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Maemo Mapper HowTo

Forward

It has been said that the best way to learn is to teach. This HowTo is my GPS learning exercise with the Nokia N810. The N800 runs the same Maemo Mapper application so other than the lack of a built in GPS operation is similar to the N810. I've not had the opportunity to use the N900 which has a more finger friendly version of Maemo Mapper. N900 users are likely to find this HowTo useful if not written specifically for the N900. Maemo Mapper has an excellent functionally organised help file which I have taken the liberty of including. Credit for the "Reference" section and beyond belong to its author John Costigan. I've written the "1st GPS Guided Trip" section in a task oriented fashion. It covers two tasks, installing and taking a GPS guided trip. The document is formatted as a web page so that it can be viewed on your desktop as well as in the Nokia N8x0 or N900. Various members of the Internet Tablet Talk Forums were a great help in ensuring accuracy. If you have any comments or questions please contact me through my website George Fragos. I'm a freelance Internet Coach and writer that specialises in designing and developing web sites for small businesses and individuals. My initial consultation is free — email me.

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Introduction

Maemo Mapper a very capable geographical mapping tool that can be used to:

Index

1st GPS Guided Trip

We'll start with how to get the application installed on your Nokia N8x0 and use it for your first guided trip and not the totality of this extensive application. A reference section based on the help files that are part of the application is included to answer the many questions that will come up once you've successfully taken your first GPS guided trip. With your N8x0 connected to the Internet install Maemo Mapper. During this process an additional Internet based repository may be added which greatly expands the number of available applications on your tablet.

The map application can be used without a GPS but it does so much more with one. If you have an N800 you may want to purchase a bluetooth GPS receiver. The N810 has a GPS receiver built in. Getting a GPS satellite fix when starting Maemo Mapper requires that all the satellites in view from your location are identified. This can take a very long time, perhaps 30 minutes, but you can speed up this process a bit by installing Assisted GPS, agps-ui. With it the fix time will vary and can still be minutes — I recommend everyone with an N810 that want's to use the internal GPS install agps-ui. I've not had the opportunity to try agps-ui with an N800. Ultimately I purchased an optional Bluetooth GPS receiver to faster fixes with my N810. I'm still running agps-ui with my Bluetooth GPS but to be honest I'm not sure what vaulue it adds to getting a fix with the separate GPS receiver. FYI: I purchased a Globalsat BT-359 which is extreemly small and has the excellent SiRF-III chip set. The Nokia repositories have the agps-ui application but you will also need the maemo Extras repository to fill a depedency for supl-daemon. If you never travel more than about 180 miles from your current location you'll only need to run this application once. The application displays a world map. Select Settings from the drop down menu and check A-GPS Support:. Allow packet data: must be checked if you're retrieving the GPS assist data over a cell data network. Preferred connection: is also a cell data network parameter and will pick from whatever cell phone data access you have previously defined for Internet access. If your only network access is WiFi this field will be grayed out. Use the stylus to touch your approximate location. When you select your location on the map (see below) agps-ui will retrieve the list of satellites from the Internet that should be in your area. The map location is marked with the red dot in a circle. Searching through a smaller list than all those in the world saves time.

aGPS Screen

9/17/2011 Update — Fixing AGPS-UI

Nokia changed to a pool of servers that agps-ui uses but some of those servers aren't compatible the agps-ui on N8x0 tablets. We all owe our thanks to Jesper Henricksen for showing us how to fix this problem. The fix is simple but requires use of the command line in the terminal application. From the factory your tablet will be using supl.nokia.com for agps-ui. Running the following two commands will give you that as a response:

$ gconftool --get /system/osso/supl/agps_srv_address
supl.nokia.com

$ gconftool --get /system/osso/supl/slp_address
supl.nokia.com

To fix the problem you'll need to run the following two commands:

$ gconftool --type string --set /system/osso/supl/agps_srv_address "66.35.236.25"
$ gconftool --type string --set /system/osso/supl/slp_address "66.35.236.25"

When you start Maemo Mapper for the first time you'll want to ensure that GPS is enabled. GPS next Enable GPS

Enable GPS Screen

Getting GPS Lock Faster

There's no end of discussion by N810 owners about the time it takes to get the first fix. The TI GPS5300 chip used in the N810 doesn't acquire GPS fixes anywhere near as fast as the SiRF-III chip frequently found in single purpose GPS navigators. The only way to equal that performance is to purchase a separate bluetooth GPS receiver that uses that chip.

