Raskas’ blog

An other application for the TomTom devices is nmealogger. This logger will log all the data received from the gps device into a file. This data includes the actual position, the current date and time, the amount and reception of the satellites, …
The format of information which is generated by a gps device is mostly in the NMEA format, it is also stored in a file in that format. The information of these files can be converted to any other format by gpsbabel.

The zip file you can download from the site contains a .cab file and a .toc file. The files are provided in that format because it can be installed from the TomTom HOME application.
That TomTom application isn’t working on linux therefore you must install it manually.
The .cab file is the only file we need. It is an archive file containing all files which need to be stored on the cf of the TomTom device. These files need to be extracted and the directory structure has to be intact.

[johan@raskas ~]$ file nmealogger_v1.4.cab
nmealogger_v1.4.cab: Microsoft Cabinet archive data, 686973 bytes, 16 files
[johan@raskas ~]$ cabextract nmealogger_v1.4.cab
Extracting cabinet: nmealogger_v1.4.cab
extracting nmealogger/nmealogger
extracting skin/Arial.ttf
...
extracting skin/tomtom.bmp
extracting sdkregistry/nmealogger.bmp
extracting sdkregistry/nmealogger.cap


Once you’re device is booted with the nmealogger files installed you will find a new menu entry. There you can start / stop the logging.

I wanted to turn my TomTom One GPS device into a tracking device, producing gpx files that can be used in several programs.

The TomTom software delivered with the device isn’t capable of producing these files, luckely it is possible to add software.

In my first TomTom blog post I mentioned Event Logger. This is such software you can install on top of your tomtom device, while still using your navigation sofware like before.
The Event Logger software is capable of syncing your time with the gps-satellites, automatically switching between day and night colors, logging events, logging tracks, …
The packages also includes a build of top which proves that the device is really running Linux.

The functionality of Event Logger can be tuned in a configuration file. Some basic actions, like enabling or disabling of features, can be triggered from a button within the graphical menu on your device.

The downside of this extra program on your navigation device is that it takes longer to boot and shutdown.
Recently I noticed that when the device is powered off it automatically reboots. Still haven’t found why it is rebooting, I hope I find the problem or it gets fixed in the next release.

I’m going to buy a TomTom Go 300, or a TomTom One. I still haven’t decided which one. During my search for more information about those devices, I found some very interesting sites and facts.

The First and most important fact:
Some parts of the TomTom GO software falls under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is running a linux kernel and several other open-source software. You can find the list of all components on www.tomtom.com/gpl. It even has a freshmeat page.

From the www.opentom.org website you can start gathering information about the linux on that device. For example the opentom mp3 player or the Event Logger.

If you have question or want to meet some people owning a tomtom you can browse to www.mytomtomgo.com or for the dutch people tomtomone.jouwsites.nl.