Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

I haven't been using modRana very long (I only have my n900 a few months) and have only used it a few times, once to go to a party in another city (Netherlands) where I didn't know my way round and a few times for testing driving to and from work. I especially like the big buttons because it makes it easy to use without taking the phone out of the RAM Aquabox on my motorcycle.
short story and pictures of modRana in action..

Sometimes you're riding around just enjoying the ride and end up somewhere unknown in a field :D
hmm, a dead end...
http://www.weasels.demon.nl/images/h...0615_004hs.jpg
Better turn round, time to go home anyway..Fortunately I have my n900 with me.
http://www.weasels.demon.nl/images/h.../aut_3201s.jpg
Take the phone out... start modRana and put it back in (it was raining), Ah.. here we are...
http://www.weasels.demon.nl/images/h.../aut_3204s.jpg
Here is were the big buttons come in handy. easy to use even through the thick plastic. planning the route home...
http://www.weasels.demon.nl/images/h.../aut_3206s.jpg
And off we go...
http://www.weasels.demon.nl/images/h.../aut_3208s.jpg

Obviously can't take pictures while driving and the pictures have been scaled down and reduced in size so maybe not all that clear.

Now something I've been thinking of. On long highway trips without turns or something the screen stays on using battery power. It might be useful to turn the screen of between turns and switch it back on when a turn is approaching. saving the battery.

I dont have it connected to a charger yet on the bike and for sound I can use the fm transmitter ( I have a radio on the bike)
I havent tested the speech output yet on trips.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

a little off topics but where did you buy that N900 holder? at least can i get the product name?
thanks

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

looks like some kind of generic waterproof case that is touchscreen compatible

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Well I did mention the name: RAM Aquabox. that is just the box is is in. Not specifically for the n900, it has some room to spare. and it is not quite cheap. but quality is good and the mounting system seems solid enough.
The plastic front is quite thick but fortunately the touchscreen still works through it.
Link:
http://www.ram-mount.com/Products/Aq...5/Default.aspx
(I bought it online from the Dutch shop which is noticeably more expensive than the USA one. but the USA shop doesn't ship abroad.)

Edit:
I changed the "point reached distance" back to 30m ( 30 is the default distance?) as it switched to the next turn a little too fast for my liking while driving inside town. Also found out that you should wait for a accurate fix before you start driving because I drove off with my position showing next to the road instead of on it and it kept being off the whole time while moving. :p

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

While some have used modRana for directions between point A and point B, I tend to use the software for information/searching.

I've used modRana as a basic map while on travel in Ireland -- no dataplan necessary. I'll download the tiles beforehand, and then use them for inferring basic walking/driving directions later. While the software isn't perfect for this task, it's so close -- the emerging offline routing libraries could turn this into a killer feature.

Sometimes I just download tiles and look at the map. For someone who grew up drawing imaginary streetplans, modRana is candy for my head.

At home or work, I'll search for the closest store or hospital or park by doing a place search around a view or location. It's like Google Local for Maemo. Again, being able to run these searches on Wi-Fi and cache them for later retrieval would be so useful.

That's about the extent of my modRana use. It's been one of the nicer features of my N900.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Hmmm... how do you do a place search for a store in modRana?

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

POI search -> custom search

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

I am the developer of that theme. Unfortunately, my N900 has been non-functional for a while now, and I haven't had the time to try and fix it (what with the end of school and everything). That being over now, I should finally get a chance to try to update the theme to be compatible with the new theming system.
I didn't realize modRana could be installed on a regular Linux system - martinK, where can I download it from? This would allow me to work on the theme on my computer until I get my phone fixed.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

You can download from here
http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/trac/gps_navigace/wiki/WikiStart
(just downloaded it myself as well :))

@jj0: you mean the line (scale) with distance at the bottom when the icons are visible?

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

thanks, will look forward to that

for pc version of modRana, I don't know how but I feel that it's even slower than the N900 version?
is it just me or it's a known issue?

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Hey

Yesterday I logged my daily round for exercise.
It seems like the text is overlayed, or what to call it, in the log window.
Can I change the log to be less accurate in km somewhere so it will fit the window?

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

I have been playing with the layout of the buttons :)

Is it possible to change the position of the infobox in userconfig.conf?
I want to move it up a bit and also change the previous and next button (route) to either side of the box.

