We’ve mentioned Steve Roberts before. I’m fond of calling him “the original over-gadgeted technomad”, and he doesn’t seem to mind.

He’s a great source for outside-the-box thinking when it comes to solving technical problems. Longtime readers may remember his comments about a home-brewed alternative to expensive vessel tracking and monitoring systems, for instance.

Sometimes, Steve gets so much reader interest in a project he’s described over at his Nomadness blog that he creates a kit for those of us who aren’t quite ready to build it all from scratch the way he did.

Case in point: his new waterproof GPS datalogger.

Waterproof GPS Datalogger Kit – 1 GB, Bluetooth, & Charge Cable – $195.00

One of my favorite devices aboard Nomadness is the GPS datalogger… something I have used on all my boats (even kayaks) to record every second of the adventures. The generated files, with one GPS fix per line of text, can then be easily dropped onto Google Earth or other mapping tools, showing a complete log of the trip.

 

You can read more about this, featuring an earlier version, here. The article shows a number of examples from my recent journeys, and the 621-mile shakedown cruise of the new ship in 2008 is shown in its entirety in this image. What’s beautiful about this data is that I can zoom all the way in and observe the effects of current, dicey docking situations, and other phenomena… and even tag it with notes that key it to the ship’s log, blog postings, or photos! You can even do it with online tools, like the excellent GPS Visualizer.

I have had numerous inquiries since writing that article and posting on various forums, and for a long time just linked to Sparkfun electronics… the delightful geeks in Colorado who build the tracker boards. But it occurred to me that boaters might like a bit more: a waterproof enclosure, a suitable SD card, a charging cable, and a reasonably non-technical explanation about how to use it. So I have assembled this little kit.

Click over to read the rest of the product description. It could be a great little tool, especially on kayaks, small boats, and dinghies that might not otherwise possess any position logging.