In addition to installing Assisted GPS there are some operating procedures that may optimize the performance of the N810's internal GPS for an initial fix. I can't quantify the speed improvement for initial GPS fix from following these but there is logic to them.

Failure to Lock Troubleshooting — The Tools

If you already haven't done so go to this Nokia catalogue and get agps-ui_0.12-1beta_armel.deb or newer if available.

Install sudser from the Maemo Extras repository. It provides the sudo command you'll need. Install the NITapps repository and then with the Application Manager these three applications: gps_clockd, nano and rdate.

gps_clockd will synchroze the N810 clock with the GPS sattelites and log to /var/log/gps-clockd.log those time adjustments and more importantly, time to 1st fix. We can run cat /var/log/gps-clockd.log to view the log. To simplyfy command entry and focus only on fix times, run nano and enter the following line:

   alias fix='cat /var/log/gps-clockd.log |grep fix'

Nano is a basic text editor that is very simple to use. All it's commands are shown at the bottom of the screen -- no learning curve as with the geek loved vi. Do <Ctrl>O, shown as ^O, to save the file to .profile which is the N8x0 equivalent of .bashrc that Linux normally uses. Do <Ctrl>X, shown as ^X, to exit nano. From now on you be able to run fix in the terminal and just see times to 1st fix.

Now we'll create a shell script that will greatly simplify repairing the GPS unable to get a fix problem.

   cd /usr/bin
   sudo nano

Now we enter the following line and enter <Ctrl>O to write the files as "fixgps".

   cd /var/lib/gps
   rm nvd_data
   rm gps_last_saved_report
   sudo reboot

Lastly we run the following to give execute permission to "fixgps".

   sudo chmod 755 fixgps

The Process

Starting with Maemo Mapper release 2.5.2 a new feature was added that should fix many failure to lock situations. Anywhere on the map image Tap & hold next Tap Point next Set as GPS Location. You should now be able to get a fix.

Let's say you still can't get a fix with Maemo Mapper. You check GPS next Details… next Satellites tab and there aren't any in view. Some should be in view within one minute of starting Maemo Mapper. We now run A-GPS and select Info. A small window pops up and indicates the state of the cache /var/lib/gps/nvd_data which should be "Cached data is valid". The nvd_data cache file is written by the GPS driver when a GPS application is terminated. If it's become corrupted we won't be able to get a GPS fix even after 30 minutes. I have not verified yet but it appears that running A-GPS to check if the GPS cache is valid may on occasion cause the caches corruption when exiting. If the cache is corrupted we use the following process:

  • Run fixgps that we created above to delete the corrupted cache, shutdown and reboot
  • Establish Internet connection
  • You may wish to run sudo rdate -n pool.ntp.org to set system clock
  • Run Maemo Mapper

    • When everything is working correctly GPS next Details… next Satellites tab will show satellites in view and as communication is established a black bar will indicate signal strength. When there are enough communicating satellites to triangulate and at least one satellite has signal strength over 30 a fix will be made. The bars of satellites providing the fix will now be blue. Satillites will drop out and come back while signal strengths change but you'll retain the fix. When the 1st fix is acquired it's logged by gps_clockd.

    By default Maemo Mapper will use OpenStreet maps. I prefer those from Google. Google Street maps can be selected at Maps next Google Street. You'll need an Internet connection when making changes in maps.

    Select Map Screen

    When you start Maemo Mapper it will first get a fix on your current location. The time varies but it can take up to 30 minutes. Once the GPS has a fix it will maintain communication with the satellites without the long delay associated with the first fix. Part of the process adds a GPS icon to applet bar. Once a satellite is seen a progress box will pop up. The gray dot in this screen image is the location of my last GPS fix.

    Getting GPS Fix Screen

    The GPS icon goes through a couple of stages until a GPS fix is acquired. The GPS icon indicates the fix with a green transmission indicator as below. Note that what was a grey dot when the fix was being acquired has now changed to blue indicating an actual location. The blue dot will move when you change physical location.

    GPS Locked Screen

    You can recenter the map by taping on the new center and you can drag the map on the screen. Before starting your trip you'll want to set View next Auto-Center next Lat/Lon. Taping or dragging the map will reset this parameter to None.

