Trip elevation mapping

[corncobs]

Wouldn't you have the same time base? When I did extract some of my data into Excel I normalized everything to 1. It should be possible to do the same with the MPG results when the ski track is started as soon you start the car.

[MaineFusion]

Wouldn't you have the same time base? When I did extract some of my data into Excel I normalized everything to 1. It should be possible to do the same with the MPG results when the ski track is started as soon you start the car.

Ya, I think it would be pretty easy to normalize everything, but first I have to get one of those OBD dongles that will transmit engine telemetry to my smartphone. One thing I do want to also do is record a number of Ski Track runs to and from work so that I can average out the elevation data. Given GPS data can bounce around, it will be important to get enough data samples to average out this data and smooth the route.

[hybridbear]

I finally remembered to do this!! This is from my parents' house to Target. This trip would get 63+ MPG before the update and is sadly no better now

Edited August 11, 2013 by hybridbear

[hybridbear]

A comment to the above speed profile. It's seems to not pick up stops at stop signs very well. This route has a fair number of stop signs. The three stops shown above were three red lights. None of the stop signs show our speed reaching 0 MPH. Each of the downward spikes from about 25-30 MPH down to 10 MPH is actually a stop sign.

[MaineFusion]

A comment to the above speed profile. It's seems to not pick up stops at stop signs very well. This route has a fair number of stop signs. The three stops shown above were three red lights. None of the stop signs show our speed reaching 0 MPH. Each of the downward spikes from about 25-30 MPH down to 10 MPH is actually a stop sign.

That's due to the frequency at which your smartphone updates its GPS location.

[corncobs]

That's due to the frequency at which your smartphone updates its GPS location.

How frequent does yours update do you know? I noticed that your profile look a lot smoother. I have an iPhone 4S and it's updating the GPS every second based on the data readout I did with Excel.

[MaineFusion]

How frequent does yours update do you know? I noticed that your profile look a lot smoother. I have an iPhone 4S and it's updating the GPS every second based on the data readout I did with Excel.

Just because the app is recording data every second doesn't mean the smartphone is actually updating GPS coordinates that often. I don't know how often my phone updates, but it also misses complete stops in my elevation profiles. Also, depending on where your phone is placed, it might not be getting a full range of GPS satellites causing it not to get as good of a position lock as it might otherwise.

 

my profile looks smooth because:

• I'm driving on cruise control in eco mode and typically don't have traffic that is causing the car to adjust its speed;
• GPS signal quality, I lock my phone into a windshield mounted holder so that its GPS antenna doesn't get too much interference;
• I regularly update my phone's AGPS data cache;
• my commute is fairly long so the graph gets compressed to the point you don't see small fluctuation in speed/elevation.

Most phones can't be manually forced to update their AGPS data cache, however, my phone is rooted and I have an app called "GPS Test Plus" that will force an AGPS update on rooted phones.

[hybridbear]

Trip this morning. I forgot to start it when leaving home but remembered after about a mile.







The long stretches without stopping help get good gas mileage even with the elevation change. I went from 8:50 to 9:04 without stopping and then again from 9:06 till I arrived at 9:14 without stopping.

Edited August 11, 2013 by hybridbear

[corncobs]

HB have you looked at your profile with the raw data in Excel? The app is not very good at displaying short stops since the real estate isn't there and it's averaging a lot between points but I think you see them in Excel.

Edited August 10, 2013 by corncobs

[MaineFusion]

Hybridbear, I'm not sure I'd post a map of my exact start and end points if either were my home or work locations. You never know who is lurking in forums like this. It is almost as bad as announcing that one is going on vacation on one's Facebook profile.

[hybridbear]

HB have you looked at your profile with the raw data in Excel? The app is not very good at displaying short stops since the real estate isn't there and it's averaging a lot between points but I think you see them in Excel.

How do I get it into Excel? Do I need the paid version for that?

 

Hybridbear, I'm not sure I'd post a map of my exact start and end points if either were my home or work locations. You never know who is lurking in forums like this. It is almost as bad as announcing that one is going on vacation on one's Facebook profile.

I didn't consider the map to be zoomed in enough to be a concern, but I removed the maps now. I was trying to give some context for other users to what kinds of roads I'm driving to get such good gas mileage with the map.

[hybridbear]

Return trip, this time I ran the app from door to door.

 

 

 

[corncobs]

How do I get it into Excel? Do I need the paid version for that?

 

I not quite sure but I don't think so you just need to export them as GPX and send it to yourself as email. Below is a quote from an earlier post but let know if the description is not good enough how do to get the text out of the website.

 

I found a way to look at the data in more detail.

 

Send the data from Ski Tracks via email exported as GPX.

Now you can go to http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input and upload the GPX file in order to export it as plain text with additional estimated speed data.

 

This text file can now be downloaded and plotted in MS Excel. The data indicates that the frequency of data logging is 1 sec.

 

Here is just a small section of my drive plotted in Excel.

 

 

It doesn't return a lot of useful information and it would be nice to add data from ICE and EV to make it really interesting but at least I found a way to view the data and that was my goal. :-)

[MaineFusion]

Here's the SkiTrack for my trip home this morning from my camping trip near Fryburg Maine. The EXIF data of the photo of me and my FFH contains the exact GPS coordinates of our campsite on the Saco River. The Saco River also flows through Saco where I live so this trip was a net loss of a couple hundred feet in elevation. Max speed limit was 55mph. I didn't run cruise control this time, because I wanted to try and maximize EV mode time. I got 56.9 mpg for the trip.

 

 

[majorleeslow]

I've had one time imported the route elevations in Google earth from my tracks app. and you can overlay the elevation to the point on route you pick. it's pretty cool to try that for the most common routes. check it out.

[majorleeslow]

remember that route elevation is one imp factor for mpg,but wind direction is another one that you may not directly account for or be able to control in order to improve your mpg.