More geocaching with Maemo
 

Hi,

i've extended my little gpxview geocaching application and i am proud to announce that it has it first "first to find" :D. While it started as a simple viewer for so called GPX files, it has recently evolved into a simple complete geocaching solution.

http://www.harbaum.org/till/maemo/gpxview2_small.jpg

http://www.harbaum.org/till/maemo/gp...goto_small.jpg

See http://www.harbaum.org/till/maemo/index.shtml#gpxview for details.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Looks nice, I will give it a try next weekend! :)

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

you're going to force me to go shopping for a bluetooth GPS for my n800, aren't you? ;)

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ad.php?t=18932 has some info; I'd have gotten that one if I hadn't blown $50 on an inferior unit the week before tz1 posted...

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Hmm it doesn't work for me with the gpx files from opengeocaching.de (For an example, this one: http://www.opencaching.de/viewcache.php?cacheid=114326 ) Any chance to get opengeocaching support, cause you only get the gpx files from geocaching.com if you pay for it...

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I have taken a look at those files. Argh ... they just decided to name everything "just a little different". Probably for copyright reasons ... Plus they added some errors like e.g. the html descriptions are tagged "html=false". So for now my tool won't render the html.

Anyway, i have most of the stuff done and my OC test cache already looks fine. But some work is still to be done (e.g. have to figure out all those strings for types, comntainers, find-types etc etc ...).

An OC capable version will be out soon.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Will it work with geocaching .loc files?

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

loc files only contain the coordinates, no description and hints i think. So it would not be as useful...

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I know it's limited, but I only do the occasional cache when on holiday, so not enough to justify subscribing to the premium service to get access to the gpx files. What can I say, I'm cheap :p

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I love the concept of having the direction arrow built in but I am having some problems with the implementation of the direction arrow.

I have an 810 and was using the internal gps. I had to fire up maemo mapper to get the gps working, it did not seem to start up just correctly with just gpxview. A number of satalites visible or locked would also be helpful.

Once it was working I shut down meamo mapper and started driving towards the cache. I all of sudden noticed that I was over 4000 miles away from the cache. I refired meamo mapper and then gpxview came back being just a couple of miles away.

I also noticed that the direction arrow bounced around a alot. I had to rely more on the distance reading and walk in circles to figure out which direction to go.

Overall I love the concept and can't wait for this to get better. I know this will take some time to fine tune. I am just offering my feedback to help with that process.

Keep up the great work!

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

.loc files -> gpsbabel+ -> .gpx files that can be imported as POI into maemo mapper for easy plotting of hundreds of caches on the map. I just scribble down some notes before I leave and I'm good to go. It's functional, but not nearly as slick as gpxviewer.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Thank you!!!!

I have been wanting a geocaching app forever!

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Thanks. Forgot about that option. Although it would be nice if it worked natively.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

gpxview uses the gpsbt framework of maemo to start the gps which is the way it's meant to be used. This works for me and all of my beta testers. Did you change your setup from the default one? E.g. install a patched gpsd or so?

Can you start gpxview from the xterm and tell me what it tells on the command line while starting without finding a gps itself? In fact it _must_ be finding something itself because it only tries five times at startup time and gives up with gps if that fails. Also my gps startup routines work very much like the ones in maemo-mapper as i took a look there to see how this is being done in maemo.

And yes, some "number of satellites in view" thing is on the to do list.

Below are the results from my entire run on my 810 with the internal GPS. What I saw again was that all of sudden the goto option in gpxview said I was over 4000 miles from my cache. I let it run that way and the miles did count down, it went from something like 4313 to 4312. I then selected a different cache and then went back to my original cache and everything worked fine. Something in the gps data appears to confuse the goto at times.

I ran the exact same cache on my 800 with a bluetooth gps and had much better luck. It worked much better for the whole drive. Both units were sitting right next to each other on the seat next to along with the bluetooth gps.

One thing I did notice on the 800 that is probably tied to the 810 problem is when the lock is lost.

When I entered my work place both the 810 and the 800 lost their lock. The 810 just stayed with the 2.1 miles from the cache. The 800 now switched to saying I was over 4000 miles from the cache.

With the 810 gps not being that great it maybe that when the lock is lost gpxview does not always recover correctly. This could have lead to both the startup issues I saw yesterday and the odd results I see sometimes while using it.

The "position not valid messages" below were from when I entered the building. My general location is NW of Milwaukee, WI USA. 53092 is my zip code at work.

Hope this helps. Keep up the great work!

