Maemo Mapper: GPS for the Nokia 770 [Archive] - maemo.org

gnuite

2006-05-10, 20:28

Maemo Mapper 0.1 is now released and available from the Maemo Mapper Website (http://gnuite.com:8080/nokia770/maemo-mapper/).

Maemo Mapper is a mapping application like GPSDrive but built from the ground up for the Hildon UI and optimized for the Nokia 770. It works with any NMEA-compliant GPS Receiver that emits the RMC sentence of the NMEA protocol.

Major features include:
* Designed and optimized for the Nokia 770.
* Various methods of automatic map downloading.
* Support for the GPS Exchange (GPX) file format.
* Driving Directions generation, including on-the-fly re-generation if you stray from the route.
* Announcement of upcoming waypoints (including voice synthesis via flite).
* Freely released under the GPL.

If you use Maemo Mapper and would like to show your appreciation for it, or if you have a feature that you would like added to Maemo Mapper, please consider donating money via PayPal (link is on the website).

I have tested this release mostly under my own use cases, so please report any bugs that you may encounter to me (gnuite) on the Internet Tablet Talk forums.

There is no formal documentation yet, but most of the interface is intuitive. Read the Maemo Mapper website for details about the functionality.

Don't hesitate to make suggestions or comments. Enjoy!

gnuite

2006-05-10, 20:41

The Maemo Mapper website mentions that, in order for map downloading to work, you must provide a suitable "Map Download URI Format" that Maemo Mapper can use. Because Maemo Mapper does not have its own map repository (or affiliation with existing map repositories), I cannot include a default URI format in the program itself.

Instead, I can provide a few examples here of URI formats that currently work with Maemo Mapper. You must enter these examples in the "URI Format" text field of the "Maps" tab of the Settings dialog box. (It remembers your setting, so you should only need to do this once.)

For that original Google Maps look:
http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.11&x=%d&y=%d&zoom=%d

For an alternate Google Maps look, with added road and building detail, more road names, and wider-looking roads:
http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=ap.6&x=%d&y=%d&zoom=%d

Please note that using either of these examples (or any other private commercial map repositories) may consitute a violation of copyright law. Use of Maemo Mapper and/or these examples requires and implies that you agree that you understand that using Maemo Mapper to download maps from a commercial map repository may be considered a violation of copyright law and that I (John Costigan) cannot be held responsible for any of your actions related thereto.

Remote User

2006-05-10, 21:00

I haven't even downloaded it yet and I'm impressed with the explanation you've provided on your web site. You're going to get a reputation if you keep this up!

kutibah

2006-05-10, 22:36

WOW! Thank you so much! I have 2 questions however:

1. I have fluite installed, yet it doesn't give me any voice commands (just textual commands)

2. I downloaded a 5-detailed type map. But the program is still showing me the satellite topo map, not the detailed one. How do I show the detailed map?

Thanks again!

lmf

2006-05-10, 23:10

gnuite

2006-05-11, 01:09

WOW! Thank you so much! I have 2 questions however:

1. I have fluite installed, yet it doesn't give me any voice commands (just textual commands)
Make sure that flite is in your classpath. If you have XTerm installed, you can test this by just typing the following:
flite "This is a test."
If that works, it should work in Maemo Mapper. If not, then set up your classpath so that the above _does_ work.

2. I downloaded a 5-detailed type map. But the program is still showing me the satellite topo map, not the detailed one. How do I show the detailed map?

Thanks again!
The program will automatically display the most detailed map applicable for an area, but it only scales UP (from lesser-detailed maps); it doesn't scale down. That means that if you are zoomed out to the maximum level, you won't see any higher-detailed maps. Just zoom in in order to see the more-detailed maps.

gnuite

2006-05-11, 01:37

Hi, I installed maemo-mapper and flite.
(but I don't have a bluetooth gps device (yet...))
After starting it, I inserted the "Map Download URI Format" on the initial dialog box, and, when I press "ok", it just crashes...

Is it posible to test this without a bluetooth gps?
Can I insert a manual GPS coordinate? (so that I can download the maps for this location).
(would it be possible to create a "virtual" gps device, that can get it's coordinates from a text file, or even from a url?)

thanks.
;)
Yeah. It's not a crash; the program actually closes if you do not specify a Receiver MAC address. I should probably change that behavior, now that it does make a little bit of sense to use the program without a GPS receiver. Until then, just specify "00:00:00:00:00:00" as your MAC address. Afterward, you can disable the "Enable GPS" checkbox in the menu to stop the "Searching for GPS Receiver" messages.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for the feedback!

kutibah

2006-05-11, 02:03

Make sure that flite is in your classpath. If you have XTerm installed, you can test this by just typing the following:
flite "This is a test."
If that works, it should work in Maemo Mapper. If not, then set up your classpath so that the above _does_ work.

The program will automatically display the most detailed map applicable for an area, but it only scales UP (from lesser-detailed maps); it doesn't scale down. That means that if you are zoomed out to the maximum level, you won't see any higher-detailed maps. Just zoom in in order to see the more-detailed maps.
1. It says flite was not found? How do I set my classpath?

2. Cool, it worked when I zoomed in this time. Strangely, it didn't before. I placed the directory for the maps on the memory card. The maps should be saved there so I can access them every time I open Maemo Mapper, correct? Or do they always have to be re-downloaded?

Thank you for your help.

kutibah

2006-05-11, 04:02

ioan

2006-05-11, 04:25

It's kind of confusing on how to do this with the Latitude/Longitude coordinates?

here is what I did, and works perfect.
1. set the map to auto download
2. zoom in to max on the left upper corner of the region you want to download
3. go in download area and "view center" will show you the coordinates for that point.
4. do the same for the right lower corner.
5. select again "download region" and put the 2 sets of coordinates.
6. select the zoom levels.... and download.

I downloaded a BIG part of Oregon for the zoom levels from 4 to 16 (you can see all the streets and the names for the highways) in about 200 MB.
I have to study the code and maybe with help from gnuite I will make a windows app to download the maps... and then copy them on the card when you need them...

This is a great application, thanks gnuite!!

kutibah

2006-05-11, 04:45

here is what I did, and works perfect.
1. set the map to auto download
2. zoom in to max on the left upper corner of the region you want to download
3. go in download area and "view center" will show you the coordinates for that point.
4. do the same for the right lower corner.
5. select again "download region" and put the 2 sets of coordinates.
6. select the zoom levels.... and download.

I downloaded a BIG part of Oregon for the zoom levels from 4 to 16 (you can see all the streets and the names for the highways) in about 200 MB.
I have to study the code and maybe with help from gnuite I will make a windows app to download the maps... and then copy them on the card when you need them...

This is a great application, thanks gnuite!!
Thank you very much! I couldn't believe how stupid I was haha. I honestly didn't know what that top-left/bottom-right thing meant until know lol.

fredoll

2006-05-11, 08:50

Wonderfull work !
Thanks a lot !
I have a little problem downloading routes : Error parsing GPX file
It might be due to accentuated letters (France sorry ;) )
It would be nice to keep in memory the last addresses entered ...
It would be also very nice to interface that with the GPE Contact database ...
Would you like me to help you on this matter, I've already played with this database (phonelink) and I'm sure it would be a nice improvement ...

Thanks again for your great work

Fred

fredoll

2006-05-11, 08:52

update : I have the same parsing problem using those :
Dublin, Ireland to Tralee, Ireland
so it might not be linked to accentuated letters ...

Fred

teemu

2006-05-11, 11:20

Great application! Really nice job gnuite.

I'm also getting the "Error parsing GPX file" when I try to download a route. For example "helsinki,fi" -> "espoo,fi" gives this error.

Is there a list of compatible GPS receivers somewhere or could you post what receivers you're using with the N770?

konttori

2006-05-11, 13:01

I am seriously impressed! What an excellent application. You could put the 00:00:00:00 as default gps and disable gps until gps value has been set. Also, the map download might be nice to be on by default.

Also, if you have a look at google maps terms and conditions, it would seem that you are indeed allowed to use those maps (for non commercial purposes). But, as you have done, I don't think it's legal to provide app that does that automatically. Are NASA maps for free? You could put an option for those. Or a default setting.

Anyway. Jut an idea. Kepp up the splendid work. That app totally rocks!

kutibah

2006-05-11, 13:10

ploum

2006-05-11, 13:59

that's simply great ! Thanks for your work.

Robert Newman

2006-05-11, 14:04

gnuite

2006-05-11, 14:31

1. It says flite was not found? How do I set my classpath?
(My Java roots showing themselves - I meant PATH, not classpath.) Modify /etc/profile to add the following text to the end of the definition of PATH: /var/lib/install/usr/bin

2. Cool, it worked when I zoomed in this time. Strangely, it didn't before. I placed the directory for the maps on the memory card. The maps should be saved there so I can access them every time I open Maemo Mapper, correct? Or do they always have to be re-downloaded?
Maps are downloaded into whatever directory you specify in the "Maps" tab of the Settings dialog. This defaults to "/home/user/apps/maemo-mapper", but you can change it to whatever you want. To use a subdirectory of the MMC called "maemo-mapper", change the path to "/media/mmc1/maemo-mapper". Maemo Mapper will automatically create the directory if it doesn't exist. You do not have to download each map more than once.

gnuite

2006-05-11, 14:37

I have a quick suggestion with map downloading. Is it possible in the next update to have a feature where you can download the maps by Zip/City/County/State/Country? It would be cool if for example I can download the enter maps for the USA with one click. It's kind of confusing on how to do this with the Latitude/Longitude coordinates?

Thanks again for the excellent application!
This would be a little difficult, because Maemo Mapper doesn't inherently have the ability to convert Zip/City/etc. to latitude/longitude. Instead, you can use Google Maps or Google Earth to get the Latitude and Longitude. The easiest way (that I know of) in Google Maps is to do the following:

1. Enter the location (e.g. "Seattle, WA") into Google Maps and let it map your requested location.
2. Pan the map just slightly.
3. Right-click the "Link to this page" link and copy the URL. It should look something like this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Seattle,+WA&ll=47.60651,-122.330532&spn=0.092127,0.143509&om=1
Buried in that string is the substring "&ll=", and after that is the latitude and longitude.

gnuite

2006-05-11, 14:48

I downloaded a BIG part of Oregon for the zoom levels from 4 to 16 (you can see all the streets and the names for the highways) in about 200 MB.
I have to study the code and maybe with help from gnuite I will make a windows app to download the maps... and then copy them on the card when you need them...
My concern with this was just the copyright issues with creating an application with the specific goal of downloading mass amounts of maps from private commercial sources. We get around that in Maemo Mapper by not providing a URL, and since it's not solely a map download program (but a map display program).

I think the "Download by Area", "Download by Route", and "Auto-Download" options should be enough for all but the most extreme of needs, and since I can't officially support those extreme needs, I don't think I'll be attempting to build an application to fulfill those needs.

Plus, I hate programming in Windows. :)

gnuite

2006-05-11, 14:56

Wonderfull work !
Thanks a lot !
I have a little problem downloading routes : Error parsing GPX file
It might be due to accentuated letters (France sorry ;) )
Accented characters shouldn't pose a problem. Anything that works in Google Maps (or, more accurately, in the GPS Driving Directions (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi) web service, should work in Maemo Mapper. If it doesn't, it's a bug (and that sounds like what this is). I'll look into it.

It would be nice to keep in memory the last addresses entered ...
Valid addresses are saved in memory using auto-complete. As you tap in an address, it should display a list of all matching addresses as you tap. I tried to make it a combo box, but I had serious issues with the GtkComboEntry widget on Maemo, and besides, as the list gets large the combo box becomes nearly useless - autocompletion is more effective in this case.

It would be also very nice to interface that with the GPE Contact database ...
Would you like me to help you on this matter, I've already played with this database (phonelink) and I'm sure it would be a nice improvement ...
The idea of including GPE Contact information (perhaps as part of the autocomplete feature mentioned above) is not a bad one. I'll add it to my TODO list... If you want to add it yourself, I'll accept (and possibly modify) any patch that you submit toward this end.

Thanks for the feedback.

gnuite

2006-05-11, 14:59

I downloaded the program, since I don't have a GPS I set it to 00:00:00:00:00:00, set the URI as in the sample, and Voila! a map of the world appeared. I zoomed into San Antonio, Texas and right down to street level in my neighborhood. I was amazed! But once I ended the app, and later ran it again, it does not work. All that I get is a progress bar saying "downloading maps" but it is just a black screen. I can zoom up or down but still only see a black screen. I tried removing, and reinstalling the app, with no success. Any suggestions, Ireally want this to work. I am OS X savy, but limited Linux knowledge. Thanks.
The application starts you out at your last GPS position, or 0 degrees latitude, 0 degree longitude if you don't have a GPS receiver. Try zooming out all the way to see if you can get back to the world view.

If it still doesn't work, run this command in XTerm (which will clear your settings in GConf) and re-start Maemo Mapper:
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset "/apps/maemo-mapper"

keyrn1808

2006-05-11, 15:33

Accented characters shouldn't pose a problem. Anything that works in Google Maps (or, more accurately, in the GPS Driving Directions (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi) web service, should work in Maemo Mapper. If it doesn't, it's a bug (and that sounds like what this is). I'll look into it.

I also have the same issue. I wrote a couple of direction in the GPX site and get the routing file. When loading it in the nokia it gives to me a parsing problem.

If I tried also to write the direction in the nokia with the same result.

Maybe it is related with maps out side of US... I'm triying a route in Spain

Great app!!!

lmf

2006-05-11, 18:52

Gnuite....

thank you... this is simply awesome....
IMHO this is the best app I've seen for the nokia 770...

thank you once more!
I hope the guys at gmaps don't shut the doors on this!
:)

phillup

2006-05-11, 19:06

The application starts you out at your last GPS position, or 0 degrees latitude, 0 degree longitude if you don't have a GPS receiver. Try zooming out all the way to see if you can get back to the world view.

If it still doesn't work, run this command in XTerm (which will clear your settings in GConf) and re-start Maemo Mapper:
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset "/apps/maemo-mapper"

And, if you want to make it start out somewhere else... and you don't have a GPS receiver you can do something like this:

gconftool-2 --type float --set /apps/maemo-mapper/last_longitude -- -115
gconftool-2 --type float -- set /apps/maemo-mapper/last_latitude 45

Just make sure the app isn't running when you do this.

(It took me a bit of time to figure out how to enter a negative value for longitude... so I included it in the example above.)

ministrillo

2006-05-11, 19:45

Great app

can the maemo mapper show hybrid maps of google?

Thanks

ioan

2006-05-11, 20:14

lmf

2006-05-11, 20:32

jussik

2006-05-11, 21:00

A high quality application, thanks a lot gnuite. There aren't too many of those for Maemo yet.

The application starts you at ... 0 degrees latitude, 0 degree longitude if you don't have a GPS receiver.

This is not fun -- A "home lat/lon"-preference would be great.

kutibah

2006-05-11, 22:19

(My Java roots showing themselves - I meant PATH, not classpath.) Modify /etc/profile to add the following text to the end of the definition of PATH: /var/lib/install/usr/bin
That's the problem. How exactly do I modify /etc/profile? When I try typing that in, it says permission denied (I'm in root).

lmf

2006-05-11, 22:59

gnuite,
GPX route importing doesn't work for me either.
I also get "Error parsing GPX file"

Can it be because my "actual" position in Maemo Mapper, and the starting position in the gpx file differ?

Just figured out the "Error parsing GPX file" !!!
When I used GPX Driving Directions page, I simple chose "save"... and then placed that xml file on the rsmmc card...
The problem is that the file is a html file... and not the gpx file...
so.. the solution is to copy the output on the browser... and then paste that on a new file...

gnuite

2006-05-11, 23:08

Great app

can the maemo mapper show hybrid maps of google?

Thanks
Unfortunately, Google's hybrid maps are not available as downloadable bitmaps, so, short of licensing NavTek's street data, this would be near impossible.

Even the topo maps would be pretty hard to integrate into Maemo Mapper now, as they are based on a completely different map identifier scheme (not X/Y; instead more quadtree-esque). Doable, but since I prefer the street data, I don't think I'll be tackling that problem at the moment.

gnuite

2006-05-11, 23:11

Just figured out the "Error parsing GPX file" !!!
When I used GPX Driving Directions page, I simple chose "save"... and then placed that xml file on the rsmmc card...
The problem is that the file is a html file... and not the gpx file...
so.. the solution is to copy the output on the browser... and then paste that on a new file...
Oh, yeah, sorry, I should have mentioned that I optimized that GPX Driving Directions page to work on the Nokia 770's web browser. And for some reason, I had to set the MIME type to text/xml, otherwise it would not save the file correctly, or it would append a ".html" to the filename.

If you use the GPX Driving Directions page on the Nokia 770 and save the result to your device, it should work fine.

I thought everyone was having problems with the integrated Route Downloading in Maemo Mapper itself - is that not the case?

gnuite

2006-05-11, 23:18

And, if you want to make it start out somewhere else... and you don't have a GPS receiver you can do something like this:

gconftool-2 --type float --set /apps/maemo-mapper/last_longitude -- -115
gconftool-2 --type float -- set /apps/maemo-mapper/last_latitude 45

Yes, this is an acceptable workaround if you don't have a GPS receiver. What I really should have done (and what will be in version 0.2) is to save the last center location as well. Since this project was born around my GPS receiver, though, I didn't think of that.

Fortunately, publicizing the software has opened my eyes to these use cases - I never really thought that so many people would use Maemo Mapper without a GPS receiver! Google Maps does the same thing Maemo Mapper does with a GPS receiver (and much more).