For me the UI of modRana is fast on the pc. downloading tiles and routing is slow, compared to the n900. (Amd athlon 1.3 ghz/ mandriva linux 2008)

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Thanks for all the feedback so far ! :)
@visible map scale
There should be a map visible in all modes (but it hides when buttons hide). But the length description on the scale is indeed very tiny and needs to be larger.

@elevation profile
There is actually a half finished onscreen elevation widget, that can be enabled in the user_config.conf like this:
To use it once it shows up, select a tracklog, go to its tools menu and select "make active". :) PS.: This shows how desperately the widget rework is needed. :)

@offline routing:
There is already some Python code in the Monav experimental branch, so I would say things are really moving in the right direction. :)

Unfortunately, it is currently hardcoded in the source - but good point, this should be configurable in the user config file (and from GUI in the future).

If you are feeling hacky, you can just change the coordinates in the source file in the meantime. :D
The navigation box position is hardcoded in /opt/modrana/modules/mod_turnByTurn.py on line 174 and it looks like this:
bx,by - box upper left corner coordinates
bw,bh - box width and height
w,h - screen width and height
Note that the file will be overwritten during upgrade or reinstall.

OK, I'll make the individual elements separately configurable. :)

Looks like there was an old version on the website - 0.25-2 vs the current 0.25-7 on Maemo, without the tile loading and batch download enhancements.

The website should be now updated to 0.25-7. :)

OK, I'll add some rounding. :) Say 2 decimal places for kilometers/miles < 20 and no decimal places for > 20 ? And maybe something like 2000 km -> 2k km so that even very long distances fit in.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

How is hardware acceleration coming along?

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Mieru, my other Python app is already using Clutter for a part of its interface. The speed is OK and I have not noticed any Clutter related crashes. So basically I have all the needed tools - now I just need to sit down and start writing the code. :)

I have also developed custom kinetic scrolling code for Mieru, which should be also usable in modRana to enable kinetic scrolling for the (Clutter accelerated) map screen. Another use could be for Hildon independent kinetic-scrollable lists.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

oh ,and is it possible to hide the clock?
or at least make it smaller and put it at the corner at the screen?

i don't know, just don't feel the clock o be fit in there :p
or maybe it's just me

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Looks like developing of this nifty app is going ahead nicely.

This is of course matter of opinion but!
TomTom and other dedicated navigation software/hardware houses have spend probably thousands of hours on fiddling user experience and after all their income is depending on how well UI is designed.

Taking this account IMO map GUI from e.g tomtom products should be copy pasted to modrana and tweaked perhaps even little better or give user options to tweak it.

I have one TomTom one navigator at home and if you want some cam pics of different screens let me know.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keat...om-tom-one.png
http://dandygadget.com/wp-content/up...ts_gadgets.jpg
http://www.wm6software.net/images/so...11_screen.jpeg
http://www.palminfocenter.com/images/tomtom6-palm.jpg

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

anybody can tell me how to delete saved tracklogs?
i can't find it anywhere

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

/opt/modrana/tracklogs

yeah, I would also have assumed they went below the home dir....

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Yeah, I know, this is really wrong. :) BTW, it's basically a relict from SHR@Neo FreeRunner where everything runs as root and it is not a problem to save data basically anywhere.

I'm going to migrate the profile data to ~/.modrana in the near future + the tracklogs do MyDocs (so that they are mass storage and file browser accessible).

Check out the /opt/modrana/user_config.conf - please note that you changes might get nuked at upgrade.

Good point - good UI is very important and not easy (especially for mobile devices), so why not use/adapt something proven. :)

OK, if you don't mind. :)

I'm thinking about first doing an alternative "simple" navigation UI inspired by the navigation view but there might be some other interesting usable concepts in other views.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

I just sent Martin a patch that makes announcements speed-sensitive and calculates them in terms of time as well as distance. So when you're in town you can have short announcements and when you're zooming along you'll get a bit more warning.

If you want to install it yourself and you know how to use "patch", I've attached the changes.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Thanks a lot ! :)
Patch accepted ...and released in V0.26-1! :D

What's new ?

