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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:23 am Post subject: Just how long should it take to boot up the GPS ?
After an initial problem with the model Santa Claus brought me, SatMap, to be very fair, replaced it immediately and a replacement has now arrived.
But, it has been sitting on my window ledge for the past hour or so with little sign of satellite access. (As an aside, my HTC with TomTom is sitting on my desk here, and fires up in seconds.)
And what does the satellite lock button mean ? Am I supposed to hit that once it's fired up ?
I am sure that I will have a few more mundane questions to ask, but will keep checking this forum for further info
Thanks...for any further 'do's or dont's.'
ps Sorry, I also meant to ask....I have the New Forest/South Downs map...how do you toggle between the two scales provided, or is it somehow automatic as you zoom in ?
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:33 am Post subject:
Take the unit outside and wait for it to get a GPS fix, can it see any sat activity at all? is there anything showing on the GPS Status page. If not take the batteries out, wait 30 seconds then try it again.
Switching of map scale is fully automatic, you can notice the switch between the two as you zoom in / out but it is very quick, look for the level of detail that changes between the scales - Mike
Thanks....well, I left it on the outside window ledge and it eventually 'fired up'...(1.5 hrs + ?)...around 12 sats but only 4 bars. I took a chance...turned it off...powered back on, expecting it to take me direct to my GPS location, (home). ...but it was still in the middle of the New Forest somewhere ! After pressing a few buttons...(I personally think that the user guide leaves a lot to be desired)....it did in fact show my current location.
Couple of things...when out and about, should you turn it off completely or is it always on some sort of standby, and immediately bounces in to life when you hit any button ?
And I see in another post, that you mention planning a route, saving it to an SD card and downloading it to Notebook...would you care to expand a bit on this for me.
Thanks again
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:52 pm Post subject:
FrequentFlyer wrote:
Couple of things...when out and about, should you turn it off completely or is it always on some sort of standby, and immediately bounces in to life when you hit any button ?
To make sure the device is always ready for use straight away I only use the "Automatic Screen Turn Off" feature as this keeps the track log and GPS active, a simple press of the power button is all that is needed to instantly see where you are. The downside to this is battery power consumption, but to be honest with the backlight off the device consumes very little power. The device consumes power even when switched off, so if you are using decent batteries in the unit remove them after use, or they will get flattened. I have come to the conclusion that the Energizer Lithium cells offer the best value for money when comparing disposable batteries, sure they cost more but they last three times longer than anything else.
FrequentFlyer wrote:
And I see in another post, that you mention planning a route, saving it to an SD card and downloading it to Notebook...would you care to expand a bit on this for me.
Thanks again
You can create a route on the device then select it followed by the "Copy" function, save a copy to the Memory Card, then you can pop the card into the PC reader and open the file using Word Pad or Note Pad, you will get a screen similar to the extract below, although I had to remove certain characters from the text in order to post it!
active10 Route wrote:
txtRoute Name="Ingleborough" Closed="1"
Point North="1291313797" East="-28515107" Elev="161" Text="SP" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291391263" East="-28528471" Elev="168" Text="WP1" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291658662" East="-28425347" Elev="290" Text="WP2" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291810201" East="-28314440" Elev="290" Text="WP3" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292053504" East="-28435003" Elev="409" Text="WP4" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292229160" East="-28567342" Elev="616" Text="WP5" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292475263" East="-28564230" Elev="684" Text="WP6" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292460241" East="-28608820" Elev="706" Text="WP7" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292158160" East="-29071995" Elev="291" Text="WP8" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291920338" East="-29182598" Elev="210" Text="WP9" Visible="1"/
You mentioned the next start up showed your position as somewhere else, this is quite normal as the start point for each map is coded into the map data, I did try changing this but the unit refused to load the map so I had to change it back - I never tried again messing with this part as messing up a map file isn't too advisable!
One other reason it might be showing your position is knocking the joystick puts the device instantly into Planning mode, you need to select the Map Button to get back to the GPS map mode - Mike
Uhmm..so far so good ! When planning a route, just how accurate do the waypoints have to be as I'd hate to be going up Great Gable or Haystacks at present with SatMap.(Not that I would anyway without a paper map and compass back up.)
I say this as I'm used to a touch screen having had a PDA for many years, and I'm finding it difficult to steady the pointer on a path..accurately. (I keep trying to grab my stylus..a lot easier it would be ?) Can the 'joy stick' be slowed down at all ?
Also, another daft one, how do I just let it plot any walk that I want to do and then maybe save it at the end of the day for further use ?
I tried saving to the SD card which works fine on the SD card/map supplied...I'm assuming that saving to a different card would just screw the map data up.
Lastly, for now, I do hope that the folks at SatMap view this forum. Thanks Mike, Mike.
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:33 am Post subject:
Zoom fully in when positioning waypoints, there is no way to alter the sensitivity of the cursor at the moment.
To save a walk you have just completed with the device go to Planning Mode/ Add Route/ Convert Track you can save the Route either to the onboard device memory or the SD card - Mike
So before I start a walk, I just literally power it up with the right map in it,and away I go...no special settings needed etc., and it will keep track of where I've been. I'll try it a bit later.
