Revision History/Release Notes :

2.3 – 1/28/08 Limit tracks by date, enhancements, Bug Fixes

Track display can be limited to a specific date range, useful for some tracking applications

FTP client will optionally upload data even if no new points received.

FTP client can now upload all vehicles, local and remote

SpeedTrack Max Speed can be set for better display of very fast or slow vehicles

Heading can now be displayed with cursor current position data

Doubled maximum track storage

Now rejects zero lat/lon and times more than 7 days in the future.

Fixed problem with double timestamps


Current GooPs Plus/Pro Users download version 2.3 here:

2.2 – 9/21/07 GPS Data Window, Tracking Device Support, Bug Fixes

Added a Floating GPS Data window that displays the current vehicle speed, altitude, and heading.

Added support for Sanav GC101 and Laipac S-911 tracking devices. Just configure the device to send data to the system/host running GooPs, port 51234. The device will appear in the GooPs vehicle dropdown list when the first update is received.

Track data is now saved periodically so data is not lost if GooPs terminates unexpectedly.

Fixed an invalid point handling bug where gpsgate.com vehicles would gradually lose points.

The Google Earth bug that does not allow you to ignore network link fetch errors has been fixed with the latest release of Google Earth - 4.2.0180.1134 (beta), August 20, 2008.

Current GooPs Plus/Pro Users download version 2.2 here:

2.1 – 7/29/07 Mologogo/GpsGate Tracking, Bug Fixes

Now you can track yourself and your friends via the GpsGate.com and Mologogo.com servers

Improved TimeStamp and SpeedTrack segment detection to help reduce track errors

Improved bad point rejection to minimize invalid track points.

Improved FTP Client robustness.

GooPs can now run from the system tray.

GooPs can now display speed in knots.

2.0 – 5/12/07 GooPs Plus/Pro! Bug fixes

GooPs now comes in three versions

• GooPs now comes in a Free version and Plus and Pro versions so you can get just the features you want. 

1.9.5 – 3/26/07 3D Model Cursors!, COM Port fixes, FTP fixes

New 3D Model Cursors (beta)

• You can now use Google Sketchup models for your cursors. There are hundreds of cars, boats, and planes to choose from at the Google 3D warehouse.
• Most models will require some minor Sketchup adjustments to work properly. This includes scaling, centering the model on the origin, and rotating the model to face north.
• Google Sketchup exports models to kmz format. GooPs requires that the model file (.dae - Collada format) be extracted from the kmz file using your favorite archiving program (winzip, winace).
• Loading a model into Google Earth can require a great deal of memory. My system with 1GB ram can successfully load models up to about 3MB, the initial load can take several minutes. Once the model is loaded there is little or no performance hit, and the model can be used by as many vehicles as you like.
• A Collada model of a GooPs car is available on the GooPs web site:
• http://goops.drivehq.com/car2yellow.dae (right click and select "save target as...")
• Models are currently only available in demo mode.

• Added selectable Flow Control and support for 115200 baud.

• Increased the command response timeout to help with GPRS connections.

• 3D cursor size can now be adjusted to your preference

• The view perspective to the cursor can now be fixed at any angle (instead of just rear). "Free" mode allows you to set the perspective at any angle via the Google Earth navigation controls.

• This can be useful for applications where coverage of a specific area/width needs to be recorded and analyzed (e.g. field coverage or search and rescue). This feature can be very resource intensive.

• Up until now, GooPs has always compressed track points (thrown away redundant points). GooPs now gives you the ability to keep all track points received from the GPS (It may be helpful to turn off compression when using PointMarkers).

• This was broken if the file had no directory path. It now works with no directory path.

• Cursor was distorted for vehicles too far from 45th parallel. Cursor should now be rendered correctly except at extreme latitudes (>85th parallel).

• GooPs no longer "fights" you when you use the Google Earth navigation controls.

• The icon will be automatically scaled now, unlike the 3d cursor.

• This tended to obscure the cursor and was generally distracting.

• Requires an account on an FTP server (provided free by many ISPs). Periodically saves your location to an FTP server. The location can then be viewed via http by others with Google Earth or Google Maps.2
• Here's my GooPs location via Google Maps:
• Interestingly, my ISP's http server won't serve files with the extension ".kml", that's why the file is named ftptest.txt (not ftptest.kml).
• Here's the kml for a network link that will track my GooPs vehicle remotely. This one updates every 8 seconds.

• On some systems Google Earth will not be able to access the satellite imagery data when GooPs is running. This causes the earth to look blurry.
• If you experience this problem select the "Blurry Image Fix" checkbox in the GooPs Options Dialog, delete any GoopsServers network links in the Google Earth "Places" folder, and restart GooPs.
• If you use this workaround you will not be able to run an http server on your system at the same time you are running GooPs.

