This project was to enable mapping of weeds along Council road sides ”on the fly”. An Arduino based GPS with a large 4x4 keypad was built, so the driver could record observed weeds without stopping. Keys 1-9 were used to nominate weed type, letters A-D were used to nominate patch size, After the recording drive, SD card was removed to an Excel application that processes, analyzes, and reports, and produces data in a form the City Council could eventually incorporate into a map overlay. Cost to the Council were more than halved for this service, and enabled weed management to be better targeted.Code for this project, including the Excel application, is available at www.excelworks.info
Files
WEED MAPPER.zip
Arduino, and Excel project files, sample data file, plus a basic instruction
manual
The project software folder now includes an Excel application that will accept the SD card data from the mapping module and produce CSV files to suit Garmin, Google Earth, or GPSVisualizer displays. A supporting document outlines basic setup and operation.Files for GPSVisualizer displays allow use of chosen markers and colors for your points, a feature the CSV parser on Google Earth does not support. The VBA code within the workbook is not locked so you can modify this application as you wish.
After three years of field use, this project's Arduino software has not needed any modification. The membrane keypad failed quickly, and was replaced with an identically faced click-buttton type which has performed faultlessly:-
Some features of the accompanying Excel based spreadsheet were found to be unnecessary, and the main function of converting the SD data from the Arduino into Garmin POI files was the mostly used function.
The original Excel spreadsheet was not released with this project and I am now preparing a version suitable for public release, which will enable the primary function of preparing Garmin POI files from the SD data produced y the GPS.