Capturing GPS coordinators

[Bharadwaj]

Dear Gregory

We are going to start a survey in which we would like to capture GPS coordinates. As we are using 14" laptops for data collections, which are not having any GPS receivers. I know without GPS receiver it is difficult to capture GPS coordinates.

But there are two software i have seen where without any GPS receiver that software is capturing GPS coordinates, one is Poimapper and another one is Connect Survey both will work in online as well offline in all kind of devises. Is there any such kind of solution in CSPro to capture GPS coordinates with out any GPS receiver using any function or application/logic.

Please let us know if any such function/application/logic exists. Thanks in advance for your efforts.

Regards

Bharadwaj

[Jon Kastelic]

Dear Bharadwaj,

I read your post on capturing gps coordinates while searching for some information on utilizing Garmin handheld gps units in conjunction with the CSPro GPS function. I have not found a solution to my issue but I may be able to provide some information in regards to your question.

CSPro does have a gps function that is designed to activate either an internal or external gps receiver. You can view the details on this function in the CSPro help file by searching, "gps". The basics of a global positioning system are pretty straight forward. There are satellites in orbit around the planet which continuously transmit a signal with information (time and position). A GPS receiver runs calculations on the signals that it receives from multiple satellites (3 or more are required) and basically uses geometry to determine where on the planet the gps receiver is located, i.e. returns gps coordinates in latitude and longitude.

Thus, by definition a gps receiver is required to utilize the satellites in orbit and return the locations coordinates. However, gps is not the only way to triangulate a location. Many cell phones can return a location using information from cell towers instead of the orbiting satellites. Additionally computers may be able to recognize locations from the internet, i.e. recognizes the registered location of your internet service.

If you are seeking to automate the capture of location with a CSPro survey, you may want to consider purchasing a small external usb gps receiver. Provided you have reception of the satellite signals (are not indoors) you should be able to easily use the "gps" command to populate your latitude and longitude fields in your questionnaire.

As for the other methods, cell tower or internet, CSPro does not have a prepackaged function for this at this point. Moreover, they may not be the best option for you. If you are conducting a survey in a location with limited mobile network, like we do in rural Africa, you may not have enough mobile towers, or any, to establish an accurate location. Availability of internet is also an with internet based location service, and this option may be dependent on having access to those wireless internet networks; many wireless networks are password protected. However, CSPro is a nice program and if another option is desired, there is always a way to make it happen given enough programming experience.

As for what I am attempting... I have been working with statistics offices in Africa for many years now and we have mostly conducted our rather large surveys on paper with data entry using CSPro. To capture gps coordinates of our households we use handheld gps units and have the interviewer record the information on the paper questionnaire. In some cases we also ask them to save a waypoint and properly label the point to be extracted from the GPS unit later.

We have been working to evolve the survey implementation methodology over the years to the use of computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI). As the surveys already have a well developed CSPro data entry application (evolved and refined over years) we are converting our applications for use on tablets. We also have many handheld gps units already in stock for these projects. Rather than purchasing new usb gps receivers, I am attempting to capture the coordinate information directly from the handheld device. However, I have not managed to make it work up to this point.

If any one has any info on how to use a Garmin Map62 gps unit connected to a tablet via USB and the CSPro "gps" function to retrieve and record the coordinates I would be most grateful.

Best,

Jon

[Bharadwaj]

Dear Jon

Thank you very much for detailed main on GPS. Now we also have decided to use handheld GPS instruments to capture GPC coordinates, same will be entered by the Enumerator/interviewer in to the CAPI Program.

Regards

Bharadwaj

[aajamilkhan]

I have been working with statistics offices in Africa for many years now and we have mostly conducted our rather large surveys on paper with data entry using CSPro. To capture gps coordinates of our households we use handheld gps units and have the interviewer record the information on the paper questionnaire. In some cases we also ask them to save a waypoint and properly label the point to be extracted from the GPS unit later.

[RERII]

If you use the android version can you use the phone or tablet's GPS coordinates in CSPro?

[rcovane]

If you use the android version can you use the phone or tablet's GPS coordinates in CSPro?

Yes, you can use GPS function. Read the attached file.

07-MultimediaGPS.pdf

(385.72 KiB) Downloaded 1778 times

[sakexcel02]

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[Héritier Bertrand]

Hi Dear all, I am new in the forum and new also in the programming with Cspro. The subject on capturing GPS coordinates interested me a lot. I tried to do some syntax for this purpose. Here are the syntax i used :

gps(open);
if gps(read, 60, 10) then // Read up to 60 seconds, try for 10m accuracy
errmsg("Latitude is %f, longitude is %f",gps(latitude),gps(longitude));
else
errmsg("GPS signal could not be acquired");
endif;
gps(close);

preproc
LONGITUDE=gps(longitude);
LATTITUDE=gps(latitude);

The capture is very good but it is the assignment that is problematic. The allocation at the level of the latitude gives me 0.0000 while the assignment at the longitude level is correct. If anyone could help me. Thank you.

[aaronw]

Check the length of the latitude variable in your dictionary. I might expect something like the following:

gps-dictionary.GIF (5.62 KiB) Viewed 9931 times

[Héritier Bertrand]

Thank you sir, i am trying.