View Full Version : Maemo Mapper v0.2 Released
Maemo Mapper (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper) v0.2.3 has been released to the masses!
Device-Installable .DEB File (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper_0.2.3_arm.deb)
Source Code (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper-0.2.3.tar.gz)
New Features:
* Added support for satellite map data.
* Added support to save last center location.
* Added support to specify announcement advance notice in Settings.
* Added estimate for number of maps to download with Download By Area.
Bugfixes:
* Force creation of the map cache directory (including parents).
* Fixed some locale-related bugs.
* Made the flite call safer, and the path is specifiable in Settings.
* Changed the look of the HildonControlbars in Settings a tad.
* Changed the way routes are followed to better support single-point, "point-of-interest"-style routes.
* Fixed bug in route-drawing.
* Fixed some bugs in download-by-route functionality.
* Trying some fixes for when the bluetooth connection mysteriously drops.
* Added some error-handling to NMEA parsing.
* Fixed some other minor, workaround-able bugs.
* Added some more comment documentation to the code.
The current priority-ordered TODO list, targeted for a future version of Maemo Mapper:
1. Support multiple map repositories between which you can dynamically switch. (If you need something like this now, take a look at mgedmin's repository-switcher scripts (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13903&postcount=85) if you are reasonably command-line savvy.
2. Support for two new modes of GPS receiver connection: GPSD, and direct RFCOMM (via the Maemo Bluetooth Plugin).
3. Publicize subversion repository (it's current private to my LAN - if you would like to hack at the code now, PM me and we'll talk; I might be able to set you up with an account on my box that would allow you to access the repo for writing).
4. Add temporal data to track export.
5. Incorporate the GPX Driving Directions web service code directly into Maemo Mapper.
6. Make all drawing colors (circles and lines) configurable.
7. Localization (I'll need input from native speakers - volunteers?).
8. Add optional textual information (location, speed, heading, etc.) in upper-left corner of map.
9. Integrate with the dbus-based flite (if it actually works).
10. Integration with Maemo's Connectivity API's to auto-connect to the internet as necessary (like the web browser does).
11. Create official user documentation.
12. Allow "mouse selection" in the "Download by Area" functionality.
13. Replace the "Approaching Waypoint" prefix with a loud chime of some sort.
The next version of Maemo Mapper will be version 1.0 and will be the first version targeted for the new 2006 Operating System. If time permits, I will also release a backported v0.3 that will contain most of the same new features as v1.0 but will work with the old 2005 OS. If the new 2006 OS takes too long, it is possible that v0.3 will be released before v1.0.
Feel free to provide feedback and/or bug reports in this thread or via private message. If you like Maemo Mapper and would like to see it improve and/or show your appreciation, you can help me by providing suggestions for version 1.0 (in this forum) or by donating via credit card or PayPal (see the Maemo Mapper website (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/) for details).
Thanks to everyone who has contributed with bug reports, suggestions, and donations. Maemo Mapper is greatly improved because of you all, and I am confident that that trend will continue.
Maemo Mapper v0.2 includes the ability to use satellite data instead of street data. It's a little cumbersome to maintain both kinds of Map Caches right now because you have to change both the URI and the Map Cache directory every time you want to switch, but this will become easier in a future version. mgedmin's repository-switcher scripts (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13903&postcount=85) make it a little easier.
I only include this now to better support people that only have access to satellite data (not street map data).
Here is an example of a satellite-map URI Format that works:
http://kh0.google.com/kh?n=404&v=12&t=%s
Thanks go to Marius Gedminas for the conversion routine required to work with satellite data.
DISCLAIMER: Using Google's satellite data may be considered a violation of their copyright or that of the copyright holders of the map data. Use of this software 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 John Costigan cannot be held responsible for any of your actions related thereto.
I have added code that attempts to eliminate or handle the mysterous dropouts in bluetooth connectivity that cause Maemo Mapper to stop updating your current position while the UI continues to function. If you still experience this behavior, unfortunately resetting the bluetooth radio requires root privileges, but if you're willing, you can activate the "automatic bluetooth radio reset" functionality in Maemo Mapper by using root mode to modify the /etc/sudoers file to include the following line:
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 reset
WARNING: This is technically a security risk. Adding the above line can allow outside attackers to cause your bluetooth radio to reset without root privileges. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
If you do add this line to your sudoers file, please let me know if it has any effect for you. I tried for 90 minutes to reproduce the problem to see if the reset had any effect, but I couldn't reproduce it. If the behavior does occur, it may take Maemo Mapper up to 30 seconds to identify it and execute the reset.
EDIT: If you enable the bluetooth radio reset code, remember that it will cause ALL bluetooth connections to be dropped, including connections to cell phones, keyboards, etc. This will happen whenever the connection between Maemo Mapper and the GPS receiver is unexpectedly interrupted (e.g. if you walk far enough away from the receiver).
This is a placeholder comment unless I want to add anything important in the future.
uNtouched
2006-05-26, 06:07
gnuite, Just as a heads up...I keep getting "Invalid NMEA input from receiver". Previous version worked like a charm.
gnuite, Just as a heads up...I keep getting "Invalid NMEA input from receiver". Previous version worked like a charm.
Do you get the message during the "Establishing GPS Fix" message or after your receiver gets a fix? Or both?
What model is your receiver?
What locale is your Nokia 770 set to?
Are you able to use GPSD or cat to PM me sample NMEA output from your receiver? (If you don't know what this means, don't worry about it.)
3. Publicize subversion repository (it's current private to my LAN - if you would like to hack at the code now, PM me and we'll talk; I might be able to set you up with an account on my box that would allow you to access the repo for writing).
Might I suggest the brand spanking new https://garage.maemo.org/ for development hosting?
Do you get the message during the "Establishing GPS Fix" message or after your receiver gets a fix? Or both?
I've noticed that until the receiver gets a fix - at least for me - I get this same error message. Once a fix is established, it seems to work fine.
Looks good so far - thanks!
Brad.
uNtouched
2006-05-26, 06:35
gnuite, sorry, it might be that I am indoors with the receiver (Nokia LD-1W) is just sitting by the window. Better report tomorrow.
Great work, thank you!
7. Localization (I'll need input from native speakers - volunteers?).
I would like to contribute with the italian translations.
Please consider using GNU gettext PO system, it's well known and has a lot of useful tools for maintaining translation catalogs.
Regards
runestone
2006-05-26, 09:19
Hi Gnuite, I can translate into Swedish.
May I also suggest that we have a look at www.eniro.se, the Swedish yellow pages with options to have route planning and also photos and maps or hybrid mode. Dont know if it is possible to "harvest" maps from there. Let me know if I can help beta test some settings.
Best regards, Rune
I've noticed that until the receiver gets a fix - at least for me - I get this same error message. Once a fix is established, it seems to work fine.
There are several possibilities that could cause this.
If the problem is in parsing the GSV sentence, then one of the following fields must be bad: "message count", "message number", or "number of satellites in view". This seems unlikely.
If the problem is in parsing the RMC sentence, then probably your receiver does not attempt to provide any valid lat/lon data when the it does not have a fix. This is different from how my receiver works, which is to provide the "last valid lat/lon data" when there is no fix. If this is the case, then this is simply a matter of there being too many different NMEA implementations. I wish I had more GPS receiver models with which to test.
If anyone sees the "Invalid NMEA input from receiver!" message and has the ability to PM to me some NMEA output from their receiver, I can better debug Maemo Mapper's performance with their particular receiver.
The only reason we didn't see the error message before is because I didn't do any error checking before. Maybe I should revert to that behavior and hope for the best?
uNtouched
2006-05-26, 16:48
Gnuite, I still have that issue when I was on the road. I never saw anything else besides the "invalid...." message. Let me know how to get my NMEA output I'll be glad to help out.
Gnuite, I still have that issue when I was on the road. I never saw anything else besides the "invalid...." message. Let me know how to get my NMEA output I'll be glad to help out.
And to clarify with a bit more testing... my initial tests last night were on the patio. I can get a valid fix and everything seems to work, but as soon as I start to move I start getting the "invalid..." message again and I lose the fix.
Right now, I've got the receiver in my office window and have maemo mapper running on the 770. I've noticed despite the fact that I haven't moved since I've gotten a fix there is a trail indicating movement (maybe 50 feet?) and as I type this, I see movement on the screen (I've actually drifted across the screen in slow movement back and forth).
Let me know what sort of info I can provide to help debug this problem.
Brad.
penguinbait
2006-05-26, 19:47
I updated, all settings are intact. I fired it up and everything is working without any issues.
Another great job
I have added code that attempts to eliminate or handle the mysterous dropouts in bluetooth connectivity that cause Maemo Mapper to stop updating your current position while the UI continues to function.
FWIF mysterious Bluetooth dropouts seem to happen with gpsd as well: https://maemo.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=408
This reminds me very much of the mysterious WiFi dropouts that I experience: https://maemo.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=329
I just hope these are software/driver problems, and not something to do with the hardware.
The only reason we didn't see the error message before is because I didn't do any error checking before. Maybe I should revert to that behavior and hope for the best?
I think it would be better to keep it.
I spent a day trying to figure out why my GPS stopped working in Maemo Mapper. It turned out that gpsd had silently switched it from NMEA into some binary protocol that Maemo Mapper doesn't understand. Since I don't have Windows to run the settings app that came with my GPS, I had to find the protocol description and write a Python script to switch it back into NMEA mode. Full story here: http://mg.pov.lt/blog/maemo-mapper.html
Is there a way to generate a GPX route that touches user defined waypoints? Yesterday Maemo-mapper took me to my regular shop using a route I've never used before... and it took longer than normally.
I've planned a holiday route but gnuite's GPX generator insists to go around London clockwise but I want to go anticlockwise.
Is there a (free?) prog somewhere with more control over the route?
Is there a way to generate a GPX route that touches user defined waypoints? Yesterday Maemo-mapper took me to my regular shop using a route I've never used before... and it took longer than normally.
I've planned a holiday route but gnuite's GPX generator insists to go around London clockwise but I want to go anticlockwise.
Is there a (free?) prog somewhere with more control over the route?
You can set up a multi-segment route by Downloading the route in segments. For example, say you want to go from 123 Baker St. to 789 Butcher St., but you want to make sure to pass through 456 Baylor St. First, download the route from 123 Baker St. to 456 Baylor St. Then, download the route from 456 Baylor St. to 789 Butcher St. The second route will append to the first, and waypoint announcement should work when transitioning from the end of the first route to the beginning of the second route.
If you are satisfied with the result, you can save the new, two-segment route into a Route file. If you want, you can manually tweak the file to remove the "break" so that the directions now represent a single segment, from 123 Baker St. to 789 Butcher St.
Unfortunately, there is no means by which to control the exact directions that are generated.
Is there a (free?) prog somewhere with more control over the route?
It's a bit of a hack, but have you considered forcing the route you want to take by creating several routes (each one going part of the way you want) and then loading them one at a time?
My understanding is that Maemo Mapper will combine routines if the are loaded individually. I've done the same sort of trick with Google Maps.
Brad.
Yes, I thought of appending segments but I am planning a long trip from UK to Italy so it would take quite some effort to get my route right. I think one of my PCs in the past came with Microsoft Route Planner (or something similar) which gave such control. If such a program existed now and it could export in GPX format then it would massively improve the usability of Maemo-mapper.
HardCoder
2006-05-26, 21:50
Hi Gnuite, I can translate into Swedish.
May I also suggest that we have a look at www.eniro.se, the Swedish yellow pages with options to have route planning and also photos and maps or hybrid mode. Dont know if it is possible to "harvest" maps from there. Let me know if I can help beta test some settings.