Of course, having said that, I've recently found myself using Maemo Mapper more and more in "GPS Disabled" mode, to download a route, or to demo it to people in my office, or to get a quick map. It is a lot faster (and arguably more usable on the Nokia 770 screen) than Google Maps.

Version 0.2 will be much more friendly to those without GPS receivers.

gnuite

2006-05-11, 23:29

I played around with the maemo-mapper yesterday and today... and is great!
I tried once to download map along the route, and it did download, but the wrong maps (this is the only problem I saw). Here is the screenshot:

http://www.poze.org/screenshot01.jpg
Did that problem persist after you restarted Maemo Mapper? What is the location (lat/lon would be nice, or just city/state/country) in the screenshot?

What I think will be useful in future versions is to be able to mark a point, for example "My House", or "My Office".. etc. Anyway less features means stable application and I prefer stable!

Thanks again gnuite.
Landmarks (similar to Google's "Restaurants near Houston, TX" functionality) are something I want to get into Maemo Mapper, hopefully even incorporating Google Maps' functionality. When that goes in, the ability to add landmarks on the fly should be easy.

The hardest part of allowing the user to add landmarks is going to be organizing them. You can create a landmark GPX file for your home, and one for your workplace (you can actually do this now with single-point Routes), and you can load one with all of the gas stations near you, but if you "Add" a waypoint, which landmark set should it go in? Do you keep track of all loaded landmark files and give the user a right-click menu to choose from? Does it automatically save?

It'll take some thought, and the priority here is UI cleanliness. The menus are already getting pretty full... It was nice back in the day (pre-release) when there were so few menu items that there were no submenus. Now it's requiring more clicks to be useful; I don't really want that trend to continue.

Anyway, a click-and-hold would be appropriate for adding a mark. It's just a matter of data organization and not confusing the user...

gnuite

2006-05-11, 23:52

gnuite,
GPX route importing doesn't work for me either.
I also get "Error parsing GPX file"

Can it be because my "actual" position in Maemo Mapper, and the starting position in the gpx file differ?

Just a few notes:
without a gps, when I restart the program, it always defaults to 0:0 a the previous zoom level... and not the previous manual LAT/LONG selection.
Yeah, I'm going to provide better support in version 0.2 for using Maemo Mapper without a GPS Receiver. Sorry for the inconvenience.

It would be nice, in the Maps/download Area, if we could copy the actual view center LAT and LONG with "copy" button.. without having to type the actual numbers...
Hm. I actually meant for those numbers to be selectable, so that you could use copy/paste, although I never tested it because I mostly envisioned them as only being used for general reference (around which you would choose bracketing values). I'll make them copy/pastable at least, though.

It would be nice, if the previous inserted values could stay in memory, for example, to set the top-left, and the going to the map, defining the bottom-right, and comming back to the Maps/download Area, and set this final value (without loosing the previous top-left entry).
I can do this, and since you mentioned it, I probably will, although I have to admit I don't see much utility in it. Why download the same area twice?

I'll tell you how _I_ would use the "Download Area" functionality. Use Google Earth to get the lat/lons of an area around you that you want at highest detail (zoom=0). Aim for maybe 10% of your total allocated map space (yeah, I know, it's hard to estimate now, but I'll try to add some better feedback in version 0.2). Download that area.

Then use Google Earth to get the lat/lons of a larger area around you and download that at a higher zoom level (I would skip every other zoom level, to save space, but you don't have to). Repeat the process until you're downloading the whole world (90, -180 to -90, 180) at a relatively-high zoom level, like 10 or 11, and include all the higher zoom levels if you want to show off that "I can zoom out to see the whole world!" effect to your friends.

Doing this gives you the area around you at high detail, for when you're going to parties or gatherings or whatnot, and whenever you travel outside your home area, you still have at least enough level of detail that you could use highways to get around to major cities. Depending on how much space you allocate for your maps, the detail you have outside of your home area will vary.

Of course, everyone should tune their repositories to suit their own needs. Unless, of course, you're one of those people, who have a cell-phone with data service, and you can just use "Auto-Download" all the time (I'm jealous, can you tell? :)).

Another alternative is to slowly build your map repository by downloading maps "by Route" whenever you need to get somewhere. Going to a party? Download the route, download maps along the route at various zoom levels, and you're good to go for the party. Eventually, you'll map the whole world! (Consider it an incentive to travel. :))

Also, GPX Driving Directions Webpage, uses port 8080.
this makes it impossible to use this feature from certain firewalls/mobile services that only allow port 80...

Unfortunately, my ISP blocks port 80 outgoing, so I can't help that without getting a relatively-expensive port redirector service. Sorry. :(

But soon there will be hope! For version 0.2 I hope to bypass the GPX Driving Directions page entirely, cutting out the middle man, after which point you would only need to use port-80-touting servers to access driving directions. I could have done it for version 0.1, but the demand for a release meant I had to stop writing new features eventually. :)

ioan

2006-05-11, 23:58

Did that problem persist after you restarted Maemo Mapper? What is the location (lat/lon would be nice, or just city/state/country) in the screenshot?

is downtown portland, oregon. I did it again and had almost same problem.
here is the screenshot:
http://www.poze.org/screenshot00.jpg
and here is the route if you need it for debuging:
http://www.poze.org/office-home.xml

if I just zoom in and out from the keys and scroll around, the map for the same region is downloaded right.

-i

gnuite

2006-05-12, 00:05

That's the problem. How exactly do I modify /etc/profile? When I try typing that in, it says permission denied (I'm in root).

If you don't have vim to edit the /etc/profile file, copy/paste this sed command into your XTerm:

sed 's@PATH *=[^/]*@&/var/lib/install/usr/bin:@' /etc/profile > /tmp/profile.new

Use cat to make sure that the new profile (in /tmp/profile.new) looks okay, and if it does, move it to /etc/profile (you should probably back up the original file, just in case!).

Once you move it, test it by typing "source /etc/profile" into XTerm. If an error occurs, restore your backup and then retrying the flite command. Otherwise, retry the flite command to see if it works now. If not, PM me and I'll work you through it, or you can mail your Nokia 770 with a SASE to:

Gimmy Ur. Tabblit
1250 NokiaStealer St.
Bermuda Triangle, NW 12345

(Just kidding, please do not mail your Nokia 770.)

If what I've said confuses you, you might not want to try it, and even if you do try it, do not hold me responsible for any strange gooey substance that may ooze from your Nokia 770's USB port.

I'll look into possibly modifying the PATH environment variable (in Maemo Mapper, not in the installer) to automatically include this path, or I'll just bite the bullet and hardcode the entire path (gulp), or maybe I can provide it as yet another config option in the Settings dialog (grumble... it grows beyond my desires...). Or, my favorite option might be to just change the system() call to just try both flite and /var/lib/install/usr/bin/flite.

kutibah

2006-05-12, 03:31

If you don't have vim to edit the /etc/profile file, copy/paste this sed command into your XTerm:

sed 's@PATH *=[^/]*@&/var/lib/install/usr/bin:@' /etc/profile > /tmp/profile.new

Use cat to make sure that the new profile (in /tmp/profile.new) looks okay, and if it does, move it to /etc/profile (you should probably back up the original file, just in case!).

Once you move it, test it by typing "source /etc/profile" into XTerm. If an error occurs, restore your backup and then retrying the flite command. Otherwise, retry the flite command to see if it works now. If not, PM me and I'll work you through it, or you can mail your Nokia 770 with a SASE to:

Gimmy Ur. Tabblit
1250 NokiaStealer St.
Bermuda Triangle, NW 12345

(Just kidding, please do not mail your Nokia 770.)

If what I've said confuses you, you might not want to try it, and even if you do try it, do not hold me responsible for any strange gooey substance that may ooze from your Nokia 770's USB port.

I'll look into possibly modifying the PATH environment variable (in Maemo Mapper, not in the installer) to automatically include this path, or I'll just bite the bullet and hardcode the entire path (gulp), or maybe I can provide it as yet another config option in the Settings dialog (grumble... it grows beyond my desires...). Or, my favorite option might be to just change the system() call to just try both flite and /var/lib/install/usr/bin/flite.
Sweet! It worked perfectly! Thanks again!

jayholler

2006-05-12, 04:20

konttori

2006-05-12, 08:06

exactly how long should it take to download maps once selecting auto-download? I've been waiting at least 15-20 minutes and just get a black screen and the downloading widget. I have no GPS, the MAC address is set as 00:00:00:00:00:00, I set the URI as per this post, but it just doesn't seem to be working for me. Anyone have any ideas, did I miss something?

5 seconds or less. It's really fast. Is your network active? Hmm.. Try copy pasting the url again. Try zooming out (if it's still in the 0 0 cordinates).

mzandrew

2006-05-12, 08:50

gconftool-2 --type float --set /apps/maemo-mapper/last_longitude -- -115
gconftool-2 --type float -- set /apps/maemo-mapper/last_latitude 45

Just make sure the app isn't running when you do this.

gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/maemo-mapper/zoom 8

also works. Check out /var/lib/gconf/apps/maemo-mapper/%gconf.xml on your tablet for a list of more things to configure (editing this file by hand does nothing for some reason).

elpaso

2006-05-12, 11:30

Great, impressive, excellent application!!

I think it would be a good idea (and maybe not so much work) to add WMS support and multiple map provider functionality.

One could configure Google-like and WMS standard-compliant map providers (there is plenty of free ones).

the
$HOME/apps/maemo-mapper/[ZOOM]/[LATITUDE]/[LONGITUDE].jpg
could be changed to
$HOME/apps/maemo-mapper/[MAP_PROVIDER]/[ZOOM]/[LATITUDE]/[LONGITUDE].jpg

This could be useful if one wants to see satellite imagery like
http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/

WMS:
http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi

Did I mentioned I liked it?

Great work!!

tigert

2006-05-12, 12:12

exactly how long should it take to download maps once selecting auto-download? I've been waiting at least 15-20 minutes and just get a black screen and the downloading widget.

(Hi everyone! :))

The problem is, that the cache folder needs to exist - the application does not seem to create it if it does not. That fixed it for me.

I have another issue: the GPS I borrowed for testing is a Insmat SiRF III bluetooth gps, and my friend says it works fine with gpsdrive. But as soon as maemo-mapper gains a connection to the gps, it flashes the "Establishing GPS mumble.." - banner and immediately after this it crashes / quits (it just disappears)

Any ideas how to help in debugging this?

//Tuomas

HardCoder

2006-05-12, 12:46

I have another issue: the GPS I borrowed for testing is a Insmat SiRF III bluetooth gps, and my friend says it works fine with gpsdrive. But as soon as maemo-mapper gains a connection to the gps, it flashes the "Establishing GPS mumble.." - banner and immediately after this it crashes / quits (it just disappears)

Any ideas how to help in debugging this?

//Tuomas
I have a simular problem, the gps i am using is a Globalsat BT-338. I think it's the same hardware as the Insmat but different brand.

But mine doesn't crash all the time, it only crashes when the GPS haven't got any fix.
I get 1 position but it's about 500m of. I allways get the same position when I enable GPS in the menu. Have tried walking around with it about 300 m in one direction. The position does not update.

I have set up the maemo Devkit and enabled the verbose output in the source-code and copied the newly compiled binary to the 770.

I have attached the output.

gnuite: Thank you! Great work! The code is really clean and easy to follow! If you want me to get you some other output don't hesitate to tell me!

jayholler

2006-05-12, 13:11

That fixed it, thanks tigert! If anyone else has this issue, you need to create a directory:
mkdir /home/user/apps/maemo-mapper

Make sure owner is user and group is users. I created this dir after becoming root, and I had to manually chown and chgrp to get it working.

Enough of that, now the praise:

gnuite: This is incredible! To be able to use the maps fullscreen, zoom however I want, damn man, really nice work. I use my mobile as a modem so I don't even need to get a gps device! really, really nice stuff. Congratulations and thank you.

penguinbait

2006-05-12, 14:05

Problems?
I have had some problems with the 770 buttons, I can not figure out what exactly I am doing that causes the problem, it seems to happen a bunch and then not at all. All buttons will stop working for maemo-mapper except the home button. If I open a browser window and then zoom in , I can then go back to maemo-mapper and it will work. Wierd, I have not been able to determine what causes this has anybody else seem this?

Sometimes a map for a particular area does not download completely, you can uncheck automatically download and recheck, and sometimes this works , sometimes it does not, a way to force a download of your current view might be handy.

Suggestions:
A way to chose from multiple map locations would be nice. I travel and when I fly to a city one time a year, I want a easy way to delete temporary maps so they don't use up all my space :)

It would be really nice to be able to select an area for download by drawing around the area with the stylus, this would be more convenient than being forced to download square areas and type in coordinates. I don't know how hard this would be, but it would be cool

It would be really nice to be able to offload the map downloading to a PC so you could handle a bit more, maybe output a script using wget? Just a thought?

Praise:
This is an awesome application, you have done an outstanding job. This runs so much better than gpsdrive on the 770 and has the functionality you need, again awesome job!!

FYI:
Using the "download area" I was able to download 16000 maps in a single download without crashing :)

tigert

2006-05-12, 14:12

But mine doesn't crash all the time, it only crashes when the GPS haven't got any fix.
I get 1 position but it's about 500m of. I allways get the same position when I enable GPS in the menu. Have tried walking around with it about 300 m in one direction. The position does not update.

Okay. I suspected this, as stuff like this and the issue with the cache directory not existing are very easy to overlook at this very early stage of development, as there are more interesting and important things to worry about :)

I'll make sure to wait a bit longer, and try this outside more. If it works, then probably it crashes when it finds a GPS, but the GPS does not give any useful position information yet?

gnuite: Thank you! Great work! The code is really clean and easy to follow! If you want me to get you some other output don't hesitate to tell me!

Yeah! This is *incredibly cool* and very very well done small application. I love the UI too, it gives a very polished experience, even though it is a very early version! Lovely! My thanks to the author as well :cool:

//Tuomas

peramikic

2006-05-12, 15:57

This thing is awsome. Crashed it couple of times trying to download LOS ANGELES @ 2. :D . Now i'm doing chunks. It's just a pint to input those ccordinates every time you go in.
I have a USB GPS mouse, got it few years back. Any chanse that is gould be used. I believe it can use prolific 2303 driver (in-kernal driver on 2.6), but don't know what you would need to change in you app to support this interface. The GPS unit is BU-303. This would be nice as I have an setup in place from old Carputer (GPS and Powerd USB hub) wich would work greate with this.

But, great work non the less. Can't wait for V2

jaycee

2006-05-12, 18:20

Hm. I actually meant for those numbers to be selectable, so that you could use copy/paste, although I never tested it because I mostly envisioned them as only being used for general reference (around which you would choose bracketing values). I'll make them copy/pastable at least, though.
I can do this, and since you mentioned it, I probably will, although I have to admit I don't see much utility in it. Why download the same area twice?
I think you're slightly missing what was suggested. The previous poster had in mind:

Get the top right of the area on screen.
Go to Download Area dialog and move/copy/paste the lat/longs to the appropriate boxes. (perhaps with a dedicated "move" button?)
Click "save".
Get the bottom left of the area on screen.
Go to Download Area and move/copy/paste the lat/longs to the other appropriate boxes, as before.
Click OK.

This would let the Download Area operation possible both in a very visual manner AND with no typing.

As everyone else has said - LOVE the program!! Best thing on my 770 - no contest :-)

Cheers,
Jonathan

ioan

2006-05-12, 18:21

I think we have to start a thread with feature requests for this app and gnuite will chose what he thinks will not overload the app. :-)
here are some ideas I have:
1. when you download by area, make a short size estimate and show how many free megs do we need for that area.
2. change the track point (or track line) color by the precision
3. an option to send your coordinates to a web address (if you are connected to net). To be able to set to send the coordinates automaticaly every few minutes or manual...

:-)
-ioan

jayholler

2006-05-12, 18:37

I had a question:

Do you need a GPS receiver in order to get step by step guidane through a route? I am able to successfully download a route, but all I can do is re-center the map and look at the different roads.

smith

2006-05-12, 18:51

Just the best program that I see on 770, and remember that it's the first public, open source, individual, version...like microsoft ;)

daveferris

2006-05-12, 22:57

I spent the drive home watching this app working and was impressed.
I suspect pedestrians were not quite so impressed.

However after closing the cover and reopening it the app crashed. Each time I restart it crashes as soon as connection is re-established with the GPS reciever. I've tried re-installing the app and removing the map cache but the same thing happens. Anyone have any ideas? I can use the panning etc but as soon as it reconnects to the GPS....bang.

Dave

mebourne

2006-05-13, 00:06

However after closing the cover and reopening it the app crashed. Each time I restart it crashes as soon as connection is re-established with the GPS reciever. I've tried re-installing the app and removing the map cache but the same thing happens. Anyone have any ideas? I can use the panning etc but as soon as it reconnects to the GPS....bang.

Unfortunately it has never worked for me. Mine connects to the gps fine, and displays 'Establishing GPS fix' for as long as it takes to get the fix (under a second or quite a while), but crashes the moment a fix is obtained.

My gps is this one: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/8590.htm

It says it supports RMC and it works fine other other software (eg. gpsdrive on the 770) so I was expecting it to work.

Any clues on debugging this?

Cheers,

Martin.

mebourne

2006-05-13, 01:30

I ran it from xterm and got this error:

GLIB CRITICAL gtk_progress_set_percentage: assertion 'percentage >= 0 && percentage <= 1.0' failed

The most likely place I thought that would be coming from has a BOUND() call though, so that's a bit odd.

I also managed to get a core file from the crash which I stuck here: http://www.ebourne.me.uk/bits/core.bz2

Unfortunately I've not any dev environment set up for the 770 so that's as far as I could go.

Cheers,

Martin.

