Hack to enable geocaching on the Athena Camera!

[edeplano]

I found this on a French site, by changing the registry you get an extra camera mode that adds current position in the EXIF part of the file!

You need to edit the key : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\HTC\Camera\P9 change from 0 to 1 (P9 is the Geocoding profile).

No need to soft reset, just go into the camera and set to Geocode mode (see capture)

The files get stored in My Documents/POI (maybe so they appear in Tom Tom?).

Anybody know of cool ways to use this feature? Flickr? Googlemaps?

Sorry if this has been covered already!

[Madhadder]

Oh hell yes.....

[edeplano]

Oh hell yes.....

You mean it HAS been covered? could not find anything thru search....

[GuardianZX9]

I could never get it to work, it says the GPS is searching, but when I look at the photos I cant find any GPS coordinate data.

Anyone else actually try it?

G

[techntrek]

I think Madhadder meant "oh hell yes I can't believe its so easy to add this feature you just made my week".

I'd like to say:

Oh hell yes!

[edeplano]

I could never get it to work, it says the GPS is searching, but when I look at the photos I cant find any GPS coordinate data.

Anyone else actually try it?

G

I think the data is included in the file itself in a special zone that holds info on model of camera etc.

There are some applications that "place" the pictures on maps, I do not know much about this but want to find out! The ideal would be to place them on googlemaps...

[edeplano]

I think Madhadder meant "oh hell yes I can't believe its so easy to add this feature you just made my week".

I'd like to say:

Oh hell yes!

Good but as much as I would love to take credit for this find, it is in fact from this site : http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=85924&whichpage=3#641517

8th post down.

[ahmadfarid]

I found this on a French site, by changing the registry you get an extra camera mode that adds current position in the EXIF part of the file!

You need to edit the key : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\HTC\Camera\P9 change from 0 to 1 (P9 is the Geocoding profile).

No need to soft reset, just go into the camera and set to Geocode mode (see capture)

The files get stored in My Documents/POI (maybe so they appear in Tom Tom?).

Anybody know of cool ways to use this feature? Flickr? Googlemaps?

Sorry if this has been covered already!

there are so many line items under that folder. Could you be more specific?

thanks..

[eaglesteve]

I assume that the GPS must be turned on to give the correct position prior to taking the picture, am I right?

[hammermedia]

there are so many line items under that folder. Could you be more specific?

thanks..

P1-P9 are profiles for different camera modes. You'll notice that the "Enable" key is 0 in Profile 9. Change it to 1 and you should be good.

[hmeyer]

Also found this info on GPS passion, and was going to share, but never found the time....

I did the hack on my Ameo last weekend, and played around with it a little. It is ofcourse quite an amazing feature, and it does impress people that sees it, but given the quality of the camera in the Ameo, I'm not sure how usefull it will turn out to be, I would be a little embarassed to upload any Ameopics to Google at least.

Here is what I've found out sofar, if someone finds that useful.

When you start Camera, you get a new option when you choose your Photomode, called GPS. - This starts up the GPS automatically, and once it gets a fix you are ready to shoot.
The pics you then take are stored in /my documents/my Poi - which is created.
These pics will then have the GPS position included in the Exif data.
Haven't yet found a PPC software that is capable of reading these data, but if you read them with your ordinary pc, you can input them into google Maps (on PPC for instance) and it will take you there.

Picassa will read the data, and you can input them manually into your mapsoftware (the format is: xx yy' zz'' aa bb' cc'') but I would recommend "Panorado Flyer 1.2" which is a great free and small application. It gives you some new options in the context menu, so you just right-click your Gpspicture and choose "show location in Google Maps" - and it opens up Google Earth and takes you there.

There was some discussion on the precission of the GPS Data, actually on this very site I'm pretty sure, maybe the kaiser section(?) , someone noticed the last 2 decimals recorded for latitude and longitude allways were the same, so the precision was less than 100 meters, but the good news is this is not the case with our Athenas, they are very accurate!

I don't think I'm allowed to distribute Panorado Flyer here, but here is the link for you to download it yourself.

Hopefully someone will make a similar app. for PPC, which would make this feature so much more useful.

Here is a link to the free version: http://www.photo-freeware.net/panorado-flyer.php
And here is the commercial and probably more functional version (did not try it, but there is a demo): http://www.panorado.com/en/index.htm

I went to a birthdayparty this week and took a GPSpic inside an apartment on the 7. floor to demonstrate to all how brilliant the Ameo is, got a fix and shot a pic. The pic stinks, but if you want to try Pandora, you should be able to rightclick it and fly over here, even if I downscaled it....

[hmeyer]

And I just tried myself, and the GPS data did not survive the upload so it does not work, sorry.