Best regards, RuneI know for a fact that it is possible to harvest maps from www.eniro.se. I have made a Perl script that is a bit shabby but does the job. It also has the ability to download a square area if you specify the length in meters. One thing about www.eniro.se, they are not using the WGS84 system used in a gps device. They use the official Swedish RT90 2-dimensional system, There are ways to transpose between RT90 and SWEREF99 which is almost precisely applicable on WGS84. But i haven't yet been able to do so, to much school at the moment :). But i have used Lantmäteriets web-converter to cheat :). It checks the WGS84 coordinates and gives the RT90 coordinates back.
My script works with GpsDrive, it should be possible to adapt it to maemo-mapper but i don't know if it should be integrated with maemo-mapper because of the small number of users in Sweden and the extra conversion between RT90 and WGS84. Just a lot of code not really used by so many people.
Maybe the map-downloading part of maemo-mapper could be lifted out in to a small separate replaceable executable?
EDIT: Lantmäteriet -> Swedish geographic survey office
runestone
2006-05-26, 22:28
Well HardCoder, since I believe there are some Nokia 770 per capita in Sweden I dont think it would be a total waste of bytes... ;) but good idea to separate it though.
I know for a fact that it is possible to harvest maps from www.eniro.se. I have made a Perl script that is a bit shabby but does the job. It also has the ability to download a square area if you specify the length in meters. One thing about www.eniro.se, they are not using the WGS84 system used in a gps device. They use the official Swedish RT90 2-dimensional system, There are ways to transpose between RT90 and SWEREF99 which is almost precisely applicable on WGS84. But i haven't yet been able to do so, to much school at the moment :). But i have used Lantmäteriets web-converter to cheat :). It checks the WGS84 coordinates and gives the RT90 coordinates back.
My script works with GpsDrive, it should be possible to adapt it to maemo-mapper but i don't know if it should be integrated with maemo-mapper because of the small number of users in Sweden and the extra conversion between RT90 and WGS84. Just a lot of code not really used by so many people.
Maybe the map-downloading part of maemo-mapper could be lifted out in to a small separate replaceable executable?
EDIT: Lantmäteriet -> Swedish geographic survey office
First, MANY thanks to gnuite for this awesome program! I've donated $20 (mkrueger), and I recommend everyone that is using this program consider its value and send some cash if you can. There's no question this program makes the 770 much more valuable.
I'm having a strange problem using my Socket BT GPS with Maemo Mapper. When I use it with Maemo Mapper, it seems to leave the "Establishing GPS fix" window up forever, and the bar appears empty. It does put the dot at my correct location on the map, but it won't move from there. The application is otherwise working perfectly, and I've used it to download routes and get around town (LOVE it!). It has never locked up on me (.1 or .2).
The other odd thing is that my Socket GPS seems to get goofed up after 5 minutes of running Maemo Mapper. The sattellite fix light will go out. This doesn't happen when using any other applications with it. Could Maemo Mapper be somehow trying to put my GPS in a different mode? I have to power cycle it to get it back to normal operation.
The Socket GPS works fine with GpsDrive on the same 770, so I guess I can just wait until gpsd is supported, but I'd love to start using it on the road without having to manually tell it where I am :-)
I'm having a strange problem using my Socket BT GPS with Maemo Mapper. When I use it with Maemo Mapper, it seems to leave the "Establishing GPS fix" window up forever, and the bar appears empty. It does put the dot at my correct location on the map, but it won't move from there. The application is otherwise working perfectly, and I've used it to download routes and get around town (LOVE it!). It has never locked up on me (.1 or .2).
This is peculiar. The fact that it stays in "Establishing GPS fix" mode implies that Maemo Mapper is not getting an RMC sentence with a "valid" position. Even if the positions it got were "invalid", Maemo Mapper would still plot the dot, although it would be grayed out.
Can you send me the NMEA output from your receiver (using GPSD or direct rfcomm/cat)? This would help me determine the nature of your problem.
The other odd thing is that my Socket GPS seems to get goofed up after 5 minutes of running Maemo Mapper. The sattellite fix light will go out. This doesn't happen when using any other applications with it. Could Maemo Mapper be somehow trying to put my GPS in a different mode? I have to power cycle it to get it back to normal operation.
Maemo Mapper never sends any data to your receiver - it opens the bluetooth connection strictly for read-only access. What model of receiver do you have? Does it have a auto-power-save feature that would cause it to stop emitting NMEA data after 5 minutes of being disconnected?
The combination of the two of your problems might imply that the connection is getting dropped soon after it is established. The next time that Maemo Mapper seems to get stuck at "Establishing GPS fix", try disabling the GPS receiver (in the menu) and re-enabling it, and see what happens.
Did this change with v0.2? That is, did things work fine in v0.1?
Thanks for the donation, and for the feedback.
Hi,
I like your program, If You want, I can translate to Spanish your application.
Best Regards,
Ipae
I've released Maemo Mapper v0.2.1 to address the "Invalid NMEA input from receiver!" message. I was unaware that some receivers don't output speed or heading (particularly if your receiver is in "static navigation" mode) - you guys are missing out! Anyway, I've changed the code to accept empty values instead of flagging them as invalid data.
I updated the first post in this thread (and the name of the thread) to reflect the new version number and to update the links. Or, you can use these handy links right here:
Device-Installable .DEB File (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper_0.2.1_arm.deb)
Source Code (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper-0.2.1.tar.gz)
penguinbait
2006-05-27, 02:05
Google maps are awesome, but there satellite maps kind of suck. Microsoft Terraserver has way better resolution, it usually only black and white but way better maps, any chance it will work with Terraserver?
Gnuite,
Maemo-mapper now seems to work even if my Globalstar BT is in static navigation mode.
There's a 'gps data valid' flag available in many of the nmea sentences. Why not use it instead of figuring out the validity of the fix by our self?
Please see this page for more: http://www.werple.net.au/~gnb/gps/nmea.html
Pekka
Can you send me the NMEA output from your receiver (using GPSD or direct rfcomm/cat)? This would help me determine the nature of your problem.
I'm having trouble figuring out how to output the NMEA data to a text file. Can you give me an example command that would work from xterm? I have root enabled.
Maemo Mapper never sends any data to your receiver - it opens the bluetooth connection strictly for read-only access. What model of receiver do you have? Does it have a auto-power-save feature that would cause it to stop emitting NMEA data after 5 minutes of being disconnected?
I thought that was the case. I bet you are right about the 5 minute thing. Here is the info on my receiver:
Socket Bluetooth GPS (http://www.socketcom.com/pdf/gps/BTGPS_datasheet.pdf)
The combination of the two of your problems might imply that the connection is getting dropped soon after it is established. The next time that Maemo Mapper seems to get stuck at "Establishing GPS fix", try disabling the GPS receiver (in the menu) and re-enabling it, and see what happens.
Disabling and enabling the GPS receiver (in the menu) just leaves me showing the empty "Establishing GPS fix" bar again. So basically nothing changes. The dot IS gray, as you suspected. However, using my Mac and a program called GPSUtility, I'm seeing a fix and 11 satellites. I've PM'd you some text output from GPSUtility, but I'm not sure if it's a direct feed off the GPS unit or if it is cleaned up.
Did this change with v0.2? That is, did things work fine in v0.1?
Nothing seemed to change as far as the GPS problem between .1 and .2.
I added a few lines of code to maemo-mapper v0.2.1 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. (Being at it, I also fixed a bug in the new download confirmation dialog.)
Please consider my tiny change as a proposal to implement item 12 on Guite's TODO list for future versions of Maemo Mapper: 12. Allow "mouse selection" in the "Download by Area" functionality.
My change is only 26 lines of Gnuite's v0.2.1 source. A source code patch can be found here: http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.1-aw-0.1.patch For testing, a package with this patch applied can be downloaded here: http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper_0.2.1-aw-0.1_arm.deb.
Gnuite,
Maemo-mapper now seems to work even if my Globalstar BT is in static navigation mode.
There's a 'gps data valid' flag available in many of the nmea sentences. Why not use it instead of figuring out the validity of the fix by our self?
Please see this page for more: http://www.werple.net.au/~gnb/gps/nmea.html
Pekka
Maemo Mapper does use the "gps data valid" flag - that's what determines whether the mark is blue (valid) or gray (invalid). The "Invalid NMEA input" message pops up if the receiver sends an invalid (i.e. not conforming to the spec) NMEA sentence.
I'm having a strange problem using my Socket BT GPS with Maemo Mapper. When I use it with Maemo Mapper, it seems to leave the "Establishing GPS fix" window up forever, and the bar appears empty. It does put the dot at my correct location on the map, but it won't move from there. I got equal result with Socket GPS device (looks like yours). Just after installing version 0.2.1 I was able to get position once, but not after that. Couple of times "Establishing GPS fix" showed some progress, but stopped forever. GPS device is not mine, so I do not have any other program or device to test it, just Maemo Mapper.
Maemo Mapper (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper) v0.2.1 has been released to the masses!
Device-Installable .DEB File (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper_0.2.1_arm.deb)
Source Code (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper-0.2.1.tar.gz)
New Features:
* Added support for satellite map data.
* Added support to save last center location.
* Added support to specify announcement advance notice in Settings.
* Added estimate for number of maps to download with Download By Area.
Bugfixes:
* Force creation of the map cache directory (including parents).
* Fixed some locale-related bugs.
* Made the flite call safer, and the path is specifiable in Settings.
* Changed the look of the HildonControlbars in Settings a tad.
* Changed the way routes are followed to better support single-point, "point-of-interest"-style routes.
* Fixed bug in route-drawing.
* Fixed some bugs in download-by-route functionality.
* Trying some fixes for when the bluetooth connection mysteriously drops.
* Added some error-handling to NMEA parsing.
* Fixed some other minor, workaround-able bugs.
* Added some more comment documentation to the code.
The current priority-ordered TODO list, targeted for a future version of Maemo Mapper:
1. Support multiple map repositories between which you can dynamically switch. (If you need something like this now, take a look at mgedmin's repository-switcher scripts (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13903&postcount=85) if you are reasonably command-line savvy.
2. Support for two new modes of GPS receiver connection: GPSD, and direct RFCOMM (via the Maemo Bluetooth Plugin).
3. Publicize subversion repository (it's current private to my LAN - if you would like to hack at the code now, PM me and we'll talk; I might be able to set you up with an account on my box that would allow you to access the repo for writing).
4. Add temporal data to track export.
5. Incorporate the GPX Driving Directions web service code directly into Maemo Mapper.
6. Make all drawing colors (circles and lines) configurable.
7. Localization (I'll need input from native speakers - volunteers?).
8. Add optional textual information (location, speed, heading, etc.) in upper-left corner of map.
9. Integrate with the dbus-based flite (if it actually works).
10. Integration with Maemo's Connectivity API's to auto-connect to the internet as necessary (like the web browser does).
11. Create official user documentation.
12. Allow "mouse selection" in the "Download by Area" functionality.
13. Replace the "Approaching Waypoint" prefix with a loud chime of some sort.
The next version of Maemo Mapper will be version 1.0 and will be the first version targeted for the new 2006 Operating System. If time permits, I will also release a backported v0.3 that will contain most of the same new features as v1.0 but will work with the old 2005 OS. If the new 2006 OS takes too long, it is possible that v0.3 will be released before v1.0.
Feel free to provide feedback and/or bug reports in this thread or via private message. If you like Maemo Mapper and would like to see it improve and/or show your appreciation, you can help me by providing suggestions for version 1.0 (in this forum) or by donating via credit card or PayPal (see the Maemo Mapper website (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/) for details).
Thanks to everyone who has contributed with bug reports, suggestions, and donations. Maemo Mapper is greatly improved because of you all, and I am confident that that trend will continue.
Thank you for the constant support! I do have 1 suggestion. Is it possible to add a feature that tells you how many miles you have left to your destination (for route)? That would be great. Thanks!
