Wear for Locus Map beta testing

[milan.cejnar]

Hello,
we have just released a beta version of Wear for Locus Map which is an add-on to Locus Map for your Android Wear watch and you are more than welcome to try it Please see Wear for Locus Map on Google Play.

The version is not a very polished yet and is released mainly for testing purposes. The application now supports

- Map screen with zoom controls and side navigation panel when navigation is active.
--- know issues - there are still some issues with rendering navigation track on the map, it is kind of huge compared to the rest of the map. And the navigation on the watch doesn't currently show usual question mark symbol when off track.

- Track recording
--- start/stop/pause/add waypoint controls + track recording profile select before the recording start
--- showing basic statistics of current recording

For Android Wear 1.x users
- install Wear for Locus Map on your mobile phone and wait a few minutes for your watch to synchronize. The application Locus Map should appear in your application menu.

For Android Wear 2.0 users
The add-on must be installed separately for your phone and watch because the add-on is not part of the Locus Map app itself so that we could keep the whole add-on independent/separated and mainly open-sourced. In order to install we recommend to
- install Wear for Locus Map on your mobile phone
- then install Wear for Locus Map on your Android Wear 2.0 from the watch Google Play. The application Locus Map should appear in your application menu.

Please share if you have any crashes, trouble with the communication between the device and the watch or generally any inconvenient behavior or user interface problems.
So enjoy the testing and thank you in advance for any feedback

[skwal]

made a short test.
working good

but one question: when the backlight on the watch switch off the map is inverted. on the "versions" in the past the maps are shown normaly
was this intended ?

[milan.cejnar]

Hello, thank you for such a quick feedback
Regarding the inverted map - yes it is intended, do you find it confusing?

When the backlight switches off the watch enters "ambient mode" and the controls should be disabled in this mode (i.e. zoom function of the map should not work in this mode). Same for track recording - screen goes black&white and controls disappear to let the user know, that the watch is in the ambient mode. The communication with the mobile phone stays on though and the screen refreshes regularly so there is still significant drain on battery even in this mode.

We could disable this feature but I think it is somehow customary to simplify the UI in ambient mode and go black&white or dark pallete when in this mode. But the whole point was for the app to be less confusing and let the user know of the switch to ambient so this feature is still up for a discussion.

[Peter Jurík]

Casio WSD-F20 (Android 2.6.0.176354550)
Application is super.
Missing: settings and using hardware buttons for zoom in and zoom out.
Navigation by gpx from application.
I can't reach menu for tracking when I'm in map.

[milan.cejnar]

Hello Peter,
thanks for the tip to support HW buttons for zoom function, this feature is really not implemented yet.

Could you please explain what do you mean by that you are missing navigation by gpx from application? The watch should simply receive navigation information from the phone app, so if you set up your navigation in Locus Map you should also automatically see navigation information on the map screen on the watch.

And what is your problem with reaching the menu? Navigation drawer should open when you swipe downwards from the very top of the screen. It doesn't work on map screen?

[Carsten54]

Hi all

I can't see a map on the watch. I only see the start button and the statistics. I can start and stop the recording. One bigger problem: The button "add waypoint" shows the message "waypoint added". But the message is shown until the watch is restarted.
Sony Smartwatch Android Wear 1.5
OnePlus X Android 6.01

[skwal]

Hello, thank you for such a quick feedback
Regarding the inverted map - yes it is intended, do you find it confusing?.

Today i made a 2 hour test

app is working really good, no restart or something. way better than the past

yeah, i find it confusing. on the data screens its okay but not necessary.
on the map screen a lot auf maps infos are hard to see with the invertmode, in the normal mode it is much better even when backlight is off (testet the old version).
also in this invertmap mode you get big white areas because the maps on the phone show wood. look a bit like broken display
the refreshing in ambient mode is ok. i don´t really see any different to the normal mode on the maps screen refreshing.
maybe a option to deactivate the invert map mode ?