Demostenes

2006-05-13, 01:52

gnuite:
Congratulations for your application. I'm waiting for a long time since a bought my 770 for an application like this. Thank you.

Originally Posted by HardCoder
I have a simular problem, the gps i am using is a Globalsat BT-338. I think it's the same hardware as the Insmat but different brand.

But mine doesn't crash all the time, it only crashes when the GPS haven't got any fix.
I get 1 position but it's about 500m of. I allways get the same position when I enable GPS in the menu. Have tried walking around with it about 300 m in one direction. The position does not update.

I have the same problem. My gps is an 'Woxter Slim Bluetooth' and the position reported by the app is wrong. I've been looking the source code and I've probably discovered the problem. In the source, the function 'channel_parse_rmc' translate the string reported by the gps to float by 'atof' function.

_pos_lat = atof(dpoint - 2) * (1.f / 60.f);

I've discovered that 'atof' function does not work well (I dont know why, my experience with Linux is limited :( ) turning the decimals. I have made my own function to translate from string to float and it's works!! :) . Mi position is correct now.

I don't know if this problem could be corrected by another way :confused: .

(I haven't any site to upload the modified .deb package. If somebody want it, could email me (mailto://demostenes@futuretoblog.es) )

tigert

2006-05-13, 05:36

I can also verify that the crashing was about finding a gps which has no satellite fix yet. It works if I wait long enough for it to have a sensible position info. Too bad the gps has no way of telling that :)

Sounds like a thing that is not hard to fix though.

//Tuomas

HardCoder

2006-05-13, 07:10

I've discovered that 'atof' function does not work well (I dont know why, my experience with Linux is limited :( ) turning the decimals. I have made my own function to translate from string to float and it's works!! :) . Mi position is correct now.

I don't know if this problem could be corrected by another way :confused: .

(I haven't any site to upload the modified .deb package. If somebody want it, could email me (mailto://demostenes@futuretoblog.es) )Great! I suspected that it was something like this, because according to my debugging session, the communication with the GPS works fine for me.
Could you post a patch with your changes?

If you don't know how to make the patch, check this site.
http://www.cpqlinux.com/patch.html

Cheers :)

Demostenes

2006-05-13, 10:03

HardCoder

2006-05-13, 11:09

This is the full .deb I modified.

Sorry for no upload before, I have no discovered that i can upload files til now :D .

I hope it be useful.

Cheers,
Demostenes

Edit: I don't know why is not possible to directly install .deb from the navigator (file type : unknown). Any ideas?. Try to save adding '.deb' to filename and install manually.
I've just tried your fix, and it seems to work great! Have you sent a patch to Gnuite so he can add the fix to his next release?

And thanks a bunch for the fix! :D

Demostenes

2006-05-13, 13:09

Gnuite :

This is the code I have added at your sources :

static gfloat strtofloat(gchar *num)
/* Function to convert string to float number
***Note I have no check for errors in string***
*/
{
gfloat ret = 0.f;
gchar *pchar;
gfloat n;
gfloat dec = 0.f;

pchar = num;
while(*pchar != '\0' && *pchar !=' ') {
if (*pchar == '.')
dec = 10.f;
else {
if (dec) {
n = ((gfloat) (*pchar - '0')) / dec;
dec *= 10.f;
}
else {
n = (gfloat) (*pchar - '0');
ret *= 10.f;
}

ret += n;
}
pchar++;
}

return(ret);
}

and I have changed all references to 'atof' for 'strtofloat'.

Great code, great work, I have no problems to follow it.

Thanks. Demostenes.

mgedmin

2006-05-13, 15:44

mgedmin

2006-05-13, 15:52

Even the topo maps would be pretty hard to integrate into Maemo Mapper now, as they are based on a completely different map identifier scheme (not X/Y; instead more quadtree-esque). Doable, but since I prefer the street data, I don't think I'll be tackling that problem at the moment.

I'm very interested in topo maps since the Google street maps do not cover Lithuania.

mgedmin

2006-05-13, 17:17

Here's a function to convert the google street map coordinates (x, y, zoomlevel) to the quadtree index string used by the google satellite maps (http://kh0.google.com/kh?n=404&v=6&t=%s).
void convert(int x, int y, int zoomlevel, char * buffer)
{
char * quadrant = "qrts";
char * ptr = buffer;
int n;
*ptr++ = 't';
for (n = 16-zoomlevel; n >= 0; n--) {
int xbit = (x >> n) & 1;
int ybit = (y >> n) & 1;
*ptr++ = quadrant[xbit + 2 * ybit];
}
*ptr++ = '\0';
}
Here's a set of unit tests for this function.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int test(int x, int y, int zoomlevel, char * expected)
{
char buffer[19];
convert(x, y, zoomlevel, buffer);
if (strcmp(buffer, expected) != 0) {
printf("failure with (%d, %d, %d): expected \"%s\", got \"%s\".\n",
x, y, zoomlevel, expected, buffer);
return 1;
}
return 0;
}

int main()
{
int failures = 0;
failures += test(0, 0, 17, "t");
failures += test(0, 0, 16, "tq");
failures += test(1, 0, 16, "tr");
failures += test(1, 1, 16, "ts");
failures += test(0, 1, 16, "tt");
failures += test(0, 0, 15, "tqq");
failures += test(1, 0, 15, "tqr");
failures += test(2, 0, 15, "trq");
failures += test(3, 0, 15, "trr");
failures += test(2335, 1295, 5, "trtqsqqqrssss");
if (!failures) {
printf("All tests passed.\n");
return 0;
} else {
return 1;
}
}
Did I mention that I would be very happy to see Google satellite map support in MaemoMapper? ;)

kutibah

2006-05-13, 17:27

Ok, this morning I was able to try the app w/voice on my way to a store. Let me say it is EXCELLENT! There is only one thing that would make it better. There should be a setting in which the user can change how far away to make the voice command. In my experience, the commands were said a little too early (I was far away from the intersection when they were said.) If I were going to a place I didn't know, it may be a problem remembering the command by the time I approached the street. Thank you once again for a fantastic app!!

Demostenes

2006-05-13, 18:13

Could it be that the atof function pays attention to the system locale, specifically, to the decimal separator? Demosthenes, if you open language/region in the control panel, what is the decimal separator set to?

Yes, it could be. I have selected 'spanish' and yes, the decimal separator is comma (How do you have deduced that I am not english? My fluent english, maybe? ;) )

Really is 'c' funtion 'atof' in linux language dependant? I have been a windows/dos programmer for long time and never base functions in c have been language dependant. If that's true, I have to take care for future developments in linux :D .

Cheers. Demostenes

mgedmin

2006-05-13, 19:46

Did I mention that I would be very happy to see Google satellite map support in MaemoMapper? ;)

Here's a patch that adds Google satellite map support to MaemoMapper:
http://mg.pov.lt/maemo-mapper-0.1-support-google-sat-maps.patch

mgedmin

2006-05-13, 19:48

And here's the package with that patch applied.

Map URI prefix: http://kh.google.com/kh?n=404&v=6&t=%s

mgedmin

2006-05-13, 19:54

Yes, it could be. I have selected 'spanish' and yes, the decimal separator is comma (How do you have deduced that I am not english? My fluent english, maybe? ;) )

No, just a lucky guess, and some problems I've encoutered with Gnumeric in the Lithuanian locale (which also uses ',' as a decimal separator).

Really is 'c' funtion 'atof' in linux language dependant? I have been a windows/dos programmer for long time and never base functions in c have been language dependant. If that's true, I have to take care for future developments in linux :D .

It is not Linux-specific, the ANSI C standard says atof and strtod use the locale-dependent decimal point. However you will not notice that if your program does not explicitly call setlocale.

elpaso

2006-05-13, 20:37

hello,

after having seen maemo-mapper I could'nt resist and bought a gps receiver, it is the nokia LD-3W model.

I probably missed something important, but I could'nt get it work.

When I start maemo-mapper it get the right macaddress in the settings window, but after hitting ok the system pops up a modal window 'pair the phone' asking to enter the code for the phone that has the same macaddress of the gps.

then, maemo-mapper crashes after 'enabling gpsfix' message .

What am I doing wrong?

Any idea?

TiganSan

2006-05-14, 01:53

I downloaded the program, since I don't have a GPS I set it to 00:00:00:00:00:00, set the URI as in the sample, and Voila! a map of the world appeared. I zoomed into San Antonio, Texas and right down to street level in my neighborhood. I was amazed! But once I ended the app, and later ran it again, it does not work. All that I get is a progress bar saying "downloading maps" but it is just a black screen. I can zoom up or down but still only see a black screen. I tried removing, and reinstalling the app, with no success. Any suggestions, Ireally want this to work. I am OS X savy, but limited Linux knowledge. Thanks.

I have the same problem. I see the message that the is map is downloading with no error messages. But all I see is a black screen.
Any idea how to fix this?

ioan

2006-05-14, 01:57

make sure the you have the right directory in settings and make sure the directory exists (you have to create it)
-i

ioan

2006-05-14, 04:02

zApe

2006-05-14, 09:56

HardCoder

2006-05-14, 10:47

Hi 2 all!

I have one problem when using maemo-mapper: I use Globalsat BT-338 as GPS receiver. Maemo-mapper can`t connect whith it. After enter MAC and "enable GPS" apears banner "Searching fo GPS receiver", after some time, when bt-338 connected to 770 banner start blinging. The GPS position be about Africa i point whith coordinates (1,1). I have waiting and i have`t right result. Can anybody help me?

to Demostenes and HardCoder: Guys can you take out some screenshots of normal worked maemo-mapper? :)Well, I have the same GPS reciever that you have, and mine works great both with Maemo-mapper and GpsDrive. Maemo-mapper does however crash if i try to connect to the GPS before it got a fix. The solution is to wait until the GPS got a fix. (green light flashes on the GPS).

EDIT: I am of course using the fix from Demostenes, because of the atof/localization problem.

And here are some screenshoots.
(Sorry for the crappy quality) :o

zApe

2006-05-14, 11:03

pstorralba

2006-05-14, 12:08

Oh, yeah, sorry, I should have mentioned that I optimized that GPX Driving Directions page to work on the Nokia 770's web browser. And for some reason, I had to set the MIME type to text/xml, otherwise it would not save the file correctly, or it would append a ".html" to the filename.

If you use the GPX Driving Directions page on the Nokia 770 and save the result to your device, it should work fine.

I thought everyone was having problems with the integrated Route Downloading in Maemo Mapper itself - is that not the case?

Hi,

I must say this application, in its first version is already awesome. Congratulations and thanks for your work.

Regarding GPX import, the problem is indeed accented characters. The problem arises when any trackpoint comment has such a character (despite the origin and destination don't have it).

I've tried to replace such characters and the problematic route is opened without trouble.

I'll give a look at the code to see the xml parser code. I hope, I can send a patch soon.

Thanks

HardCoder

2006-05-14, 12:30

to HardCoder:
Of course i using the fix version of mm. Maybe something wrong in maemo software version (my is SE2005_5_2006_13_7).
By the way, what about the root-mode? Is it enable?

thx for sceens its perfect! :)I am using the latest version of the firmware and I do have the root mode enabled.

Does GpsDrive work for you?

zApe

2006-05-14, 12:36

Hm.... interesting, very interesting... I have setup old firmware and all worked right away! But i am was litlle disappointed in precision. thx for help. ;)

Demostenes

2006-05-14, 14:30

Here's a patch that adds Google satellite map support to MaemoMapper:
http://mg.pov.lt/maemo-mapper-0.1-support-google-sat-maps.patch

I've tried your patch, and it works great!.

The problem is that I want to maintain both systems (maps and topo) and I have to change URI prefix and directory of maps every time. I am working in which it can be two different definitions for URI/directory (maps and topo) and we could exchange easily among them. I hope to have something for tomorrow (it depends how fast i can learn to programme in maemo :confused: ) . I already have something, but it crash when change each other for two times.

Greetings. Demostenes.

PS: Thanks for your explanation about atof and setlocale. I had no idea.

kutibah

2006-05-14, 16:06

for those who use windows at home, I made a windows application to help you download maps for maemo-mapper on your computer and transfer them on your nokia 770 when you need them. here is the link:
http://www.barghis.com/winmapper.htm
the app maps are comparible with maemo-mapper, I used qnuite's code (converted to delphi) to download the maps.
the source code is included

thanks,
-ioan
Thank you so much for this! I haven't used it yet, but I'll let you know how it goes when I get a chance!

mgedmin

2006-05-14, 19:36

I have one problem when using maemo-mapper: I use Globalsat BT-338 as GPS receiver. Maemo-mapper can`t connect whith it. After enter MAC and "enable GPS" apears banner "Searching fo GPS receiver", after some time, when bt-338 connected to 770 banner start blinging. The GPS position be about Africa i point whith coordinates (1,1). I have waiting and i have`t right result. Can anybody help me?

I had this problem too. In my case it was caused by gpsdrive -- it switched my NaviLock/Globalsat BT-308 into Garmin-compatible binary mode and did not switch it back into NMEA mode.

I had to find the binary protocol description and write a Python script to switch it back into NMEA mode: http://mg.pov.lt/blog/maemo-mapper.html

(I suppose you can find some Windows program that would let you do that. I don't have Windows.)

mgedmin

2006-05-14, 19:41

I've tried your patch, and it works great!.

The problem is that I want to maintain both systems (maps and topo) and I have to change URI prefix and directory of maps every time. I am working in which it can be two different definitions for URI/directory (maps and topo) and we could exchange easily among them. I hope to have something for tomorrow (it depends how fast i can learn to programme in maemo :confused: ) . I already have something, but it crash when change each other for two times.

That would be a nice feature to have.

In the meantime I've created two shell scripts that let me switch between street maps and sat maps while Maemo Mapper is not running. These scripts do two things: (1) change a symlink to the map directory and (2) change the map url with gconftool-2.

#!/bin/sh
# Ask Maemo Mapper to use satellite maps from Google
gconftool-2 -s /apps/maemo-mapper/map_uri_format -t string 'http://kh.google.com/kh?n=404&v=6&t=%s'
ln -sf /media/mmc1/maps/sat /home/user/apps/maemo-mapper

#!/bin/sh
# Ask Maemo Mapper to use street maps from Google
gconftool-2 -s /apps/maemo-mapper/map_uri_format -t string 'http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.11&x=%d&y=%d&zoom=%d'
ln -sf /media/mmc1/maps/street /home/user/apps/maemo-mapper

disq

2006-05-14, 19:57

for those who use windows at home, I made a windows application to help you download maps for maemo-mapper on your computer and transfer them on your nokia 770 when you need them. here is the link:
http://www.barghis.com/winmapper.htm
the app maps are comparible with maemo-mapper, I used qnuite's code (converted to delphi) to download the maps.
the source code is included

thanks,
-ioan

great tool!

but there's a slight problem with the lat/log parsing, if the decimal seperator in the system/locale is not "." (ie. if it's ",") then you have to fix the coordinates (replace "."'s with ","'s) or it won't parse them.

scudderfish

2006-05-14, 21:00

And here's a (very)quick and (very)dirty Python script to scrape maps.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys,os
from math import *
from optparse import OptionParser
from urllib import urlretrieve

MERCATOR_SPAN=(-6.28318377773622)
MERCATOR_TOP=(3.14159188886811)
WORLD_SIZE_UNITS=(1 << 26)

def latlon2unit(lat, lon):
unitx = (lon + 180.0) * (WORLD_SIZE_UNITS / 360.0) + 0.5
tmp = sin(lat * (pi / 180.0))
unity = 0.50 + (WORLD_SIZE_UNITS / MERCATOR_SPAN) * (log((1.0 + tmp) / (1.0 - tmp)) * 0.50 - MERCATOR_TOP);
return (unitx,unity)

def tile2zunit(tile, zoom):
return ((tile) << (8 + zoom))

def unit2ztile(munit, zoom):
return ((int)(munit) >> (8 + zoom))

def loadImage(x,y,zoom):
url = "http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.11&x="+str(x)+"&y="+str(y)+"&zoom="+str(zoom)
destination = dirpath+"/"+str(y)+".jpg"
if(os.access(destination,os.R_OK) == False):
print "Downloading "+url+" to "+destination
else:
print "Already got " + destination
urlretrieve(url,destination)

parser = OptionParser()
parser.add_option("-t", "--start-lat", dest="startlat",help="start latitude",type="float")
parser.add_option("-l", "--start-long",dest="startlong",help="start longitude",type="float")
parser.add_option("-b", "--end-lat", dest="endlat",help="end latitude",type="float")
parser.add_option("-r", "--end-long",dest="endlong",help="end longitude",type="float")
parser.add_option("-z", "--zoom",dest="zoom",help="zoom level",type="int")

(options, args) = parser.parse_args()

(sux,suy) = latlon2unit(options.startlat,options.startlong)
(eux,euy) = latlon2unit(options.endlat,options.endlong)

if eux < sux:
x = eux
eux = sux
sux = x

if euy < suy:
y = euy
euy = suy
suy = y

start_tilex = unit2ztile(sux, options.zoom + 1);

start_tiley = unit2ztile(suy, options.zoom + 1);

end_tilex = unit2ztile(eux, options.zoom + 1);

end_tiley = unit2ztile(euy, options.zoom + 1);

numMaps=(end_tilex-start_tilex)*(end_tiley-start_tiley)

print "About to retrieve "+str(numMaps)+" maps"

for x in range(start_tilex,end_tilex):
dirpath="maps/"+str(options.zoom)+"/"+str(x)
if(os.access(dirpath,os.W_OK) == False):
os.makedirs(dirpath)
for y in range(start_tiley,end_tiley):
loadImage(x,y,options.zoom)

./getMaps.py -h
usage: getMaps.py [options]

options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-t STARTLAT, --start-lat=STARTLAT
start latitude
-l STARTLONG, --start-long=STARTLONG
start longitude
-b ENDLAT, --end-lat=ENDLAT
end latitude
-r ENDLONG, --end-long=ENDLONG
end longitude
-z ZOOM, --zoom=ZOOM zoom level

use it like

./getMaps.py -t 51.82 -l -0.3 -b 51.49 -r 0 -z 4

ioan

2006-05-14, 22:29

great tool!
but there's a slight problem with the lat/log parsing, if the decimal seperator in the system/locale is not "." (ie. if it's ",") then you have to fix the coordinates (replace "."'s with ","'s) or it won't parse them.

you mean when you read from the .kml file? I knew from the moment I wrote the code that that will be a problem, but I have no idea what char they use to separate the two coordinates (what char from regional settings). if the decimal symbol is a "," will the coordinates be separated by "." ? :-) post here an example of a kml file, with your regional settings and I will fix it.

