GPS RocketLocator offline map

No No,, these are not maps, they are like screen shots, I believe each time I zoomed in or out it saved it as a picture.
At least that's what I think happened

JJSR said:

No No,, these are not maps, they are like screen shots, I believe each time I zoomed in or out it saved it as a picture.
At least that's what I think happened

Click to expand...

If they are screenshots of the entire area there is some switch "weirdness" with your device. If they are little square tiles of "bits 'n pieces" they are storage products of the maps for use with the program.
If they're screenshots, you'll have to figure out what switch in your phone is causing that to happen. If there is a screenshot option in GPS Rocket Locator, I'd like to know about it. I don't think there is one.

Kurt

I have a Samsung Galaxy
From the Gallery app
I have an album called "google"
That album now has 527 images. Each is a satellite image of an area where I have run the rocket locator app.
I can upload a few if you desire.

Please Chuck post a few, I deleted the ones I had on my phone. It would help to see if they're the same type of picture.
Mine were under "landscapes" or something similar

JJSR said:

Please Chuck post a few, I deleted the ones I had on my phone. It would help to see if they're the same type of picture.
Mine were under "landscapes" or something similar

Click to expand...

Done

Those are maptiles above used for map generation. Those are not "screensaves". If you wipe them out, the program will need to re-download them. If one is not going to be flying for a long time and you need the space, could delete them and then
re-download them later but of course if stuck with a metered connection it may cost. I have a WiFi only device with enough memory so I download the areas I'm interested in in advance for on device/off grid use. Kurt

Kurt you keep saying "download" them, I'm not sure what you mean.
I turn on the app, it shows me where I am and shows me where the rocket is, I go to the rocket and turn off the app. I don't push or use any other function but the zoom.
are you saying the app auto downloads the tiles?
its not a space thing, I just don't understand how/why they are saved, if I'm not saving them?

JJSR said:

Kurt you keep saying "download" them, I'm not sure what you mean.
I turn on the app, it shows me where I am and shows me where the rocket is, I go to the rocket and turn off the app. I don't push or use any other function but the zoom.
are you saying the app auto downloads the tiles?
its not a space thing, I just don't understand how/why they are saved, if I'm not saving them?

Click to expand...

GPS Rocket Locator allows one to download tiles from the menu in the right upper corner. One goes to the zoom level they want and download it for offline use. I have a Nexus 2013 Wifi only device. Not a cell phone. I connect it to my
local Wifi, fire up GPS rocket locator and I can download the maptiles for offgrid use. Since I'm using my home server and not an internet link out in the field, doesn't cost me a thing.

If one used an internet active cellphone from a launch site, depending on the cellphone service agreement, if one downloads through a metered connection, it could cost them. If they erase the files and the phone has to download the tiles again, they
incur further charges. If one has unlimited access with their plan, then this is not an issue.

Originally GPS Rocket Locator could not cache tiles reliably. I know, I tried it and off line all's I got was a grey screen. This was with the earlier versions as I started using the program when it was first released. Francois rewrote the software with caching in mind so anyone with an Android tablet that does Bluetooth and Wifi is usable at a launchsite without internet or Wifi service. Download maps in advance of the exact area and ready to go. An Android phone is not a requirement anymore.

When I use GPS rocket locator without Wifi available, it will say something to the effect, "No internet service going off line" which indicates it's switching to internal cache. It of course has to have the maptiles stored of the location one
is currently standing to be displayed off line or one gets a grey screen. It will still give one two points and a datum line to track but will not be able to show a map for situation awareness. Live real time tracking on a map sure beats
inputting lat/long by hand into another device and a drift trend can be readily seen as the rocket get lower and farther to a Loss Of Signal point.

Another thing. A larger screened device is helpful for viewing especially if one places it inside of a flat black painted box and face the sun to shade the device from glare so one can see the screen. If one's Android phone screen works great in the sunlight for them, they're very lucky. A matte screen protector on the device is helpful too.

This is the post where it's announced that off line caching is available: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...cketLocator-offline-map&p=1601003#post1601003

The latest version of GPS Rocket Locator has most of the bugs worked out of it. Make sure one has a local GPS lock before downloading. Only quirk that is still present is once the local GPS is locked and the EggFinder GPS is locked and tracking,
the legend in the upper left corner just reads "Altitude" for all three lines. The top line is the most important as it's distance to the rocket. The other two lines, one is maximum altitude and the other is current altitude. I believe that might be
the final fix but the program is very usable as is.

Kurt

I don't think your understanding me.
your physically loading maps to use, I'm not, I'm using the phone GPS and Blue tooth live.
I don't see what my phone plan has to do with "maptiles" as you call it, being saved in my photos?
come on I'm a carpenter,,,,, if hitting with a hammer doesn't fix it I'm lost!!!
LOL

JJSR said:

I don't think your understanding me.
your physically loading maps to use, I'm not, I'm using the phone GPS and Blue tooth live.
I don't see what my phone plan has to do with "maptiles" as you call it, being saved in my photos?
come on I'm a carpenter,,,,, if hitting with a hammer doesn't fix it I'm lost!!!
LOL

Click to expand...

