Messages

Hello All

Nice to see that more and more mountainbiker find their way to Locus.

I agree with Christian, that the the "Navigation generator" is overkill and in my opinion totally useless, sorry.
Generating turn instructions by the angle of the track will never be precise enough.

I also agree with Christian, that there should be the opportunity to choose between TTS turn instructions and simple beep for the next turn (different beeps for different directions is not needed in my opinion, but anyway).

This leads me to the following scenario:
If I want to follow a track with the mountainbike I choose openandromap with MTB theme in Locus.
Than I add an new route within Locus following the loaded GPX track. This is 20min additional work, but I get a clean track on the paths and I get turn instructions only when I need them.
Afterwards I'm starting navigation on this route. Automatic display off is working, the screen wakes up before turns, you get notification when you are off the track and with a feature of beeping you could choose between TTS and beeping.
Right now you have also the opportunity to delete turn instructions single by single, for example for a piece of the tour which you really know well and where you do not need any instructions.

I think for the "perfect" navigation for mountainbiking three things are missing right now:
Short term:
1. Beep notification instead of TTS
2. Adding manual turn instructions, because sometimes Mapquest missed some. This could be done by introducing text to speech feature to points where I can note "turn right..." in a specific field.
Long term:
3. Automatic rerouting of a GPX file so I do not have to reroute it with Mapquest manually.

Thanks

Hallo All

Winter is over, New routes have to be planned.
Today i recognized, that planning a route with mapquest doesn't return "visible" turn instructions anymore. Since when was that changed? Are they still produced but not showed anymore? So now you cannot check if there are all needed instructions. Because often Mapquest miss to create some.
I also read, that there is a new feature. Something like TTS for waypoints? Where can I find this feature?
What does it do? Does it read a text saved in a waypoint, when I reach a certain distance to the point?
This would be perfect to add turn instructions, where Mapquest missed some. But this I cannot see, because.....see above...the circle closes ;-)

Thanks

Hello Menion

Currently I'm testing navigation feature each morning on the way to work (by car) with different setups.
I use 2.17.4, with de.tts added with 20m,30m,40m.
I think you are on a good way:
Notifications:
1. The first notification is coming earlier now. At city speed around 400m before.
2. The second notification comes between 50m and 20m and the notification really uses the 20m,30m,40m, nice. But it's a little late. Sometimes I get the 50m right before turning. Maybe its due to limited recources on my phone. Has to be checked by other users.
3. There is no notification direct before turning anymore. So no more "turn right now". It is gone intentionally?

Out of track behavior:
1. Obviously when you are off the track, the navigation symbol is moving on the track according to the real position rectangular to the track, I assume, right? This means you are far away from the track but you will still get the notifications right when the navigation symbol reaches the right distance to the next turn. I think it would be better, that the notifications are getting deactivated, when you leave the track more than X meters. Maybe you can combine it with the setting of invalid distance. If this is reached the notifications gets deactivated until you are back on track again.

General question:
What is your goal for the navigation feature in Locus?
Do you want to be an alternative to Navigon, TomTom.... or do you want to be specialized for offroad navigation.
If you want to be an alternative to Navigon..., we have to begin to differ the settings according to the navigation mode.
This means: car navigation -> stick to track, automatic zoom x, y,z, Notification distances x, y, z.
by foot -> no stick on track, other autozoom setup, other notifications
bike -> no stick, other autozoom, other notifications, turning map.....

Do you know what I mean. This could get complicated.

Thanks

Hello Menion

I think you can release the navigation generator (nobody gets hurt by it).
Otherwise:

More things to do in order off priority:
- fixing the small issues above (display timeout issue, notification, off track behavior)
- possibility to add manual notifications or to delete some and to modify existing ones (to get not only "turn right" but "turn right after bridge...")
- automatic rerouting of a track to get notifications (Mapquest or Locus internal engine)



Thanks

Hello Tommi

Its checked/activated, but...

it only applies, when you are in guiding mode.
If you are in navigation mode, you only get into guiding mode when this is activated in navigation settings (invalid distance).
But in navigation settings there is also a point "out of track" notification. How this setting, the setting of invalid distance and the setting under guiding works together, I don't know.

Thanks

Bye

Hello Tommi

....

- Off the track behavior is strange. It chooses the wrong point to come back to the track

Wrong point?

See this post: http://forum.locusmap.eu/index.php?topic=3488.msg25037#msg25037

---

...

- Route creation with redrawing a track is not very handy.

Not sure what you mean.
I can drag a point in Route and Measure but the two affected route parts are not recalculated. Should be possible to improve that, I guess, which would improve usability of this function greatly.

No, I mean the only opportunity to get a route with notifications right now is to import a GPX file and than follow this route segment to segment with routing function of Mapquest. It would be nice to simple select the GPX file, click "Create route" and than I have all notifications coming from a "real" routing with mapdata behind that.

---

...

- automatic rerouting of a track to get notifications (Mapquest or Locus internal engine)

Don't get what you mean.

What I described before.

Hi you navigation guys

Last week I tested the current state of navigation setup (route with navigation notifications created by MapQuest, no snap to track, moving map, heading line activated, automatic display on/off, off the track notification) in a totally foreign terrain with a 2h tour right before its getting dark.
And I must say, it works very good. Here my opinion in short:
Good:
- orientation without snap to track and with moving map is like it should be. Very good for mountainbiking
- automatic display on works great
- notification are good and useful, but not perfect
- Route created with mapquest is good, with some small issues
This all is definitly the right way to go on.

Issues:
- automatic display on sometimes switches off screen despite the next turn (timeout issue)
- the last two notifications are still to short to each other and the last one is too late over all.
- Off the track behavior is strange. It chooses the wrong point to come back to the track
- Route creation with redrawing a track is not very handy.

