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

I also didn't quite get it: do I or do not see the track on the map while on it? So far I haven't seen a single line.
Speaking generally and expressing an opinion of grass-root, not-a-comp-geek user, I have to resume - so far the only thing about the app is the interface and tile download.
No tracks to see as you progress
No distance measuring tool (wouldn't it be nice to point-measure the distance?)
No navigation (in my case at least)
No poi (in my case at least) or no POI usage from another platforms (hope it's coming)
Address search. Despite my best efforts (again, regular user's efforts) I couldn't find, say, Moscow.
So, every time I try to do some stated feature, I already know it's not gonna work for me....it the things like that, that make regular people give up on any apps.

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

Hi MartinK,

thanks for the nice app. I have a question about tile map dir. Why do not you use the same folder as MEAP or mappero, the ..map_tile_cache?

Best regards

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

Quick reply...
There is a ticket for it, I have already requested it and MartinK is going to implement it.
Right now you can see a log only after you have finished recording it.
Menu->tracklogs->...->log_->show on map

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

Well, thats because its not implemented yet. :) Of course, it is possible to draw the points that are being stored anyway, but there are performance considerations:

• by default, every second a point is logged
• so for example, after logging for 1 hour = 3600 points
• to draw a point/line line segment, you have to get its screen coordinates
• which can be quite costly time wise + you need to do it for all points, even the ones that you don't see
• every time the map moves, this needs to be done again

Of course, this is a simple implementation without any optimization. When drawing the tracklogs, the points are geographically clustered and only visible clusters are drawn, but this is done only after the tracklog is finished and loaded/processed.

So for now, I'll implement it the simple way + add an option for drawing all/last100/las500/last1000 points. that should work for now.

Thats what I did yesterday. :) It is now possible to choose a color for a track + all tracks get an initial color from a (short) list of distinct colors.

ModRana is currently in heavy development (its in Extras-devel after all) and many features are not complete.

• draw a trace when logging -> see previous reply, will be added in next version
• distance measurement -> definitely planed + area measurement, etc.
• POI -> currently not much usable, a few concepts for the planed rework can be found in the thread somewhere
• turn-by-turn navigation -> planed, big part already in place code-wise
• address search will get a list of possible locations for every address entered (like in Google Directions, basically)
  
  See the active ticket list for short-term planed features.
  

OK, I'll look into this. If the folder structure is the same , it should be possible to share the tiles. Do MEAP/mappero use similar folder names for map layers ?

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

@MartinK,

sorry, the name from the folder is /home/user/MyDocs/.maps and I think, the structure is the same.

Best regards

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

Hello, big problem here,

Yesterday i download tiles for 40 km around and all parameter at max, was like 90 000 tiles for around 12 hour of download.

Download finished without probleme but when i launch Modrana 95% of times i got a big gray screen instead of map and i don t even have modrana interface's buton.

And sometimes i got map with all button but it s go gray like 5s after.

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

Hi MartinK,

I have found in your user_config.conf the place for changing the map-tile-cache. I have change it to /home/user/.Mydocs/.maps. Then I have change in the map_config.conf all the folder_prefixes to my structure. My question is, mapnik and OpenStreetMap, is this the same? Meap use this foldernames shown in the picture.

Best regards

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

Seems like an error occurring in the drawing pipeline. The buttons are drawn last, over the map and possible a possible overlay, so if something goes horribly wrong earlier in the pipeline, the buttons are not drawn.
Can you possibly run modRana from the terminal ? There can be some clues about what went wrong.

Mapnik is the name of the default OpenStreatMap renderer. There is also the Tiles@Home project, which uses another renderer, called Osmarender. So, basically:
default OpenStrertmap=mapnik=Open Streat Map I
T@H=osmarender=Open Street Map II.

Concerning the .maps folder, It seems both programs use the same folder names for layers, with the exception of Google Maps vs GoogleVector.

So changing the defaults for tile folder + layer folders should make modRana compatible for most layers with both.

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

Bah i erased all folder on modrana_tiles, downladed like 20k of tiles again, but there are nowhere in modrana_tiles folder.

Gonna desinstall and reinstall for see if it s solve the problem.