But, your phone is downloading the tiles for some reason to your photos directory. Read Francois instructions for map caching. The reason I say that is if you are able to setup a directory /mapcache you might be able to
keep your photos and maptiles separate. GPS Rocket Locator has to download those tiles in order to construct the map whether they go to a temporary cache or for permanent storage.

The other way would be if you can get your phone to put your photos in a different directory. That would depend upon what version of Android you have. Some don't make it easy for you to change directories.

You could delete GPSRL, manually delete all those maptiles, yeah real PITA. The next step would be to create a separate /maptiles directory like Francois suggests. Read the rest of the thread from
#44 quickly and you can get an idea of the development as caching didn't work correctly until Francois refined it. Next step would be to re-install and see if the maptiles go to their proper place.

I sympathize with you 'cause I'm only a script kiddie and not a programmer. I get very frustrated when I find the operating system can't do what I want it to because of a design fault.

On my Nexus 7, the maptiles are stored in /mapcache directory and my photos end up in a different directory. When I hit a viewer, it shows the first photo in each directory which I click and all the photos in that directory shows then. I can live with that. The maptiles are not mixed up with my photos. Something that you want to achieve.

It sounds like it to me that the maptiles are interspersed with your photos in the same directory and you don't like it. Can't say I blame you as I wouldn't like it either. The problem here is there may not be an easy way to
work around this with your device. Some versions of Android really stink as far as directory utility. I use a version of Cyanogen Mod on the N7 2013 and learned how to unbrick the device using Linux utilities and can
reload the entire operating system from scratch.

I am afraid if some of the above doesn't work for you, you may be stuck with this quirk as I suspect the operating system may be at fault. What version of Android?

Oh, if you read that thread, you'll see there were problems. Once the final version of "GPS Rocket Locator" was refined, I found I had to delete the program, re-install it anew and it works for me nicely now.

Yes, I understand you don't desire to cache permanently the maptiles. You have to realize the program has to put some tiles somewhere in order to construct the map. In your case you would like that to be a temporary
folder that gets written over that is away from your photos. You may always be able to find some maptiles on your phone no matter what although the size, will likely be limited since you don't want to keep them.
In your case if we can get those tiles in another directory that will likely be o.k. with you.

The way I rationalize this is when I tried to download maps for offline caching before Francois rewrote the program, I simply scrolled around the map fields, did several different zoom levels and then shut the program down
and shut off the Wifi. I fired up GPSRL and nothing but a blank. There were maptiles in the cache but they would not be used unless there was an internet connection.
A limited number of maptiles are stored no matter what. If a live online link, the tiles get written over in the file as new tiles are needed for painting the screen. This is the default mode of GPSRL.
You are not storing an unlimited number of maptiles on your device because you did not go to the menu and specifically download tiles for storage.

I want to alleviate that fear you have about getting loaded up with maptiles. There's a limit and once that's reached, stuff gets written over.

The problem is getting the tiles out of your photos directory and that I don't have a simple answer for.

Don't be self deprecating my friend. I don't know how to do carpentry so I have to hire your brethren for help. Takes many different kinds to make the world work. Kurt

JJSR said:

I don't think your understanding me.
your physically loading maps to use, I'm not, I'm using the phone GPS and Blue tooth live.
I don't see what my phone plan has to do with "maptiles" as you call it, being saved in my photos?
come on I'm a carpenter,,,,, if hitting with a hammer doesn't fix it I'm lost!!!
LOL

Click to expand...

I have a galaxy S7 edge.

I have about 600 pictures of the lake bed in my gallery. I have used the app 2 times with this phone. Once at home and once at the lake bed. The app is storing what you are looking at about every 30 seconds it seem. Hard for me to understand as well. Im not clicking to download anything. Only fire up app go get rocket and turn it off.....300 pictures later of what i was looking at on my way to the rocket. I didnt save or go to any menu etc.. wierd.

Is it automatically storing every section of map that you see on your screen, to bring it up for future use?

Rob702Martinez said:

Is it automatically storing every section of map that you see on your screen, to bring it up for future use?

Click to expand...

Yes, this is how caching works, same as your web browser on a pc, the email client on your phone, etc.

Any computing type device typically has 5-10 layers of caching to help human impatience deal with the laws of physics.

This layer happens to be particularly apparent.

dhbarr said:

Yes, this is how caching works, same as your web browser on a pc, the email client on your phone, etc.

Any computing type device typically has 5-10 layers of caching to help human impatience deal with the laws of physics.

This layer happens to be particularly apparent.

Click to expand...

I believe the program will cache up to a limit and then write over the cache. What you folks are finding out is your Android operating system is writing the tiles to your photos directory. My Nexus 7 2013 is putting them in a separate directory but
I am intentionally saving them as my device is WiFi only and I need them for off-grid use.

You could try to see if you can change your Android device to save your photos to a different directory. The problem here is some forms of the Android operating system don't allow one to do that. Stinks.
I'd suggest one try and Google their device specifically with something like "change photos directory" and see if there is a way to change the default. Then the problem becomes moving your photos to the "new" directory and again,
some versions of Android do not make it easy for one to do that. Going to a custom firmware like Cyanogen Mod for one's device (if it's available) is another option but for the uninitiated is a PITA and one risks dorking their device.
I don't recommend it unless one knows how to use ADB under the Linux operating system or the WinBlows utilities to do this. Control, control I tell you is the key. Kurt