Here is a shot of what Panorado rteads for that pic:

[Midget_1990]

works well here :)

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6435/panoradotestmj0.jpg

[hmeyer]

Actually you can use this format directly into Google earth, which is simpler I think:

55,685278 12,584445

[hmeyer]

Ok Midget, on my setup the GPS data was lost when I d'loaded my own pic from the post.

Also had to try it out on my old uni with an external GPS, but it doesn't have the P9 option, could that be because of the old HTC Camera version (3,00 build 21424) or must it have an internal GPS?

Anyone got the newer Camera version (like the one from the Ameo WM6 - 4.01 build 27598)?

[ahmadfarid]

P1-P9 are profiles for different camera modes. You'll notice that the "Enable" key is 0 in Profile 9. Change it to 1 and you should be good.

oh!..ok..i'll try it right away..

thanks

[techntrek]

The new mode came right up when I made the registry change. Can someone confirm where the data is stored? Seems there are 2 places mentioned here.

[Digital.Diablo]

That's freakin awesome! Possibly rates as my top feature of the moment! Good Hack!

And @ techntrek - it goes into my \microdrive\my documents\my poi\

Ace!

[beginner]

I have using panorado software but the error for several pictures on same place (1 square meter) is very large, some hundreds of meters...

[eaglesteve]

I have using panorado software but the error for several pictures on same place (1 square meter) is very large, some hundreds of meters...

That is what you will also get when you use googlemap. It can be hundreds of meters off.

I read recently that US goverment wants to decrease the accuracy of GPS. I wonder if it is the result of this project that I noticed that the inaccuracy has been magnified lately.

[Digital.Diablo]

I read recently that US goverment wants to decrease the accuracy of GPS. I wonder if it is the result of this project that I noticed that the inaccuracy has been magnified lately.

The US Military have said that they're not going to procure GPS satellites with SA on board. They've got the facility to deny GPS signals in certain area's (operational areas e.t.c.) but SA has been disabled on existing systems by Bill Clinton sometime in 2000. Because its such a useful tool these days (emergency services, commercial and personal use) any detuning of the signal would be met with worldwide uproar.
You're not in a US military area, or having some strange weather in the ionosphere are you? Or you're not in the vincinty of Reggae are you (Jammin'). :D

Still, fingers crossed that Europe can get their Gallileo project off the ground so we can have proper independant sat-nav, rather than relying on the US taxpayer to subsidize the fantastic invention that is sat-nav.

[beginner]

The US Military have said that they're not going to procure GPS satellites with SA on board. They've got the facility to deny GPS signals in certain area's (operational areas e.t.c.) but SA has been disabled on existing systems by Bill Clinton sometime in 2000. Because its such a useful tool these days (emergency services, commercial and personal use) any detuning of the signal would be met with worldwide uproar.
You're not in a US military area, or having some strange weather in the ionosphere are you? Or you're not in the vincinty of Reggae are you (Jammin'). :D

Still, fingers crossed that Europe can get their Gallileo project off the ground so we can have proper independant sat-nav, rather than relying on the US taxpayer to subsidize the fantastic invention that is sat-nav.

by the moment (i think so) my home is not in the list of the us army

[techntrek]

Digital Diablo - actually I was asking about were the data was stored inside the pic. I think someone said it was in the EXIF data, but someone else said it was elsewhere...

[LTxda]

Great find!

Anyone else getting an error "Cannot initialize the GPS service."?

[dieterpapa]

Get the message "Initializing GPS" but nothing else happens...

Are there any other thgings to do to get GPS running ? Haven't used / tested GPS yet...

Dieter

[sjlwr]

Great find!

Anyone else getting an error "Cannot initialize the GPS service."?
I get the same message 'Can't initialise GPS service'. The GPS works with a variety of other programs and I have enabled 'Manage GPS automatically' in settings. No other programs are running apart from the camera. This would be a really useful feature so I am keen to get this working. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[edeplano]

Mine does end up working but the initialising process takes ages and that is the main problem.

I have had to wait a few minutes sometimes ...

Tom Tom takes ages as well and Quick GPS does not seem to improve things.

What we need is a hack to keep the GPS alive although this would probably be no good on the battery life?

[LTxda]

Mine does end up working but the initialising process takes ages and that is the main problem.

I have had to wait a few minutes sometimes ...

Tom Tom takes ages as well and Quick GPS does not seem to improve things.

What we need is a hack to keep the GPS alive although this would probably be no good on the battery life?

Do you have to keep starting up the Camera until it finally initializes or does it just sit there in camera mode until it happens?

[techntrek]

The GPS system is definitely on the (very short list) of problems with the Athena. No matter what program is trying to initialize it, it can take a year off of your life waiting for it to acquire a position. I don't know why it takes so long or is so horrible inside of buildings - the sirf/star GPS that works with my Palm or PC picks up in less than 20 seconds and will do it in the middle of the 1st floor of my house. Hopefully this will be improved on the next version.