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

problem seem come from google staellite map, each time i try put them as map i got grey instead of map

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

Google probably blocked you. They've been known to do that when you download too many google satellite images. Good way to check is if your PC was on the same internet connection you used to download the maps then it shouldn't be able to access it either.

If so nothing you can do besides way a couple of days.

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

Trying get Visual earth map atm for only 20km around hehe

Question : if we download tiles for 5km around and later tiles for 10km around, do it s gonna download all again or only the missing one ?

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

Quick question...
When will there be a next release?
Just to fix some bugs?
You have more than a dozen of active tickets, you cannot fix them in an hour, but at least you could show which of them are already fixed.
Thanks!

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

Before downloading a tile, modRana checks if it isn't already in the tile folder. Therefore, only new tiles are added.
For performance reasons, this is done during the download and not beforehand.

This can be a bit confusing, because the initial number of tiles for download is always the same, even if all tiles are actually available.

I'm going to implement one more feature (draw a trace when logging) and then I'll be finally ready to release. :) ETA: about tomorrow

Whats already implemented/fixed:

• track coloring (automatic or manual)
• tracklog drawing should be more robust
• tracklog saving should be more robust + onscreen notification when something goes wrong
• new logs show up in the tracklog menu immediately
• valid + OSM compatible (timestamps) GPX output, also with altitude
• tracklog categories are now based on folders
• default tile folder + prefixes changed to make modRana compatible with Mappero and Maep
  • the new folder is: /home/user/MyDocs/.maps
• generic icons are now drawn with cairo (big infoboxes should look noticeably better)
• an option for printing screen redraw time to stdout was added (for debugging purposes, default is OFF)

Concerning the tickets, I'll add something like "added/fixed i $new_version" after the release.

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

MartinK, thanks for all the work you do!
I was just wondering if it would be too much to expect a "Send position" option through an SMS or sormething like that?
And, for that matter, some sort of integration with social networks at all?

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

I think both should be doable (I've already added tickets for it). :) But in the short term, I would like to concentrate on the main/most requested features, like:

• turn-by-turn navigation + espeak
• proper POI management
• better address input for address routing
• asynchronous online service usage

When this done + debugged, I can start doing the other features/tickets.

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

So there it is, Modrana 0.13 has been finally released ! :D

Whats new?

• draw logging trace
• distinct track coloring
  + manual color selection for tracklogs and log trace
• folder based tracklog categories
• more robust tracklog loading, drawing and saving
  + new logs show up immediately
• valid and OSM compatible GPX output
  (each point has a timestamp and elevation info)
• better looking generic icons
• default tile folder is now /home/user/MyDocs/.maps
  (this makes modRana share maps with Mappero and Maep)

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

Impatient to see it! But where is it?

http://maemo.org/packages/view/modrana/
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...ree/m/modrana/
12-9

http://maemo.org/packages/source/vie...odrana/0.13-1/
only i386

http://maemo.org/packages/package_in...odrana/0.13-1/
0 bytes

https://garage.maemo.org/builder/fre...odrana_0.13-1/
only i386

I guess I have to wait. I know that your package, as based on python, is exactly the same for both i386 and armel, but if this builder will give only the deb for i386.......I will have to gainroot to argue with the architecture checker.

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

The build finished successfully and it should have been imported hours ago. Seems like if the import queue is stuck or something. :confused:

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

First. The queue is really stuck, otherwise there would be a file for i386.
Second. For some reason, the builder doesn't even try to build deb for armel architecture.

Well... I'm going to wait as long as needed.

It's not your fault, MartinK;) the auto-builder seems to be the culprit.

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

Does it require internet to use?

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

No. But if you want to see the map, you need to get map tiles. You can:
a) download them through ModRana on the go, if you have Internet on the go;
b) download them through a PC, if you have a PC connected to Internet;
c) draw them yourself (but I suppose that if you can post here you do have some kind of Internet and can use one of the first two options:)

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

And what you use for the b) ?

Seems google blocked me, cant dl tiles anymore from them and apparently it s the only one with who i can get map and all details at max around where i live :rolleyes:

Ty

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

It works fine even without, but Internet is needed for the following features to work:

• tile download (tiles are stored) + batch tile download
• routing
• POI search
• tracklog elevation import

There are:
JTileDownloader, GMapCatcher and OSMtiledownloader.