I also have another suggestion for the textual info add on. Would it be possible for maemomapper to take your average MPH and mileage left enroute and then give you an estimated time left to destination? That would be very cool. Thanks!
I also have another suggestion for the textual info add on. Would it be possible for maemomapper to take your average MPH and mileage left enroute and then give you an estimated time left to destination? That would be very cool. Thanks!
j.pickens
2006-05-28, 17:53
After having problems with disconnections from my bluetooth GPS receiver, and maemomapper v 0.1 and v0.2 lockups, I found the following:
I had been using the Bluetooth connection program from the Maemo wiki apps site to initialize connection to the GPS receiver prior to running MaemoMapper. Then, maemomapper would successfully find the receiver, but when either a power down from the display settings timout occurred, or just about anything else happened on the 770, Maemomapper would either lose connection to the receiver, or the program would lock up.
So, I just power cycled the 770 and started Maemomapper without invoking the Bluetooth program first, and everything works just fine!
Now, before I first ran the Bluetooth program, Maemomapper could not find the GPS, so I assume the bluetooth program did something to store pairing information which is subsequently used by Maemomapper.
Anyone else see this?
After having problems with disconnections from my bluetooth GPS receiver, and maemomapper v 0.1 and v0.2 lockups, I found the following:
I had been using the Bluetooth connection program from the Maemo wiki apps site to initialize connection to the GPS receiver prior to running MaemoMapper. Then, maemomapper would successfully find the receiver, but when either a power down from the display settings timout occurred, or just about anything else happened on the 770, Maemomapper would either lose connection to the receiver, or the program would lock up.
So, I just power cycled the 770 and started Maemomapper without invoking the Bluetooth program first, and everything works just fine!
Now, before I first ran the Bluetooth program, Maemomapper could not find the GPS, so I assume the bluetooth program did something to store pairing information which is subsequently used by Maemomapper.
Anyone else see this?
That's weird. I don't even use the Maemo Bluetooth Plugin, and Maemo Mapper finds my GPS receiver fine. Using Maemo Mapper in conjunction with the plugin may produce strange effects (unless you don't pair the receiver with the plugin). This should improve with the next version, which will hopefully work with the bluetooth plugin.
I've released Maemo Mapper v0.2.1 to address the "Invalid NMEA input from receiver!" message.
Gunite-
Thanks for the update, it works much better for me. But I'm still seeing the same behaviour as with v0.1, that is eventual hang from 2 to 30 minutes after the program starts.
I've left the program hung to see if it will recover, but what I've noticed now is that after the screen blanks, all I see is a totally white screen (sometimes an empty info box is shown too).
I can disable the gps (at least until the screen blanks) but when I try to re-enable the gps all I get is a "searching" message. The only way to restore functionality is to reboot the 770.
Not sure if it's related, but twice I've seen hangs when I'd think reception could be a problem (a short tunnel and heavily wooded areas). Just wanted to mention it.
I've also added the "hciconfig reset" to sudoers, just in case. No difference.
Sorry to be stupid, but previously you mention using wget to fetch data from gpsd. I read the man page and I can't see how to have wget to attach to an arbitrary socket - am I missing something?
If this was a typical linux box I could telnet to the gpsd port but that doesn't seem possible (maybe ssh would work?)
Brad.
That's weird. I don't even use the Maemo Bluetooth Plugin, and Maemo Mapper finds my GPS receiver fine. Using Maemo Mapper in conjunction with the plugin may produce strange effects (unless you don't pair the receiver with the plugin). This should improve with the next version, which will hopefully work with the bluetooth plugin.I guess most people will buy a GPS receiver to use it with Maemo-mapper so it would be helpful to describe on the Maemo-mapper site (and in this thread) how to pair/connect the GPS receiver to the N770. My first attempt was to use the BT wizard to pair but this failed. Then I used the Maemo Bluetooth Plugin which picked it up and dislayed the MAC address. I then had to manually type this address in Maemo-mapper because it was set to 00:00:00:00:00:00 as I was using it without a GPS receiver. Once the MAC address was set, all I do is to start Maemo-mapper and it connects automatically, ie. I don't have to Connect in the Maemo Bluetooth Plugin. Interestingly the BT phone icon at the top changes, showing that a BT "phone" is connected.
It sounds that the previous 00:00:00:00:00:00 value and the presence of the Maemo Bluetooth Plugin confuse the program, probably none of this messing is necessary if Maemo-mapper is ran first time when a GPS receiver is already running.
Most of us here are of the experimenting type but it would be useful to document how to connect the BT receiver. Probably even better, the code might be changed so that it picks up the receiver without any manual intervention.
I am hooked on Maemo-mapper... what a program!
New release: Maemo Mapper v0.2.2
Device-Installable .DEB File (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper_0.2.2_arm.deb)
Source Code (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper-0.2.2.tar.gz)
To those of you who have tried adding the "hciconfig reset" line to the sudoers file and found that it didn't work: I join you today. I was in the car today for more than an hour when the bluetooth connection paused, and I noticed that the hciconfig reset did not work. I found out why by fiddling on the command line (while I was driving - not recommended! :)), and I fixed the source and released the fix in v0.2.2.
You will need to modify the sudoers line slightly. from "/usr/sbin/hciconfig reset" to "/usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 reset" - I forgot the intermediate "hci0" argument.
I confirmed during my debugging that executing this command when the bluetooth connection "pauses" does in fact successfully reset the radio and allow Maemo Mapper to reconnect to the GPS receiver. That means that v0.2.2 should actually be able to recover from this erroneous state, hopefully with only 30-60 seconds of lost communication. I think that's the best I can do for now, but I'll keep looking into it.
Also, I added armin's "previous two center points define the default top-left/bottom-right points in Download-By-Area" patch. I don't use it personally, and in fact I find it a little annoying to have to delete the defaults in order to replace them with my own values (not to mention that it's unintuitive), but let's see how others feel about it. Does anybody actually use armin's patch? Should I keep it as the default behavior? Or maybe add a secret button in the corner (like the pi symbol from The Net) that would populate the fields with those values?
In any case, I'll probably still remove the feature when I implement the "select download area via stylus" code, although I'll never use that either (Google Earth is so much easier to use).
Those are the only two changes in this release.
New release: Maemo Mapper v0.2.2
Device-Installable .DEB File (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper_0.2.2_arm.deb)
Source Code (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper-0.2.2.tar.gz)
To those of you who have tried adding the "hciconfig reset" line to the sudoers file and found that it didn't work: I join you today. I was in the car today for more than an hour when the bluetooth connection paused, and I noticed that the hciconfig reset did not work. I found out why by fiddling on the command line (while I was driving - not recommended! :)), and I fixed the source and released the fix in v0.2.2.
You will need to modify the sudoers line slightly. from "/usr/sbin/hciconfig reset" to "/usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 reset" - I forgot the intermediate "hci0" argument.
I confirmed during my debugging that executing this command when the bluetooth connection "pauses" does in fact successfully reset the radio and allow Maemo Mapper to reconnect to the GPS receiver. That means that v0.2.2 should actually be able to recover from this erroneous state, hopefully with only 30-60 seconds of lost communication. I think that's the best I can do for now, but I'll keep looking into it.
Also, I added armin's "previous two center points define the default top-left/bottom-right points in Download-By-Area" patch. I don't use it personally, and in fact I find it a little annoying to have to delete the defaults in order to replace them with my own values (not to mention that it's unintuitive), but let's see how others feel about it. Does anybody actually use armin's patch? Should I keep it as the default behavior? Or maybe add a secret button in the corner (like the pi symbol from The Net) that would populate the fields with those values?
In any case, I'll probably still remove the feature when I implement the "select download area via stylus" code, although I'll never use that either (Google Earth is so much easier to use).
Those are the only two changes in this release.
Thanks for the update! I just wanted to let you know that I used the program this weekend on my vacation - 250 mile drive! It's excellent!
Personally, I think this feature should be defaulted. It's much easier than having to write down the first lat/lot and then put it back in after doing the other corner. So yes, I believe it is a necessary feature. Thanks once again!
Could anyone with a Socket GPS receiver please verify (with GPSD or rfcomm/cat) that their receiver does in fact emit the RMC sentence of the NMEA protocol? I can't find any information on the web about the messages it sends. The closest thing I can find is a datasheet for some "Trimble Recon GPS Card edition" that claims that it emits RMC and that it includes the "Socket Communications Bluetooth kit", which is a pretty weak connection.
You can check by looking at the NMEA output (with GPSD or rfcomm/cat) and checking if any of the output lines starts with "$GPRMC". If not, it would be helpful if you could tell me all of the message types that the Socket GPS receiver emits (such as the $GPGGA or $GPGSV messages).
It might turn out that the Socket GPS receiver only supports the GGA sentence (not the RMC sentence), which would explain why it's not working with Maemo Mapper. If that is the case, I will retool Maemo Mapper to use GGA instead of RMC (since I think all receivers use GGA). I would prefer to avoid having to support both, since most receivers emit both messages, which would mean doubling CPU usage by having to process both messages.
Gnuite, can you explain how the route regeneration works? Do you have to be connected to the internet? Because on my trip this weekend, I decided to take an alternate route than the one Maemo-Mapper generated (to avoid traffic). I did not get any route regeneration. Would it have worked if I was connected to the internet or how does this work?
RussNelson
2006-05-29, 05:52
I wonder if it might be worthwhile to not do your own binding, but instead to simply read a /dev/rfcommX device, and let rfcomm do the binding for you?
Gnuite, can you explain how the route regeneration works? Do you have to be connected to the internet? Because on my trip this weekend, I decided to take an alternate route than the one Maemo-Mapper generated (to avoid traffic). I did not get any route regeneration. Would it have worked if I was connected to the internet or how does this work?
Yes. Route generation uses the GPX Driving Directions web service to generate directions, so you must be connected to the internet.
I wonder if it might be worthwhile to not do your own binding, but instead to simply read a /dev/rfcommX device, and let rfcomm do the binding for you?
Yes, as I've said, this will be supported in the next version of Maemo Mapper. GPSD will also be supported. But as others have stated, they suffer the same issue of random, mysterious GPS dropouts. This leads me to believe that it is a deeper issue that Maemo Mapper cannot solve, only mitigate.
keyrn1808
2006-05-29, 07:31
Yes. Route generation uses the GPX Driving Directions web service to generate directions, so you must be connected to the internet.
Hello,
first of all, great application!!!!
I have tried in the 0.1 and now in the 0.2.1 versions the route menu and i always have the same gpx parser error.
I'm from spain so, I tried Murcia, Spain to Barcelona, Spain. It works in the gpx web page generation the route, but I always have the gpx parser :-(
Regards
Also, I added armin's "previous two center points define the default top-left/bottom-right points in Download-By-Area" patch. I don't use it personally, and in fact I find it a little annoying to have to delete the defaults in order to replace them with my own values
Maybe we could add a button to clear the input fields.
(not to mention that it's unintuitive),
I aggree. Visually selecting the rectangle with a rubber-band would be more intuitive.
But if you consider, how I used Download Area before my patch (set the view center to the upper left of imaginary rectangle, then go to Menu -> Maps -> Download Area, note down current view point latitude and longitude on a piece of paper, press Cancel, now set the view center to the lower right of the imaginary rectangle, again go to Menu -> Maps -> Download Area, type in the two values you noted down before, and the two values that constitute the current view center, optionally select Zoom levels to download, press OK), then it becomes clear, that my patch simply automates this terribly time consuming and error-prone action sequence and gets rid of the pencil and paper.
but let's see how others feel about it. Does anybody actually use armin's patch? Should I keep it as the default behavior? Or maybe add a secret button in the corner (like the pi symbol from The Net) that would populate the fields with those values?
Starting with empty input fields and having a button that fills in the two last view center coordinates as default values would be good. The other way around - always fill in the last two view center coordinates as default values and have a button to clear the fields would be better.