    Setting Auto-centering Screen

    8/1/2010 Update — Getting GPX Routes

    The original developer of Maemo Mapper has moved on to a job at Google — we wish him well. His Internet based facility for getting routes appears not to be available. I've located another Internet site that can supply the GPX routes that Maemo Mapper requires. For download to your PC, create route. If you wish to also download routes with your tablet you'll need to make a change to the Maemo Mapper configuration as follows: Menu next Route next Download… and change the domain portion of the Source URL to http://gpx.geotags.com/ the cgi-bin/gpx.cgi?saddr=%s&daddr=%s portion remains the same.

    My normal mode of operation is to download routes on my desktop at create route the day before they're needed. You may also find Map my Ride useful for creating routes for off road jaunts. I transfer these XML formatted GPX route files over bluetooth to the N810 where they are saved for future use. The next image is a sample of a downloaded route. It's not necessary to understand this format but I find it helpful in getting insight into how Maemo Mapper works. If you are so inclined you can even edit or create these GPX files with a text editor. On the N8x0 I'd recomment the Leafpad text editor for this purpose.

    Sample GPX Route in XML

    The Google maps data base is the source of these routes and are the same as when Maemo Mapper loads a route directly over the Internet.

    Downloading Route Screen

    It isn't necessary to have an active Internet connection to use Maemo Mapper. A connection would be required to get a new route when you have gotten of the route you were on. The text box with the last direction will flash until you return to the original route.

    Before we select a route you may wish to tell Maemo Mapper that you want a visual record of where you've been, View next Show next Track, or of the View next Show next Route you will be taking. The track will show as red and the route as green. When your trip is over you will want to remove the track, Track next Clear, and the route, Route next Clear.

    Viewing Routes & Tracks Screen

    To start a trip use Route next Open to retrieve a route you've already saved.

    Setting Route Screen

    When the car moves a our first route direction will pop up in a text box. The box will indicate progress toward the next turn point. If you'd installed "flite" text to speech package the direction in the text box will be read to you. As we approach the next turn point a new text box pops up giving us time to get into position for the next turn. You will notice that regardless of your starting zoom level the map will zoom in to make reading street names easier.

    Route Screen

    In this example you can see the planned route in green and the actual track, path driven, in red. The purple blocks are Points of Interest, POI. On occasion the track traveled may appear slightly off the road -- no I wasn't drinking. You'll also see that I decided to make a stop off the planned route. On the return trip the track was depicted on the road. I find seeing the route in green as useful since your actual location is always indicated by the blue ball. The track is interesting but perhaps not as useful as the visible route.

    Track & Route Shown Screen

    In this example I only tracked my path. It can be saved for future reference. It may be useful for return trip navigation when a route couldn't be retrieved from the Internet.

    Track Shown Screen

    Now that you've taken your first GPS guided trip and become familiar with basic operation it's time to review the following Reference section which was extracted from Maemo Mapper itself. The Reference follows the functional structure of the Maemo Mapper user interface and there will be some duplication of what I've covered but in context of all Maemo Mapper can do.

    While using Maemo Mapper you may find it interesting or useful to see exactly how the GPS is performing. GPS next Details… next Satellites details tab

    GPS Details Screen

    General GPS Topics

    You need at least 3 satellites in view to get a valid position. It may also take some minutes to get a valid position. You also should be outside, GPS does not work well inside a house — a window sill is advised. Trees, houses or other barriers can prevent your GPS receiver from getting a valid position.

    Setting clock with GPS & Logging time to fix

    I found an application that as well as adjusting the N810 clock to GPS time, logs the time to get a fix. Add the following repository:

    Application manager menu next Tools next Application catalog… next New button

    Catalog name: Nitapps Maemo Repository
    Web address: http://nitapps.com
    Components: user

    You'll now be able to install gps-clockd. Once installed it will automatically run whenever the GPS is used. You can view the log in the Terminal as follows:

    ~ $ cat /var/log/gps-clockd.log
    [Mon Nov 3 12:26:41 2008] *** GPS Clock Daemon started ***
    [Mon Nov 3 12:29:35 2008] GPS activated. Time to first fix 02m17s
    [Mon Nov 3 12:29:30 2008] Adjusted clock by -5.08 seconds to match GPS time
    ~ $

