Getting fit with tangoGPS - release 0.99.4

nospam@example.com (marcus bauer) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:48:51 +0200

tangoGPS now supports heart rate monitoring and logging

The next release of tangoGPS is out and the main new features are:

support for the new gpsd protocol
further improved speed and usability
support for Zephyr HxM heart rate monitors
logging of your heart rate, fully synchronized with the GPS track
new polish translation
New shortcut F5 refreshes the tiles of the current view

The summer is here and in order to get fit for the beach some sport is due to get back in shape. To monitor your fitness progress tangoGPS now includes functionality for the support of heart rate sensors from Zephyr, namely the HxM bluetooth belt:

You can use it together with your laptop but naturally it is more fun on a handheld device like the Openmoko Freerunner. The usage is rather simple, just put it on and see your current heart rate in beats per minute displayed on the screen (1):

For the configuration you only need to put in the Bluetooth Address of the belt. You can find it with hcitool:

$ sudo hcitool scan Scanning ... 00:07:80:88:F3:AE HXM003543

Just note down the number and insert it in (2).

That's it. You are ready to go and start your fitness workout program! Just a few weeks later you will see the result:

Copyright by sa Tobyotter, stefanpinto

One source for the heart rate monitors is hackable-devices.org, a recently started community platform and shop for open and hackable hardware. You find plenty of interesting stuff there from Arduino boards over RFID devices and plenty of self-soldering kits. hackable:Devices is based in Europe and you find the Zephyr HxM heart rate sensor here.

Kudos
The heart rate monitor idea and first patches are from Tobias Prousa.
Adam Flisiński supplied the polish translation.
In case I forgot someone here, please drop me a mail!

Donations
Bernhard Höll
Neil Jerram
Max Dörfler
Joseph Marsden
Nukri Komin
José Ramón Torregrosa Durán

Thanks! Have fun and see you at the next Iron Man...

Version 0.99.3 - Speedblaster

nospam@example.com (marcus bauer) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:27:50 +0100

Improvements all over

tangoGPS has always been the fastest map&gps viewer for Linux and now it is even faster. As tangoGPS is approaching version 1.0 I have spend some time on profiling the code. The results are fabulous, especially on handheld / embedded systems and netbooks like the eeePC or the Acer Aspire one. The CPU usage on a Samsung 6410 has come down from 8-9% to 2%. This should greatly improve battery life.

So we have now:

longer battery life
less CPU usage
much improved map responsiveness
last not least: the world now wraps around

Kudos go to Sander van Grieken for the dutch translation.

Enjoy!

Update:
You can get new 0.99.3 packages for Ubuntu on getdeb

tangoGPS - Release Notes

Getting fit with tangoGPS - release 0.99.4

tangoGPS now supports heart rate monitoring and logging

Version 0.99.3 - Speedblaster

Improvements all over