Personally, I think this feature should be defaulted. It's much easier than having to write down the first lat/lot and then put it back in after doing the other corner. So yes, I believe it is a necessary feature. Thanks once again!
This was exactly my motivation.
New release: Maemo Mapper v0.2.2
Unfortunately this release still contains the bug in the Download Area confirmation dialog, which was fixed by http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.1-aw-0.1.patch, too. (Should be 'GTK_RESPONSE_OK', not 'GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT'.)
I also think the "select rectangle" thing is the best way to select downloaded area.
The reason I wish it worked in the device, instead of google earth etc, is because I am carrying the device around more often than a laptop, and it would be nice to be able to select the downloaded area when under wifi connection like in a coffee shop, before going out for a walk etc.. I do have a phone with 3G connection, but it eats a lot of battery when connected, so it is useful to be able to fetch the maps beforehand.
Would the drag-panning-with-stylus be too much work for the CPU to handle by the way?
//Tuomas
Small bug report:
The maps along a route have already been downloaded at zoom level 1. If the zoom level is then set to 0, 'Download maps along route' re-fetches the maps. It should not as zoom level 0 uses the same maps as zoom level 1.
If you need any help translating Mapper to danish, please let me know. Shouldn't be too much work, and even though I would prefer to stick to english myself I'm sure not all of my countrymen are of the same opinion.
Small bug report:
The maps along a route have already been downloaded at zoom level 1. If the zoom level is then set to 0, 'Download maps along route' re-fetches the maps. It should not as zoom level 0 uses the same maps as zoom level 1.
Not quite true - it kicks off downloads of the same maps, yes, but none of the downloads actually occur because the maps have already been downloaded. Maemo Mapper does check that the maps exist, though, and since there are likely a lot of maps to "download" at zoom level 0, there are a lot of maps to verify exist. This may take some time, but it shouldn't be as much time as actually downloading them.
Maybe we could add a button to clear the input fields.
I aggree. Visually selecting the rectangle with a rubber-band would be more intuitive.
But if you consider, how I used Download Area before my patch (set the view center to the upper left of imaginary rectangle, then go to Menu -> Maps -> Download Area, note down current view point latitude and longitude on a piece of paper, press Cancel, now set the view center to the lower right of the imaginary rectangle, again go to Menu -> Maps -> Download Area, type in the two values you noted down before, and the two values that constitute the current view center, optionally select Zoom levels to download, press OK), then it becomes clear, that my patch simply automates this terribly time consuming and error-prone action sequence and gets rid of the pencil and paper.
I totally agree that your patch clearly and undeniably facilitates this use case. I only said that this patch is useless (and actually cumbersome) for me because this is not my use case at all. I use Download-by-Area by bringing up the dialog and also firing up Google Earth (or Google Maps) on my computer. But not everyone uses it this way, which is why I added your patch.
Maemo Mapper v0.2.3 has been released to address issues in the Download-by-Area dialog box.
Device-Installable .DEB File (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper_0.2.3_arm.deb)
Source Code (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper-0.2.3.tar.gz)
Changelog:
* Fixed bug in Download-by-Area confirmation dialog box.
* Added "Clear" button to Download-by-Area dialog box.
Not quite true - it kicks off downloads of the same maps, yes, but none of the downloads actually occur because the maps have already been downloaded. Maemo Mapper does check that the maps exist, though, and since there are likely a lot of maps to "download" at zoom level 0, there are a lot of maps to verify exist. This may take some time, but it shouldn't be as much time as actually downloading them. I open a short (15 miles) route for which I have already got the maps at zoom 1 on the N770. When I download maps along this route at zoom 1 then it finishes in a flash without any windows popping up (probably checking if maps exist and then exits). Next I zoom in to level 0 and download maps along the route, it thinks for a while and then brings up the small window with the progress bar showing that it is downloading the maps. It takes minutes to finish so I think it is doing more than just checking if maps exist.
The announcement of a waypoint is left out consistently along my usual route and the little man inside stops talking after this for the rest of the route... What is the tolerance level of deviating from the route before it stops announcing waypoints? Is this adjustable? If Reset-ing the route is the answer then is there a quick (safe) way to do that other than through the menu?
gnuite, you've done something remarkable with this program...
RussNelson
2006-05-29, 19:44
The following patch adds support for rfcomm to maemo-mapper. One of the goals of the patch was a minimal number of changes. Clearly the reuse of the first character of _rcvr_mac as an indicator of the type of connection is a hack. It's more reasonable to set a state variable _rcvr_conn to one of:
enum { BTGPS_SOCK, BTGPS_RFCOMM, BTGPS_GPSD } _rcvr_conn;
depending on whether _rcvr_mac has 1) colons, 2) slashes, or 3) dots in it respectively.
That said, it works. Instead of a mac address in the Settings...GPS/MAC, you use /dev/rfcomm0 or /dev/rfcomm1, or whatever. No more mysterious bluetooth silence.
http://russnelson.com/maemo-mapper-0.2.3-rfcomm.patch
Thanks for a great program! I admire programmers that write elegant programs that solve the problem, while still keeping things simple and minimalistic. That said, here are some suggestions for more code :-)
I have started converting sea charts to "google format" so I can keep track of my shipmates from my bunk. Works like a charm besides the obvious projection issues, but as long as I dont go too far north, the difference between mercator and gaussian isn't too bad. I'm not planning on using the N770 for any critical navigational decisions anyway.
After playing with google maps for a while, I noticed that the gps position often has a systematic error in some direction. It would be useful to be able to "nudge" the map to some known reference point (a suggestion would be by dragging the waypoint or gps dot to the reference point or something - similar to Atlas for the Palmpilot). The gui looks to be the easy part however, since the systematic error seems to be different depending on zoom-level and depending on where you are. Problem is, how do you store and reuse the calibration - and worst of all - how do you keep things lightweight. Still, it would be a nice feature, and one that coincidentally would help me fix my projection issues somewhat. ;-)
On the information pane you're considering, would it be possible to include the lat/lon coordinates for the currently shown map center? It would make it possible to verify some rough validity of any homegrown map without having to actually go there.
Yes. Route generation uses the GPX Driving Directions web service to generate directions, so you must be connected to the internet.
It says in the user's manual that you can only have 1 Bluetooth device active at any one time. So how would you have the GPS receiver and the phone connecting you to the Internet both be active at the same time? This has me hopeful that the manual was wrong... if you guys are doing both simultaneously, then it can be done!
woohoo!
It says in the user's manual that you can only have 1 Bluetooth device active at any one time. So how would you have the GPS receiver and the phone connecting you to the Internet both be active at the same time? This has me hopeful that the manual was wrong... if you guys are doing both simultaneously, then it can be done!
woohoo!
That limitation probably applies only to connecting the Nokia 770 to bluetooth-enabled phones (for things like internet access and file transfer). It definitely is not a limitation in the bluetooth specification, and as far as I know it's not a hardware or software limitation in the bluetooth implementation used in the Nokia 770.
Could anyone with a Socket GPS receiver please verify (with GPSD or rfcomm/cat) that their receiver does in fact emit the RMC sentence of the NMEA protocol? I can't find any information on the web about the messages it sends. The closest thing I can find is a datasheet for some "Trimble Recon GPS Card edition" that claims that it emits RMC and that it includes the "Socket Communications Bluetooth kit", which is a pretty weak connection.
You can check by looking at the NMEA output (with GPSD or rfcomm/cat) and checking if any of the output lines starts with "$GPRMC". If not, it would be helpful if you could tell me all of the message types that the Socket GPS receiver emits (such as the $GPGGA or $GPGSV messages).
Thanks for looking at this. I was able to dump data off my Socket GPS using this command from my Mac:
sudo cat /dev/cu.SocketBTGPS-1 > testfix.txt
Sorry, I'm not as familure with doing this from the 770, so I just used the Mac. I'm assuming it makes no difference.
I did two tests, one where I know I had a fix, and one where I did not have a fix. I AM seeing lines beginning with $GPRMC in both. I have PM'd you both text files (the one where I had a fix ends in fix).
It says in the user's manual that you can only have 1 Bluetooth device active at any one time. So how would you have the GPS receiver and the phone connecting you to the Internet both be active at the same time? This has me hopeful that the manual was wrong... if you guys are doing both simultaneously, then it can be done!
woohoo!
Works great. Have a BT Gps giving location and a 3G phone getting maps, no prob.
...
After playing with google maps for a while, I noticed that the gps position often has a systematic error in some direction. It would be useful to be able to "nudge" the map to some known reference point (a suggestion would be by dragging the waypoint or gps dot to the reference point or something - similar to Atlas for the Palmpilot).
...
On the information pane you're considering, would it be possible to include the lat/lon coordinates for the currently shown map center? It would make it possible to verify some rough validity of any homegrown map without having to actually go there.
I also notice that in some google maps there are a few glitches...
sometimes the road, and driving route consistently don't match.
I assume that this is an error in the maps coordinates.
SUGESTION:
It would be nice to mark "anchor" points. that way, whe just go somewhere, and manually select the exact position on the map, "where we really are". This would enable the calibration of the maps.
I guess 1 point could provide a simple fix, but 3 calibration points would create a much more accurate representation.
Also, for the "Information Panel", that has been mentioned, I sugest a simple and clean look, similar to the one found on the Audi Navigation systems.
http://shows.autospies.com/gallery/AS/audi-q7-technology-lg/eu.jpg?undefined
They use a simple black (traslucid) vertical bar on one of the sides.
I would sugest the following data: (from top to bottom)
Clock | Compass | Speed | Sat Fix (number) | Lat, Long | Distance to Next Change of direction + pictogram | Map Scale
SUGESTION:
It would be nice to mark "anchor" points. that way, whe just go somewhere, and manually select the exact position on the map, "where we really are". This would enable the calibration of the maps.
I guess 1 point could provide a simple fix, but 3 calibration points would create a much more accurate representation.
Yes, multiple reference points is always better, but...
- the tiles are pretty small so reference points will most likely be on different tiles
- deviation need not be the same for all tiles at a given zoom
- keeping track of reference points requires that you have a map scope larger than the view port requiring much more calculations
- calculating correction based on multiple point's relation to eachother also requires quite a few calculations.
So I think a simple thing, like:
- Take a reference point (x, y, dx, dy), where x,y is location and dx,dy is correction.
- Reference points should adjust the map only locally, so they have an effective radius within which they add to the correction, say r (the equivalence of screen width perhaps?). This also means that only points within r distance from the viewport center will be included in the calculations.
- Within the radius they also have a diminishing effect, linearly decreasing. If the distance to the center point is d, that would mean corr_x = dx * (r - d) / r.
- Multiple points add to the equation by calculating the average corr_x for all included points.
The maths should work equally well in pixelspace so in theory you could probably do this with integer math.
Also, for the "Information Panel", that has been mentioned, I sugest a simple and clean look, similar to the one found on the Audi Navigation systems.
http://shows.autospies.com/gallery/AS/audi-q7-technology-lg/eu.jpg?undefined
They use a simple black (traslucid) vertical bar on one of the sides.
I would sugest the following data: (from top to bottom)
Clock | Compass | Speed | Sat Fix (number) | Lat, Long | Distance to Next Change of direction + pictogram | Map Scale
Since you rarely need all those at once, I would prefer to be able to choose between a few sets of (much smaller) panes with different kinds of information. When driving, very few care about lat/lon, for instance. The totally uncluttered map view is one of the things I really like about this program.
I have a question about the advanced notice for flite (thanks for that feature by the way), how much does each bar represent? One second each?
penguinbait
2006-05-30, 15:30
I recieved no response from the last time, so I will try again. Any chance maemo-mapper will work with TerraServer, they have better resolution than google maps and appear to be free to use and distribute, see below.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/about.aspx?n=AboutFaq
Are there any restrictions on what I can do with the images that I download?