    Accuracy

    The base user error UERE of GPS is 8 meters or less at 66% confidence, 15 meters or less at 95% confidence. Actual horizontal error will be UERE times a dilution factor dependent on current satellite position. Altitude determination is more sensitive to variability to atmospheric signal lag than latitude/longitude, and is also subject to errors in the estimation of local mean sea level; base error is 12 meters at 66% confidence, 23 meters at 95% confidence. Again, this will be multiplied by a Vertical Dilution Of Precision VDOP dependent on satellite geometry, and VDOP is typically larger than the Horizontal HDOP. Users should not rely on GPS altitude for life-critical tasks such as landing an air plane.

    Percent Dilution Of Position PDOP is the measure of the geometrical strength of the GPS satellite configuration. The amount of error in your position. PDOP less than 4 gives the best accuracy (under 1 meter). Between 4 and 8 gives acceptable accuracy. Greater than 8 gives poor accuracy.

    These errors are intrinsic to the design and physics of the GPS system. The open source gpsd server used in the N810 and other Linux based systems does its internal computations at sufficient accuracy that it will add no measurable position error of its own.

    Accuracy if further improved by the Nationwide Differential GPS System. NDGPS is a ground-based augmentation system operated and maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, and Federal Highway Administration, that provides increased accuracy and integrity of the GPS to users on land and water. DGPS correction will reduce UERE from roughly 8 meters to roughly 2 meters, provided you are within about 100 miles (160km) of a DGPS ground station from which you are receiving corrections. The DGPS standard has been adopted by 50 countries.

    Links - Additional GPS Information

    Reference

    When you first start Maemo Mapper, you will be presented with the Settings dialog box. Most of the settings have reasonable defaults, but if you have a GPS receiver, you should fill in the Bluetooth field with the MAC address of your GPS receiver. If you don't know the MAC, turn on your GPS receiver and push the Search button. Maemo Mapper will attempt to automatically discover the MAC address of your receiver. For more information about the Settings dialog box, see Settings.

    Alternatively, you can leave the Bluetooth field blank, and Maemo Mapper will attempt to automatically search for and use any bluetooth GPS receivers that it can identify. This is particularly useful if you tend to use multiple different GPS receivers. This feature is not guaranteed to work on all Nokia devices or with all bluetooth GPS receivers.

    If you are using Maemo Mapper on a device with an internal GPS receiver, then you should probably use the "Bluetooth" receiver type and leave the field empty.

    When you are finished setting up Maemo Mapper to your preferences, pressing the Ok button will lead you to another dialog box: the Manage Repositories dialog.

    To get started quickly, press the Download… button. Maemo Mapper will download a set of pre-defined repository information for you to use. If you use the pre-defined repositories, you can delete the Default repository. For more information about repositories and the Manage Repositories dialog, see Managing Repositories.

    Certain repositories (most notably, the commercial ones) may have license agreements attached with their use. It may be illegal to use a certain repository with Maemo Mapper or under certain conditions. This includes the repositories downloaded via the Download… button. If you are not sure if you are legally allowed to use a particular repository, you should delete it from your list of repositories. The authors of Maemo Mapper cannot be held responsible for your use of a particular repository.

    Once you have your Repositories set up the way you like, press the Ok button, and you will be presented with a blank screen, because you have not yet actually downloaded any map data to your device. To allow Maemo Mapper to automatically download map data as it becomes needed on the display, enable the Auto-Download check box in the Maps menu.

    If you have a working Internet connection, Maemo Mapper will attempt to download maps and display them on the screen automatically as the downloads complete. You should see a map of the world. Be careful when you enable Auto-Download, because it can quickly fill your available disk space. See Managing Maps for details on how to manage disk space for a particular repository.

    The Graphical User Interface

    The main view of Maemo Mapper emphasizes simplicity. By default, the map is all that is displayed. You current position (if you have a GPS receiver) is indicated by a blue circle. The blue line extending from the blue circle indicates your current heading and speed. Tracks are red and represent where you have been. Routes are green and represent where you want to go, i.e. directions to a location.

    The hardware buttons on your device provide quick access to common functionality:

    You can also pan around the map by taping on the screen. Maemo Mapper will center the display on where you tapped. If you had Auto-Center enabled, taping a location to center on it will automatically disable that functionality.