• GooPs no longer "fights" you when you tilt, rotate, or zoom your view using the mouse or navigation control.

• The display of cursor label fields is now configurable. The cursor label fields are Name, Speed, and Altitude.

• This controls the visibility of the vehicle and track.

• Resolves problem with lines drawn between points when traveling long distances when GooPs is not tracking or GPS is not on.

• Server is listening on port 51234
• One NMEA sentence per send()
• Socket must be closed and re-connected for each send().
• Must be in live mode (not Demo). GooPs will automatically stop the serial port connection whenever data is received on the socket interface.
• Sample vanilla C socket client code available.

• This will enable a simple brute force client/server based remote tracking.
• Set the number of seconds between each save in the GooPs Options dialog "Save to File Periodically" text box.
• The file will be named <name>.kml where <name> is the name of the local vehicle (e.g. "Me.kml")
• The file will be located in the directory from which GooPs is running.
• Use an off-the-shelf ftp synchronization program or a batch file and windows ftp to upload the kml file to your ftp server.
• You will need access to an ftp server on the internet that is visible to you and all vehicles you want to track.
• Each vehicle to be tracked will be configured to upload their current position and track to the ftp server periodically.

• kml files can be quite large, set your track length and update rate accordingly.
• The kml file names must be coordinated manually on any given server. If you use the same file name as somebody else you will overwrite their data.
• The cursor will be scaled to whatever size the producing vehicle's zoom range dictates.

• Record – records the “local” vehicle nmea data. Data is stored in the file “Play.<name>” where <name> is your local vehicle name. Deletes any previously recorded data.
• Play – plays back the last recorded data in Google Earth as vehicle “Play.<name>”
• Stop – stops Play or Record

• To set the RotateMinimum parameter add this line to your AutoZoom.cfg file:

• ; any line that starts with a semi-colon is ignored

• SpeedTrack renders your track in multiple segments that are colored based on speed.
• SpeedTrack changes your 3D cursor’s color based on your current speed.
• SpeedTrack is currently only available for the “local” vehicle (host=”localhost”).
• SpeedTrack causes many separate tracks to be sent to Google Earth. You may need to shorten the overall track length to avoid bogging down your system.
• You can’t “tour” a SpeedTrack in Google Earth (actually you can but it’s not pretty). For this reason, the “Save” capability will always save a “TourTrack” along with the SpeedTrack segments.

• The track is saved in kml format in the current directory.
• If the registry key HKLM/GooPs/SaveDirectory exists, the file will be saved there.
• If SpeedTrack is active, a “TourTrack” is saved with the SpeedTrack segments.
• The “local” (host=”localhost”) vehicle’s track is now saved at program exit.
• Added a capability to save the current position to the clipboard (Ctl-c).
• Added an AutoTilt checkbox.

• ctl-e – AutoTilt on
• alt-e – AutoTilt off
• ctl-r – SpeedTrack on
• alt-r – SpeedTrack off
• ctl-s – Save selected vehicle’s track
• ctl-k – Save selected vehicle’s track to GE
• ctl-c – Save current location (lat/lon) to clipboard 

• Each line/row in the file designates a speed in mph, a range in feet, a tilt in degrees, and a path to an image file – separated by commas (no white space please).
• The speed is the minimum speed for which this row’s factors will be applied
• The factors will be applied until the current speed reaches the speed designated in the following row.
• A negative range or tilt factor will cause the factor to be applied absolutely for the given row.
• A positive range or tilt factor will cause the factor to be adjusted between this row’s factor and the next row’s factor based on current speed.

• From 0 to 5 mph – range will be 1000 ft, tilt will be 80 degrees, mycar1.png will be displayed at the current position
• From 5 to 20 mph – range will increase linearly from 800 to 3000 ft based on current speed, tilt will decrease linearly from 70 to 50 degrees based on current speed, mycar2.png will be displayed at the current position
• From 20 to 50 mph – range will be 3000 ft, tilt will decrease linearly from 50 to 45 degrees, mycar3.png will be displayed at the current position
• Above 50 mph – range will increase from 3000 to infinity base on current speed, tilt will be 45 degrees, the GooPs 3D cursor will be displayed at the current position

• ctl-t – tracking on
• alt-t – tracking off
• ctl-alt-t – toggle tracking
• ctl-u – heading up on
• alt-u – heading up off
• ctl-alt-u – toggle heading up
• clt-z – AutoZoom on
• alt-z – AutoZoom off
• ctl-alt-z – toggle AutoZoom
• ctl-p – pause
• alt-p - continue
• ctl—alt-p – toggle pause/continue
• ctl-m – force tracking selection to self (host=localhost)

• ctl-t – toggle tracking
• ctl-u – toggle heading up
• ctl-z – toggle AutoZoom
• ctl-p – pause/continue
• ctl-m – force tracking selection to self (host=localhost)

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