The images from the U.S. Geological Survey, and are freely available for you to download, use and re-distribute. The TerraServer team and the USGS appreciate credit for their work on this project by displaying the message "Image courtesy of the USGS".
mwiktowy
2006-05-30, 15:37
I also think the "select rectangle" thing is the best way to select downloaded area.
The reason I wish it worked in the device, instead of google earth etc, is because I am carrying the device around more often than a laptop, and it would be nice to be able to select the downloaded area when under wifi connection like in a coffee shop, before going out for a walk etc.. I do have a phone with 3G connection, but it eats a lot of battery when connected, so it is useful to be able to fetch the maps beforehand.
Would the drag-panning-with-stylus be too much work for the CPU to handle by the way?
//Tuomas
If it is a choice between a high CPU fancy rubber-band selection or a simple low CPU remember the last two taps, I would be very happy sticking with this existing two taps solution. It is much better than those fields being left blank.
In my experience, the current usability problem with the current approach is that the map scrolls when you are trying to make your selection ... often times scrolling your intended second point off the screen. The solution is to zoom out to a bigger area and then manually change the zoom selection back to your intended scale to download.
It would be great if the selection box idea could be done efficiently but I am pretty happy with the esisting simple approach.
One feature that I could like is a reverse of this "Download Area" though ... call it a "Purge Cache of Area". I am finding that there is the odd map that gets downloaded from Google Maps that is in the wrong scale (I believe this is Google's fault as it seems to cough up random things when the server is busy ... a "Refresh Area" option or "Ignore Cache" checkbox would solve this too) or I want to clear the cache of the detail of a city that I have finished travelling in there is no easy way of doing so other than manually clearing files with the file manager. I know this is fairly simple to do since the file locations have some corelation but it is still a bit labour-intensive.
I have a question about the advanced notice for flite (thanks for that feature by the way), how much does each bar represent? One second each?
The bars don't really represent any concrete unit, but the advance notice _does_ depend on your speed, so it is definitely temporally based. 0.3 to 0.7 seconds per bar is probably not a bad estimate. The exact formula to define how much advance notice (in distance) that you get responds linearly to both the customizable "advance notice" variable and your speed.
I recieved no response from the last time, so I will try again. Any chance maemo-mapper will work with TerraServer, they have better resolution than google maps and appear to be free to use and distribute, see below.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/about.aspx?n=AboutFaq
Are there any restrictions on what I can do with the images that I download?
The images from the U.S. Geological Survey, and are freely available for you to download, use and re-distribute. The TerraServer team and the USGS appreciate credit for their work on this project by displaying the message "Image courtesy of the USGS".
Sorry for missing your question to first time around. I have no plans at the moment to get Maemo Mapper to work with TerraServer.
But if anyone wants to write a patch (as was done to incorporate the initial Google Maps satellite data), feel free to do so.
If it is a choice between a high CPU fancy rubber-band selection or a simple low CPU remember the last two taps, I would be very happy sticking with this existing two taps solution. It is much better than those fields being left blank.
In my experience, the current usability problem with the current approach is that the map scrolls when you are trying to make your selection ... often times scrolling your intended second point off the screen. The solution is to zoom out to a bigger area and then manually change the zoom selection back to your intended scale to download.
It would be great if the selection box idea could be done efficiently but I am pretty happy with the esisting simple approach.
In my currently planned ConOp, there will be no CPU-intensive "rubber-banding" in the final solution. I'm not going to force users to needlessly drag their potentially-old stylus across their potentially-fragile screen just to define a download area. There will simply be a "Select from Map" button on the "Download by Area" dialog box that will hide the dialog box and allow the user to select (with visual feedback) opposite corners of their desired download area - in the future, it may even allow you to draw arbitrary polygons, but let's take it one step at a time.
Basically, you'll be "drawing" your download area on the map, and when you're done, you'll be taken back to the "Download by Area" dialog box and the coordinates will be automatically entered into the fields.
Not only is this more intuitive than the "use last two center points" approach, it's also less obtrusive, since CPU is not used to continuously keep track of your previous center points (on the wild chance that the user is actually wanting those center points for the "Download by Area" dialog box).
But the "use last two center points" was simple to implement and is in the code now - it's a stop-gap until I design and implement something better.
penguinbait
2006-05-30, 19:08
No problem, I know you are quite busy with your app, and we all appreciate it. I am unfortunately a unix admin, not a programmer. Although I may play around with the web API.
Any people out there who can program ,hook it up
Sorry for missing your question to first time around. I have no plans at the moment to get Maemo Mapper to work with TerraServer.
But if anyone wants to write a patch (as was done to incorporate the initial Google Maps satellite data), feel free to do so.
Hopefully someone will hook it up, its way better maps than google, I think I already mentioned that ;)
Thanks again,
mwiktowy
2006-05-30, 19:51
Since getting my shiny new GPS module and trying it out in some typical use-cases I came up with another item on my wishlist for an already extremely useful app.
Dynamic Zoom levels:
I find myself manually shifting back and forth between different zoom levels to see different details. Some of the reasons for shifting zoom are:
- see small street names
- see more detailed maps that have street names of smaller streets
- have a consistant scale of tiles and avoid ugly interfaces between different rez maps joined together
- near my destination and looking to fine tune directions
I was wondering if there was some effective ways to automate this and came up with a few dynamic zooming strategies that might be useful and reduce the amount of interaction needed between the driver and the 770:
1) Speed dependant zoom level (constant time width map)
- This mode would zoom in as your speed decreases. So as you are cruising along the highway, the map will zoom out. If you are in a residential neighbourhood where the speed limit is lower, the map will zoom in to give you navigational detail now that you are going a speed where you can deal with more info. In essence, the width of the displayed map is what would you could drive in a fixed time ... regardless of your speed. The zoom buttons will adjust the upper zoom scale bound that your speed range is divided into (i.e. change slope of speed vs. zoom level line). Some jitter control is needed to avoid maps flipping back and forth rapidly at certain threshold speeds.
2) Best Available Zoom (show best 1X scaled map tiles)
- This mode just shows you the most detailed map in your cache at the native zoom level of the map tile. It would also pick the best zoom level where all the maps displayed on screen are from the same zoom level to avoid seams between different scaled maps. People can fill their cache with detailed city maps of their destination or important turns and zoomed out maps of the freeway in between and the dynamic zoom will follow along without having to do any cache image scaling. Zoom buttons adjust lower floor of zoom levels.
3) Closest to Zoom level (constant distance with consistant zoom level tiles across screen)
- This mode is closest to the current manual zoom selection and will keep the manually selected zoom level but will pick tiles from a zoom level that can be scaled uniformly to fill the screen. If the entire screen can be filled with tiles of the appropriate zoom level then it will work just like the manual zoom does now. If the displayed areas needs tiles from different zoom levels, it will pick the tiles from the highest zoom level shown and scale them up. For example, if the users selects a zoom level of 2 and some zoom level 3 tiles will need to be used and scaled up, then only zoom level 3 tiles will be used and scaled up instead of partially using the available 2's. This mode is purely for a consistant look across the screen by getting rid of any seam between mismatching scales of map tiles. Zoom buttons adjust desired distance across screen as it does now.
Just some thoughts for consideration for addition to the todo list ... sorry for the long post.
gnuite,
How can I get rid of some stored addresses in the GPS Driving Directions web service?
Hi,
I'm still getting the "Error parsing GPX file" errors when downloading the route from Maemo Mapper v0.2.3. Any idea what might be causing this? If I download the route using the web service and after re-saving it using the Notes application the route works. So seems like there is some format problem or something.
Sorry if this issue has already been dealt with. These threads are just so long that I don't have time to go them through. ;)
Hi,
I'm still getting the "Error parsing GPX file" errors when downloading the route from Maemo Mapper v0.2.3. Any idea what might be causing this? If I download the route using the web service and after re-saving it using the Notes application the route works. So seems like there is some format problem or something.
Sorry if this issue has already been dealt with. These threads are just so long that I don't have time to go them through. ;)
The problem has been reported previously, but has not been solved. It appears to me that any non-ASCII character in the .gpx file will lead to a parsing error being reported. This takes away some of the fun from an otherwise brilliant application, for those located in in countries where road and city names contain non-ASCII characters. I vote for inserting this problem into the to-do list.
Regards,
Reiner
keyrn1808
2006-05-31, 14:48
The problem has been reported previously, but has not been solved. It appears to me that any non-ASCII character in the .gpx file will lead to a parsing error being reported. This takes away some of the fun from an otherwise brilliant application, for those located in in countries where road and city names contain non-ASCII characters. I vote for inserting this problem into the to-do list.
Regards,
Reiner
Yep, I think this is a very high priority staff... all the route system is not functional outside English countries.
Regards
The problem has been reported previously, but has not been solved. It appears to me that any non-ASCII character in the .gpx file will lead to a parsing error being reported. This takes away some of the fun from an otherwise brilliant application, for those located in in countries where road and city names contain non-ASCII characters. I vote for inserting this problem into the to-do list.
Regards,
Reiner
Thanks for your feedback. I haven't yet figured out why non-ASCII characters cause parsing errors - the XML parsing code should be able to handle arbitrary UTF-8, although I haven't tested this fully. I will attempt to address all of these kinds of issues as I introduce localization into the codeline.
Feel free to investigate the error yourself and submit a patch if you need a fix faster than I can provide one.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
On a side note, which has nothing to do with your post: already it seems that this project is spiraling out of my control and that I should just release it into the garage and let everyone else hack at it as they please.
Maemo Mapper was everything that I wanted even before I released v0.1. I've been using it since January, when I first got my GPS receiver, but I thought I would put in the extra effort to make it accessible to the public. I've been trying to be accommodating, and although I have gotten a lot of great feedback regarding some things, like internationalization and color customization for the color-blind, there are just too many suggestions for just one guy with a full-time job to handle.
I use Maemo Mapper v0.2.3 because it is light, fast, and it fits exactly with my use cases. I don't want to use it as a speedometer. I don't want to use it with satellite maps or with maps that require "nudging" or multiple map repositories. I don't want to use it to find the nearest pizza joint. I don't want to spin donuts in my parking lot and use Maemo Mapper to measure the turning radius of my car. I don't even want to use it to download maps onto the device. My Map Cache and my use cases have not changed since January.
But some people do want to do those kind of things. And a lot of these things make perfect sense, like map downloading. Everyone has different use cases. So eventually some of this functionality may go into Maemo Mapper. But I don't think that I'll be using any version past v0.2.3 (except when I port it to the 2006 OS), because at 92k installed it is already bigger than I wanted it to be. Yeah, 92k is not that big, but lean-and-mean was the whole reason that I ditched GPS Drive.
I'm afraid that once collaborate development begins (through the garage or otherwise), Maemo Mapper will eventually turn into GPS Drive. Which would be cool with me, because like I said, I'm fine with it as is right now, and I don't plan on using any version after the upcoming 2006 OS version (except for testing, obviously).
Sorry for the rant; just had to get that off my chest. I appreciate all of your suggestions, I really do. I just want to prepare you in case your suggestion doesn't actually make it into Maemo Mapper. You can always add your particular suggestion on your own, as Armin has done. That's what open source is for. And someday, the subversion repo will be open enough that you guys can go crazy.
peramikic
2006-05-31, 18:01
...I am finding that there is the odd map that gets downloaded from Google Maps that is in the wrong scale (I believe this is Google's fault as it seems to cough up random things when the server is busy ...