• the above mentioned patch, obviously :)
• fixed route profile overlapping X axis labels
• background for the big route profile (you can click the small route profile to get a fullscreen one) so that labels are properly visible
• the map should now redraw once a new position fix is available - there might have been up to 1s lag previously

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Since installing V26.1 I no longer have GPS working. The GPS satellite symbol doesn't even appear at the top of the screen like it used to.
If I start up the Nokia Maps application on the N900 I do see the GPS Satellite symbol so I don't think it's an issue with the phone itself.

And yes, the GPS option is enabled within Modrana's settings.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

is it enabled in the modRana settings (under location)?

btw, mine says it is an unknown version :)

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Yes it is enabled there.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

I have basically rewritten the location module (to properly use the liblocatio callback and to support newer gpsd on other devices) so might have made a bug somewhere. :)
I think I had thihappen already with the new version (eq. GPS on in settings but not actually turned online) but I was not yet successfull in reproducing it.
Things to try:
* try to turn it off and on in modRana settings
* starting modrana from CLI and looking at the output
* renaming the profile file /opt/modrana/data/options.bin
* fiddling with the system level GPS settings

I had some packaging issues -> thats why 0.26-2 is out already. :) BTW modRana does not know its version until it is packaged and a file called version.txt is written to its main folder.
Looks like this file was not written for some reason - I'll check it out once I'm back at my main development (and packaging) computer. :)

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

when I try to use the batch download. im getting alot of failed download.

heres the log:
Batch tile dl working... (threads: 29) pending: 8495, done: 51
exception in get tiles thread:
the downloaded tile is not an image as per its magic number (it is probably an error response webpage returned by the server)
Batch size working... (threads: 29), pending: 8245, done: 286
Batch tile dl working... (threads: 29) pending: 8494, done: 52
exception in get tiles thread:

btw, im using google map and storage as sqlite. Thanks!

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Im not sure how you run it from CLI but if you mean run terminal sudo gainroot and then type modrana then here is the output.

home/user # modrana
== modRana Starting ==
device string (first parameter): n900
process 2669: arguments to dbus_connection_get_data() were incorrect, assertion "connection != NULL" failed in file dbus-connection.c line 5757.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
process 2669: arguments to dbus_connection_set_data() were incorrect, assertion "connection != NULL" failed in file dbus-connection.c line 5721.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
Aborted

Turning the GPS option off and on again in Modrana did not resolve it nor did renaming the options.bin file

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Just to add, I have just checked Mappero on my phone and GPS still starts up and works normally.

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

hello, thx a lot for that super super app !

sorry cause my english is like a spanish cow (i'm french) !

so, i have pb to update to the 0.26-2 version.

the update process hangs saying that libmagic1 is missing...

i just trie to install last version with command line
and apt-get fails too :
"modrana depends : libmagic1 but it is not installable" ....

can somebody help me ?

thx !
José

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

I already had 0.26-2 when I wrote that, it says unknown version.

There is no version.txt in /opt/modrana/

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Just a heads-up to people: since I made my turn-announcement changes, I've noticed that I don't get proper (for some definition of "proper" :-D) announcements when turns come in quick succession. (It happens that the last three turns to my house are under 100m apart, so I get a lot of chances to test it.)

I'll look at the code when I get a chance and see if I figure out why I broke it or how to improve it. Meanwhile, if your map shows a bunch of turns close together, be alert!

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Some tile providers don't like batch downloading and return an error pages in place of a tile - which results in this kind of errors you are getting.

I think I remember somebody reporting some other DBUS related errors though I don't remember how or if it was solved in the end...

Some more things to try:

• just running modrana without the sudo gainroot and posting the result (but it works in my case even as root)
• reinstalling
  
  Code:

  ---

  sudo gainroot
apt-get update
apt-get remove modrana
apt-get install modrana

  ---

• checking if python-dbus is installed (it is listed as a dependency so it should be...)
  
  Code:

  ---

  sudo gainroot
apt-get update
apt-get install python-dbus

  ---

• rebooting and then running modRana (I have seen some mentions of DBUS related out of memory errors like this one in Google search results...)
• upgrading to 0.26-3 - no idea how it might fix your issue, but why not :)

I have released V0.26-3 that has the version file and is also build in a more "standard" way.

Well, thats weird - i have checked the repost and libmagic1 is normally available from repos and on device installable.
You can try to run this in the terminal to manually update your repository listing, install libmagic and then modrana:
Note that when modRana gets a new voice message while there is already one playing, the new one is skipped.
IMHO your patch only increases the distance - so maybe it just increases the distance for short segments to be larger than their length, so that their announcement is triggered at once when switching to the segment and then being skipped because the last announcement is still playing ?