~ $ gpxview
Error creating connection to GPSD, retrying ...
GPSD connected ...
gpxview[4232]: GLIB DEBUG ConIc - con_ic_connection_send_event(0xafc80, home-n, WLAN_INFRA, 0)
gpxview[4232]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Gtk - gtk_tree_model_filter_row_has_child_toggled: assertion `elt->visible' failed
GPSD: position valid at 43.331261 -88.262558
GPSD: heading valid at 0.000000
gpxview[4232]: GLIB DEBUG ConIc - con_ic_connection_send_event(0xafc80, home-n, WLAN_INFRA, 1)
GPSD: position not valid
GPSD: heading not valid
GPSD: position valid at 43.238960 -87.923233
GPSD: heading valid at 0.000000
GPSD: position not valid
GPSD: heading not valid
GPSD: position valid at 43.239239 -87.923271
GPSD: heading valid at 0.000000
GPSD: position not valid
GPSD: heading not valid

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Putting the N810 on the seat isn't optimal. The internal GPS receiver seems to be relatively primitive, and needs a good view of the sky. Putting it in the windshield would probably work much better, but you'll need a mount. Using an external bluetooth receiver is probably the best way to go, since you can put it wherever it gets a good signal, and the NIT wherever you can see it.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

The problem with GPS and geocaching is that GPS never gives a good directional indicator unless you are actually moving. Relying on an on-screen compass is OK unless you move very slow or stop.

Still - Looks like a fun app!

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

That's why you need a real compass when geocaching. The GPS isn't a compass. It only knows approximately where it is, and where the destination is, not which direction you're facing. With a compass, you can read the direction to the destination (cache) and sight on a course to it. A GPS can never do that, although some outdoor GPS units do have an electronic compass built in. Electronic compasses have their limitations, though, and I prefer a standard magnetic compass.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Actually, if you run Maemo mapper at the same time and add a POI for the cache's location you usually have a pretty good idea in what direction to go...

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I agree that direction indicator does not work when standing still. The programs I have used in the past on other platforms did pretty good in pointing the correct direction at even a slow walking pace. It appears the gps in the 810 adds some challenges to geocaching because it gives back data that is flakier than I thought. Meomo mapper must be pretty good at filtering through the bad data because it hid a lot of noise that appears to be in the data stream. My tracks in maemo mapper were normally right on even when walking. I did have one case where my 3/4 of mile walk with maemo mapper turned into over a mile because I track showed I jumped about .25 miles out of my way for one data point. I didn't know I could teleport that far :)

A compass does not do much good unless I know which direction to go. Most the caches I have gone after have the coordinates but not a direction. My orienteering days go back to before there where publicly available GPSes. Learning to read a map and use a compass are skills that I learned as a Scout and I am now teaching to Scouts.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I agree with what you say. When I had my data issue the first the unit was by the windshield on a non slip pad.

I have used my 810 on the seat for hours with maemo mapper and don't remember seeing a time where it did not maintain a 3d lock. For me the seat next to me does not seem to be too bad a location for the gps.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

WOW.. nice ap..

I have been geocaching with maemomapper and geopoi and they work great.. but to have access to the descriptions and hints .. WOW


one "bug" maybe it's something with my 810.. but I can't get it to go into full screen mode..

and a feature request.. to either sort or search the list of caches..
I have a .gpx with 500 caches and finding the right one is hard..

and ultimate feature request...
would be awsome if tapping a POI in maemomapper could bring up that cache in GPXView

thanks.... cant wait to get out and try it to actually find caches

Louis

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

what element in the GPX file does it group by on the first screen? I've converted some .loc to .gpx, and on the first screen it's a blank line with a "1" at the end. Clicking on this line opens the second screen with just the single cache in it.

Thanks

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Any proper app should list the direction to the destination. I don't know if this one can. Every other app I've used does, though, and the direction is pretty consistent, as long as there is a good satellite lock. The reason the arrow spins is because there is no way for the app to know which direction you're facing, even though the direction to the cache stays basically the same even though the GPS thinks you moved a few feet one way or the other. You just read the direction and use your compass to move that way, ignoring the spinning arrow. I don't even use the arrow, I display the bearing to the cache and my heading, and try to more or less match the two, depending on the terrain and obstacles. I only use the compass occasionally, to figure out a course to a landmark I can see in the right direction.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Sure, it does tell you in the caches "Overview" tab the exact direction relative to the current gps position in degrees (the screenshot on my web page is a little outdated and doesn't show the exact degrees).

I've just also spent some work on the gps routines and things may have improved (i say "may" because the built-in gps worked quite well for me even when just walking slowly).