What happens is that you see a previous zoom level image. The image for the current zomm is corrupted. The file exists but the image is corrupted(might not even be an image). Maemo check for the file name and find the file there so it doesn't download, but cant load image over the previous square, so it doesen't get refreshed. You have to (as you noticed) delete that corrupted file so it will get downloaded. It is a game of hide and seek, but if you move them to windows folder, but if you dump the map cache into lets say picasa, you can see which pictures are not coming up, can't be displayed, and delete those from you cache, after that they will get downloaded again.
What happens is that you see a previous zoom level image. The image for the current zomm is corrupted. The file exists but the image is corrupted(might not even be an image). Maemo check for the file name and find the file there so it doesn't download, but cant load image over the previous square, so it doesen't get refreshed. You have to (as you noticed) delete that corrupted file so it will get downloaded. It is a game of hide and seek, but if you move them to windows folder, but if you dump the map cache into lets say picasa, you can see which pictures are not coming up, can't be displayed, and delete those from you cache, after that they will get downloaded again.
one could also write a script to run an "image info" function on the images and detect/delete the corrupted ones.
Thanks for your feedback. I haven't yet figured out why non-ASCII characters cause parsing errors - the XML parsing code should be able to handle arbitrary UTF-8, although I haven't tested this fully. I will attempt to address all of these kinds of issues as I introduce localization into the codeline.
Feel free to investigate the error yourself and submit a patch if you need a fix faster than I can provide one.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Sorry, I didn't mean to complain. I've myself written a moving map application for the Zaurus a couple of years ago and am severly humbled by the perfromance of your app (at 0.1 version even) compared to what my program ever did. I already did ponder the idea of looking at the problem myself but need to install a tool chain first.
Regards,
Reiner
Thanks for your feedback. I haven't yet figured out why non-ASCII characters cause parsing errors - the XML parsing code should be able to handle arbitrary UTF-8, although I haven't tested this fully. I will attempt to address all of these kinds of issues as I introduce localization into the codeline.
An observation which may help:
It seems to me that the server (gpx driving instructions) returns a page which is encoded in ISO-8859-1 rather than utf-8. I saved the page, converted it to utf-8 on my desktop (using iconv -f 8859_1 -t UTF-8) and loaded the converted page in maemo-mapper without error :) .
Another, more cosmetic problem: where one would expect the word "straße" (german for street) in the description, the server returns "Stravenueße" instead. Strangely enough this doesn't happen if "straße" occurs together in one word with its name (e.g. "foostraße" is returned correctly while "foo straße" is not).
Regards,
Reiner
mwiktowy
2006-05-31, 20:09
Sorry for the rant; just had to get that off my chest. I appreciate all of your suggestions, I really do. I just want to prepare you in case your suggestion doesn't actually make it into Maemo Mapper. You can always add your particular suggestion on your own, as Armin has done. That's what open source is for. And someday, the subversion repo will be open enough that you guys can go crazy.
I am actually not surprised that you are feeling a bit burned out. The releases have been coming fast and furious ... much more frequent than any other project that I have seen and much more frequent than anyone could possible expect. I know for my part, any feedback given was simply a suggestion from a non-coder ... I have no rights to make any demands, I am quite happy with what exists and I appreaciate the effort that you (and others) have put in to make my 770 much more useful.
The best thing would be to put it in the maemo garage and interested devs collabourate on it to refine it rather than everyone spinning off their own version of it with their particular pet feature (as is currently the case for a few 770 apps in the wild now ... I still have not found the version of flite that actually has the flite command line app in it rather than flite-test). I guess that is the whole point of maemo garage though.
I hope that the development gets sheparded in some way though. The goal of mapper being lean and mean is worthy and is what separates it from gpsdrive and keeping it that way will require some tough decisions by some sort of leadership.
In any case, your app really highlights the spectacular utility of the 770. Thanks.
I still have not found the version of flite that actually has the flite command line app in it rather than flite-test.
http://gnuite.com:8080/nokia770/flite_1.3-release-1_arm.deb
Regards,
Reiner
TiganSan
2006-06-01, 15:30
Sorry for the rant; just had to get that off my chest. I appreciate all of your suggestions, I really do. I just want to prepare you in case your suggestion doesn't actually make it into Maemo Mapper. You can always add your particular suggestion on your own, as Armin has done. That's what open source is for. And someday, the subversion repo will be open enough that you guys can go crazy.
I am also among those very greatful users of the meamo mapper application and very much appriciate all the efforts you have put taking the project as far as you have and making it available to all of us. Since I have installed this application, I have been using my 770 10 times more frequently (I am actually carring it with me everywhere now). So, thank you again for the great work.
I hope you haven't been discouraged to continue your efforts with meamo mapper. I was actually talking to few of my friends to see if I can raise enough money to buy a GPS receiver of your choice and donate it to you. I'll see how that goes. If not, I will just make a donation straigh up at your site.
Thanks again.
I keep looking for a program to generate a GPX route for Maemo-mapper using user-defined waypoints and I found something interesting with Google.
The site below is a nice attempt to use Google maps combined with waypoints. It does not generate a smooth route following the roads though. Some kind of combination with gnuite's GPX Driving Directions web service would be great.
http://www.marengo-ltd.com/map/
I have to say I am impressed!
Fantastic job. Donation on its way.
RussNelson
2006-06-03, 18:15
Went for a bike ride yesterday. Took 770 and GPS with, running the maemo-mapper that I patched to open and read from /dev/rfcomm0. Worked great! I didn't trust the weather, so I stuck them both into a waterproof box I had purchased for that purpose. http://blog.russnelson.com/770/waterproof-770-gps.html
RussNelson
2006-06-03, 23:42
I agree with the other fellow who asked to have the timestamp added to the GPX file. Without timestamps, you can't georeference anything. Also would be nice to have an "Autosave" feature for the current track. Bad things can happen to good people ... like running out of battery, or running out of ram and having your process crash.
RussNelson
2006-06-03, 23:47
It would also be handy if maemo-mapper registered with Opera as the application handler for GPX files.
That way, people could click on the railroad route they wanted to follow, picking from the list of New York State Railroads:
http://rutlandtrail.org/list.cgi
Hmmm.... I tried loading up one of those files, and it seems that maemo-mapper throws an error because of the <metadata> section. If I remove it, then it loads just fine.
It would also be handy if maemo-mapper registered with Opera as the application handler for GPX files.
That way, people could click on the railroad route they wanted to follow, picking from the list of New York State Railroads:
http://rutlandtrail.org/list.cgi
Hmmm.... I tried loading up one of those files, and it seems that maemo-mapper throws an error because of the <metadata> section. If I remove it, then it loads just fine.
It is not possible to automate the mime-type registration process in the 2005 OS - hopefully this is to be fixed in the 2006 OS, at which point I will try to set up Maemo Mapper as the default handler for GPX files.
I spent a good part of this evening looking into the gpx parsing problem. It seems that the XML Parser doesn't detect that the file is not in UTF-8 and fails with an error when it encounters non-ASCII characters. After recoding the gpx file from latin1 to UTF-8 (recode latin1..utf8 file.gpx) maemo-mapper parses the route correctly. So I tried to help the parser, by adding encoding="iso-8859-1" -- no luck.
After recompiling maemo-mapper with a static version of a newer libxml2 (2.6.24), the parser worked and I could open route files. Unfortunately, libxml2 is part of the OS and heavily modified by Nokia, so I decided to patch maemo-mapper to convert the gpx file from latin1 to utf8 before parsing it. Quick and dirty, but it works at least for me.
No more mysterious bluetooth silence.
Russ-
Thank you!!!
I don't know why I've been so lucky but maemo-mapper has been basically useless with a gps for me - I couldn't use it for more than 30 minutes before it locked up (And often lockups were occuring after less than 5).
With your patch I did a 36 mile trip without problems - the best so far.
Beers are on me.
Brad.
TiganSan
2006-06-05, 12:48
This weekend I have been using meamo-mapper more extensively and it has crashed on me several times under these scenarios (They are both reproducible):
1- Going to Maps-Download Area, enter coordinates, select Zoom levels to download, click ok. I get a window that shows me the number of images that will be downloaded, click cancel, and select/deselect zoom levels. Go through changing the zoom levels couple of times and Maemo-Mapper crashes and quits. Hit the "clear" button and it crashes.
2- Try to save a Route to a folder on MMC. In the Save window, Scroll up/down few times and Maemo-Mapper crashes and quits.
Gnuite, if you need more info please let me know.
Edit: I thought adding this info would be useful. I reflashed my 770 and Maemo-Mapper is the only app installed. The crash occurs with or withour GPS connection, Bluetooth Phone connection, or WiFi connection.
lucaluca2
2006-06-05, 22:59
Hello,
works Royaltek BT GPS X-Minium - RBT-2010 with nokia 770 and maemo mapper?
thanks
Hi,
I've juste found your forum, and it's excellent.
If you want, I can translate to French.
I will receive my 770 at the end of the week, and I'm very excited !
write_gpx() observes LC_NUMERIC when writing out lat and lon, thus if you are using (e.g.) german localization, a comma instead of a dot is used as decimal separator, and 50,123456 instead of 50.123456, is written to the gpx file.
When these files are later read in by parse_gpx(), which does not observe LC_NUMERIC, only the digits up to the comma are accepted, e.g. 50 instead of 50,123456.
As a workaround I have to treat maemo-mapper generated gpx-files with sed 's/,/\./g' to be able to open them again with maemo-mapper. A fix would be to embrace the code in write_gpx() with setlocale():
locale = setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, NULL); /* save current locale */
setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "C"); /* set C locale */
... write gpx data to file ...
setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, locale) /* restore current locale */
config_save() is only called in maemo_mapper_destroy(), thus if the device crashes, all changed settings are lost.
I recommend to add another call of config_save() to the end of settings_dialog().
http://armin-warda.de/Screenshot-Maemo-Mapper-with-dual-Map-Sets.png
What do you think about this?
I use (1) for street maps and (2) for satellite images.
(I moved the 'Zoom Steps' settings to the 'Misc.' tab.)
If you want to test this:
cd /var/lib/install/usr/bin
mv maemo-mapper maemo-mapper.bak
wget http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper
chmod a+x maemo-mapper
Source-Patches:
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.3-aw-0.1.patch
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.3-aw-0.1-0.2.patch
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.3-aw-0.2-0.3.patch
Sorry, the executable http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper available from 04:14pm to 06:45pm today (06/06/06) was broken (did not connect to the GPS receiver). Reason: I had forgotten to remove the '-DDEBUG' before make.
config_save() is only called in maemo_mapper_destroy(), thus if the device crashes, all changed settings are lost.
I recommend to add another call of config_save() to the end of settings_dialog().
Yes, I noticed this, and your suggestion has already been incorporated and will be in the next version of Maemo Mapper.
http://armin-warda.de/Screenshot-Maemo-Mapper-with-dual-Map-Sets.png
What do you think about this?
I use (1) for street maps and (2) for satellite images.
(I moved the 'Zoom Steps' settings to the 'Misc.' tab.)
If you want to test this:
cd /var/lib/install/usr/bin
mv maemo-mapper maemo-mapper.bak
wget http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper
chmod a+x maemo-mapper
Source-Patches:
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.3-aw-0.1.patch
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.3-aw-0.1-0.2.patch
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-0.2.3-aw-0.2-0.3.patch
Your screenshot is similar to what I have in mind for the next version of Maemo Mapper, except that I don't plan to limit the UI to only 2 sources. The next version of Maemo Mapper will include support for an arbitrary number of dynamically-switchable (hopefully via menu items instead of the Settings Dialog) map sources.
Hi John,
just noticed that I did never said 'thanks' for this great app. Currently it is the most used application on my N770 - since I purchased an i-Blue Bluetooth GPS receiver. I am a regular cycler and hiker and only an occasional car driver/passenger, thus the ability to switch between Street Maps and Satellite Images (without changing the current position and zoom) is very important for me: Satellite Images are often more useful than Street Maps when you operate 'Off-Road'.