Thanks a lot in advance ! :)

I have done some road testing the new code:

• the new code works good :) (aside from the above mentioned short segment issue)
• some long on-highway segments have announcements too far ahead
  This is caused by Google setting the default turn distance too high (I have seen 2,5+ km, which is IMO too much even on a highway).
  In extreme cases the announcement might be even skipped due to overlapping with the last one.
• generally when on highway (long segments + high speed), more announcements at a varied distance would definitely be handy
• I have hacked in some rounding to the voice output (325 meters -> 320 meters) which made it definitely quicker to "get to the point"
  Some more advanced rounding might make it even quicker (300..330 = 300, 333..367 = 350, 351..400 = 400, etc.).

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Yes, all my patch does is to increase the distance, so I bet that's exactly the problem. The fix would be something like "if an announcement is playing and we're still ahead of the waypoint, reduce the distance so we can try again in a little while."

In my area, Google sometimes does the opposite. My favorite is that the waypoint for "take the exit" from a high-speed road is sometimes at the END of the exit so that if the ramp is a long one, you have to be on the exit before you get the announcement.

I agree with the "more announcements" thing. When we moved to New Zealand we rented a car with a GPS, and it would often announce the next turn many km ahead and then give a sort of count down. It was very helpful.

The rounding is a really good idea; "In 321 meters" is kind of silly when you're traveling at 20+ meters per second. The trick will be to make it sensible at different speeds, short distances, and in both metric and U.S. units. I tried to fiddle with some advanced rounding code in this post and quickly discovered that it's a bit trickier than what I want to do before breakfast! :-(

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Reinstalling didn't fix it. Python-dbus was already installed/latest version.

Tried again in CLI mode with latest version, this time without typing sudo gainroot. Seems to be complaining about a mod_location module.
Any help?

