Building a linux based netbook navigation station with realtime gps tracking

This describes a realtime GPS plotter that uses a Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS, and an Acer Aspire One netbook D255E running Ubuntu 10.10 linux. Using a modest computer and Garmin's barest GPS receiver the cost is less than 380 usd and you have a functional navigation station/chart plotter that uses free Noaa Charts. Both pieces of hardware stand alone and are great values.

The Garmin eTrex Venture HC, with waypoints, speed, routing, tracking, stopwatch and much more - has marine settings, nautical miles, etc and is really a necessaty in anyones ditchbag; if you go to Catalina and go hiking or kayaking it is pretty fun, my friend even found a geocache on the island. This also makes a great regatta/race chronometer too.

The ACER Aspire one is a great little netbook. I got mine home, started it up with windows 7, windows seven looks like Vista to me, I shut down the machine, inserted my bootable pendrive with Ubuntu 10.10, erased everything on the drive, installed Ubuntu 10.10 and never looked back. The wireless worked perfectly - then I downloaded and installed OpenOffice, BlueFish and Filezilla; my mobile work station had cost me 280.00 (this includes the 8gig USB stick.) I didn't like the ubuntu mobile desktop, I opted for the standard ubuntu desktop which is already installed.



Hooking up the Garmin GPS to the Aspire using a USB cable took some research, after some trial and error I found a post that really explained what to do - this is from the post:

1. Make sure the garmin gps is blacklisted


To keep the OS from loading the (frequently dysfunctional) kernel garmin_gps module,edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add the lines:

(*I seem to remember this being done already..)

# stop garmin_gps serial from loading for USB garmin devices

blacklist garmin_gps

(**But I did do this.)
To allow the USB devices to be read and written by a non-privileged user, create a file named /etc/udev/rules.d/51-garmin.rules with the following contents:


SYSFS{idVendor}=="091e", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0003", MODE="666"



after that it was:
david@david-aspire:~$ gpsd usb:
david@david-aspire:~$ sudo modprobe garmin_gps
[sudo] password for david:
david@david-aspire:~$ sudo xgps
david@david-aspire:~$

and my GPS was connecting easily.


I was inspired by this post (which was two years old) http://jibnotes.com/blog/free-open-source-chart-plotter, especially when I saw the charts I could download from http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/index.htm. In the post Jeremy used Opencpn as his chart viewer. It worked and synced up with my the Garmin Etrex perfectly. In his JibNotes post Jeremy noted how he wanted speed and routing info, the latest version of Opencpn had both of those when you used the dashboard plugin.

I have tested this system on the water, on a bicycle and in a car and it works great. It can update Google maps With Gebabbel and a mobil internet connection, complete with linking text and pictures linked to waypoints.

I have an Excalibur 26, with very little space for a navigation station; I also need something that has very little power consumption - this system fits the bill and doesn't put a dent in the crusing budget. With all this said, I think it is fool hardy to go anywhere with out the most detailed paper charts, charting tools, back up magnetic compasses and the skills to use them - don't just depend on your GPS. I supplement this with compass binoculars and the simplest Davis plastic sextant.

The other reason for creating a navigation station even if you are shopping for proprietary navigation electronics is to have first hand experience with the features you will want. I have only tried the chart plotting, but hooking an anenometer and keeping track of wind data is also possible. I emphasis the importance of traditional navigation skills, but there is no reason not to familiarize oneself with the newest technology, especially when it is free.

Linux is great operating system, and the abundance of GNU public applications that are free of charge is astounding. I am not even going to mention kStars, Xtides and Xephem planetary software (these are neccesaties to me.)

I do 90 percent of my website and internet work sitting at home using a MAC, but having an inexpensive mobile workstation is great; and it is even better now that it is a functional Nav station.

• Garin Etrex Venture HC
• Acer ASPIRE ONE D255E Netbook - Atom 455/1.66mhz, 1gb ram
• Garmin USB cable

• Ubuntu 10.10
• packages
• gpsd
• opencpn
• xgps
• cgps
• Noaa Maps

• gebabbel is great for getting data off routes/tracks/waypoints/realtime-klx files of the garmin.
• GPSDrive has a great waypoint text picture feature GPX Viewer (not sure if I like)
• Viking (It was okay, but it didn't have nautical mile, just kilometer and miles.)
• Gpsprune (looks like a great way to convert formats, but I haven't messed with it much.)