I hope, you understand, that whenever I post a patch or a modified executable or deb, I do not intend to fork Maemo-Mapper, or apply pressure on you to incorporate my change. (Of cause I hope you incorporate my suggestion.)
The reason for posting of patches and executables is: I do not want to be 'abstract product manager' type of 'suggestion maker', who simply puts up a feature-wishlist, without thinking about the effort of implementation and impact on performance, and other effects. Most of the time, when I suggest a change or feature, I try to create a prototype, or proof-of-concept for the change. Unfortunately I am a very unskilled and untrained programmer, thus my patches might be buggy, ugly, and not usable as-is.
regards, Armin.
Hi!
I'm from lisbon and i have boght a nokia 770 and it´s great... i had install maemo mapper, i have made all configurations, i import all maps i want, but i can not resolve the black screen problem... any ideas?
Congratulations for this forum... it´s great...
Thanks
Hi!
I'm from lisbon and i have boght a nokia 770 and it´s great... i had install maemo mapper, i have made all configurations, i import all maps i want, but i can not resolve the black screen problem... any ideas?
Congratulations for this forum... it´s great...
Thanks
If you don't have maps at the maximum zoom level (17 or 16), then you'll have to zoom in to the level of maps that you have. I find that the best way to start using Maemo Mapper is to use it with "Automatic Map Download" enabled and the Nokia 770 connected to the internet, then keep zooming in until you find the maps that you already have.
If you don't have maps at the maximum zoom level (17 or 16), then you'll have to zoom in to the level of maps that you have. I find that the best way to start using Maemo Mapper is to use it with "Automatic Map Download" enabled and the Nokia 770 connected to the internet, then keep zooming in until you find the maps that you already have.
Thank you for the sugestion... but the screen still black and i have download 650 maps (and i have confirmed in mmc that thei are there)... more sugestion?
Thank's for the help
Thank you for the sugestion... but the screen still black and i have download 650 maps (and i have confirmed in mmc that thei are there)... more sugestion?
Thank's for the help
How did you download the 650 maps? With Maemo Mapper?
Are the maps in the correct directory structure (MAPDIR/zoom/x/y.jpg) and in the correct format (256x256 images)?
Did you set the correct "Map Cache" location in Maemo Mapper's settings (should start with /media/mmc1 if it's on the MMC card)?
Thank you gnuite... i had the directory structure wrong... i´ve corrected it and started working... it's great...
Congratulations for the great program... i´m becoming a great fan...
lucaluca2
2006-06-07, 11:04
royaltek rbt 2010 x-mini-xtreme gps ,help!!
TiganSan
2006-06-07, 16:37
My Maemo-Mapper still crashes consistently performing the actions described below. Dose anybody else experience this?
1- Going to Maps-Download Area, enter coordinates, select Zoom levels to download, click ok. I get a window that shows me the number of images that will be downloaded, click cancel, and select/deselect zoom levels. Go through changing the zoom levels couple of times and Maemo-Mapper crashes and quits. Hit the "clear" button and it crashes.
2- Try to save a Route to a folder on MMC. In the Save window, Scroll up/down few times and Maemo-Mapper crashes and quits.
Thanks,
Tigan
I don't know if anyone had the same idea because I didn't read all the posts from this thread.
I think the best way is if in the coordinate fields, when you select download area will get filled in with the top-left / right-bottom coordinates of the screen. if you zoom out to see the whole portland, the fields will be filled with the coordinates of the actual square you see on the screen...
what do you think?
-ioan
My Maemo-Mapper still crashes consistently performing the actions described below. Dose anybody else experience this?
1- Going to Maps-Download Area, enter coordinates, select Zoom levels to download, click ok. I get a window that shows me the number of images that will be downloaded, click cancel, and select/deselect zoom levels. Go through changing the zoom levels couple of times and Maemo-Mapper crashes and quits. Hit the "clear" button and it crashes.
2- Try to save a Route to a folder on MMC. In the Save window, Scroll up/down few times and Maemo-Mapper crashes and quits.
Thanks,
Tigan
It doesn't surprise me that these actions still crash since I haven't released a fix in the past two days since you first mentioned them. Your posts are detailed and should provide me with enough to fix the bugs that cause these crashes in the next release of Maemo Mapper.
Thanks.
I don't know if anyone had the same idea because I didn't read all the posts from this thread.
I think the best way is if in the coordinate fields, when you select download area will get filled in with the top-left / right-bottom coordinates of the screen. if you zoom out to see the whole portland, the fields will be filled with the coordinates of the actual square you see on the screen...
what do you think?
-ioan
I've considered this, and it's certainly more intuitive than using the last two center points, but how often do people download a rectangle with the same aspect ratio as the screen?
Still, when the whole "last two center points" hack is thrown out in favor of mouse selection, I'll probably use the coordinates of the screen as the initial defaults.
lucaluca2
2006-06-07, 23:50
Hi,
I have one problem when using maemo-mapper: I use Royaltek rbt 2010 x-mini-xtreme as GPS receiver. Maemo-mapper can`t connect whith it. After enter MAC and "enable GPS" apears banner "Searching fo GPS receiver" it flashes.
HELP!!
thanks :confused:
Hi,
I have one problem when using maemo-mapper: I use Royaltek rbt 2010 x-mini-xtreme as GPS receiver. Maemo-mapper can`t connect whith it. After enter MAC and "enable GPS" apears banner "Searching fo GPS receiver" it flashes.
HELP!!
thanks :confused:
Make sure that your GPS receiver is on. Also, your receiver may be listening on a different channel - try 2, 3, or 4. Use "hcitool scan" to make sure that your GPS Receiver's bluetooth is working.
lucaluca2
2006-06-08, 10:22
Hi,
I Use hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:02:C7:7D:7C:DB BlueGPS 7D7CDB
different channel - try 2, 3, 4,5,6,7,8
enable GPS apears banner "Searching fo GPS receiver" it flashes.
Thanks
penguinbait
2006-06-08, 15:13
or perhaps it was never posted
Did anyone post a binary of the rfcomm patch? Can someone? Please?
Thanks,
NokNok770
2006-06-09, 13:48
Does anyone have a deLorme BlueLogger GPS and got it to work. I just finally gave this thing a try. I got the bluetooth plugin and it did connect to the GPS detecting it correctly, but looses connection after a minute...it seems to disconnect my WiFi intermittently also. I tried different channels as suggested. And my web browser now closes for no reason. Maemo mapper just say "Searching for GPS Receiver" but nothing happens. I don't even know how to get maps and stuff but I'll worry about that when I get this thing to work. Anyone?
Does anyone have a deLorme BlueLogger GPS and got it to work. I just finally gave this thing a try. I got the bluetooth plugin and it did connect to the GPS detecting it correctly, but looses connection after a minute...it seems to disconnect my WiFi intermittently also. I tried different channels as suggested. And my web browser now closes for no reason. Maemo mapper just say "Searching for GPS Receiver" but nothing happens. I don't even know how to get maps and stuff but I'll worry about that when I get this thing to work. Anyone?
Don't use the Bluetooth Plugin. MaemoMapper is configured to automatically connect the GPS via Bluetooth and the Plugin has been known to cause issues. Try not to use the Plugin for GPS. MaemoMapper will find it automatically if it's on.
Awright, time to recompile the 770's killer app for maemo 2.0 now :-)
RussNelson
2006-06-09, 17:14
Did anyone post a binary of the rfcomm patch?
No, I hadn't posted it. Sorry. I figured that gnuite would throw it into the next release. Here it is:
http://russnelson.com/maemo-mapper
xEggbert
2006-06-10, 01:27
Anyone know if Maemo-Mapper works with the 2006 beta?
bradpitcher
2006-06-10, 01:31
I don't think any 2005 applications work with 2006, but since they've released minstrel SDK I'm sure gnuite is working on it as we speak.
penguinbait
2006-06-10, 01:59
:) Thanks, I appreciate ti
No, I hadn't posted it. Sorry. I figured that gnuite would throw it into the next release. Here it is:
http://russnelson.com/maemo-mapper
chris111
2006-06-10, 04:51
Hello!
Can somebody explain me, how I attach GPS reciever by Bluettooth. On my 770 I see only possiblity to use "change phone" to connect my Nokia LD_3W GPS reciever (which is described as possible GPS reciever in this forum). But when I do change phone to this Connect reciever a popup ask me for Bluetooth password, with a filled in 4 digit number and which i cannot insert in my GPS reciever in device an when I filled in standard password "0000", it doesnt funktion either?
What do I make false?
Hello!
Can somebody explain me, how I attach GPS reciever by Bluettooth. On my 770 I see only possiblity to use "change phone" to connect my Nokia LD_3W GPS reciever (which is described as possible GPS reciever in this forum). But when I do change phone to this Connect reciever a popup ask me for Bluetooth password, with a filled in 4 digit number and which i cannot insert in my GPS reciever in device an when I filled in standard password "0000", it doesnt funktion either?
What do I make false?
All you need to do is turn on your GPS Device and launch MaemoMapper. MaemoMapper is designed to automatically find and connect your GPS device. You don't need to connect the GPS via the phone connect utility or anything else.
Anyone know if there is a plan on porting this for recently released 2006 Beta OS?
Anyone know if there is a plan on porting this for recently released 2006 Beta OS?
I'm working on it. There were some strange changes in OS2006's Gnome-VFS (not API changes, but probably bug fixes) that changed the behavior of map downloading, so I spent a few (frustrating) hours debugging that, but I've fixed it, and everything else looks good. All that's left to do is install the 2006 OS on my Nokia 770 and test it out.
Should be released later today.
I'm working on it. There were some strange changes in OS2006's Gnome-VFS (not API changes, but probably bug fixes) that changed the behavior of map downloading, so I spent a few (frustrating) hours debugging that, but I've fixed it, and everything else looks good. All that's left to do is install the 2006 OS on my Nokia 770 and test it out.
Should be released later today.
That's very good news! You rock Gnuite! :)
dueyfinster
2006-06-11, 01:23
That's very good news! You rock Gnuite! :)
Yes, you do!
dsmudger
2006-06-11, 11:21
Well I just tried it out on the new 2006 OS (dude, you rule for getting it out so quicky :))
Disclaimer: I didn't use it under 2005 OS, so I might be missing a trick...
Well anyway, initial report:
[] Couldn't install it by clicking the .deb on gnuite.com. Started downloading and quit unexpectedly every time (though this worked ok with Maemopad+ and SQLite). Downloaded it to internal memory and installed using the 'Install from file option in Application Manager. This worked without any problems.
[] On first start, Mapper insists on scanning for a GPS (don't have one, but want to use Mapper as a Google Maps browser) until you gove it a fake MAC address (I just used "Abc"). From then on, it doesn't scan when you go back into the options, vastly speeding things up (otherwise it's quite unresponsive while scanning).
[] Once I'd done that, I guessed that the way to go was to go to Maps and select "Download Area...". I figured the zero coordinates would be fine for a starting point esp. since the zoom tab defaults to a zoomed-out view. Unfortunately, pressing OK causes the app to quit.
[] Sometimes just going into the Settings causes the app to quit. Not a huge issue at this stage since startup is so fast.
Have I not done something that I should have during initial setup - do I need to enter maps.google.com or something into the URI prefix field?
Thanks and keep up the great work! :D
New release: Maemo Mapper v0.2.4
Device-Installable .DEB File (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper_0.2.4_arm.deb)
Source Code (http://www.gnuite.com/nokia770/maemo-mapper/maemo-mapper-0.2.4.tar.gz)
This release includes some minor bug fixes as well as support for rfcomm-based receiver input. You can now rfcomm bind or rfcomm connect your GPS receiver to a /dev device and specify the /dev device as your "MAC" in the Settings dialog box.