    From this point, you can use the menus to manage routes, tracks, and map data; to change the view; to change settings; or to see detailed GPS information (if you have a GPS receiver).

    There is also a context-sensitive menu that appears on the map when you tap and hold a location on the map. From that menu, you can download directions, calculate distances, or add/modify Point-of-Interest (POI) data.

    This help topic describes the functionality of each of the menu items in Maemo Mapper.

    Route

    The Route menu is used to manipulate the current route. A route in Maemo Mapper is defined as a set of points and waypoints describing where you would like to go, e.g. driving directions from 123 Main Street to 456 Elm Street. It can include multiple segments. The current route is empty until you open or download a route.

    The Route menu has the following menu items:

    Track

    The Track menu is used to manipulate your current track. A track in Maemo Mapper is defined as a set of points along which you have been traveling, i.e. where you have been. It can include multiple segments. Tracks are most useful if you have enabled a GPS receiver. The current track is empty until you get at least one valid position point from your GPS receiver, and it is appended to whenever you stray far enough from the last track point.

    The Track menu has the following menu items:

    Maps

    The Maps menu is used to control your map repositories. This menu will be populated with a list of all of your map repositories, from which you can select to switch to a particular repository.

    The Maps menu has the following menu items in addition to the list of available repositories:

    View

    The View menu allows you to customize the view by showing or hiding certain features of the display.

    The View menu has the following menu items:

    Auto-Center

    The Auto-Center menu is used to control whether or not Maemo Mapper should re-center the display as your current location changes. The sensitivity of re-centering (how close you get to the edge of the display before Maemo Mapper re-centers the display) can be configured in the Settings Dialog.

    There are three different modes of Auto-Center:

    Go to

    The Go to menu is used to center the view on a particular location.

    The Go to menu has the following menu items:

    GPS

    The GPS menu is used to access features of the GPS receiver, including textual information not displayed on the map. It is also used to control your connection to the GPS receiver.

    Other

    In addition to the above menus, there are a few other items in the main menu:

    Context Menu

    By taping and holding on the screen, you can access the context menu to execute actions on either that location, the nearest route waypoint, or the nearest POI.

    The context menu is separated into two hierarchical levels. The first level (Location, Waypoint, or POI) determines what kind of data on which the operation applies.

    Location

    The Location sub menu performs actions on the exactly latitude and longitude on which the tap-and-hold operation was performed. With that location, you can do the following actions:

    Map Correction is a little-used feature that corrects a rare problem with map data. In some locations around the world (like Brazil and Québec), road data from a particular map repository may not be accurate, although the error is consistent. For example, as you travel, you may find that your actual track (as indicated by your GPS receiver) is a few hundred meters away from the road on which Maemo Mapper is drawing your current position. Map Correction fixes this. When your GPS receiver has an accurate fix, and if Maemo Mapper shows your current location as somewhere other than where you expect to be, simply tap-and-hold on the location on the map where you think your current location should be drawn, then select this context menu item. The correction is saved as part of your configuration (so it persists even if you restart Maemo Mapper or your device).

    Waypoint

    The Waypoint sub menu performs actions on the waypoint nearest to the point on which the tap-and-hold operation was performed. If no waypoints are nearby, an error message will be displayed.

    POI

    The POI sub menu performs actions on the POI nearest to the point on which the tap-and-hold operation was performed. If no POIs are nearby, an error message will be displayed.

    Managing Repositories

    In Maemo Mapper, map data is divided into specific units called repositories. A repository is a source of map data, each of which has its own way of visualizing the Earth. For example, repositories based on street maps typically draw roads as lines and buildings as areas, whereas repositories based on satellite data draw the Earth as it would appear from space. There are also "hybrid" repositories that overlay street map data on top of satellite data, as well as topographical maps that show altitude data.

    Each repository is made up of maps at 16 different zoom levels. Zoom Level 0 is the highest resolution (closest to the Earth, i.e. "zoomed in"), and Zoom Level 15 is the lowest resolution (furthest from the Earth, i.e. "zoomed out"). Not all repositories are available at all zoom levels, and some repositories may even produce an error (which you can usually ignore) if you try to download maps at that zoom level.