Maybe this is why HTC disabled this mode on the camera. Most people turn a camera on expecting to take a picture NOW, not in 10 minutes. They probably eliminated some support calls by just removing the GPS mode altogether.

[LTxda]

The GPS system is definitely on the (very short list) of problems with the Athena. No matter what program is trying to initialize it, it can take a year off of your life waiting for it to acquire a position. I don't know why it takes so long or is so horrible inside of buildings - the sirf/star GPS that works with my Palm or PC picks up in less than 20 seconds and will do it in the middle of the 1st floor of my house. Hopefully this will be improved on the next version.

Maybe this is why HTC disabled this mode on the camera. Most people turn a camera on expecting to take a picture NOW, not in 10 minutes. They probably eliminated some support calls by just removing the GPS mode altogether.

Good points. I guess the ideal way to test this is to start TomTom or some other GPS software and try to run the camera either at the same time or right after you close your main GPS software.

[techntrek]

Done that. As long as another program has (finally) aqcuired the signal, it fires right up in the phone, too.

[edeplano]

Done that. As long as another program has (finally) aqcuired the signal, it fires right up in the phone, too.

Great!

So what we really need now is a bogus program that uses very little resources but keeps the GPS "alive". The program would need to start up when the phone reboots.

This way whatever program calls up the GPS gets data straight away.

I do not think the power button switches off the GPS as I have switched off the Athena when using the GPS (when going into a shop for ex) and when I switch it back on again the GPS is still working fine straight away.

Then we can do some testing to see what the impact this operating mode has on battery life...

Anyone up to writing a small program?

[edeplano]

BTW tried GoogleNavigator the other day (http://www.pdafun.net/) and it seemed to pick up the GPS data much faster than Tom Tom does.

Anyone else tried this?

[LTxda]

Great!

So what we really need now is a bogus program that uses very little resources but keeps the GPS "alive". The program would need to start up when the phone reboots.

Can do this but you don't want to do this. If you run a program that will initialize your GPS it'll drain your battery faster than you can make the first call...well not that fast exactly but your battery won't last a day. You do have a good idea as to writing a little utility to initialize GPS or at least kick start it up before you plan on opening the Camera though. ;-)


This way whatever program calls up the GPS gets data straight away.

I do not think the power button switches off the GPS as I have switched off the Athena when using the GPS (when going into a shop for ex) and when I switch it back on again the GPS is still working fine straight away.

Then we can do some testing to see what the impact this operating mode has on battery life...

It'll have too great of an impact on battery life. Trust me. You can try this...if you run Weather Panel or any program capable of using GPS, tag the enable GPS option in one of these programs and watch your battery.


Anyone up to writing a small program?

[sjlwr]

I've read the various comments with interest but I still get the message 'Cannot initialise the GPS service'. I've checked that the POI folder is present and that the camera is saving to the internal storage.

I've tried running other GPS programs at the same time as well as using a port splitter. Could someone let me know what their GPS program port and Hardware port setting are? (Settings > GPS).

BTW I don't find the Time To First Fix (TTFF) any worse than the Fujitsu Loox N560, HP Ipaq rx4750 or Dell X51V with Globalsat CF Sirf111 or XP tablets with Gobalsat USB and Holux GPSlim 236 BT receivers. The comparsion is based on nearly daily use of all of these devices. I also find that even the same makes vary in the TTFF e.g I have two Loox N560s and on occasions one can takes several minutes longer to get a fix. This may be down to when the device last had a fix.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Getting this to work would be a real advantage (or should that be Athena? :o)

[techntrek]

I agree that keeping the GPS on all day won't work out. On a typical day I can get through a work day, surf the net for a few hours at night and still have 20% left on my battery after 16 hours. With the GPS on the unit won't last 4 hours.

Maybe the solution would be a program that activates the GPS every 2-3 hours, waits for a full lock, then turns it off again. My guess is by keeping the metadata current, future locks are faster (based on how fast locks are when I open my mapping software, get a lock, close the program, then reopen it... and get a near-instant lock again). I would have to manually try this to see if it would really help.

[chaiya]

working fine in my U1000
First time when camera start to initializing go to out side building waiting about 5 minutes for gps signal and then take photo, i test with garmin taiwan version it work great

[patrickl]

Is this a WM6 thing? I don't have a P9 mode on my T-Mobile Ameo with WM5 (only P1 to P8)

[LTxda]

Is this a WM6 thing? I don't have a P9 mode on my T-Mobile Ameo with WM5 (only P1 to P8)

Not sure but you should be able to just add it in the registry since it's the same hardware, etc.

I would post the setting but am working and don't have the time atm. Maybe someone else will look at the registry and post the info for you.

[patrickl]

Not sure but you should be able to just add it in the registry since it's the same hardware, etc.

I would post the setting but am working and don't have the time atm. Maybe someone else will look at the registry and post the info for you.Well I'm planning to switch to WM6 so I guess I'll get it automatically then