Or you can just connect your N900 to WiFi somewhere and use the batch download feature in modRana. :)

BTW, I really hope the new package will be finally imported to the repositories. Its been sitting in the queue ages already...
I even started a thread about it. :D

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

Since its still in Devel I'm guessing its not ready for download?

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

It's ready for download, in my humble opinion. It's better than Ovi maps.

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

It seems that the package import problems have been resolved, therefore:
modRana V0.13-1 is now finally in the repositories ! :)

So, check it out! :D

Changelog is in my previous post about the release.

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

V0.13-1
every time I want to go back to tracklog menu I get a black screen

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

Testing 0.13-1.
No problems yet.
Colouring logs is beautiful.
I have already sorted logs by day/month.
What about setting colour of all logs in a folder at once?
Is colour of logs remembered after restarting application? I hope, that yes.

About black screen: I haven't seen it; it might be caused by permissions problem; could you post a screenshot? I have given write/read/modify permissions of the directory /opt/modrana to non-root user long ago (chmod 0777 /opt/modrana).

By the way, I moved tiles manually to the needed folder. I guess modRana doesn't do it automatically because it might cause conflict with other application, like Mappero, in case it already uses this folder.

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

thanks for the app. I had never used a gps before in my life (pretty sad, I'm 44) and modrana got my wife and I out of a lost situation over the weekend.

any time frame for talking directions?

I see it defaulted to something called mapnik and OSM in my .modrana_tiles folder and they take up 50 and 42 mb respectivly. should I be downloading other stuff or is this good, what I have.

thanks. wow gps. tomorrow I may try to use the microwave :)

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

Where does modrana source it's poi's from? Is it from an online source, or is there a way of loading them offline? I can never see any poi's in my area.

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

Cheers,
I do get to the first stage - enabling the tracklog. Then it displays on the map. But when I want to change the color - black screen (nothing really to make a screenshot of - just a black area where the map is supposed to be) I guess, had it been permission I wouldn't have gotten to the track initiation at all, would I?
But anyway, could you give me a full cmd wording to get permission?

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

Quick reply.
Turned logging on, returned to the map. OK.
Went to logging, change colour->green, and it showed map, not black screen.

>a full cmd wording to get permission?
chmod 0777 /opt/modrana

If permission is denied, gain root first, and then try again.
Like:
sudo gainroot
chmod 0777 /opt/modrana


Try running ./modrana.py from directory /opt/modrana/ in X Terminal. The application should write down the errors into X Terminal.

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

Nice to know that modRana is being useful. :)

This + POI rework are what I currently plan to do next. So it should be available quite soon. :)

These layers are provided by the OpenStreatMap project and are IMO quite usable.

ModRana currently uses Google Locate as a POI source, and more POI (and routing) providers are planned.
You can test this by typing something like this to the search field in Google Maps:
This searches for pizza near Nokia headquarters. :) The POI search in modRana works like this, you select the a keyword by pressing one of the buttons + current coordinates are used.

Do you mean displaying a saved tracklog or enabling track logging ?
(I found a bug causing a empty/black screen in the track logging menu, will be fixed in the next build)

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

I do manage to start a track. It displays on the screen but every time I go back to the track menu I get a black screen.
Wikiwide suggested it was permission prob....haven't tried it thou((

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

I've just send V0.13-2 to the autobuilder, the package should be in the repositories shortly and should fix the black screen after entering log menu (if it is caused by the same issue I fixed).

Also, it is now possible to set where to search for POI -> near view/near current position and more options (near an address/tracklog start/end, etc.) are planned. :)

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

thank you for the simple answers. once voice navigation is in place this app will be right up with easy debian as the top 2 reasons I am keeping the device.

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

Cheers!

That'd be cool! Also (sorry, haven't been checking the tickets lately) I've noticed that of all GPS aps I have on my device the only one that allows me to easily save my current position as a POI is.....Sygic. I mean - just one click and you're at the input menu to enter, say a "Treasure chest location" ))) But seriously - just one-click action to pinpoint your position would be nice, wouldn't it?

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

Searching in google maps for "pizza near -37.83582, 144.88190" works, but I don't get these results in modrana. Is there a debug mode I can enable to get a log or something?

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

search for beer instead.