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject:
active10 Route wrote:
txtRoute Name="Ingleborough" Closed="1"
Point North="1291313797" East="-28515107" Elev="161" Text="SP" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291391263" East="-28528471" Elev="168" Text="WP1" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291658662" East="-28425347" Elev="290" Text="WP2" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291810201" East="-28314440" Elev="290" Text="WP3" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292053504" East="-28435003" Elev="409" Text="WP4" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292229160" East="-28567342" Elev="616" Text="WP5" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292475263" East="-28564230" Elev="684" Text="WP6" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292460241" East="-28608820" Elev="706" Text="WP7" Visible="1"/
Point North="1292158160" East="-29071995" Elev="291" Text="WP8" Visible="1"/
Point North="1291920338" East="-29182598" Elev="210" Text="WP9" Visible="1"/
Though similar to a gpx file it is different, so I wonder if the SatMap will work with an unmodified gpx file installed or will the 'Sync' software (if/when available) convert it. What file type was the above route file? Are the northings and eastings same as some sort of 'standard' map co-ord references or are they SatMaps own ? _________________ Aprilia Tuono, Zumo 550
Ipaq 2210/Fortuna/TomTom Nav6
& Road Angel 7000 + Memory Map
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 5:01 pm Post subject:
The extract of the Route file was from a route I created on the active 10 for a recent walk from Clapham (Yorkshire Dales) around the Ingleborough area including the summit, If anyone can work out the coord system I am sure we can use Memory Map or other PC based software to create a route on the PC and with a little editting it should be possible to create the required text file to put on the active 10 and make use of it.
I haven't played around too much with this as yet, if it would be any help I can post the lat/long info that coresponds to the walk as I did plan it originally using Memory Map before manually entering each waypoint on the device.
As a pure guess the coords might be meters or even feet from the 0, 0 point on the Lat/ long grid or possibly the South Pole?. I will have a play around with this data later tonight on the main PC using some home made software and see if I can make anything out from the two sets of data - Mike
Hmm Whats next?
Mike, one more. I want you to assume that you are making your way up say, Great Gable with paper map and compass in easy reach. Your SatMap is 'on' and in your rucksack tucked away. You're now on the summit and decide to follow the exact route back down, but this time using the SatMap which has plotted your course all the way up.....the weather is decidely dodgy...mist and rain. What I want to know, is just how accurate the SatMap will be ? How often does it put a POI in.....does it recognize each and every turn that you took on the way up ? In other words is this just a fine day device for easy strolls only or would you put your life on it ?
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:34 pm Post subject:
The recorded interval positional data is stored at is something that should be selectable as an option the current 30 second update rate is not too good (see Here for other posts on a similar vein).
I would trust my GPS position on the map though, even following an accent trail in reverse if things got that bad, to be honest this is where GPS can out perform any paper map, if you are in thick fog with a map and compass you are lost - I have used the device in some fairly lousy conditions, to be honest in thick mist/ fog blowing a gale and trying to find the decent path from Ingleborough summit - not quite the same scale as your examples but Great Gable can wait until next year - combining the 3 peaks into a single day out is next on the list though - Mike
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:02 pm Post subject: Waypoint data
Hi all
I've been studying the SatMap coo-ords Mike posted and come up with some conclusions, by measuring the actual distance between waypoints (from maps) and comparing the actual SatMap waypoint reference numbers I've concluded that ..
1 metre in an easterly direction = 183 points
1 metre in a northerly direction = 78.7 points
.. therefore working out where 0 (zero) would be on this basis ..
from Ingleton summit east = 96.55 miles
from Ingleton summit south = 10,205 miles
.. therefore taking into account measuring inaccuracies (ie I'm not sure of Mikes exact waypoint positioning on Ingleborough) ..
Easterly 0 (zero) is at 0 degrees (greenwich) (ACTUAL 97.22 miles)
Northerly zero is South Pole (ABOUT 10,200 miles away)
I'm sure from some more spread out waypoint data we could get a more accurate points/metre value.
note: Based on the the 97.22 miles figure a value of 182.8 points/metre easterly would be more accurate!! _________________ Aprilia Tuono, Zumo 550
Ipaq 2210/Fortuna/TomTom Nav6
& Road Angel 7000 + Memory Map
I've just come back from a walk along part of the South West coastal path, and am reasonably impressed with this device, apart from many niggles that others have already picked up on. However, while down there, I decided to remove the temporary plastic screen protector that it comes with as I was getting annoyed with a 'bubble' in the middle of the screen. But , having removed it, the bubble is still there, underneath the clear plastic panel. Can I remove this to either clean it or remove it somehow ?
Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 2003 Location: Antrobus, Cheshire
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject: Re: Waypoint data
Brian wrote:
Hi all
I've been studying the SatMap coo-ords Mike posted and come up with some conclusions, by measuring the actual distance between waypoints (from maps) and comparing the actual SatMap waypoint reference numbers I've concluded that ..
1 metre in an easterly direction = 183 points
1 metre in a northerly direction = 78.7 points
.. therefore working out where 0 (zero) would be on this basis ..
from Ingleton summit east = 96.55 miles
from Ingleton summit south = 10,205 miles
Interesting!
Did/do you know the locations of Mike's waypoints?
The only reason I ask is that they could have used location N0.00deg, E0.00deg as the origin - which would give "points" per metre that are more similar in both N and E directions. (which would seem a bit more logical?) _________________ Phil
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:18 pm Post subject:
Mike posted his route somewhere, some of the waypoints were places like Ingleborough summit (EDIT: I think Mike also emailed me a map of his route but I've reformatted my hard drive since then and lost some info), it is possible I've got my maths wrong so I'm not 100% sure but the numbers did seem to stack up in favour of my findings. Has anyone else done any number crunching and come to any other conclusions? _________________ Aprilia Tuono, Zumo 550
Ipaq 2210/Fortuna/TomTom Nav6
& Road Angel 7000 + Memory Map
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