-i

disq

2006-05-15, 03:29

you mean when you read from the .kml file? I knew from the moment I wrote the code that that will be a problem, but I have no idea what char they use to separate the two coordinates (what char from regional settings). if the decimal symbol is a "," will the coordinates be separated by "." ? :-) post here an example of a kml file, with your regional settings and I will fix it.

-i

the coords in the .kml file are correct (with "." as the dec seperator) and are loaded OK, but when you hit "download" delphi throws out an exception saying that it can't parse the float. you edit the coords (replacing the "." with ",") and hit download again, it works.

regional stuff in the control panel are Turkish/Turkey.

ioan

2006-05-15, 03:49

the coords in the .kml file are correct (with "." as the dec seperator) and are loaded OK, but when you hit "download" delphi throws out an exception saying that it can't parse the float. you edit the coords (replacing the "." with ",") and hit download again, it works.

regional stuff in the control panel are Turkish/Turkey.

fixed, please try now and let me know

Demostenes

2006-05-15, 06:04

Here it's the new modifications I have made in maemo-mapper to have two models of maps, street maps and satellite (topo) maps, and the possibility of switching among them, just clicking !!.

I have made some modifications in the settings dialog (two URI prefix and cache directories) and two news items in the Maps menu (Street map and Topo map) to switch among them.

I have some problems with linux and maemo, but at least I am learning (gnuite: sorry for my code).

Cheers.

Demostenes.

tigert

2006-05-15, 08:37

Hm. Nice progress and co-operation starting to grow here :)

I have two suggestions. First, to get maemo-mapper pop up the networking dialog when it needs a connection to internet (and there is none currently) - one needs to ld_preload the osso connectivity library. So basically, this should work (/var/lib/install/usr/bin/maemo-mapper.sh or something like that)

#!/bin/sh

case `uname -m` in
arm*) export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libosso-ic-preload.so;;
*) ;;
esac

/var/lib/install/usr/bin/maemo-mapper

..installing this alongside the binary, and making the .desktop file run this script instead of the binary directly should do the trick. This was taken from the "porting howto" from maemo.org.

The other suggestion/idea is, that it would be nice, if one could either mark locations (maybe load google earth files - http://earth.google.com/kml/kml_intro.html) so that, for example, for the GUADEC conference, we could mark locations on the map, it would be great for sightseeing too. Maybe even integrate this with placeopedia.com ? :)

But anyway, the locations could be great, unfortunately I cannot code this myself, but I'll try to help if there is something else I can do?

Another yet suggestions is that it would be nice, if I could, in the "Download route" -dialog, have something like this:

.--- Download Route -------- -- -
|
| Origin: [_________________] [ map ]
| Destn: [_________________] [ map ]
|
`------------------------------ -- -

I'll need to think this a bit further since its very easy to make this a bit more complex than the task really is, but what I have in mind is "click map for source, click map for destination" - it could even give instructions with the banners..

This probably would need a toolbar though so that it tracks the click and once you have something you like, press "OK" in the toolbar to move the coords to the dialog again. Otherwise you couldnt pan it at all.

//Tuomas

elpaso

2006-05-15, 09:23

Here it's the new modifications I have made in maemo-mapper to have two models of maps, street maps and satellite (topo) maps, and the possibility of switching among them, just clicking !!.
.

I think this is a good enhancement, I just would like to suggest what in IMHO is a better approach: to have the possibility to set up multiple map providers (in origin was one, now we have two but ideal would be 'n').

This could be the starting point to add WMS support with limited efforts.

Why do I think is it worth?

WMS is a standard GIS exchange format for maps, it works more or less like google maps, but almost all GIS software supports this, mapserver included.

Just think about the possibilities this would open to use maemo mapper not just for (car) navigation but also as a simple GIS viewer....

Just my 2 (euro)cents :)

forge

2006-05-15, 11:32

Ok, now that everybody has said theyr opinnions i might as well give mine.

If you think about the start of this software, and where everybody wants it to lead. Youre two different groups, the other one wants loads of information and customizability with a good UI that gpsdrive doesnt offer at the moment. And the other one wants simple application that does the thing he wants easily and without too much information. And if you think about it, these two things cannot co-exist.

Unless you re-desing the whole application, what i propose to this point, is make somekind of advanced option, click advanced details on and the software could give you loads of different information and configuration options, leave it off and it simply does what its meant to do for the little people, as a mapping software with gps integration.

Ofcourse, the guy () who started this whole thing is the one who decides what is the direction Maemo-mapper is heading. And if someone wants something else, derive your own software from mapper, isnt this the point of OpenSoftware ?

Of course, i dont like the idea of two seperate software, because i have allways seen this as a flaw of OpenSoftware that hinders the evolution of every software.

I like mapper as its now, but these are my wishes for the future of the software.

A route planner in the software that works simply by clicks (as google-maps street data doesnt work in my country).

A simple window that replaces the map and shows the user all the gps data in raw format, the signal strength, how many satellites you have a fix and suchs details.

Lastly, thanks for a great piece of software, i love it truly and i dont even have a gps locator yet, planning to get one soon but this software just rocks even though i dont have one! And if possible, when you desice the future of the software, please try to keep it simple enough for the end users as i think it was meant to.

Smiley Dan

2006-05-15, 12:29

insert_nick

2006-05-15, 15:46

Sounds great, I've just tried to get it running but although it says "downloading maps" I never see anything.

The closest I get is a small blue circle when I have GPS enabled. Turn GPS off (I don't have a GPS device) and the screen goes black. Zooming in/out does nothing.

I'm using the second Google mapping option.

Same here. Just a black screen, in fullscreen mode too, and a small blue circle if GPS is turned on. I've tried both the Google mapping options. I've set as a cache directory "/media/mmc1/maps", it has been created but no files or folders appear into it, even if mapper pops up the "downloading" message when I click here and there into its black screen. I've tried closing and loading the app several times, and rebooting the device: no way, black screen :(

mgedmin

2006-05-15, 16:11

It is a silly question, but are you connected to the Internet before you try to download maps? Maemo Mapper doesn't bring up the Internet connection automatically.

ioan

2006-05-15, 16:47

Same here. Just a black screen, in fullscreen mode too, and a small blue circle if GPS is turned on. I've tried both the Google mapping options. I've set as a cache directory "/media/mmc1/maps", it has been created but no files or folders appear into it, even if mapper pops up the "downloading" message when I click here and there into its black screen. I've tried closing and loading the app several times, and rebooting the device: no way, black screen :(

did you guys used the topo map URI in settings? you have to use this address in the topo map uri:
http://kh.google.com/kh?n=404&v=6&t=%s

insert_nick

2006-05-15, 17:08

It is a silly question, but are you connected to the Internet before you try to download maps? Maemo Mapper doesn't bring up the Internet connection automatically.

urgh, it was that! shame on me, thank you very much... wow great app. Btw, can I repeat the same "stupid" question someone has done on the beginning of this thread, about how to set that "classpath" to work with flite? (flite installed and working, but not set in classpath. I'm too bad in linux stuff sorry)

lmf

2006-05-15, 17:35

There's a new thread concerning GPS devices that work... or not... with MaemoMapper...
Please post your experiences.

url: http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13956#post13956

pdq

2006-05-15, 19:35

Where can I find a version of flite that works with maemo-mapper? I tried the one pointed to by the maemo applications catalogue in the wiki but that one doesn't contain a command "flite" (It contains flite_test which is a gui application).

Thanks,
Reiner

penguinbait

2006-05-15, 19:39

:) http://gnuite.com:8080/nokia770/flite_1.3-release-1_arm.deb

kutibah

2006-05-15, 22:37

urgh, it was that! shame on me, thank you very much... wow great app. Btw, can I repeat the same "stupid" question someone has done on the beginning of this thread, about how to set that "classpath" to work with flite? (flite installed and working, but not set in classpath. I'm too bad in linux stuff sorry)
This is what Gnuite told me and it worked for me:

"If you don't have vim to edit the /etc/profile file, copy/paste this sed command into your XTerm:

sed 's@PATH *=[^/]*@&/var/lib/install/usr/bin:@' /etc/profile > /tmp/profile.new

Move /tmp/profile.new to /etc/profile. (it would be wise to make a backup first).

Once you move it, test it by typing "source /etc/profile" into XTerm. If an error occurs, restore your backup and try again. If nothing happens, thats a good sign. Now, retry the flite command to see if it works now: (make sure you have sound on)
flite "This is a test."

gnuite

2006-05-15, 23:21

Everyone,

I'm sorry if I've seemed to have fallen off the face of the planet, but I've been on vacation since Friday (May 12) morning and have not had internet access until today. I will continue to have limited internet access until I get back from vacation on Sunday, May 21. Yes, I know, I have a Nokia 770 and I should have internet access everywhere. :)

I've read through all the comments posted in this thread so far, and there is a lot of good feedback so far. Some of the issues will be easy to fix (the locale thing with atof() was an oversight on my part). Some of the suggestions are great and should be relatively easy to add to Maemo Mapper. When I get back from vacation I will begin integrating a subset of the fixes and suggestions, after which I will test the changes and release Maemo Mapper v0.2. Until then, continue to post your bug reports and suggestions into this thread. When I get back from vacation and have a free evening, I will address each post with a reply.

Thanks to everyone who has donated money, time, and/or effort for the gain of Maemo Mapper. You are all contributing to and subsequently responsible for the growth of Maemo Mapper. I can't test all of the possible GPS receivers without a large supply of money and time, but with your help we can test a decent selection of them, and with your feedback we can make sure Maemo Mapper works on the largest possible subset.

This is the true power of open source.

kutibah

2006-05-16, 01:10

lmf

2006-05-16, 13:56

Hi gnuite,

Once again, thank you for your work... :)
Here's a sugestion relating to map downloading.

After a quick search on the internet, it was easy to find a list that associates city/country , and their coordinates...
(for example: http://w3logistics.com/infopool/koord-int/?search=ALL)
and also: http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html
(this site has very dettailed info...)

So, my sugestion is this:
integrate a similar list (in xml) on MaemoMapper, and then, have a menu option to select the city, the radius (in Km) and the zoom level...
this would make it very easy to download the full map for a certain city...
(the ability to delete maps, based on location, radius and zoom level, would also be nice...)

thanks for your work and attention.
:rolleyes:

jfheintz

2006-05-16, 14:46

Hello guys,

I would like to download the google maps to store it on my Nokia 770 that I can use the maemo mapper off line.

I use the following URL
http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.11&x=1&y=1&zoom=10
but I am using longitude and latitude instead of this x and y
and I need to convert the 2 values

I have the "x"
int tilesNumberOnASide=2^(17-zoom);
double x = Math.floor(tilesNumberOnASide*(longitude+180)/360);

but I am not able to get the value for the "y"
I have a closer look to the maemo-mapper source code, but it is quite a bit complex to me and I was not able reproduce the right formula. Moreover the 0.5f is suspicious to me.

#define MERCATOR_SPAN (-6.28318377773622f)
#define MERCATOR_TOP (3.14159188886811f)
#define latlon2unit(lat, lon, unitx, unity) { \
gfloat tmp; \
unitx = (lon + 180.f) * (WORLD_SIZE_UNITS / 360.f) + 0.5f; \
tmp = sinf(lat * (PI / 180.f)); \
unity = 0.5f + (WORLD_SIZE_UNITS / MERCATOR_SPAN) \
* (logf((1.f + tmp) / (1.f - tmp)) * 0.5f - MERCATOR_TOP); \
}

Is any body able to give me the right formula?

Smiley Dan

2006-05-16, 21:05

ioan

2006-05-16, 21:15

Is any body able to give me the right formula?

download winmapper from this site:
http://www.barghis.com/winmapper.htm

you have the source code and and the exe in the zip. you will have to look at those functions:
tile2zunit
unit2ztile
latlon2unit
unit2latlon
GetMapsForZoom

in GetMapsForZoom first 2 lines of code:
start_tilex := unit2ztile(start_unitx, zoom + 1);
start_tiley := unit2ztile(start_unity, zoom + 1);

shows you how to calculate the x, y for one tile

pstorralba

2006-05-16, 23:03

I really like this application so I cannot stop thinking about new features which, in my opinion, will be useful.

In the first place, used as a car gps, I really think it should change zooming depending on speed as I don't need detailed maps when I'm driving fast on a motorway, while I do really need all the detail in the middle of the town. Of course, this feature should be turned on and off on demmand on the preferences dialog, as I'm sure not all the people will like it :-)

I would like also having some trip info on the map screen as current speed, heading (don't ask me why I like it so much), trip distance, altitude (maybe you can get all the other data from the car itself, but that isn't true for altitude) and the like.

The last feature (for the moment) I think could be quite useful is a waypoint database with "relevant" places with their GPS coordinates, and an on screen display of straight direction you should follow to get there. Sometimes, when you don't have any other better indication, this proves to be of much use.

What do you think?

I hope I will have some time for coding so I would like to be contributing code in the future.

heikki770

2006-05-17, 06:53

Everyone is writing a wishlists to this great program, so I will add one of my own. It is hopefully not too hard to do, but it is quite important to me.

If I understand right, there is field for time in GPX trace format:
<trkpt lat="59.889397" lon="10.522553">
<ele>76</ele>
<time>2003-05-02T10:44:52Z</time>
<fix>3d</fix>
</trkpt>
I would like to get that <time> info to trace file, so I can later use that info for various countings like speed, awg. speed and like diary, time when I started my journey, etc...

Am I a bit control freak, or what????

pstorralba

2006-05-17, 07:39

If I understand right, there is field for time in GPX trace format:
<trkpt lat="59.889397" lon="10.522553">
<ele>76</ele>
<time>2003-05-02T10:44:52Z</time>
<fix>3d</fix>
</trkpt>
I would like to get that <time> info to trace file, so I can later use that info for various countings like speed, awg. speed and like diary, time when I started my journey, etc...

Am I a bit control freak, or what????

I don't think you are freak, because then, I am more... What I do with my mobile phone (S60 and a bit of python programming) is something similar: I store *all* NMEA data read from the GPS so I can reproduce the trip *exactly* with gpsfake (included on gpsd clients).

Of course, that is a more disk consuming option.

TiganSan

2006-05-17, 16:37

Smiley Dan, try this suggestion from gnuite to help you with your black screen. Type the command as shown below and then shutdown and reboot 770. It is working great for me now.

Run this command in XTerm (which will clear your settings in GConf) and re-start Maemo Mapper:
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset "/apps/maemo-mapper"

Thanks gnuite for the GREAT application.

r0n

2006-05-17, 16:50

Sadly this still doesn't work for me. Still just a black screen, l've also tried the alternative URL. Hope someone can help!
Dan,

I had the same problem. If none of the above fixes work, try immediately zooming out 10-11 times. It could be that your start point is zoomed in so close that it renders black. That is what happened in my case, and angrily mashing buttons solved the issue. Anyone know how to set the default starting point when opening the application? Hats off to the author, btw. It got me excited about the 770 again!

lmf

2006-05-17, 18:01

If you're having problems with the maps (they are black), or you can't download them... then check the path you've chosen for the maps...
the directory should exist.. and the cache dir should end with a /
something like: /media/mmc1/mmapper_maps/

xdoum

2006-05-17, 18:01

I already install the software but I have a black screen only.
Any help?

xdoum

2006-05-17, 18:03

I already install the program but only i see a black screen...
Any help?

jaska k

2006-05-18, 05:45

elpaso

2006-05-18, 06:48

It would be nice to have Web Map Service client on nokia 770. Is it too difficult to implement it part of maemo-mapper? Specification can be found on OGC's website (http://www.opengeospatial.org/). With WMS support it will be possible to create own servers with MapServer (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/) or any other WMS compatible server and put your own maps online. https://www.osgeo.org/ could be good starting point to Open Source GIS.

You have my vote, I posted a similar proposal a few days ago.

I would like to hear more voices and opinions (expecially from the author of maemo-mapper) before starting to think about coding something.

I took an eye on the the code, and it does'nt seem too difficult to add basic WMS support, but we have first to add multi-provider support (i.e. the possibility to configure several map providers (see my previous posts in this thread)

Regards

zoom

2006-05-18, 08:29

Hi,
Thanks for great app!

Is there Maemo Mapper debug-build available somewhere? I am having problems with 770 and new Nokia LDW-3 BT-GPS (which works fine with GPS-drive).

I noticed from MM source that it has IFDEF for outputting log but I do not have capability to make debug-build. If any one has a debug -version available I could provide more detailed information about the problem.

Problem with LDW-3 is segmentation fault crash right after announcing "Establishing GPS-fix".

