.. you need signal from three satellites to do latitude and longitude; four to do it with real precision...
Gambit*
gamut*
That being a 1st gen, I'm sure they can write up a basic map app soon.
Or is that just me?
So did anyone else map the GPS coordinates like me? Either the device doesn't really work, or he took the picture in the middle of the wilderness east of San Jose, CA.
What are you talking about it's in China.
http://atlas.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&formtype=address&latlongtype=decimal&latitude=37.228115&longitude=121.58052
37.228115N, 121.58052W (presumably)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=37.228115N+121.58052W&sll=37.09024,-95.712891&sspn=35.684144,56.25&ie=UTF8&ll=37.225955,-121.5802&spn=2.243718,3.515625&z=8
I think it would show up as a negative longitude if it were in the Western Hemisphere.
Eh, thanks... I guess I messed up my +/- E/W designations when entering it into Google Maps.
If you read through the article you'll discover that the conversion of coordinates from the format in the NMEA sentence to the display format is not supposed to be just a matter of copying digits and moving decimal points around. What was displayed is in dd.dddddd format, while the NMEA sentence is in dddmm.mmm format. Not the same thing; a conversion is required. The correct coordinates are smack dab in Silicon Valley, spitting distance from 101 & Montague/San Tomas in Santa Clara.
I know this doesn't relate to this article but I just read that Microsoft Windows 7 is to be released Oct. 23.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=17333
In further unrelated news I just ate a pork chop and took a dump. Lunch is over, back to work...
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This would be perfect if it could be adapted to the iPod Touch so offline map apps would work well.
and to the origanial iphone..
that was my first thought.... i'd buy this for the touch in a second if you could get it workign with garmin or something
There is a GPS for iPod Touch: http://www.orangegadgets.com/
I got one and it works very well.
I'd like to see the next step would be GPS route recording, simply writing the info to a file on the device that can be imported into google earth or something
humm....
I knew them cats were up to no good. First they're scratching up the couch, now they're building GPS devices...
this would make the not-so-accurate nike+, way better
Should someone tell him that it has been done already? http://store.xwaves.net/?inc=products
Not to mention done and tied into function GPS software utilizing Google maps?
Another way of ensuring your mp3s arrive home safely (though unfortunately without you) is to train a homing pigeon to sing them. It's likely to be more lossy than mp3 though.
Dude! A cat made this, A CAT! This is awesome!