This tool is currently mainly for maintaining a gpx database and the current extensions i am working on are mainly related to this. The next release will e.g. read opencaching.de gpx files and be able to download and store the related images from the cache descriptions. Loc files will likely be also in the next release, even though this will start to make the name "gpxview" a little misleading.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

The geocaching.com gpx file has a name itself. This is displayed in the first screen. Your file does not contain such an entry, so you see blank followed by a 1 for "this file contains one cache". And this single cache is what you see on the next page. The current development version already copes with files wihtout name inside and sets the filename then.

Don't put too much effort into this. Adding support for loc files is most likely the easier solution. Also the current development version can handle entire directories. So you can put all your loc files there and they are loaded all at once.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Sounds great! Thank you very much.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I'm glad to see this develop, even though I haven't been very active in geocaching for a few months, due to other more important events going on. I've always used my Palm for this, and likely still will, rather than risk my N800 in the briars and mud, but it would be useful for urban caches which I intermittently do. This is a much more straightforward way to get the cache information, rather than the conversions necessary for Palms. I think I'll download it soon and try it out, at least for practicing getting the info on my Nokia. Thanks for the work.

BTW, Cachemate for Palm and WM is pretty much the standard for this type app. I don't know if you've looked at it, but it's a very complete, very usable program.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Uhm, yes, but it's Palm and WM only. And it's imho shareware and not OSS and thus cannot easily be ported. Or what's your point?

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I think he was just suggesting you look at the feature set and UI for hints on what the geo community might want. Personally I wouldn't mind some integration with maemo mapper, but that's about it.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

My only point was that it seems to offer the features cachers want. What I like about it is the ability to edit caches and enter logs on the fly, and the GPS addon works very well. You're free to add features or not. As I said, thanks for the work you've done, and any more that you do. I didn't intend to insult you or demean your efforts.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but I've come across a bug. (N800/OS08)

After adding a .gpx file (with a single or multiple entries) and using it, switching back and forth between tabs for a bit, I can no longer close, minimize or use the dropdown menu bar. Sometimes you'll hear the ::click:: of the system responding to the request of a screen press, but most times not. The program continues to work perfectly in all other aspects however. You can switch between caches, tabs, etc with no issues. But the only way to close the app is to pull up the process list and kill it.

I'm loving this app, please keep up the great work. :)

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I am not 100% sure i understand your problem. The cache list and the cache view (the thing with the tabs) are dialog boxes (they have that title bar and a close/ok button at the bottom). The menus aren't working while such a dialog is being displayed. Also you cannot close the program by tapping the (X) icon. That's how maemo/hildon is designed.

Coincidentally this is something that has annoyed myself as well. So today i implemented a slightly different mechanism (basically something based on the "hildon-bread-crumb-trail" which is also used in the application manager (it's the bar with the back arrow on the left).

I am planning to release the next version soon including this change.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Umm.. maybe I misunderstand what you're saying, but every program I have on my N800 can be closed by tapping the X in the upper right-hand corner. That's the standard way of closing a program. Are you referring to another X?

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

No, you can't do that while a program has a dialog box open. E.g. go to the application manager, select "tools->settings" from the menu and then try to close the application by clicking the (X).

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Aaah, I see. It didn't click with me that the bulk of the app is contained within a single dialog box, hence the reason the system buttons aren't enabled.

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

This has changed in the current development version. Dialogs are now only used for things like the "search dialog" (also a new thing).

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

Version 0.1-7 has been released and can be downloaded from http://www.harbaum.org/till/maemo/index.shtml#gpxview

The changelog includes:

• Bug fixes with negative (western) coordinates
• Support for Opencaching.de gpx files
• Ability to load entire directories
• Image spidering/caching
• Support for *.loc files
• Search function
• New hildon-bread-crumb-trail based layout (no dialog boxes)
• Fullscreen support
• Zoom support for the html renderer (for the descriptions)
• Screen saver disabled in "goto" view

This update basically includes everything that recently has been discussed here. E.g. the new gui not being based on dialog boxes anymore plus the result of the image spidering option can be seen here:

http://www.harbaum.org/till/maemo/gpxview6_small.jpg

Enjoy!

BTW: This is a standard gnome applications which can be compiled under any desktop linux as well. It should also run on e.g. the eeepc with gnome libraries installed. A screenshot of gpxview running on my ubuntu notebook computer can be found here

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I just installed your new version. But it wont start. When I run the gpxview command from xterm i get this:

Old one worked just fine. Any ideas?

Re: More geocaching with Maemo
 

I installed the new version and I like the changes! Keep up the great work!

It installed without any issues on my 800 and my 810.