Using a smartphone as a GPS recording device

[SianNightingale]

Hello all,

I work in the agricultural industry and most of the work is based around farmers plotting pastures, fencelines etc in the form of waypoints on GARMIN GPS units and then I download these and produce maps for farmers and government reports accordingly.

Having been on a career break from this industy for a couple of years and haven't kept up to date with GIS technology advances. Are there any smartphones out there that can be used like a GARMIN GPS device to record waypoints on and then downloaded in ArcMAP (the version 10.01).

Any input/advice gratefully received!

[SianNightingale]

Still looking for some advice please!

[RussRoberts]

If you are working in a connected environment and you have an ArcGIS Server available or an ArcGIS Online Subscription you can use the ArcGIS for iOS, Android or Windows Phone applications. These applications can leverage your AGS Feature Service or a Hosted Feature Service from your Subscription to collect waypoints.

Cheers
Russ

[AkhilParujanwala]

I am not sure if my post is exactly what you are referring to but here is was I was able to test.

I am using an LG Android phone, and I downloaded ExtGPS to output NMEA strings to my laptop/tablet via Bluetooth. Note: some apps can do this via USB and some apps appear to be available for iOS.

I am using 10.0, I will be switching to 10.1 in next 6 months or so. I am using the out-of-the-box Windows WPF Application with heavy modifications. I was able to successfully click on Connect to GPS in the app.

My app so far collects point data, I can walk around with my android phone, which will provide the GPS information to the laptop and collect data. I don't need to use an alternative GPS device from other companies like Trimble or Garmin. Yes, I still have devices from them, but your post regarding using a phone as a means to get GPS NMEA strings made me look into this further. I am happy to say that for my clients and stake holder that they can use their phone as a GPS if they want.

I hope this helps in any way.