~ $ modrana
== modRana Starting ==
device string (first parameter): n900
size allocate <GdkRectangle at 0x2ca488>
error in screen invalidating function
exception: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'invalidate_rect'
importing modules:
* icons: Draw icons (240.00 ms)
* info: A modRana information handling module (0.00 ms)
* updateTiles: Update stored map tiles. (0.00 ms)
* example: A sample pyroute module (0.00 ms)
* projection: Projection code (lat/long to screen conversions) (40.00 ms)
* showPOI: Show POI on the map and in the menu. (0.00 ms)
* animatedMapView: A sample pyroute module (10.00 ms)
* showGPX: draws a GPX track on the map (10.00 ms)
* mapView: Controls the view being displayed on the map (0.00 ms)
* search: Search for POI (10.00 ms)
* voice: Handle text to speach. (40.00 ms)
* clickHandler: handle mouse clicks (10.00 ms)
* input: Handle input from keyboard, buttons, etc. (0.00 ms)
* units: A module handling unit conversions and dispplaying correct units acording to current settings. (10.00 ms)
* askMenu: A sample pyroute module (10.00 ms)
* tracklog: Record tracklogs (620.00 ms)
* stats: Handles messages (0.00 ms)
** using tile folder: /home/user/MyDocs/.maps/ **
** using tracklog folder: tracklogs/ **
* config: Handle configuration, options, and setup (30.00 ms)
* route: Routes (20.00 ms)
* options: Handle options (20.00 ms)
* notification: This module provides notification support. (10.00 ms)
* storeTiles: Single-file-fs tile storage (40.00 ms)
* keys: A keyboard input handling module (0.00 ms)
* log: A modRana logging module (0.00 ms)
* menu: Handle menus (30.00 ms)
* showOSD: Draw OSD (On Screen Display). (20.00 ms)
* interfaceFeedback: A sample pyroute module (10.00 ms)
* loadTracklogs: A sample pyroute module (10.00 ms)
* cron: A timing and sheduling module for modRana. (0.00 ms)
* messages: Handles messages (10.00 ms)
* positionMarker: A sample pyroute module (0.00 ms)
* storePOI: Store POI data. (10.00 ms)
* routeProfile: Creates a route profile (an elevation chart) (10.00 ms)
modRana: module: mod_location/location failed to load
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "modrana.py", line 169, in _loadModule
a = __import__(importName)
File "/opt/modrana/modules/mod_location.py", line 22, in <module>
import gps_module as gps
File "/opt/modrana/modules/gps_module/__init__.py", line 9, in <module>
from gps import *
File "/opt/modrana/modules/gps_module/gps.py", line 18, in <module>
from client import *
File "/opt/modrana/modules/gps_module/client.py", line 9, in <module>
import simplejson as json # For Python 2.4 and 2.5
ImportError: No module named simplejson
* tracklogManager: Module for managing tracklogs (10.00 ms)
* turnByTurn: A turn by turn navigation module. (0.00 ms)
* textEntry: A module for hadnling text entry. (10.00 ms)
googlemaps: using integrated non-binary simplejson, instal proper simplejson package for better speed
* onlineServices: Module for communication with various online services. (240.00 ms)
* mapTiles: Display map images (390.00 ms)
* mapData: Handle downloading of map data (50.00 ms)
* sketch: Sketching functionality (0.00 ms)
* display: A platform independent display device control module (20.00 ms)
N900: dbus initialized
True
N900: key centred toggled
N900: key rotateMap toggled
N900: key soundEnabled toggled
N900: application menu added
N900 device specific module initialized
* device: A N900 modRana device-specific module (250.00 ms)
Loaded all modules in 2250.00 ms, initialising
True
icons: switched theme to: default
connection to POI db in /home/user/MyDocs/.maps//modrana_poi.db estabilshed
display: keep display ON -> always
N900 rotation object initialized
N900: rotation object loaded
** making a list of available tracklogs
* using this tracklog folder:
tracklogs/
* does it exist ?
True
* there are 12 tracklogs available
mapView: switching map drag mode to default
mapView: switching centering disable treshold to 2048
Initialization complete in 160.00 ms
** modRana startup timing **
# device: Nokia N900 (n900)
* modRana start (0 ms), 0/6514 ms
* imports done (811 ms), 811/6514 ms
* GUI creation (21 ms), 832/6514 ms
* window created (310 ms), 1142/6514 ms
* map widget created (6 ms), 1148/6514 ms
* window finalized (23 ms), 1171/6514 ms
* all modules loaded (5344 ms), 6514/6514 ms
** whole startup: 6514 ms **
display: redraw ON (window not hidden or minimised)
display: redraw ON (N900 window is active)
size allocate <GdkRectangle at 0x555e68>
display: redraw OFF (N900 window is not active)
display: redraw ON (N900 window is active)
Shutting-down modules
storePOI: disconnecting from db

shutdown imminent, commiting all uncommited tiles
storeTiles: sqlite committ OK

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

The problem is that the "simplejson" package is missing. On my N900 it lives in /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/simplejson. Fine, I think, so he just needs to install it. But here's what I get when I try to figure out the package name:

scroll:~# apt-get install simplejson
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package simplejson is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package simplejson has no installation candidate

A bit of Googling reveals that it's actually named python-simplejson. I suspect the problem might be a wrong dependency in Modrana? Anyway, you should be able to solve it by doing (as root):

apt-get install python-simplejson

Good luck!

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

hello, I didn't read whole 740 post so, sorry if it is being asked twice,

How can I download tiles to my pc? I should find a way to do that because I chose around here, 80 km, +8 down, +5 up (or sth like that), modrana says ~355000 tiles to be downloaded. I left my N900 to download them last night, at the morning I saw it downloaded 30k of them, AND was downloading too slow if I compare to beginning. So, I need to download them to my pc then should move them to n900. Tiles are in /home/user/MyDocs/.maps/OpenStreetMap I , I guess ?

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

That fixed it - many thanks

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

Thanks for the info ! :) Looks like the new GPSD support module, which depends on json, was imported even when not needed (as modRana uses liblocation in its place on Maemo).
I have added python-json as a dependency and a pure-python version as a backup (well, it was actually already there for the googlemaps module, but I made it accessible for all modules).
All this should be in the in V0.26-4 that was released a few hours ago.

@on PC tile download
Check out this post and maybe posts around it. :)
I think there really needs to be a wiki page about this. :D

Re: [Announce] modRana: a flexible GPS navigation system
 

interested on this one. also any chance for a simple converter to convert it to sqlite format? for less space.