navigation iphone apps with preloaded maps
Steve Park
Navigon and TomTom seem to be well-liked. I wonder how well these
work out for occasional use on a brevet.
I navigate by cue sheet. I don't have a GPS unit, but I often use my
iphone to help me find my way back onto the cue sheet when I get
lost. However, the free/cheap iphone nav apps require a cell signal
to download the map; otherwise the "me" dot is placed on a blank
grid.
Brevet routes often lack signal. As solution, Navigon and TomTom
offer $$$ apps that preload maps to the iphone memory, so you don't
need the cell signal to download map on the fly.
Has anyone ever used these or similar iphone apps? Recommendations?
Can these apps upload a complex route the iphone?
Are there any navigation apps that work particularly well for
cylists?
Neal Becker
I'm currently testing out 2 on my android phone (nexus one):
1. mapdroyd
2. rmaps
3. I tried timble $$$ app ($9.99), but deleted it because I couldn't seem to
get it to work. Supposed to be able to create routes online and then load
them, but I couldn't get the online route creation to work with either chrome
or firefox. Supposed to automatically cache routes, but really needs a better
design to control map downloading (they say they're working on that).
mapdroyd looks pretty good - great interface for d'l maps from openstreetmaps.
rmaps has more features, but not a nice interface to preload maps.
prestonjb
a replaceable battery then you will have a problem after about 8 hours
or less when your out of juice.
Even the likes of the Garmin 705 is not something I would use because
it also has a dedicated non-replaceable battery... And external power
crappy recharging is just more stuff to go wrong. A GPS that runs on
AA batteries is the only way to go!
Also I would not want my phone to be sitting on my handle bars in the
pouring rain, sun, dirt. Gatorade spillage, etc... OK so now you have
to use a waterproof box, top bag plastic harder to see through, etc...
Kole Kantner
hub since October over about 12,000 miles including a 1200km in
Australia and it has been fabulous. I suspect the commercial devices
would be similarly reliable, although I would recommend running with the
headlight on for added protection. It is great never having to worry
about charging the Garmin or headlight batteries. I should do something
similar for the tail lights.
--Kole--
Kole Kantner
ride. It takes a few hours and the Garmin 705 runs fine on internal
batteries while the phone is charging in the front bag. In the rain I
put the phone in a sock in a plastic bag. I'm not sure how fast I need
to be going to get a charge, although I think the Garmin was losing net
charge in December when I was doing mostly hills averaging under 10mph.
Of course I had the eDelux on at the same time so that dragged down the
power more.
--Kole--
On 4/2/2010 7:34 PM, prestonjb wrote:
Steve Park
Neal, I'll check out those apps.
Prestonjp, Yes, the iphone power supply and weatherproofing would be
an issue if I were to leave it running for hours and hours, but I
don't think the iphone is well-suited to full time navigation for a
number of reasons. At the same time, I don't think I need to get a
dedicated GPS unit either since I kind of like using the cue sheet.
My thought is to use the iphone only when I get lost (I have the phone
on rides, I might as well make use of it); hopefully, I hope I'm not
lost for the whole ride. ; )
That said, I did hear about some nifty after-market chargers that
supply power to an iphone, etc from a dyno hub. I'm sure we'll see
some people using that this season.
prestonjb
work. I use my dedicated GPS and my HTC TILT with just Google Maps
(assuming data connection) to look up...
AND *I* use my hand made charger to run my dedicated Garmin GPSMAP
60csx....
However because the ipron nor the 705 are able to use batteries you
can buy in a store then if your charger on your hub breaks, you leave
the backlight on or forget to turn off the GPS or accidently turn on
WiFi for indefinite periods or just the backlight on the 705 (I had
pocked my HTC on a tour and the backlight was being turned on because
of rubbing of the touchscreen in my rear pocket)... Then you are stuck
making that emergency call or biking around in circles until you got
enough of a charge to see the map and compare it with the Q sheet.
I use the dedicated GPS with the Q as a backup. When riding the
Shenandoah 1200k I had gotten dropped on a few steep climbs later to
be "re-passed" by the head group twice...
A day later with one of the other riders following in my group and
chatting away we went past a turn where by the GPS started making
beeping sounds telling me I missed the turn so I shouted we needed to
turn back... The quip comment from the rider was "Now I see the
difference between using a GPS and using a Qsheet.... With the Q if
you are not paying attention you miss turns by miles... With the GPS
you miss turns by yards!"
prestonjb
backlight all night or charge my phone (takes about 2 hrs from dead if
i keep speed above 12mph)
Kole Kantner
How do you deal with over-voltage protection for your circuit? The one
I use and the Pedal Power product pass along destructive spikes if used
without the headlight above 25mph. The only damage to the Edge 705 is
loss of the USB communication function, but that can be critical for
some people.
--Kole--
prestonjb
the email...
In the email I said (so this post makes sense) is that I used a zener
and resistor as a shunt to clamp the power down to 24VDC (I ran the
generator into a full wave rectifier to convert from AC to DC and the
rectifier was a 10W 400V type. Then across the shunt circuit (zenier
diode and resistor ) and that input went into a DC to DC converter IC
that had a max input of 40VDC and I had it configured (with resistors
and caps nearly identical to the example in the data sheet for the
part) so that it would put out 5VDC... Basically though the shunt
cuts out some of the power output as heat the setup can charge my
phone about 50% from dead in about an hour when bombing down the hills
in the Blue Ridge Parkway @ 45mph (lights off). No damage so far...
and when running as power for my GPS then I get about 3x the battery
life out of standard Alkaline AAs (the GPS does not charge).
You said the SHUNT was the missing link esp because you can only find
1W 12V zeniers... So on that here are two comments:
1) if you take two 12V Zs and put them in series you get a 24VZ and it
becomes a 2W (P=IE, increase the E and you increase the P :)
2) If you want to be ultra safe, here is a link to one place to get a
24V 5W Z...r.
The 24V Z can be found various places here is a link to one in DIGIKEY
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=1N5359BRLGOSCT-ND&enterprise=-1
The 10W resistor I got a radio shack.
The DC DC converter is a 34063 (HTC) but I cant tell you where to get
one.. Digikey is out of the DIP packages... The DIPS can output 1W @
5V... The SOCs I think are limited to 800mA.