Btw. Nokia LDW-3 is great complement to 770 as it comes with 770 compatible mobile charger

forge

2006-05-18, 08:46

Problem with LDW-3 is segmentation fault crash right after announcing "Establishing GPS-fix".

Sup,

I will clarify for you and everyone else one major known bug, Maemo-mapper as for now (version 0.1), has a bug, if the gps -receiver don't have a fix before maemo-mapper is launched, it will crash when it tries to get a fix.

This is a known bug and should happen with almost all of gps-receivers. You tried with getting a fix first and then launching mapper?

And, there is a list in this forum that hopefully will someday have quite a decent list of working gps-receivers: http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1970

RussNelson

2006-05-19, 04:44

Maemo-mapper as for now (version 0.1), has a bug,

I'd believe that:

gdouble fraction = running_total * sqrt(num_sats_used)
/ num_sats_used / 100.0;

What if num_sats_used is zero?

HardCoder

2006-05-19, 06:11

Smiley Dan

2006-05-19, 08:52

Smiley Dan, try this suggestion from gnuite to help you with your black screen. Type the command as shown below and then shutdown and reboot 770. It is working great for me now.
That worked! I also noticed the icon changed post-reboot from the standard .deb packager icon to a "gridded-globe". I also got some strange behaviour post reboot where the app would close depending on the pattern of interaction with the settings. I found I had to setup the MAC to 00:00:00:00:00:00 and the URL, ok, disable GPS, close the app, reopen the app, then auto-download.

Also, I was zoomed in a bit too far!

Looking like a good app.

Smiley Dan

2006-05-19, 10:08

On the subject of where the application goes from here, rather than forking which in my opinion is rather coarse grained, why not go the plug-in route and allow people to develop and install what they _want_ to develop and install, upon the same basic mapping software?

Clearly the app would probably have to mature first, otherwise API instability would probably piss off a lot of plugin developers :)

insert_nick

2006-05-19, 10:29

This is what Gnuite told me and it worked for me: [cut]

thanks for the re-post, I'm sorry I did not noted the reply from gnuite. Anyway it doesn't work for me, because I can't replace the etc/profile file, as I have no permissions. Maybe I should have root access for this operation?

RussNelson

2006-05-19, 16:06

Hmmmm..... Is this comment correct or should the "not" be deleted?

/** The connection with the receiver is up and a GPS fix is not available.
* No gtk_banner is visible */
GPS_FIXED

Also, given that the other three constants start with RCVR_, I would call it RCVR_FIXED instead.

RussNelson

2006-05-19, 16:22

This patch check the NMEA checksum and doesn't skip potential end-of-string '\0' characters:

http://russnelson.com/maemo-mapper-0.1-nmea.patch

gnuite

2006-05-19, 22:15

I'd believe that:

gdouble fraction = running_total * sqrt(num_sats_used)
/ num_sats_used / 100.0;

What if num_sats_used is zero?
Then the answer will be 0, if you turn it around then it will "divison by zero"and it will crash.

EDIT: didn't look close enough... yes it will crash if num_sats_used is 0.

Sorry :o

EDIT2: have to blame it on the early morning... need coffe...
Actually, since we're working with floating point numbers here, the answer will be 0.0 / 0.0, which resolves to NaN. This is almost definitely why some have seen the gtk_progress_set_percentage CRITICAL assertion failure, since the protective BOUND() call would not detect a NaN. I'm not sure if that would cause a force-quit, though, since it's not a FATAL assertion failure, but I haven't actually tested the case with 0 used satellites, so I can't say for sure either way.

bradb

2006-05-20, 06:11

(Hi everyone! :))

The problem is, that the cache folder needs to exist - the application does not seem to create it if it does not. That fixed it for me.

Actually, I think the real problem is that sometimes the "apps" directory itself is missing (if, for example, you never used the built-in e-mail client). So if you have "/home/user/apps", you'll be fine.

Also it appears that you need to be careful about what other bluetooth devices are near when you run it the first time after the install - the program tried to connect to my desktop (w/ a motorola bluetooth adapter) and it just wouldn't connect to my garmin gps. Even though I had it installed and working fine before (I just did a reflash).

The solution was to run "hcitool scan", note the gps' MAC address, then manually typing it into the settings menu.

Just in case somebody else finds themselves stuck like I was.

BTW, excellent work gnuite. If you're ever in SW Portland, I'll buy you a fine local microbrew (or two) at a real local dive.

Brad.

gnuite

2006-05-20, 18:51

Actually, I think the real problem is that sometimes the "apps" directory itself is missing (if, for example, you never used the built-in e-mail client). So if you have "/home/user/apps", you'll be fine.
Yes; Maemo Mapper creates the maemo-mapper directory if it doesn't exist, but not the apps dir. The real problem is that there is no mkdir-recursive function in GnomeVFS, which really bothers me. For that reason (and because the GdkPixbuf libraries don't work with URI's anyway), I'll probably forget about using GnomeVFS for the Map Cache.

Also it appears that you need to be careful about what other bluetooth devices are near when you run it the first time after the install - the program tried to connect to my desktop (w/ a motorola bluetooth adapter) and it just wouldn't connect to my garmin gps. Even though I had it installed and working fine before (I just did a reflash).

The solution was to run "hcitool scan", note the gps' MAC address, then manually typing it into the settings menu.
Right; in my instructions, I recommended running Maemo Mapper for the first time in the presence of only one bluetooth device: your GPS device. This is because the "auto-detection" only searches for the first bluetooth device that responds. I did this to minimize binary size, since this funtion is only ever used once in the entire use of the program.

In v0.2, I will move the entire "Initial GPS Setup" code into a separate binary that will get run the first time Maemo Mapper is started. This will allow me to make the wizard as arbitrarily large as needed to ease initial setup.

RussNelson

2006-05-20, 21:15

m509272

2006-05-20, 21:37

Maybe I missed this. Is there a way to enter/store/whatever points of interest? For instance, I want to enter in my house, all my friends' houses, free wifi hotspots, etc. Minimally a dot and a text tag. Nice to have, different color dot or symbol depending on type of POI.

pstorralba

2006-05-20, 22:38

Does anybody else have a problem with maemo-wrapper 0.1 ceasing to function after a few minutes of proper operation? It ignores the GPS. Telling it to disable and enable the GPS causes it to start looking for a GPS receiver, but it never finds one. If I reboot and re-run maemo-mapper, it works again. Implication is that there is nothing in the state of the GPS receiver which causes the failure. Problem only seems present when a fix is available.

I have this problem. Not sure what the reason is, but I suspect it has something to do with power saving on the nokia, or somethink like that (even I read it could be defective units, but everything else works fine for me, so I don't think so). The problem arises also with gpsdrive.

So finally I created a workaround for testing (a better scripting would be great, or another solution). I run this script as root while I'm running maemo-mapper and whenever the connection gets lost, it restart it and maemo-mapper does well refinding the gps.

#!/bin/sh

LOG_FILE=/tmp/bt_restom.log

> $LOG_FILE

while true ;
do
result_str="$( hcitool lq $( cat /home/user/gps.id ) 2>&1 )"
result_value=$?
echo "$(date): $result_str" >> $LOG_FILE
if [ $result_value -ne 0 ] ;
then
## Do restom
echo "$(date): Restarting BT" >> $LOG_FILE
hciconfig hci0 down
sleep 1
hciconfig hci0 up
echo "$(date): BT restarted" >> $LOG_FILE
fi

sleep 15
done

You will need your bt gps address stored at /home/user/gps.id. Also, you can delete logging code if it doesn't matter for you. I was interested in the times the Bluetooth was restarted.

Hope it works for you.

RussNelson

2006-05-21, 03:37

hciconfig hci0 down
hciconfig hci0 up

Running those two commands got it back again. I was going to run strace on it to see what was happening on the system level, but I can't see strace in the Application Catalog. Sounds like it might be somethiing outside maemo-mapper's control.

I've also seen maemo-mapper lock up on restoring from screen blanked. I have debug turned on now, so if that problem recurs, I'll at least know what subr it happened in.

gnuite

2006-05-21, 05:54

pstorralba or RussNelson:

Are either of you doing anything special (like also being connected to a cell phone or to a WAP) when this happens?

I thought I saw this happen to me once before, but it went away when I put the cover on and took the cover back off. I did this before I added the "Enable GPS" checkbox to the code, but disabling/enabling that causes the same course of events that is caused by replacing/removing the cover, so my debugging was similar to RussNelson's. Since my actions made the problem go away, but RussNelson's didn't, I can't be sure that I experienced the same thing, but I'd still like to figure out what's going on.

pstorralba: You said you saw the problem with GPS Drive. Was that using GPSD or by having GPS Drive directly connect to the GPS receiver? If the anomaly doesn't manifest itself when using GPSD, it might be a suitable workaround. (GPSD support is coming in Maemo Mapper v0.2.)

Thanks for your help, guys.

RussNelson

2006-05-21, 06:12

Are either of you doing anything special (like also being connected to a cell phone or to a WAP) when this happens?

Nope. Not using any other BT devices. Enabling / disabling the GPS doesn't solve the problem for me. With verbose debugging turned on, I can see that it's calling g_iol_cb_error (or something like that; message already scrolled off) with GIOCondition==24 (8 == ERR + 16 == HUP). Then it tries closing and reopening the bluetooth socket.

pstorralba

2006-05-21, 10:10

pstorralba or RussNelson:

Are either of you doing anything special (like also being connected to a cell phone or to a WAP) when this happens?

Nothings special. No wireless, nor other BT conection.

pstorralba: You said you saw the problem with GPS Drive. Was that using GPSD or by having GPS Drive directly connect to the GPS receiver? If the anomaly doesn't manifest itself when using GPSD, it might be a suitable workaround. (GPSD support is coming in Maemo Mapper v0.2.)

Both. At first I used GPS Drive with GPSD. I tried connecting directly to the GPS receiver, but it didn't worked.

hciconfig hci0 down/up is the only solution I found. It works also for GPS Drive and GPSD.

Do you know how can I enable more debugging info on the kernel side? I think the problem is down there.

Thanks for your help, guys.
Thanks for your program :-) I can wait to see that 0.2 version.

ioan

2006-05-21, 16:02

If the anomaly doesn't manifest itself when using GPSD, it might be a suitable workaround. (GPSD support is coming in Maemo Mapper v0.2.)

I have the same problem with maemo-mapper and I had same problem with gpsdrive and gpsd.

I have this problem. Not sure what the reason is, but I suspect it has something to do with power saving on the nokia, or somethink like that (even I read it could be defective units, but everything else works fine for me, so I don't think so). The problem arises also with gpsdrive.

I don't think the problem is from power saving on nokia. I did this with mine to test:
<maemo.org instructions>
1. Using xterm, scan for remote BT devices:
# hcitool scan
2. Copy the adress of the newly found BT GPS receiver. (looks like xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx)
3. Start the serial protocol over BT :
# rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
4. After that, your BT GPS should get connected to everytime /dev/rfcomm0 is opened. You can check this by doing:
# cat /dev/rfcomm0
This should give NMEA GPS output.
</maemo.org instructions>

and I left it like that, running, overnight (about 10 hours) and I got the nmea gps output all this time with no intreruption.

-ioan

booiiing

2006-05-21, 16:10

first of all, i want to thank gnuite and the others for maemo-mapper and the effort you are putting into this.

but unfortunately i experience problems with the gpx-webservice. i get the error "Error: An error occurred while attempting to retrieve the driving directions - are the source and destination valid?" with sources/destinations that work in google-maps.

gnuite

2006-05-21, 16:23

gnuite

2006-05-21, 16:37

Nope. Not using any other BT devices. Enabling / disabling the GPS doesn't solve the problem for me. With verbose debugging turned on, I can see that it's calling g_iol_cb_error (or something like that; message already scrolled off) with GIOCondition==24 (8 == ERR + 16 == HUP). Then it tries closing and reopening the bluetooth socket.
I can try duplicating the functionality of hciconfig down/up in the error handler.

gnuite

2006-05-21, 16:40

I have the same problem with maemo-mapper and I had same problem with gpsdrive and gpsd.

I don't think the problem is from power saving on nokia. I did this with mine to test:
<maemo.org instructions>
1. Using xterm, scan for remote BT devices:
# hcitool scan
2. Copy the adress of the newly found BT GPS receiver. (looks like xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx)
3. Start the serial protocol over BT :
# rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
4. After that, your BT GPS should get connected to everytime /dev/rfcomm0 is opened. You can check this by doing:
# cat /dev/rfcomm0
This should give NMEA GPS output.
</maemo.org instructions>

and I left it like that, running, overnight (about 10 hours) and I got the nmea gps output all this time with no intreruption.

-ioan
ioan, would it be possible for you to repeat that test with gpsd (instead of cat)? That is, start gpsd and use wget to get continual output from the GPS?

ioan

2006-05-21, 18:06

ioan, would it be possible for you to repeat that test with gpsd (instead of cat)? That is, start gpsd and use wget to get continual output from the GPS?

can you give me the option flags for making wget to loop getting same url? or do I have to make a script for this?

gnuite

2006-05-21, 18:41

can you give me the option flags for making wget to loop getting same url? or do I have to make a script for this?
I thought, since GPSD gives no length for the HTTP response, that wget would simply continue reading data as it comes in (similar to cat), but if I'm wrong, then yeah, I guess a script will have to do.

Thanks.

bradb

2006-05-21, 21:11

Right; in my instructions, I recommended running Maemo Mapper for the first time in the presence of only one bluetooth device: your GPS device

Oops, missed that, sorry. I think that sometimes this isn't practical though maybe I'm an odd case - I was setting this up in my office and the neighbors are a startup with tons of local wifi and bluetooth traffic.

In v0.2, I will move the entire "Initial GPS Setup" code into a separate binary that will get run the first time Maemo Mapper is started. This will allow me to make the wizard as arbitrarily large as needed to ease initial setup.

I wonder if it would be better to let the bluetooth plug-in handle that? (I'm hoping that becomes a standard part of the OS)

Also, have you considered a library version of this application, ala roadnav (http://roadnav.sourceforge.net/)?

Finally, I'd love to see you create an API so additional functionality could easily be added. BTW, great work!

Brad.

bradb

2006-05-21, 21:49

Are either of you doing anything special (like also being connected to a cell phone or to a WAP) when this happens?

Actually, I've been using maemo mapper with a cell phone and bluetooth gps and my experience has been about the same: It seems to lock up after running fine for 10-20 minutes... I've managed to give it a "kick-start" by pressing the on-off button (is this the same as closing the lid?)

A few other comments:

- Downloading via cell is a problem, at least when speeds are slower than EDGE. The user interface seems to freeze while the map is loading, and at 30 miles per hour (or more) I don't think maemo mapper will ever keep up (since more and more maps need to be loaded).

This could be a problem because I'm in-between cell towers or maybe the 770 just doesn't have enough oompf to run multiple threads efficiently.

And a EDGE speeds, the display can get a little jerky when downloading (though I have no idea of the network conditions when the problem occurs) but it's still usable.

So in my limited testing, I don't think it's practical to download maps are you travel - yet. But when it works it's very cool.

- Twice I've lost my gps fix for about 40 seconds (the west hills tunnels). As I was driving, my girlfriend was watching the 770. She told me that the track suddenly jumped "way off" but after we exited the tunnel, tracking resumed as expected. Certainly a minor glitch, but I wonder if sanity checking of the gps positions returned (vs. the current speed/position) isn't warranted?

- flite works great, but the volume is so low I don't think this is really useful without earphones. And by great I mean it has a terrible voice but is a real cool hack :-)

- I think the latest firmware 5.2006.13-7 has improved system stability when more than one bluetooth device is connected at the same time (or so it seems). And it seems that using wifi and bluetooth at the same time is also improved. But maemo mapper seems to kill any active connections when it starts, so I've gotten used to making sure I don't connect to T-Mobile until _after_ the application is started.

I'll report more as I keep testing.

And good news about gpsd integration for the next version - I'm getting ready to put a soekris box in my trunk (ala stompbox (http://www.stompboxnetworks.com/)) and I was hoping to use the 770 as the front-end.

Brad.

bradb

2006-05-21, 21:51

What were the source and destination Addresses (not the "Label"s)?

I've had this problem when my address had a "#" in it. Format was something like:

4433 SW Amway #2, MyTown, MyState, 99999

I replaced the "#" with "Apt" and it worked just fine. So I'd assume that certain characters may not be valid?

Brad.

gnuite

2006-05-21, 23:05

I've had this problem when my address had a "#" in it. Format was something like:

4433 SW Amway #2, MyTown, MyState, 99999

I replaced the "#" with "Apt" and it worked just fine. So I'd assume that certain characters may not be valid?

Brad.
The GPX Driving Directions web service (and hence Maemo Mapper itself, which uses the web service) utilizes Google Maps and thus should work with any address that works with Google Maps. To be more specific, the web service uses maps.google.com - it may not work with maps.google.de or any other locale-specific version of Google Maps.

When the driving directions parsing code is moved from the web service into Maemo Mapper itself, you will be able to provide your own URL, meaning that you can use the .de version (or any other version) if you wish (at the risk of violating Google's copyright?).

9a6or

2006-05-22, 00:56

Attached is an .xml route file created using gnuite's GPX Driving Directions (http://gnuite.com:8080/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi) page running on the Nokia 770 (ie. the issue of file format discussed earlier does not apply). When loading the route in Maemo-mapper it gives an "Error parsing GPX file" message.

Is it the German special characters, or the length of the file causing the error?

I am loving this program more and more, thinking of buying the Nokia LD-3W receiver :D

RussNelson

2006-05-22, 01:23

I don't think maemo mapper will ever keep up (since more and more maps need to be loaded).

Sounds like you need to zoom out a little more.