    Once you have set up at least one repository, you can start downloading maps from that repository to your device's file system. For details on how to do this, see Managing Maps.

    You can set up any number of repositories in Maemo Mapper, but only one can be active at any given time. The Manage Repositories dialog is accessed via the Manage Repositories… menu item of the Maps menu, and it allows you to add, edit, and remove repositories.

    The Manage Repositories… has a combo box that controls which repository is being viewed and edited. When a repository is selected, the controls below it display the current settings, which you can change:

    In addition to the per-repository controls, there are a few buttons that provide additional functionality:

    Certain repositories (most notably, the commercial ones) may have license agreements attached with their use. It may be illegal to use a certain repository with Maemo Mapper or under certain conditions. This includes the repositories downloaded via the Download… button. If you are not sure if you are legally allowed to use a particular repository, you should delete it from your list of repositories. The authors of Maemo Mapper cannot be held responsible for your use of a particular repository.

    Map Repositories

    The following are two working repositories that I verfied you can use for Maemo Mapper. There are others in the application configuration but those links may now be different than when Maemo Mapper was last updated. The OpenStreetMap URL is unlikely to change but Google has changed a couple of times since I purchased my N810.

    Layers

    Layers are maps which have transparency so they can overlay the map you are using and add additional information. For example to add Road and city names on Google Satellite or Google Terrain maps.

    Managing Maps

    In Maemo Mapper, repositories represent sources of map data, and maps are just image files (e.g. PNG or JPEG) that are drawn onto the screen. Once you have a repository set up (see Managing Repositories), you can download maps from a repository into a Map Cache, which is just a database file on your device's file system.

    Maemo Mapper downloads maps from the current repository so that they can be drawn onto the screen and later recalled from disk, instead of downloading a map every time it is needed. This is called caching, and it allows you to use Maemo Mapper even when you are not connected to the Internet.

    Because Maemo Mapper downloads maps to your device's file system, you must be aware of how much disk space your maps are taking up, especially if you enable Auto-Download. If space is a concern, you may also choose to go without a cache entirely. You can do this by leaving the Map Cache DB field blank in the Manage Repositories dialog. Note that this will cause Maemo Mapper to download maps each time they are needed. If you are using a cellular data plan that charges per kilobyte, you probably want to use a cache. For more information about repositories and the Manage Repositories dialog, see Managing Repositories.

    Aside from the Auto-Download functionality, you can also download maps manually using the Manage Maps… menu item of the Maps menu. The Manage Maps dialog allows you to download, overwrite, or delete maps, either by area or along your current route. It contains up to three tabs, all of which control which and how many maps are downloaded.

    Setup

    The Setup tab controls what you what to do. You can download maps (optionally overwriting already-downloaded maps) from the current repository to your device's file system, or you can delete maps (pertaining to the current repository) from your device's file system. Both of these operations can be done either over a rectangular area or along your current route.

    Zoom

    The Zoom tab controls which zoom levels at which maps are downloaded or deleted. The current zoom level is selected by default, but you can enable or disable any zoom levels that you like.

    Area

    The Area tab, available if the By Area option is selected in the Setup tab, defines the rectangular area of the world for which maps will be downloaded or deleted. If applicable, the fields are pre-filled with your current and previous view center coordinates. This allows you to graphically choose your rectangle by first centering on one corner of the rectangle, then centering on the opposite corner, by taping the screen or by using the Lat/Lon menu item of the Go to menu.

    Downloading Routes

    Route data can be loaded from GPX files, like the ones provided by the GPX Driving Directions web service (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/gpx.cgi). Or, route data can be downloaded directly within Maemo Mapper using the Download Route dialog.

    Downloading routes requires an active connection to the Internet, but once a route is loaded into Maemo Mapper, the Internet connection is no longer needed (unless Auto-Update is enabled). The route download functionality in Maemo Mapper actually uses the aforementioned GPX Driving Directions web service.

    To download a route, you must specify an Origin and a Destination. The GPX Driving Directions web service will return a route taking you from the origin to the destination.

    The Download Route dialog contains the following controls:

    Downloading POIs

    Points of Interest (POIs) can be loaded from GPX files, like the ones provided by the GPX POI Search web service (http://www.gnuite.com/cgi-bin/poi.cgi). Or, POI data can be downloaded directly within Maemo Mapper using the Download POIs dialog.

