After having bought a new Sony DSC-HX5V digital camera, which is equipped with an integrated GPS, I discovered that it comes with windows-only software for downloading and updating the GPS almanac on the camera (the supplied PMB Portable software runs on Apple OS X, but it does not support downloading the GPS almanac).
After tinkering a bit with tcpdump(1) and friends I found out how to perform the download and update manually:
- Download assistme.dat
- Download assistme.md5
- Verify that the MD5 sum of the
assistme.datfile matches the one in theassistme.md5file - Create a top-level folder hierarchy on the memory card for the camera (not the internal memory of the camera) called
PRIVATE/SONY/GPS/ - Place the downloaded
assistme.datfile in thePRIVATE/SONY/GPS/folder - Place the memory card in the camera and verify that the GPS Assist Data is valid
I have written a small perl script for automating the above tasks. The script takes the mount point of the memory card as argument.
Thank you very much for your solution! Sony succeeded in making it very difficult to download their PMB software and when, after a couple of frustrating hours, I discovered your elegant solution, I finally was able to update the GPS assist data again.
Does GPS Assist work with Lion?
Yes, it has no dependencies on a specific operating system.
This is an incredible tip. It is very strange that Sony doesnt release a simple script for OSX users so that we can update the GPS data in the cameras.
I just followed the tip and will give this a go in the next few days. I have been very disappointed with the GPS performance of my DSC-HX30V. It takes way too long to acquire location even when outdoors.
I will post back with results on the weekend.
Hello,
Thank you for this. I have downloaded the assist file and chked the camera. It says valid period is DEC.31.2012. to JAN.30.2012. How to understand that?
Hello Param,
Please read the previous comments on this post – your question is covered there.
Hi. I know this is a script written for Mac but if you want to make it work on Windows you need to add;
binmode FILE;
before you print to the FILE handle,
otherwise extra 0D characters are added at the end of each line.
Anthony
Thanks Anthony, I’ve added a call to binmode() to the script.
Wow! This trick is awesome! Thank you so much!