Perhaps the autloading algorithm should give up on map tiles that have gone off-screen?

bradb

2006-05-22, 05:19

Sounds like you need to zoom out a little more.

Probably, but I thought the zoom was reasonable at the time. Was taking ~10 secs to traverse a tile (or so). Of course it's all relative to your speed (I did like the suggestion the map should zoom relative to the current speed).

The real problem with this is the bandwidth available - sometimes it sucks. Makes a 28.8k modem feel fast (ok, I guess it's about the same really). My experience with GPRS is it's very slow. I'd guess it takes about 10 secs to download a single map tile, vs. 2 secs with EDGE. Add in any dropouts while moving and download time can really lag.

(I've been so excited lately - I just got my EDGE phone and it's changed the whole experience for me - before having GPRS connectivity was useful in a pinch, but so slow. Now with EDGE, it feels like a decent connection. Like slow DSL, I guess. I sat in a bar tonight scrolling around, downloading maps, watching the progress bar in maemo-mapper just amazed at the speed. Guess I'm easily entertained)

Perhaps the autloading algorithm should give up on map tiles that have gone off-screen?

A great idea actually. Plenty of opportunity there for tuning too - sample the download speed as well as current speed and load the queue (maybe non-trivial, but could be fun to tweek).

Brad.

booiiing

2006-05-22, 06:21

The GPX Driving Directions web service (and hence Maemo Mapper itself, which uses the web service) utilizes Google Maps and thus should work with any address that works with Google Maps. To be more specific, the web service uses maps.google.com - it may not work with maps.google.de or any other locale-specific version of Google Maps.

When the driving directions parsing code is moved from the web service into Maemo Mapper itself, you will be able to provide your own URL, meaning that you can use the .de version (or any other version) if you wish (at the risk of violating Google's copyright?).
that would be great as there are also other issues with localisation.
for example the german "Straße" becomes "Stravenueße" if it stands alone. combined words like "Universitätsstraße" do not get changed, though.

lucaluca2

2006-05-22, 10:04

hi, nessuno parla italiano??
help maemo mapper

gnuite

2006-05-22, 14:26

Actually, I've been using maemo mapper with a cell phone and bluetooth gps and my experience has been about the same: It seems to lock up after running fine for 10-20 minutes... I've managed to give it a "kick-start" by pressing the on-off button (is this the same as closing the lid?)

A few other comments:

- Downloading via cell is a problem, at least when speeds are slower than EDGE. The user interface seems to freeze while the map is loading, and at 30 miles per hour (or more) I don't think maemo mapper will ever keep up (since more and more maps need to be loaded).
At 30 mph or more, you probably don't need to be at the most detailed zoom level; the further you zoom out, the fewer maps you will need to download, which should help alleviate bandwidth issues.

This could be a problem because I'm in-between cell towers or maybe the 770 just doesn't have enough oompf to run multiple threads efficiently.

And a EDGE speeds, the display can get a little jerky when downloading (though I have no idea of the network conditions when the problem occurs) but it's still usable.

So in my limited testing, I don't think it's practical to download maps are you travel - yet. But when it works it's very cool.
I don't think it's a thread inefficiency problem. I've tested auto-downloading on my Nokia 770 over my high-speed WAN (panning around a lot to stress the system) without any maleffect on the UI, so it's more likely a bandwidth problem, although that shouldn't affect the UI itself.

- Twice I've lost my gps fix for about 40 seconds (the west hills tunnels). As I was driving, my girlfriend was watching the 770. She told me that the track suddenly jumped "way off" but after we exited the tunnel, tracking resumed as expected. Certainly a minor glitch, but I wonder if sanity checking of the gps positions returned (vs. the current speed/position) isn't warranted?
There is a built-in sanity check in the NMEA protocol, so unless your GPS is ignoring that part of the protocol, it shouldn't plot a point unless it is considered "valid" by the GPS receiver. This is, of course, receiver-dependent.

- flite works great, but the volume is so low I don't think this is really useful without earphones. And by great I mean it has a terrible voice but is a real cool hack :-)

[QUOTE=bradb]- I think the latest firmware 5.2006.13-7 has improved system stability when more than one bluetooth device is connected at the same time (or so it seems). And it seems that using wifi and bluetooth at the same time is also improved. But maemo mapper seems to kill any active connections when it starts, so I've gotten used to making sure I don't connect to T-Mobile until _after_ the application is started.
I've noticed this sometimes with my WAN connection, but only when that WAN connection is not currently in use. If I'm listening to internet radio while I start Maemo Mapper, for example, I have no problems. It's bizarre, but I'm not sure there's anything I can do about it without moving all of the bluetooth connection code outside of Maemo Mapper.

I'll report more as I keep testing.

And good news about gpsd integration for the next version - I'm getting ready to put a soekris box in my trunk (ala stompbox (http://www.stompboxnetworks.com/)) and I was hoping to use the 770 as the front-end.
GPSD support (which will hopefully also assuage some of the nastier connection-related problems with Maemo Mapper) is coming with Maemo Mapper v0.2, which will be released for the 2006 OS.

I'll be releasing a v0.1.1 later this week to address some of the reliability issues.

ehjones

2006-05-22, 15:25

Hi,
Firstly, thanks for a great applicaion - very slick in operation, does what it's supposed to do (mostly anyway, see below :-p) and without the bloat...

Secondly, I'm experiencing the locking up problem as discussed earlier in the thread - has any progress been made with this at all? I'd be willing to do any diagnostics with my setup if required.

Essentially what is happening is that mapper locks up and becomes unresponsive to any user input. Sometimes a small white box appears in the top right corner of the screen, similar in nature to the dialogue boxes that say "Searching for GPS reciever" or "Establishing GPS fix", although no text actually appears. The screen will still change back and forward from fullscreen mode - although the screen isn't properly refreshed when doing this.
It is possible to close maemo-mapper by clicking the red X in the top right. Reopening maemo-mapper results in it being unable to find the GPS receiver. Interesting, running 'hcitool scan' reveals no bluetooth devices (even though my BT phone is in range) and gives an error message along the lines of "Cannot open socket" (IIRC).

Rebooting fixes the situation. I don't believe the GPS reciver loses signal when it happens, but I could be wrong.

FWIW:
IT 2005 software edition, v 5.2006.13-7
Nokia 6230i phone with BT enabled and in range at all times (although not actually connected at the time)
An unbranded BT GPS reciever, claiming to be a model GNT-120 (chosen because it was cheap!).

Sorry for the lengthy post, I've tried to include as much detail as possible. Again, I'd be more than willing to do some debugging if required.

Thanks again,
Ed

**
And having just posted all that, I've noticed that you're planning to release v0.1.1 to address these issues - feel free to ignore me!

RussNelson

2006-05-22, 16:03

I've seen the same thing as ehjones, but don't have a good sense for exactly when it happens. The UI has definitely stopped running.

9a6or

2006-05-22, 23:32

I fixed my own problem of errors when parsing route files. I open the .xml file in Notes and then save it. This removes/changes the characters which prevent correct loading of the file. The announcements will probably use the modified text but at least I can load the route.

Now that I have a route opened, I want to download the maps along the route using the relevant entry in the menu but it takes far too long. I think this is because I used an angle of 0.000000 when generating a nice smooth route and I suspect that a map is downloaded for each neighbouring location, ie. each jpg is downloaded several times. Is there any way around this, or will gnuite change this in a future version?

heikki770

2006-05-23, 06:45

gnuite:
I've discovered that 'atof' function does not work well (I dont know why, my experience with Linux is limited :( ) turning the decimals. I have made my own function to translate from string to float and it's works!! :) . Mi position is correct now.

I think there are same kind of atof/ftoa problem in GPX route/trace files, because I have to replace dot (.) with comma (,) in lat and lon to get route files generated with "GPX driving directions" to work with my MaemoMapper and all saved trace files use comma!

:confused:

ElGatoFlojo

2006-05-23, 07:20

I'd also like to say this is one of the best apps I've used thus far for the 770. I even went out and bought the same bluetooth GPS reciever and hooked it up. Went driving around sometoday and I'm just totally blown away. This takes my nokia to a different level.

One thing I'd like to say is that there's a donate button on the site. Personally I already clicked and donated. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but just suggesting that we all love open source and I personally think if we're going to encourage it, its good to give a little back.

So, my real question in all of this is flite. I've installed it, and the little 'flite test app' gives me text when I type it in. How-ever when I'm running mapper, I hear no speech at all, and I've got the volume turned all the way up. Is there anyway to trouble shoot this?

gnuite

2006-05-23, 13:27

gnuite

2006-05-23, 13:29

I think there are same kind of atof/ftoa problem in GPX route/trace files, because I have to replace dot (.) with comma (,) in lat and lon to get route files generated with "GPX driving directions" to work with my MaemoMapper and all saved trace files use comma!

:confused:
I am aware of this issue, which has to do with localization and the fact that NMEA (and GPX?) are locale-independent. In the future, I'll localize Maemo Mapper, but until then, I will be addressing this in Maemo Mapper v0.1.1 by explicitly setting the locale to "C".

gnuite

2006-05-23, 13:39

So, my real question in all of this is flite. I've installed it, and the little 'flite test app' gives me text when I type it in. How-ever when I'm running mapper, I hear no speech at all, and I've got the volume turned all the way up. Is there anyway to trouble shoot this?
First, if you haven't already, try rebooting the device to make sure that flite is in the PATH of the running Maemo Mapper.

Second, you probably know this, but you have to have a route in order to hear voice. The voice is emitted only as you approach a waypoint, which requires a route (with waypoints) to be loaded and a GPS receiver so that Maemo Mapper knows when you're approaching a waypoint. A waypoint in Maemo Mapper is defined as any trkpt in the GPX file that has a (non-empty?) "desc" tag attached to it.

Once you load a route, the route appears as a set of green circles connected by lighter-green lines. Your "next waypoint" is colored slightly darker than the other waypoints. When you get within a certain (speed-dependent) range of that waypoint, the voice is emitted and an info box in the upper-right corner displays the contents of the desc tag of that waypoint (e.g. "Turn left at Baker Street").

If you do not see the info box, then the voice will never be activated. Also, the voice is only emitted once per waypoint, whereas the info box is visible until you pass the waypoint, also at which point your "next waypoint" changes and the "darker green circle" moves to that next waypoint, and the process repeats.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Thanks for the donation!

penguinbait

2006-05-23, 13:40

Is there a way for me to get the nmea output mapper is using, I had some scripts that I used with gpsdrive to cat /dev/rfcomm0. Is there any way to get to that?

Why does it save map files as jpg, when they are png files?

file 3014.jpg
3014.jpg: PNG image data, 256 x 256, 8-bit colormap, non-interlaced

9a6or

2006-05-23, 14:43

gnuite,

As I am reading this thread I am realising how much effort you have put in this great program! Thanks for making GPS navigation available to us.

m509272

2006-05-23, 15:59

gnuite, this is such an excellent app that makes the cost of the 770 so much more tolerable. My thoughts on getting a GPS display unit for the car are now gone. Is there a way in which I can enter in POIs (points of interest) and get them to show up? e.g. free wifi hotspots? even manually would be fine, don't need automation. Thanks again!

gnuite

2006-05-23, 16:28

Is there a way for me to get the nmea output mapper is using, I had some scripts that I used with gpsdrive to cat /dev/rfcomm0. Is there any way to get to that?
Not at the moment, no.

Why does it save map files as jpg, when they are png files?

file 3014.jpg
3014.jpg: PNG image data, 256 x 256, 8-bit colormap, non-interlaced
You know, I'm not sure. I knew the data was PNG, but for some reason every example I saw online of getting maps from Google Maps used a jpg or jpeg extension, probably because they were working with the satellite data.

The extension doesn't really matter - just that it is consistent regardless of the true format. Maybe I should have just disregarded the extension entirely, but it's too late to do that now without asking people to rename all of the Map Cache data.

gnuite

2006-05-23, 16:29

penguinbait

2006-05-23, 20:15

Um any chance this is comming? maybe a check box to log all nmea data? Or can we use other GPS access like rfcomm with mapper?

Again, this thing is awesome :D

Lord Bodak

2006-05-23, 22:19

This software is awesome! Finally the bluetooth GPS I bought months ago is truly useful for something. GPSdrive is powerful but it wasn't stable or really usable on the 770.

mwiktowy

2006-05-24, 00:14

Not at the moment, but I'm hoping to incorporate this functionality in a future release.

Well ... I just manually made a gpx file where I wrapped a single <trkpt> with <desc> in single <trkseg> pair and included many instances of <trkseg> and mapper showed a little green doughnut (or red if you imported it as a route vs. a track) for each separate <trkseg>.

Since I don't have a GPS yet (it is enroute from the e-store :] ) I don't know if mapper will do the flite or waypoint display if you get close to any of them in order or out of order. It certainly does show them in the right spot though.

The gpx info was in the following format:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gpx version="1.0" creator="http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi"
xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0">
<trk>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="xx.xxxxx" lon="xx.xxxxx"><desc>Waypoint 1</desc></trkpt>
</trkseg>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="xx.xxxxx" lon="xx.xxxxx"><desc>Waypoint 2</desc></trkpt>
</trkseg>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="xx.xxxxx" lon="xx.xxxxx"><desc>Waypoint 3</desc></trkpt>
</trkseg>
</trk>
</gpx>

gnuite

2006-05-24, 01:33

Um any chance this is comming? maybe a check box to log all nmea data? Or can we use other GPS access like rfcomm with mapper?

Again, this thing is awesome :D
In a future release, Maemo Mapper will support GPSD and rfcomm connections, which will allow you to gain access directly to the NMEA data. I'm not exactly sure if that is possible with the current version of Maemo Mapper, but it might be.

RussNelson

2006-05-24, 02:04

gnuite

2006-05-24, 02:20

Well ... I just manually made a gpx file where I wrapped a single <trkpt> with <desc> in single <trkseg> pair and included many instances of <trkseg> and mapper showed a little green doughnut (or red if you imported it as a route vs. a track) for each separate <trkseg>.

Since I don't have a GPS yet (it is enroute from the e-store :] ) I don't know if mapper will do the flite or waypoint display if you get close to any of them in order or out of order. It certainly does show them in the right spot though.

The gpx info was in the following format:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gpx version="1.0" creator="http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi"
xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0">
<trk>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="xx.xxxxx" lon="xx.xxxxx"><desc>Waypoint 1</desc></trkpt>
</trkseg>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="xx.xxxxx" lon="xx.xxxxx"><desc>Waypoint 2</desc></trkpt>
</trkseg>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="xx.xxxxx" lon="xx.xxxxx"><desc>Waypoint 3</desc></trkpt>
</trkseg>
</trk>
</gpx>
Maemo Mapper will announce your approach to those waypoints if you visit them in order (you don't have to start at the first waypoint, though).

I could implement "announce as you approach any waypoint," but that could waste a lot of CPU if there are many waypoints. Is there a desire for this kind of "arbitrary point of interest approach announcement?"

gnuite

2006-05-24, 02:25

Penguinbait, maemo-mapper keeps a running track of where you've been. All you need to do is save it off to disk.

However, what I think you really want is the ability to record a voice note at a location using a bluetooth headset. See something interesting? Push the button on the headset and record a georeferenced note.

See, that way you can put the GPS receiver where it needs to be, leave your 770 in your pocket with the cover safely on it, and still take notes.
This would only be possible if Maemo changed the "disable radios when cover is on" behavior, which may or may not happen with the 2006 OS.

Still, this would be useful if the Nokia 770 is available for access (e.g. mounted to a car window), but there would still need to be a signal to Maemo Mapper for when to start recording (like one of the hardware buttons, unless you want it to record everything you say).

penguinbait

2006-05-24, 03:07

Thanks RussNelson, but what I really want is the NMEA output, I wrote some scripts to plot real time as I drive and they played nicely with gpsdrive but it chewed cpu, the information is sent via bt to my webserver where it displays a map from a few different locations. I use speed, elevation, heading, so I need all the output not just location.

http://www.penguinbait.com/index.html

I really want to run this with maemo-mapper, I look forward to the future.

I loved my 770 and gpsdrive was useable, Maemo Mapper is the best software written for the 770, I do a lot of driving to different places, I can download routes from t-mobile and recalc works great. Its really a whole new reason to buy a 770, this has been a great success, CONGRATULATIONS!!! :D :D

Oh, and I have my iblue mounted high on my drivers side window, I can still roll the window down about 5 inches ;)

uNtouched

2006-05-24, 22:31

daveferris

2006-05-24, 23:47

Hi,

Maemo mapper is easily the most impressive 770 app I've tried yet. I was leaning towards eBaying the device until I tried maemo mapper. Definitly the killer app for me an I was happy to make a small donation.

Sucking up done...

I'm planning a long trip that I've setup a route for and have been testing the app over the last few trips to work to gain confidence. I've noticed s few times now that the tracking sometimes just stops.

Observing the GPS lights show that theres a fix and that bluetooth is still active, but Maemo mapper has stopped plotting. The app is still response, restarting it results in the track still not plotting. Restarting the 770 cures the problem without restarting the GPS.

Has anyone else seen the same kind of problem? I've read through the thread but dont see the same issue mentioned.

This is using the patched version with the atof fix in and with the latest released firmware.

Dave

gnuite

2006-05-25, 00:27

I have not the slightest clue after all the reading I did...on how to use this program. I don't know if it's because of legal issues that people aren't comming outright and posting the way to really use it. If that's the case, someone please feel free to PM me, or IM me at RabeeRaven on aim, to tell me what I should do map wise.
Read the second post in this thread if you're looking for a URI Format to use.

If it's something else, then I'm sorry that there is no formal documentation yet. The project is young. What specifically do you need help with?

