Any Programmers out there?

S

Stuart Truman

Lifer
 The Cotswolds
In an attempt to modify my nav disc and gain the full postcode search, I have acquired a copy of the 2009 UK postcode database. This is clearly out of date and there are about 179000 postcodes to check against today's data (from a total of over 2 million). Google have an api for doing this but I'm no programmer. Anyone with javascript knowledge fancy helping with a project?

Yes, I know you can buy an iffy disc on ebay, but where's the fun in that? :)

:driving:
 
I'm not sure exactly what you're on about, sounds like you wish to use the Google Geocode API to get current Lat/Lng positions of certain postcodes? Unless you have access to a Google enterprise license, you are limited to 2500 queries per day. That'd be enough to put me off such a project, forget the time spent developing custom software.

Browser based Javascript may not be the best platform for this because it's access to system resources is very crippled. A stand alone app or server based solution would be more effective, but obviously not a solution accessible to everyone.
 
Not sure if you could use the google api to get the full list of postcodes either.
You can use it to return the lat long of a postcode. But I am not sure if you can use it to return a full list of unknown postcodes.
Have used it a little at work, its not too bad to work with, but think a .net application may be better suited to for something like this.
 
Glyn said:
Stuart, you could download the OS Codepoint Open data?
Click to expand...

Done that, but it's only provided in Eastings/Northings and the maths to do the conversion accurately is fearsome. Code is available online but my programming skills aren't up to snuff.
 
Stuart Truman said:
Glyn said:
Stuart, you could download the OS Codepoint Open data?
Click to expand...

Done that, but it's only provided in Eastings/Northings and the maths to do the conversion accurately is fearsome. Code is available online but my programming skills aren't up to snuff.
Click to expand...

We use ArcGIS which could do this in a flash at work, however you could try using QGIS which is open source to import the CodePoint file and set it to British National Grid (OSGB_1936). Then re-project it into WGS84 which will give you the lat/lon values.

Also assuming you already have the latest navigation firmware...
you could just obtain the latest BMW HIGH 2012 disc :?
 
There is a how-to on the Xoutpost.com website detailing a step by step guide.
 
http://www.pimp-my-nav.com/

http://www.xoutpost.com/electronics/navigation-system/41698-review-pimp-my-nav.html
 
pvr said:
http://www.pimp-my-nav.com/

http://www.xoutpost.com/electronics/navigation-system/41698-review-pimp-my-nav.html
Click to expand...

OK, it's not the use of pimp my nav, I have that and can use it. It's the creation of a usable poi database from the data I have. I could build a poi database based on the 2009 database now, but that's already been done. What I want to do is refresh the 2009 data by updating the empty postcodes that have since been allocated. Individually this can be done on a multitude of websites by putting in the postcode and getting the lat/long co-ordinates back. Both good,e and Microsoft make api's available to do this.

The alternative is to take the current data set available from the government and use an algorithm to convert it from the Eastings format it is supplied in to lat/long as needed by the nav computer. There are JavaScript examples online to do this, so it's a case of getting that code to import a 2 million rrecord long data set, do the math and export to a new data set. Easier written than coded (for me anyway!)


Tapatalking...
 
I would recommend doing as Glyn suggests and reproject the government data to Lat/Lng WGS 84 using QGIS or the like. Then the only hurdle is translating the GIS output into a format compatible with the nav system. If the nav format is something used in GIS, there should be a utility available somewhere. If it's proprietary, you'll need the format specification.
 
bcworkz said:
I would recommend doing as Glyn suggests and reproject the government data to Lat/Lng WGS 84 using QGIS or the like. Then the only hurdle is translating the GIS output into a format compatible with the nav system. If the nav format is something used in GIS, there should be a utility available somewhere. If it's proprietary, you'll need the format specification.
Click to expand...

Indeed, QGIS should allow you to export the lat/lon data to a CSV file which as far as I know is compatible with creating a custom POI file.
 
I shall dig into those Glyn. FYI the 7 digit postcode is only available on "modified" nav discs. As standard, they only work on 5 digit.

The nav POI database format is really simple, postcode, Lat and Long!
 
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