[milan.cejnar]

Hello Carsten54,
waypoint message should not get stuck, definitely a bug. Thank you for reporting this, I will try to fix it in the next version.
Map is accessible form the navigation drawer which should pop up when you swipe downwards from the very top of the screen. The drawer also opens the first time you open the app, but I see this is also somewhat confusing :/

[milan.cejnar]

Ok guys, I see there are some usability problems, so I would be really glad to know your opinion on

• Inverted map in ambient mode - probably just get rid of it completely. Only the zoom buttons would hide and navigation bar would turn black&white to notify about ambient mode and map would stay the same?
• Do you like/dislike navigation drawer as a menu? Do you have any problem with it? E.g. didn't notice it was there at first, or is difficult to open?
• Main menu/navigation drawer - navigation drawer seems a bit confusing. Would you rather prefer some sort of main menu that was implemented previously? Maybe with an improvement that the app would open to the last screen you have visited last time so that you wouldn't have to go through the main menu every time you open the app?

Or if you have some other idea on how you would like the app to behave then please let me also know Thank you

P.S. skwal thanks for the test. I definitely see your problems with inverted map.

[Peter Jurík]

Hi milan.cejnar

Okey I found, how I can reach menu from map. Ok when I started navigation from  locus(mobile) I saw navigation points. Is it possible add suport for standalone application for navigation? Watch has gps and barometer.

I found problem in application :  when i'm in map and watch go to sleep after  wake up is map in same position mobile has changed position but watch not. I must click on zoom in/out and map  has refreshed and show correctly position.

For inspiration see ViewRanger watch app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.augmentra.viewranger.android

[skwal]

1. Inverted map in ambient mode - probably just get rid of it completely. Only the zoom buttons would hide and navigation bar would turn black&white to notify about ambient mode and map would stay the same?
3. Maybe with an improvement that the app would open to the last screen you have visited last time so that you wouldn't have to go through the main menu every time you open the app?

Both sounds good for me


The menu drawer on the top is a good thing in my mind.  you should make it more clear how it works in the app description.
on a round watch it isn´t that logical as on my square wtach
On the data screen is it possible to show the time and the % of the phone battery ?

Today i tested it 3 hours. No  errors or so
But one question
Autorotation: is it deactivated? tried different option (autorotation, screen on, etc) on the phone and different zoomleves on the watch, the watchmap never rotate

[Carsten54]

Map is accessible form the navigation drawer which should pop up when you swipe downwards from the very top of the screen. The drawer also opens the first time you open the app, but I see this is also somewhat confusing :/

Sorry   
Thank you for the hint. So easy, but difficult to find.   

[milan.cejnar]

@Peter Jurík,
could you please describe the problem with the map getting stuck a bit more? From my testing I see that map either goes to ambient mode after a while and keeps receiving updates or, if ambient is disabled, the watch goes to sleep and then after wake up application starts again and returns to track recording screen by default (right now it should not remember that map was actually opened previously). Do you use ambient mode (darkened screen/inverted map) or does your watch really return to map screen after wake up automatically?
Standalone function will not be supported in this version. What would you expect from standalone application? Would basic track recording functionality be enough?

@skwal,
thank you for testing. The navigation drawer should really be more advertised, we will try to make it more clear that it is there.
Autorotation of the map is currently disabled for the watch, but thanks for lettting us know, that you would be interested in this feature.

@Carsten54,
you are welcome We will let the navigation drawer peek for a little while every time any screen is shown to remind users that it is there. Thinking of adding some kind of intro/tutorial screen in the future.

[Peter Jurík]

@milan.cejnar

I have run Locus on mobile as service. Ambient mode in watch is disabled. When I run locus on watch after wake up point with my gps on same postion before sleep. I must zoom in/out app for refresh data.

Step for test:
1. Run mobile Locus as service home button and set to sleep
2.  Watch run to map
3. Watch going to sleep
4.  must go away from previous position
5.  after cca 10 minutes wake up watch
6. mobile is refresh application and maps, watch still on same position before sleep
When you needed , I should add video.

Feature:
1. recording to watch and sync locus it will be nice feature
2. upload route to watch and navigation by route , and warning when i'm off route will be very nice feature, caching maps around gpx for standalone using
3. show elevation and gps position will be fine not needed.

[skwal]

tested it agian for 3 hours

few minutes after the start my sony smartwatch restarts. i don´t know why, because of locus, maybe because it was so cold outside, i don´t know

an hour later the map on the watch was in the ambient mode but didn´t refresh since a few minutes
tapping on the screen did not work, menu drawer also don´t work
locus stayed in the mode with light off. think the app was frozen
swipe to the side to the watch menu, light goes on and everything incl locus worked again.
happend only on time