More things to do in order off priority:
- fixing the small issues above (display timeout issue, notification, off track behavior)
- possibility to add manual notifications or to delete some and to modify existing ones (to get not only "turn right" but "turn right after bridge...")
- automatic rerouting of a track to get notifications (Mapquest or Locus internal engine)

Thats for now.
Over all I'm very satisfied with the current devolopment and its very nice to see, that with every version we get new functionality and our proposals find the way into the program.
Thanks alot!

Bye

Hello

Test Report:
Locus 2.17.1.1, "offroad route" created with Mapquest by foot, Control on/off screen activated, Settings->navigation->Invalid distance 30m; "out of track" notification 30m beep; snap to track deactivated.

No snap to track and rotating map works great with navigation mode, very good. The two cursors (Navigation and normal) at the same time is also ok for me.
"Out of track":
When you leave the navigation route, I got the beep like I set it up and the navigation switches to guidance with an arrow line coming up heading back to a point on the navigation route.
Question: Which point is selected by the guidance arrow? Its not the nearest point back to the navigation route, but it should be the point with the shortest distance back to the route. BTW: The "automatic display on" is now also been activated by the "out of track" beep, very nice.
What happens is, if you not reach the point back on the route, because you come back to the route "after" that point, locus does not go back out of the guidance mode to navigation mode again. it beeps and beeps and beeps.
If you cross the point after being "out of track", than it switches back to navigation mode again, like it should be.

Navigation notifications, still strange: 300m before - too much for MTB; than 5m before without distance - too late; right during turning - senseless. I think you have that already on your list.

Thanks for your quick response on our suggestions.

Bye

He Menion

"6.11.2013 - Locus 2.17.1.1, changes - a lot of small fixes"

Haha, small fixes: you changed to rotating map in navigation mode, you added "snap to track".
Thats awesome.

When you changed "display activation" behavior and the distance problems with notifications its nearly perfect for MTB navigation.
I will test it this afternoon.

Thanks alot

Hi

Maybe this "problem"

http://forum.locusmap.eu/index.php?topic=3467.msg24527#msg24527

Bye

Hi

I only tested it on the bike.
Different times could make sense. Configurable would be nice.

Thanks

Hi Menion

I do not understand your edit. Did you find the problem we describe? Did you solve it? What did you fix?

I can confirm that notifications smaller than 30m are without distance.
I can confirm that on real streets there is a notifiacation at 50m and short before, like it should be.

My problems are two notifications without distance right following each other during cornering (short before and during).
And only one long before at 300m. This all on small paths/ways out in the forest.

Bye

Hello Menion

I just came back from a testdrive with 2.16.0.11.
You changed something on the notifications, right.
Now I get a notification at 300m, the next one right before the intersection with just "right" and than the third notification "right" during cornering.
I think it should be at 200m, maybe 25m before and than just right before cornering like the second notification at the moment.
My question is. Are the distances for the notifications fixed or could you do them depending on navigation mode? pedestrian, cycle, car? Maybe it make sense to have different distances.

Strange enough. When I leave the forest with small paths and change to streets to come home, there appears a 50m notification and one just before cornering, how it should be when you would drive by car.
Everything was tested with a route generated by Mapquest segments.

BTW: You also removed the "you reached your destination" at the connection of the segments, nice. But the system still sets "you reached...." when there is a segment which is done without Mapquest and just with a straight line.
Sometimes this is needed because mapquest does not want to got the way it could go, even the intersection is clearly existing in mapdata (potlatch, intersection, no turning restrictions).

Thanks

Hello Menion

First of all I want to thank you for always be willing to understand the problems of us, your users.
Thats not normal for software companies in these times, thanks.
I will try to describe the problems as precise as I can.

Version: 2.16.0.9
1. Fresh new track created with Mapquest online by foot:

border of to segments.

2. In principle the display activation works fine, but...
The display activation is triggered in advance to a notification, which is coming up. Beginning with this event the system timeout counts for deactivation of display again. If there is the next notification within this timeout, the timeout is not resetted and just counts on. This means, that on the last notification within the timeout the voice says "in 50m right" and than the display gets dark, before you reach the crossing. Only the next notification after display off triggered the timeout again. So the display timeout should be triggered repeatedly at every notification for the full timeout time.
To set the timeout longer (e.g. 5 min) does not help because there will be a notification at 4:55sek and than the display is dark again ;-).

3. manual notifications: Great, I want to test it as soon as possible.

4. Yes, option to turn off snapping and enabling moving (compass) map would be perfect. Than it would be like "old" guiding but with map data related notifications (with Mapquest) - perfect.

5. notification delay: mhhh, so its depending on speed, not bad......Maybe the fast changes in speed during mountainbiking is critical to the calculation. You need always some time to get the GPS speed and when I accelerate afterwards it does not fit anymore,...I don't know.
What Tommi says is, that the 50m notification is not the notification for 50m, but it is the notification to turn instantly? Only the notification text is wrong?
mhhh, also a possibility.

Thanks

Hello

Follow up from here http://forum.locusmap.eu/index.php?topic=3318.new#new .

@Tommi: Yes, I can see my "real" position on the record and also on the end of the heading line.
                   I could live with that. A big point on the end of the line would be nice though.

I've been out two days ago with navigation mode on the mountainbike. The magnetic behavior and the missing moving map (compass) is really a nogo. Together with the fact, that the notifications come very late (at 50m notification its 10m in real) the current navigation mode is useless for mtb-navigation.

And to be honest. I cannot see a big difference between the "old" guiding along a track with TTS and the new "navigation generator" in respect to the notifications, that are given. To make it more precise: The potential advantages of the "navigation generator" is meaningless compared to the disadvantages of magnetic behavior and missing moving map.

Thanks