RussNelson

2006-05-25, 02:43

I've noticed s few times now that the tracking sometimes just stops.

Yup. I think it's been reported here before. Look at this posting:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14433&postcount=134

uNtouched

2006-05-25, 05:39

Wow! This program is dope! I got it to work...but I have one question. How can I avoid having to download the map constantly? is there a way to download it once?

ioan

2006-05-25, 05:52

Wow! This program is dope! I got it to work...but I have one question. How can I avoid having to download the map constantly? is there a way to download it once?

the maemo-mapper will not download the portions of the map that are already downloaded. you can use the application i made if you want to download big areas of the map:
http://www.barghis.com/winmapper.htm

uNtouched

2006-05-25, 05:56

I was looking all over for this, I found it while I was at work but now at home I couldn't find it!...maybe I'm just sleepy. How would I get the coordinates for my area?

ioan

2006-05-25, 06:04

you can zoom in, the top-left corner (with the maemo-mapper on your 770) and then go in menu to Map->download area, and the View Center will show you the coordinates for that position. Do the same for the right-bottom. You can do the same thing on your windows computer using Google Earth

uNtouched

2006-05-25, 06:21

Once again, this sleep deprived brain of mine isn't working too well. I figured it out, man this isn't hard at all in any way, shape, or form! All the script this and script that...which I read in previous posts threw me off and made me think it's hard to do this stuff, but it's rather easy. Gnuite and Ioan...you guys are the best!

One last question before I go to sleep...would if I have everything downloaded, would the 770 still need internet connectivity to get where I'm at in anyway? or would the mapper know what map to load?

HardCoder

2006-05-25, 07:32

One last question before I go to sleep...would if I have everything downloaded, would the 770 still need internet connectivity to get where I'm at in anyway? or would the mapper know what map to load?If you have all the maps downloaded and they are placed in the correct directory, then maemo-mapper does not need any internet connection for showing the correct position/map. :)

daveferris

2006-05-25, 10:50

Yup. I think it's been reported here before. Look at this posting:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14433&postcount=134

Thanks I'll give that a try.

Dave

9a6or

2006-05-25, 11:22

I've got an iBlue receiver now but Maemo-mapper does not recognise it. I tried to pair it using the BT phone wizard, it is recognised as BT-Q800 GPS, I enter 0000 as passcode but then the message I get is: "Selected phone does not have services that can be used. Select another phone."

I have the BT application installed (for a BT keyboard), is that interfering with pairing?

....

Sorted. I had to use the BT plugin to connect which gave me the MAC address, which I entered manually in Maemo-mapper. (The MAC was set to 00:00:00:00:00:00 before as I did not have the receiver then.)

uNtouched

2006-05-25, 15:05

That's exactly what I had to do.

mwiktowy

2006-05-25, 17:20

Maemo Mapper will announce your approach to those waypoints if you visit them in order (you don't have to start at the first waypoint, though).

I could implement "announce as you approach any waypoint," but that could waste a lot of CPU if there are many waypoints. Is there a desire for this kind of "arbitrary point of interest approach announcement?"

I could see some uses for this. Automated tour guide service, geocaching ... if was easy enough to create these custom GPX waypoint files, you could even create location dependent events to remind you to pick up some milk on the way home from work when you are driving past the store :] Kind of a spacial to-do list rather than a temporal one.

I just got my GPS last night and finally got to try the full functionality of maemo-mapper out. Very nice!

I am not sure if others have mentioned these but my feedback would be:
- since I had already faked it out by putting in a 00:00:00:00:00:00 hardware address, it was a little difficult to switch to the real thing. Maybe a button in the GPS Settings to "Redetect GPS Module" might make things easier. Since I had an xterm installed and now know about hcitool, getting the BT HW Address is easy now but I was a bit stumped initially.
- it would be nice if the autocentering was not reset to "none" when the fullscreen button was pressed. I did figure out that you can cycle through the centering modes once you are fullscreen with one of the other buttons so it is a minor annoyance but I think that the setting should be preserved when switching to and from fullscreen.
- being able to adjust the centering lead without going into the settings menu. Maybe you can but I haven't figured it out. But the only way you can effectively adjust it to you liking is while you are moving and simultaneously fiddling with menu entries and driving is a bit dangerous :] Maybe a hardware key combination of the button used to switch centering modes with the zoom in/out could be used for this.
- information text overlay displaying speed/position/bearing/etc. that you can toggle on and off. I am not sure how well the message notification text box in the upper right corner deals with dynamically updated info but that might be a good spot for it.

Regardless, thanks for the great application! The GPS hardware stores should thank you too as I can see that I am not alone in maemo-mapper motivating me to buy a BT module.

gnuite

2006-05-25, 19:38

- since I had already faked it out by putting in a 00:00:00:00:00:00 hardware address, it was a little difficult to switch to the real thing. Maybe a button in the GPS Settings to "Redetect GPS Module" might make things easier. Since I had an xterm installed and now know about hcitool, getting the BT HW Address is easy now but I was a bit stumped initially.
That Settings dialog box automatically does the "Audto-detecting GPS Receiver" thing whenever it is started and the MAC field is empty. If you empty that field and then save the settings, then the next time you start the Settings dialog box, it will do the auto-detection. A little cumbersome, I know, but it's only ever done once in the life of Maemo Mapper. It will get better with a future release, though.

- it would be nice if the autocentering was not reset to "none" when the fullscreen button was pressed. I did figure out that you can cycle through the centering modes once you are fullscreen with one of the other buttons so it is a minor annoyance but I think that the setting should be preserved when switching to and from fullscreen.
The auto-center mode is not changed when the fullscreen mode is changed. At least, that's the behavior I experience. Is anyone else seeing differently?

- being able to adjust the centering lead without going into the settings menu. Maybe you can but I haven't figured it out. But the only way you can effectively adjust it to you liking is while you are moving and simultaneously fiddling with menu entries and driving is a bit dangerous :] Maybe a hardware key combination of the button used to switch centering modes with the zoom in/out could be used for this.
Devoting a sub-menu or hardware button to this is not ideal (especially since there are no more hardware buttons I could use!). I agree it's a little dangerous, but I would change the setting only in a still position. Once you get the setting to your liking, you never have to change it again, so it's a one-time inconvenience.

- information text overlay displaying speed/position/bearing/etc. that you can toggle on and off. I am not sure how well the message notification text box in the upper right corner deals with dynamically updated info but that might be a good spot for it.
I've have a few requests for something like this; it will be in a future version of Maemo Mapper (though personally I'll never use it, since I prefer to see map, not text).[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the feedback!

mwiktowy

2006-05-25, 20:46

That Settings dialog box automatically does the "Audto-detecting GPS Receiver" thing whenever it is started and the MAC field is empty. If you empty that field and then save the settings, then the next time you start the Settings dialog box, it will do the auto-detection. A little cumbersome, I know, but it's only ever done once in the life of Maemo Mapper. It will get better with a future release, though.

Erasing what I had in there and leaving a blank field and pressing OK was what I tried first. If that is how it is supposedto work then that is quite intuitive. However, the 00:'s were stuck in there until I fed it a valid HW address. I just tried deleting my current address and it will not get rid of it. It comes back even after restarting mapper. I am doing all this with the GPS Enabled toggled off to avoid the GPS search box popping up always. I am not sure if that factors into things.

9a6or

2006-05-25, 22:17

... I just tried deleting my current address and it will not get rid of it. It comes back even after restarting mapper. ...I can confirm, I've experienced the same behaviour.

9a6or

2006-05-25, 22:24

My colour blindness makes it difficult to see the route line over main roads. The track colour stands out better. Is there any chance to make these colours adjustable? As a fallback position I'd be more than happy to try out a few combinations and report back which one looks OK. (For once I could make good use of my defective X chromosome... every 8-10th male has it BTW).

RussNelson

2006-05-25, 22:46

. The track colour stands out better. Is there any chance to make these colours adjustable?

The maps are downloaded straight from the map service. You'd have to edit the map colors by detecting colors. If they do anti-aliasing, that would be hard work.

9a6or

2006-05-25, 23:02

I meant to change the colour of the route line drawn by Maemo-mapper, not the colour of the roads.

gnuite

2006-05-26, 00:16

I meant to change the colour of the route line drawn by Maemo-mapper, not the colour of the roads.
Yeah, I can add that to a future version of Maemo Mapper. Thanks for the suggestion!

gnuite

2006-05-26, 06:24

Maemo Mapper v0.2 has been released. See the Maemo Mapper v0.2 thread (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2049) for more details.

armin

2006-05-26, 17:46

I added a few lines of code to maemo-mapper v0.1 to make 'Download Maps by Area' easy to use:

The coordinates of the current and previous View Center are automatically filled into the fields for Top-Left and Bottom-Right Latitude and Longitude in the 'Download Maps by Area' window.

Thus, to download an area, just tap two opposite corners of an imaginary rectangle on the current map, and then go to the menu 'Maps' -> 'Download Area...'. The corresponding values will have been filled in. Of cause you still can edit them. Now the only thing that remains to be done manually by you is to select the Zoom levels on the second tab of the window.

My change is only 16 lines of Gnuite's v0.1 source. A patch can be found here: http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.1-aw-0.1.patch

An executable with this patch applied can be downloaded here: http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper (Sorry, no .deb - simply replace the original /var/lib/install/usr/bin/maemo-mapper with it.)

P.S.: Just finished this before I read that v0.2 is available now. Will have a look at v0.2 to determine if it needs this hack, too.

Armin.

jens

2006-07-06, 16:41

gnuite,

your MaemoMapper is a real killer app for the N770! I have been thinking about offline usage and supplying map data that has been downloaded previously. With a lot of small files, the wasted space can become as large as the actual data. My first idea was to package this and use the Gnome VFS to access the archive. I know that there is a module for TAR archives, but the TAR format is a really bad idea when accessing map files randomly. ZIP would be better suited for random access, but there is no module that can do it on the fly (without unpacking to a temp folder).

The alternative would be to create our own package format, basically consisting of a header and a large BLOB with all the image data. The header would contain meta data (package, covered area), information for one or more maps (map type, URL) in one or more zoom levels and most importanly 2d arrays mapping tiles to offsets in the BLOB. Map data can also be pre-processed during packaging, e.g. "103 byte street tiles" and corresponding topo tiles being removed etc.

My Maemo experience is still very limited. Assuming that I would create a tool to build such an archive, would you implement the necessary lookup and config dialogs in MaemoMapper?

I know that in a few years, this might not be necessary anymore, but with roaming data access being quite expensive, this is still interesting when traveling to foreign countries.

Jens.

BanditRider

2006-07-06, 17:12

I use an ext2 filesystem mounted on /media/mmc2 to store maps on my mmc card.
It's 1KB block size wastes less space than FAT32's 4KB and much less than FAT16's 32KB cluster size (for my 800MB partition).

There's also a 128MB FAAT32 partition (for mmc1) and a 64MB swap partition on my 1GB card.

gnuite

2006-07-06, 21:02

In addition to ext2, you can format FAT32 with 512-byte blocks (or any other power of 2 that is 512 or greater) using the -S option of mkfs.vfat. This allows you to share the benefits of small block sizes and direct Windows access.

Using small block sizes in general decreases the overhead to a sufficient level, in my opinion, especially if you filter out the 103-byte files (which I have considered doing directly in Maemo Mapper). The decision of whether to use the file system or a custom package format is really one of CPU vs. FileSystemSize efficiency. As the number of maps gets large, without caching all of the map offset locations (or wasting ridiculous amounts of file system bytes by keeping the index symmetrical), accessing a single map becomes a processor-intensive operation, even when using a quadtree-based index structure. And updating the database becomes much more difficult (which is why you suggested it as an "offline access" mechanism).

GPSDrive combines the worst of both worlds. It uses a file that specifies the file system locations of all available maps, which means that first it has to read in that list, then it keeps that list in memory and does an ugly linear search to find the "nearest, most appropriate" map given a particular lat/lon/zoom. This is fine on a desktop machine, but with limited CPU and memory it doesn't work. Moving to a determinate file system directory hierarchy removed all of that processor and memory overhead, in exchange for a little file system overhead.

dcarter

2006-07-06, 21:35

gnuite,

I just want to say thank you-
your app is really killer.
For hiking cross country, navigating road trips, or just tracking for fun,
your app tracks my GPS unit, downloads the maps off my tethered phone,
and just basically WORKS!!

I too am colorblind, so I am also looking forward to being able to change the color of the progress and route lines.

Also, I read somewhere that you included a chime to go off at waypoint markers, in lieu of the flite voice. It looks like flite is in progress...
Was that chime only in the v2.0 for os2005?
(I have OS2006 and love it!!)

Thanks again, you're a genius :D

DCarter

gnuite

2006-07-06, 22:37

Also, I read somewhere that you included a chime to go off at waypoint markers, in lieu of the flite voice. It looks like flite is in progress...
Was that chime only in the v2.0 for os2005?
(I have OS2006 and love it!!)
There is no "v2.0 for os2005", at least not of Maemo Mapper. For Maemo Mapper, v0.x runs on the 2005 OS, whereas v1.x runs on the 2006 OS.

The chime is available only in Maemo Mapper v1.0.2, which runs on the 2006 OS.

dcarter

2006-07-06, 23:02

There is no "v2.0 for os2005", at least not of Maemo Mapper. For Maemo Mapper, v0.x runs on the 2005 OS, whereas v1.x runs on the 2006 OS.

The chime is available only in Maemo Mapper v1.0.2, which runs on the 2006 OS.

oops- I get it now!

The application installer says my version of Maemo Mapper is v1.0.2, but perhaps it is not, because I cannot for the life of me find where to select chime on or off...

I bet if I uninstall it and reinstall it will be there!!

Anyhow, my sincerest gratitude; do you take donations on your site?

Thanks,

DCarter

gnuite

2006-07-06, 23:08

The application installer says my version of Maemo Mapper is v1.0.2, but perhaps it is not, because I cannot for the life of me find where to select chime on or off...
It's not an option - the chime occurs regardless, and it happens when you approach a waypoint. It happens at the same moment as the flite announcement would be made, which depends on the "Advance Notice" setting.

Anyhow, my sincerest gratitude; do you take donations on your site?
Donations are accepted at the Maemo Mapper website (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/) by clicking on the "Make a Donation" button. Thanks! :)

jens

2006-07-08, 12:37

Just a short note to those wondering that downloading maps doesn't work sometimes: Google is now showing captchas if they suspect automated map downloads :-(

gnuite

2006-07-08, 19:55

Just a short note to those wondering that downloading maps doesn't work sometimes: Google is now showing captchas if they suspect automated map downloads :-(
How did you discover this? I googled for "google maps captcha", but I didn't find anything interesting.

jens

2006-07-09, 00:50

How did you discover this? I googled for "google maps captcha", but I didn't find anything interesting.
Wasn't working today so I tried to open a topo tile in the browser and got the captcha. They seem to send it as a 403 error. Ican email the HTML if you need it. Any automated downloading tool would need to pause, open the URL in a browser and wait for the user to solve it.

Jens.

jens

2006-07-09, 01:02

gnuite, I do have some more comments on the file system vs. map archive storage, but I guess dicussing this only make sense if "user" acceptance is on your list. With "user" I refer to the Joe Average user - not a linux developer - i.e. somebody who his not familiar with file systems or manually mounting ext2 partitions.

Jens.

Karel Jansens

2006-07-11, 15:40

I installed the latest version of Maemo Mapper for 2005 ITOS, just to play with it a bit. I tried it for an afternoon, managed to get some maps but, as I don't have a GPS receiver yet, decided I could do without it for the time. So I uninstalled the program, but all the map files are still in the cache!

How do I get rid of those memory munchers? And, more importantly, why were they not deleted when the program was uninstalled? This is not very user-friendly behaviour.

penguinbait

2006-07-11, 16:04

While this may seem like a limitation to you I see it as a feature I am glad exists. When I download maps, I dont want them deleted because I decided for some reason to reinstall. If you install xterm you can delete these files easily. Since your running linux maybe its time to learn how to access the command line :eek:

I am extremely grateful to GNUITE for creating and providing for free an awesome tool we can all use.

once you get in xterm run "rm -rf /usr/home/apps/maemo-mapper"

I installed the latest version of Maemo Mapper for 2005 ITOS, just to play with it a bit. I tried it for an afternoon, managed to get some maps but, as I don't have a GPS receiver yet, decided I could do without it for the time. So I uninstalled the program, but all the map files are still in the cache!

How do I get rid of those memory munchers? And, more importantly, why were they not deleted when the program was uninstalled? This is not very user-friendly behaviour.

Karel Jansens

2006-07-11, 16:53

While this may seem like a limitation to you I see it as a feature I am glad exists. When I download maps, I dont want them deleted because I decided for some reason to reinstall. If you install xterm you can delete these files easily. Since your running linux maybe its time to learn how to access the command line :eek:

I am extremely grateful to GNUITE for creating and providing for free an awesome tool we can all use.

once you get in xterm run "rm -rf /usr/home/apps/maemo-mapper"

I think that has to be rm -rf /home/user/apps/maemo-mapper

But thanks for the tip: I installed Osso-Xterm and got rid of the leftovers (apparently Midnight Commander only works on root-enabled 2005 ITOS, which I haven't done, so it's indeed time to brush up on those long-forgotten CLI-skills).

I still think it's wrong: on a non-modified 770, the user has no access to those directories. It might have been better to use a default directory that is accessible from the (admittedly lame) built-in filemanager.

penguinbait

2006-07-11, 17:20

OK you got me, user/home home/user you get the drift. You can also make a link to root so you can access everything from filemanager if you prefer.

ln -s / /home/user/MyDocs/.documents/ROOT

I personally do not know why you would want one of these without shell access, its a must have.