The 0.2.x line will continue the 2005 OS tradition (but probably not for much longer, considering everyone will be changing over soon).
The 1.x line, which I have released in a separate discussion thread, will support the 2006 OS.
dsmudger
2006-06-11, 11:41
Have I not done something that I should have during initial setup - do I need to enter maps.google.com or something into the URI prefix field?
Now as we all know, a little RTFM goes a long way ;)
So I tried http://kh0.google.com/kh?n=404&v=12&t=%s
No luck with that - still quits when trying to download an initial location.
Still reading docs and catching up on 14 pages worth of thread on this app (perhaps there are other URIs somewhere that work better etc), so I'll check in again shortly...
dsmudger
2006-06-11, 11:43
The 1.x line, which I have released in a separate discussion thread, will support the 2006 OS.
Oops - think maybe I should go there instead :o
Sorry, I'm getting all childishly overexcited now that there's another app out for 2006 OS :D
michaelalanjones
2006-06-11, 17:53
I was going to buy the NOKIA Bluetooth GPS unit - I thought it would be very practical. I also looked at a handheld GPS, which I bought. After OS 2006, I would not have been able to use the NOKIA Bluetooth GPS unit.
bradpitcher
2006-06-11, 18:02
After OS 2006, I would not have been able to use the NOKIA Bluetooth GPS unit.
I don't understand... :confused: Why wouldn't you be able to use it?
mph070770
2006-06-14, 06:52
Great software - but I'm not getting the best out of it.
I have version 0.2.4 of maemo-mapper and a Parrot CK3300 GPS carkit. The car kit works fine with my Vaio and Autoroute but, with mm I get (at best) around 4 minutes of operation before my position freezes. mm doesn't crash - I can still access menus etc but I don't get position info. I have to power down the 770 and reboot before it will start working again.
I'm not (yet) familar with the finer details of the 770 - how to get root priviledges etc - so I haven't tried the bluetooth reset script. Could this help me? Can anyone recommend the best way of doing this (is there a guide anywhere?) Is there any information that I should be trying to get from the 770 that may help debug this problem? I'm very keen to help you resolve this - both for personal gain and also to make this product more compatible with other users.
Regards,
MPH
bradpitcher
2006-06-14, 08:05
I have had the exact same problemI was afraid I was the only one. I am unable to reproduce this consistently, so I really have no idea what is going on. I don't know if this is related, but at one point when maemo mapper started searching for the bluetooth gps I would get disconnected from my bluetooth phone.
Great software - but I'm not getting the best out of it.
I have version 0.2.4 of maemo-mapper and a Parrot CK3300 GPS carkit. The car kit works fine with my Vaio and Autoroute but, with mm I get (at best) around 4 minutes of operation before my position freezes. mm doesn't crash - I can still access menus etc but I don't get position info. I have to power down the 770 and reboot before it will start working again.
I'm not (yet) familar with the finer details of the 770 - how to get root priviledges etc - so I haven't tried the bluetooth reset script. Could this help me? Can anyone recommend the best way of doing this (is there a guide anywhere?) Is there any information that I should be trying to get from the 770 that may help debug this problem? I'm very keen to help you resolve this - both for personal gain and also to make this product more compatible with other users.
Regards,
MPH
This appears to be a relatively common issue that I don't think Maemo Mapper has complete control over - it may be a software bug in the operating system itself. I don't know if this helps, but I have not seen the issue yet while using Maemo Mapper on the 2006 OS, so upgrading to the 2006 OS (and Maemo Mapper v1.x) may make the problem go away.
Also, in the 2005 OS and Maemo Mapper v0.2.4, it may help to use rfcomm instead of allowing Maemo Mapper to manually connect to your GPS receiver. You can do this from the command line with a line like the following:
rfcomm connect 4 00:12:34:56:78:90
You would then enter "/dev/rfcomm4" as the MAC in Maemo Mapper (the 4's match, above, but you can use another "port" number if you want). I think you have to run the above line every time you start Maemo Mapper, unless you (with root access) use rfcomm bind instead of rfcomm connect.
I have lost the GPS receiver in 2006OS yesterday for the first time (iBlue receiver, Mm1.0.1). I pulled over to change the Auto-Center settings while connected and when I drove on I noticed that I lost the BT connection, the blue LED was constantly on. I had to reboot to reconnect again.
I suspect that changing the settings while connected might have caused it, I keep an eye on it.
mph070770
2006-06-15, 09:34
Thanks for all the help. A couple of things:
1. I changed the 770 f/w to 5.2006.13-7. This appears to make maemo-mapper work for longer but, it still fails.
2. It looks like I have 2 options (can you confirm?)
a. Update to 2006 FW and see if this fixes it. I've heard mixed comments about the 2006 SW. Has anyone with dropping out problems moved to 2006 and has it cleared their problems?
b. Try the bluetooth reset script. Is this still a valid option or does the latest maemo-mapper code try this?
Thanks.
MPH
Thanks for all the help. A couple of things:
1. I changed the 770 f/w to 5.2006.13-7. This appears to make maemo-mapper work for longer but, it still fails.
2. It looks like I have 2 options (can you confirm?)
a. Update to 2006 FW and see if this fixes it. I've heard mixed comments about the 2006 SW. Has anyone with dropping out problems moved to 2006 and has it cleared their problems?
b. Try the bluetooth reset script. Is this still a valid option or does the latest maemo-mapper code try this?
Thanks.
MPH
In response to (b), Maemo Mapper will try to reset to bluetooth radio if it detects the error condition, but unfortunately resetting the radio requires root access, so it will only work if you add the following line to your /etc/sudoers file:
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 reset
Again, I have modified Mamo-Mapper to
display the zoom level when zooming in or out
have a second set of URI/cache parameters to be able to alternate between e.g. street maps and satellite images
have a new menu item to toggle the URI/cache settings
Yes, I know, John is planning to implement something more general, e.g. an arbitrary number of URI/Cache settings, not just two like in my version. This is great. Thus my version will be obsoleted in the (hopefully very) near future.
Here are the source-code changes (patches):
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-1.0.1-aw-0.1.patch
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-1.0.1-aw-0.1-0.2.patch
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-1.0.1-aw-0.2-0.3.patch
And here is a modified executable:
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper
Simply replace /usr/bin/maemo-mapper if you already have installed the original Maemo-Mapper 1.0.1.
Finally, here's a modified package:
http://armin-warda.de/maemo-mapper-1.0.1-aw-0.3_armel.deb
mph070770
2006-06-16, 07:33
Ok, an update and plea for help.
I moved to OS2006 and I still have the problem of GPS dropping out.
I wanted to try the bluetooth reset solution. I tried to modify my sudoers file and have got into a situation where it isn't modified and I get the following error:
/etc/sudoers is mode 0644, should be 0440.
This is stopping me from gaining root, modifying the file and changing the privileges back. What do I do from here?
Thanks,
MPH
Reflash.
Or, theoretically, there's now the option of a deb being created with a setuid shell in it. Unfortunately, no-one's created one yet.
rfcomm connect 4 00:12:34:56:78:90
<snip>
I think you have to run the above line every time you start Maemo Mapper, unless you (with root access) use rfcomm bind instead of rfcomm connect.
If you have root access you can edit the file /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf. Replace the sample values with your own and set bind to yes.
Then the connection will be established at each reboot.
If you have root access you can edit the file /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf. Replace the sample values with your own and set bind to yes.
Then the connection will be established at each reboot.
Is that different from rfcomm bind?
Is that different from rfcomm bind?
I think it's just another way to achieve the end, although I haven't been able to get either method to work (on OS2006).
Any ideas how I can test it out?
Anyone know if you can use a cell phone as a GPS locator? I just got an unlocked nokia 6682 and noticed some mapping software on it that seems to have GPS? (havnt tried it yet)... Just a curious question... I havn't looked in or even tried it yet
(I posted this in the Maemo Mapper 1.x thread, but this also affects Maemo Mapper 0.x, so I've repeated it here.)
I've (finally) updated the GPX Driving Directions Web Service (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi) to output real UTF-8, so it should now work with Maemo Mapper for directions that include non-ascii characters. This also affects Maemo Mapper's internal Driving Directions downloading.
For those of you who kept getting "Error Parsing GPX File" errors, please try again and let me know if you still get the error. If you do get the error, please PM me an example of Source and Destination addresses that give you the error.
Thanks, and I apologize that it took so long to bring the web service into the twenty-first century.
Note: I have not been able to test any directions that contained Unicode characters that are not also in the ISO-8859-1 character set, mostly because I couldn't even find any Google Maps directions that included non-ISO-8859-1 characters. If you can find an example of a Source and Destination that result in directions with non-ISO-8859-1 characters, please PM them to me. Thanks!
RussNelson
2006-06-20, 05:06
Is that different from rfcomm bind?
Yes. rfcomm bind doesn't survive a reboot.
BTW, I discovered a problem with opening /dev/rfcomm*. If the bluetooth GPS receiver is not turned on, the user interfce hangs while the kernel is attemting to bind to the device. Makes the user interface pause for the timeout period between every UI event. Click .... timeout .... click .... timeout .... click. I usually just turn off "Enable GPS" if I'm going to leave the GPS receiver off.
Yes. rfcomm bind doesn't survive a reboot.
BTW, I discovered a problem with opening /dev/rfcomm*. If the bluetooth GPS receiver is not turned on, the user interfce hangs while the kernel is attemting to bind to the device. Makes the user interface pause for the timeout period between every UI event. Click .... timeout .... click .... timeout .... click. I usually just turn off "Enable GPS" if I'm going to leave the GPS receiver off.
I have noticed this, too, but have no idea why this occurs. I thought that bluetooth connection occurred during the open() call, but it's possible that it's occurring during the read() call. I have no idea how to handle this, though, since I am already setting the non-blocking flag.
mph070770
2006-06-20, 15:59
I have noticed this, too, but have no idea why this occurs. I thought that bluetooth connection occurred during the open() call, but it's possible that it's occurring during the read() call. I have no idea how to handle this, though, since I am already setting the non-blocking flag.
OK, I tried the /etc/sudoers patch today. This didn't help - it still lost communication with my GPS - is there any way I can tell that I did the patch correctly?
I'm now going to try the /dev/rfcomm solution to see if it works (i'm still on OS2006). If this fails I think i'll have to give up (!) unless someone can tell me how to debug this to find out exactly what's going wrong so that I can feed it back to guite.
Cheers,
MPH
OK, I tried the /etc/sudoers patch today. This didn't help - it still lost communication with my GPS - is there any way I can tell that I did the patch correctly?
Modifying /etc/sudoers will not prevent communication loss - it will only allow Maemo Mapper to "recover" from that state by resetting the bluetooth radio and re-connecting. This "hack" is not technically guaranteed to work, since it relies on the bluetooth subsystem itself recognizing the fault condition and informing Maemo Mapper that the connection is bad (which is, in my experience, normally the case).
If you don't modify /etc/sudoers, Maemo Mapper just tries to re-connecting, but the whole problem is that, in this particular crazy situation, the bluetooth radio stops working entirely until it is reset.
Short of enabling debug, the only way I can think of to verify that the bluetooth radio was actually reset is to keep another bluetooth device connected to the Nokia 770 and see if that device gets disconnected (due to the radio being reset).
RussNelson
2006-06-22, 15:30
Hmmmm.... After I download maps in bulk, there are a dozen or so maemo-mapper processes.
the quickest fix while driving a car was to go in offline mode and come back to normal mode , this fixes it for me, ofcourse this is also doable with a lil scripting, which i found and modified a lil bit over google, just need to run it along with maemo as root and it should work , i havent tested it extensively so will post if succesfull.
hciconfig hci0 reset will only reset bluetooth i suppose, resetting to offline and normal mode seems to solve the problem so instead of that we just need a lil piece of code to do just that automatically.
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