;)

I think that has to be rm -rf /home/user/apps/maemo-mapper

But thanks for the tip: I installed Osso-Xterm and got rid of the leftovers (apparently Midnight Commander only works on root-enabled 2005 ITOS, which I haven't done, so it's indeed time to brush up on those long-forgotten CLI-skills).

I still think it's wrong: on a non-modified 770, the user has no access to those directories. It might have been better to use a default directory that is accessible from the (admittedly lame) built-in filemanager.

Karel Jansens

2006-07-11, 18:29

gnuite

2006-07-11, 22:11

I still think it's wrong: on a non-modified 770, the user has no access to those directories. It might have been better to use a default directory that is accessible from the (admittedly lame) built-in filemanager.
This is a good point. I've considered changing the default map directory to somewhere accessible to the file browser, but I don't know where to choose.

"/home/user/MyDocs/.documents/Maemo Mapper" ?

Anybody have any suggestions?

fpp

2006-07-11, 22:53

Maemo Mapper Maps ?
Dowloaded Maps ?
M&M&M's , :-)

cybe

2006-07-11, 23:59

gnuite

2006-07-12, 00:45

Tried out some GPX route plotting apps on the web today, but Maemo Mapper didn't want to load the .gpx files for some reason =(

Here's a nice app that uses Google Maps: http://home.mindspring.com/~mfkenney/gpsroute.html
Maemo Mapper uses the "trk" tag, not the "rte" tag, so it can't parse routes generated by the above URL (or any other tools that use "rte" instead of "trk"). That may change in the future, but for now, "trk" is all that Maemo Mapper understands.

guy2100

2006-08-15, 18:57

I think if pairing functionality is added to maemo mapper , these mysterious BT drop outs will go away.

And somebody please tell me does the dropput happens with all receivers or not. Does iBlue GPS receiver also face the same problem of GPS positioning not updating itself and one has to reset the 770.?!

Thanks

jackjansen

2006-08-24, 22:27

I've created a couple of Python scripts that should benefit people wanting to scan their own paper maps to use with Maemo Mapper (for hiking and such), plus some instructions so you don't fall into the same pits that I fell into:-)

Currently command-line only (MacOSX or Unix), but I'd love help on extending them, adding groovy user interfaces, porting to other OSes, etc.

Download at <http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/maemomapperhacks.tgz> and please let me know what you think!

Thanks go to scudderfish, with whose work I started, and of course to gnuite, without whose work this would be pointless!

oelph

2006-08-25, 07:16

Is it possible to reverse routes in the software or do you have to redownload the reverse direction?

ReinhardE

2006-09-11, 16:21

It's hiking season here in Bavaria and google maps aren't awfully useful.
So I tried integrating scanned maps into maemo-mapper repositories.
With the qt program mapfit one can interactively warp the scanned map until it (roughly) fits a frame of tiles taken from a maemo repository.

For more details and the program source (version 0.0.1) see
http://www.hoohol.ath.cx/Software/mapfit

coldstream

2006-11-16, 15:16

I really love this Maemo Mapper after discovering this on maemo garage. However, after using this for approximately 2 weeks, the software has suddenly been unable to download maps using the example URI's given at the beginning of this thread.

Is anyone else experiencing this as well? This stopped for me last night (11/15).

artman

2006-11-16, 19:19

Just grabbed this app and a Garmin 10 Bluetooth GPS device. I set the Google address and then detected the Garmin.

It then says downloading maps but doesn't show anything but a black screen. The GPS shows a satellite lock but nothing comes up. Then if I close the app and open it again it says it's scanning for the GPS device.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

brendan

2006-11-16, 20:04

artman

2006-11-16, 20:50

first to get the maps you have to download them over a wireless network connection or follow the notes on copying then to the rs-mmc card. has to be in a specific directory structure.

i had some trouble downloading the maps, and went through my network settings. i didnt change anything, but save the settings again, and all was well (other apps had trouble too and they cleared after). i do notice once in a while, that the apps seems to drop the network stack and i have to close the app restart/reconnect to the wireless network and relaunch the app.

the new OS image seems to have tightened up the networking a bit and it seems better now.

Thanks. I'm on a wireless connection now and it does attempt to download maps and actually shows it doing something. I also have the cache dir setup for a folder on my memory card called "maps".

I did update to the latest OS release of 2006 and the GPS issue now seems resolved. I just can't get maps.

coldstream

2006-11-17, 00:56

Same here as I tried the suggestions. Still not getting maps to download.

coldstream

2006-11-17, 01:17

Same here as I tried the suggestions. Still not getting maps to download.

Got it working by changing the first URI to the second one below:

http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=ap.6&x=%d&y=%d&zoom=%d

http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.29&x=%d&y=%d&zoom=%d

Ericfurn

2006-11-20, 15:04

Only black screen now. Download msg ok, I have empty directories in cache. I tried the newer URI, same deal. I just ordered GPS last week. Hope I can get problem resolved before it gets here.
Eric

beekay

2006-11-21, 16:50

I didn't see a link to this anywhere on the site, so I wanted to add it.
http://www.buygpsnow.com/
I found a Bluetooth GPS receiver here for 60 bucks!

bk

jbar

2007-01-06, 13:32

I still have a lot of pbm with my GPS bluetooth receiver : maemo lost its signal but doesn't notice it to me, so my position don't move on the GPS and makes me think i am somewhere i am not anymore.
That is really really annoying... For example when that make me miss exit on the highway (and when the next exit to run back is very far...) : 6 days ago It makes me drive 100 kms more than expected as there was 50 kms to reach next exit after the bug makes me miss my correct exit.

But i am not here to complain, but just to give u a short command to update your downloaded maps :
I have noticed that maps that was in my cache (since about 7 months) was much less detailled than news maps those could be downloaded today.
As I wanted to update all the maps in my cache (which correspond to place were I was or which interested me and so may interest me again in the futur), i have write this very short script, those could be executed directly on the Nokia if u have installed some of the usefull tools like wget and Xterminal :

First go in the maemo cache directory :
cd /media/mmc1/mt-cache
Then run that command :
for png in $(find . -name "*.jpg") ; do set $(echo $png | tr './' ' ') ; wget -O ${png} "http://mt.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.33&x=$2&y=$3&zoom=$1" ; done

If you dont have installed the required tools on your Nokia, u will have to copy the cache on a machine with bash and wget softwares (almost all Linux distribution for example). To run the command in the cache directory on this machine.

Note: in the command I call the variable "png", because downloaded files seems to be png (if using the file command). And i like to now why maemo use the .jpg extension with the files on his cache instead of the .png ! ?

ReinhardE

2007-01-06, 14:09

I still have a lot of pbm with my GPS bluetooth receiver : maemo lost its signal but doesn't notice it to me, ... ?
Have you upgraded to Version 2.2006.39-14? After upgrading I didn't have any more problems with my GPS bluetooth receiver (Nokia LD-3W).

Ceklund

2007-01-13, 06:51

:D John, great job on the updates!

MM loads faster now, remembers my last entered route which I love.... and you even implemented the larger fonts option :eek: so I can finally read the turn by turns safely while driving w/o having to squint.

Thank you very much, sir, once again you are the MAN! :D

Ciao.

woz

2007-01-17, 14:23

gnuite

2007-01-17, 16:12

Very slick package. Thanks

I'm now considering my options for a GPS receiver and was wondering if it is possible to use a GPS enabled cell phone. It would obviously need to have a bluetooth interface with the appropriate protocol for sending the RMC sentence. This is just an initial thought without much research into available cell phone features.
I don't know anything about GPS-enabled cell phones, but assuming it has a bluetooth interface (to the GPS functionality itself), and assuming that interface emits NMEA, then Maemo Mapper should work with it. It might be more complex to pair it, but it should be possible.

penguinbait

2007-01-18, 02:20

Has anyone seen any strange problems with flite/route while in route. It has only happened one time, although I have only used it one time since getting my n800. It was 1.3.3 and I was alsmot home, and following my route and the last message was flite trying to say about 15 lines of gibberish

Each line in the information box was like this (example below) Flite then proceeded to try to say all that, which was almost kinda humorous.

jdpo31rkjs732237rucwpofewpoifpewjf
ewqjcqoifwhec9mdshf ls
dsfjlkjsd
219839$@$@F@@\3\`
saoid[poiugf

It was connected to the cell phone with auto recalc, but I was on track so I assume it must have gotten the garbage at the beginning of my route.

ilia

2007-01-18, 15:36

Ye I had that problem with 770. Haven't tried it again since though.

dcarter

2007-01-18, 16:07

Are you kidding penguinbait???

The jibberish at the end of the journey is my favorite part!!!

:D

gnuite

2007-01-18, 18:24

Are you kidding penguinbait???

The jibberish at the end of the journey is my favorite part!!!

:D
:P

I think I too would find that amusing! :)

Is this a problem with recently downloaded (i.e. within the last week) routes? Because I know this used to be a problem with the GPX Driving Directions web service (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi) (which Maemo Mapper uses), but I fixed that problem at least a couple weeks ago.

If it's still a problem, can you post a pair of source/destination that I can use to reproduce it?

gnuite

2007-01-18, 18:47

:P

I think I too would find that amusing! :)

Is this a problem with recently downloaded (i.e. within the last week) routes? Because I know this used to be a problem with the GPX Driving Directions web service (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi) (which Maemo Mapper uses), but I fixed that problem at least a couple weeks ago.

If it's still a problem, can you post a pair of source/destination that I can use to reproduce it?
Actually, I just found (and fixed) another possible cause of trailing gibberish, so even if the problem was recent, try again and see if it is now fixed.

nspeer

2007-01-23, 05:35

BanditRider

2007-01-23, 11:06

nspeer,
No, you don't need to be connected. You just need to download the maps for the area you'll be driving in, in the zoom levels you're interested in.

bac522

2007-01-23, 12:15

nspeer,
No, you don't need to be connected. You just need to download the maps for the area you'll be driving in, in the zoom levels you're interested in.

Pre-download that is...

gnuite

2007-01-23, 15:42

Dear All,
I am a complete and total NOOB...I have not even received shipment of my Nokia 770 yet. So, please cut me some slack.

I am interested in using the 770 as a GPS device in my car. I have read lots of info online about Maemo Mapper and Bluetooth GPS receivers. Yet, I have not found the answer to a simple question: Does one have to be connected to the internet in order for the the 770 to function like an off the shelf GPS device (like a Garmin or Tom Tom)? It seems to me that this would be a ridiculous limitation if it is so! Is it so?

Thank you in advance for your replies,
Neil:confused:
To clarify the previous answers a little bit, you can think of Maemo Mapper as able to run in two different modes: with Auto-Download enabled or disabled.

With Auto-Download disabled, then before you embark on a trip, you must download all maps that you anticipate needing for that trip. There are two ways to do this: with an external program like winmapper, and with the "Manage Maps..." menu item in Maemo Mapper itself.

In the case of the latter, you have two options. You can download maps "by area," in which case you provide the latitude/longitude of the corners of a rectangular area, and Maemo Mapper will download all of the maps in that rectangle. Or, you can download maps "Along Route", which means that, if you have a route loaded (i.e. directions to a location), then you can download all of the maps that you would need along that route.

With a large enough memory card, you can conceivably store entire countries at a decent resolution. To maximize the effectiveness of your memory card, though, I recommend downloading maps around your home at a high resolution, and downloading maps further away from you at a lower resolution.

With smaller memory cards, it probably makes more sense to just plan each trip in advance and use the "Download by Route" feature. This will minimize the amount of memory card space needed at one time, but it reduces flexibility because you won't have map data for areas outside of your route. When you are done with your route, you can delete all your maps to save space and/or prepare for the next trip.

With Auto-Download enabled, Maemo Mapper will download maps on-the-fly as needed. This eliminates the need to pre-download large areas of maps, but it requires an active internet connection at all times. If you're using Maemo Mapper in the car, that usually means connection to a cellular service with a data plan. Note that Maemo Mapper will still cache the downloaded maps for you, to minimize internet access, so if you want to keep your memory card free of excess maps, you may want to clean out your Map Cache every once in a while.

I'm sorry it's not more intuitive. This app is in serious need of documentation! But I hope this helps.

nspeer

2007-01-23, 20:07

Gnuite,
Thank you so very much for taking the time to elaborate on the Maemo Mapper app. I really appreciate it! Please permit me to ask further:

Approximately how much memory will be required for a reasonably detailed map of the Denver, CO area (for example)? I don't need the whole state, just Denver and it's surrounding area. Will I need to purchase an addtional RS-MMC for that?

Will the 770 with Maemo Mapper function like an off the shelf GPS device (like a TomTom or Garmin)? That is, will it display directional arrows indicating when and where to make a turn? Will it give voice directed turn-by-turn directions? Will it show on the map an icon pinpointing my current location (car)?

Thanks,
Neil

soleblaze

2007-01-23, 20:27

bac522

2007-01-23, 20:41

Wit would take around 550mb to do zoom levels 2-10. It would be around 2gb if I included level 1.

Do you need the full range of zoom levels? I find 1 & 2 is good enough for me when I'm close to my destination, but outside that 4 & 5 is good enough for me. I don't normally download the other levels. Downloading all maps between 2-10 seems like you are downloading more maps then you may use, but to each there own as the saying goes.

gnuite

2007-01-23, 21:27

When I was trying to do Denver and the outlying areas (up to ft collins, down to castle rock), it looked like it would take around 550mb to do zoom levels 2-10. It would be around 2gb if I included level 1. Unfortunately I haven't successfully downloaded all the maps with my n800.
This is a great point of reference. However (and this is purely personal preference), if you want to save space, you can skip the odd zoom levels and only use the even ones. You don't lose a lot of detail, and Maemo Mapper will still work at the odd zoom levels - it will just do a manual zoom of the next-higher level.

For example, the following sample setup for a city on the Eastern U.S. Seaboard should easily fit on a 1GB memory card (rough-order-of-magnitude square kilometers in parentheses):

Level 0: 10-km square around your house (100).
Level 2: Metro area of nearest city (1000).
Level 4: Metro + Suburbs of nearest city (10,000).
Level 6: Area surrounding the nearest few big cities (100,000).
Level 8: Eastern Seaboard, or maybe even everything east of the mississippi (1,000,000).
Level 10: Entire United States (10,000,000).
Level 12, 14, 16: Entire World (purely for showing off, e.g. "I can zoom out and see the whole world!) (500,000,000).

If you want to put more effort into it, you can download Level 6 detail for all major cities without too much trouble. This would be enough to drive through or around those cities using major highways. Rural areas, though, tend to have maps that compress better (more open space), so it's not a complete loss to keep maps of rural areas.

Zoom levels are roughly quadratically related to disk space. Each zoom level is exactly half the scale of the next-higher-resolution zoom level. 1 is half the scale of 0; 2 is half the scale of 1; etc. For a rectangular area, then, zoom level 1 takes up about 1/4 as much space as zoom level 0. Skipping every other zoom level saves you about 50%, as does removing your smallest-scale zoom level (assuming you have all the other zoom levels). Doing both doubles the savings! In other words:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16
4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16

Each of those lines, except for the last line, takes up about half as much disk space as the previous line. The last line takes up about 1/4 as much disk space as the second-to-last line.

One last thing to consider: using Maemo Mapper with FAT16 will be very wasteful due to the internal fragmentation. Block sizes in FAT16 are 16 kB, so even the small maps (the smallest are about 100 bytes) will take up 16 kB. With FAT32, you can set the block size to as low as 512 bytes, which is fine for typically sized memory cards (it only becomes a problem for large hard drives) and will save you a lot of space.

Maybe someday I'll consider replacing the file-system back end with a sqlite database, but something tells me that will be very CPU-inefficient. Plus it would completely break everyone's map caches! :)

gnuite

2007-01-23, 21:44

Will the 770 with Maemo Mapper function like an off the shelf GPS device (like a TomTom or Garmin)? That is, will it display directional arrows indicating when and where to make a turn? Will it give voice directed turn-by-turn directions? Will it show on the map an icon pinpointing my current location (car)?
Your current location (assuming you have a GPS receiver) is plotted on the map. If you enable "Auto-Center", then the map will be panned automatically to follow your position. Or, you can use the stylus to point to a location on the map on which you would like to center the display. As you move, a red "track" is left behind you, telling you where you have been. You can clear this track at any time, or you can save it to a file, or load a track from a file.

Akin to tracks are "routes", which are green lines that usually describe where you want to go. You can download routes from anywhere to anywhere else, using latitude/longitude or standard addresses (e.g. "123 Main Street, 51122" or "5th Street and Broad Street, New York City, NY"), but you have to be connected to the internet. These routes, however, can be saved as GPX files and opened later. Many routes can be opened or downloaded, one after the other, and Maemo Mapper will lead you through all of them, consecutively.

The routes are downloaded from GPX Driving Directions Web Service (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi), which is a regular web page, so alternatively you can use the Nokia 770/n800's web browser and save files from that page, or you can use a PC and save route files that you can then transfer to your Nokia device.

Once you have downloaded a route, Maemo Mapper will plot the route on the map, and if your route data has waypoints with descriptions in them (as do the routes from the above web service), then as you approach a waypoint, Maemo Mapper will pop up a message telling you what to do next (e.g. "Turn left at Freemont Avenue."). If you install flite and enable it in Maemo Mapper, then it will also speak the directions to you, just like an expensive in-car navigation system.

If you have a cell phone with data service, you can download a route from your current location to your destinatation in such a way that, if you get off track, it automatically re-downloads a new, re-calculated route, just like in-car navigation systems.

So many features and quirks... I really need to write them all down in some sort of documentation page. Lazy me!