    Downloading POIs requires an active connection to the Internet, but once a POI is loaded into Maemo Mapper, the POI is accessible in Maemo Mapper regardless of whether or not you are connected to the Internet. The POI download functionality in Maemo Mapper actually uses the aforementioned GPX POI Search web service.

    To search for POIs, you enter an Origin and a Query. The GPX POI Search web service will return up to 10 matching POIs in the vicinity of the origin. You can access more POIs from the same query by using the Page modifier.

    Once you have downloaded POIs, they are automatically added to your POI database, and you are presented with the POI List dialog to to review the POIs that were downloaded and added to your database. You must manually remove any POIs that you don't want in your database. For more information about the POI List dialog and deleting POIs, see POI List.

    The Download POIs dialog contains the following controls:

    Browsing POIs

    Once you have imported or downloaded POIs into your POI database, you can use the Browse POIs dialog to search for certain POIs in your database and to view those POIs in a tabular format.

    To browse for POIs, you enter an Origin and a optional Query. Maemo Mapper will search the database for all POIs matching your query, and it will calculate the distance from each POI to your specified Origin. You may also filter your results by Category.

    Once your search is performed, you are taken to the POI List dialog, where you can view, edit, and delete any of the POIs that matched your query. For more information about the POI List dialog and editing POIs, see POI List.

    The Browse POIs dialog contains the following controls:

    POI List

    The POI List dialog is a tabular display of POIs. With this dialog, you can go to a specific POI, edit POIs, change the categories of a set of POIs, delete POIs, and export POIs to the GPX file format.

    The main view of the POI List dialog is a table with five columns, all of which (except the check box) can be sorted by taping on the appropriate header:

    Below the table are four buttons:

    POI Categories

    POI Categories are a means by which you can organize your POIs for selective display. The POI Categories dialog is accessed from the View menu and allows you to enable/disable, add, edit, or delete categories.

    Each row in the table represents a category. There are three columns displayed for each category:

    Selecting a row in the table and pressing the Edit button will allow you to edit the above three attributes of a category, and to delete a category. You can also add a new category by using the Add button.

    A POI may only be associated with a single category at a time.

    POI Icons

    Icons can be customized on a per-POI or per-category basis, and/or you may provide a custom default icon for all POIs. To do so, you should place icon files in the same directory as the POI database itself. Most image file formats are supported, but the files themselves must have the ".jpg" extension (even if the icons are not in the JPEG format).

    To customize the default POI icon (to be used instead of the simple square), place an icon file called "poi.jpg" in the same directory as the POI database.

    To customize the icon for a POI category, place an icon file with the same name as the POI category, all lower-case, plus the ".jpg" extension. For example, if your POI category is called "Gas Stations", the file should have the name "gas stations.jpg".

    To customize the icon for a specific POI, place an icon file with a name equal to the POI's label, all lower-case, plus the ".jpg" extension. For example, if your POI's label is "Joe's House", the file should have the name "joe's house.jpg".

    POI-specific icons are given priority over category-specific icons, which in turn are given priority over the default POI icon.

    Settings

    The Settings dialog (accessible from the main menu) provides access to a plethora of configurable options that control how Maemo Mapper appears and runs. In addition to the tabs, which are described below, there are also two buttons at the bottom of the diagram labeled Hardware Keys… and Colors….

    The Hardware Keys… button brings up another dialog box, which allows you to customize the actions that each hardware key causes. For example, you can map thebutton to cycle through map repositories, giving you quick access to switching among them.

    The Colors… button allows you to customize the colors that are used for drawing on-map objects.

    GPS

    The GPS tab tells Maemo Mapper the source (if any) from which to retrieve GPS data. It is only applicable if you have access to a GPS source, such as a bluetooth GPS receiver or a GPSD server. Technically, Maemo Mapper uses GPSD for all of its GPS receiver communication, but you can instruct Maemo Mapper to use GPSD in one of three ways:

    Auto-Center

    The Auto-Center tab allows you to configure how Maemo Mapper automatically re-centers the display when either Lat/Lon or Lead is enabled from the Auto-Center menu. The Auto-Center feature is most useful in conjunction with a GPS receiver.

    Announce

    The Announce tab controls how and when Maemo Mapper displays or speaks waypoint information. When you approach a waypoint in your route (defined by the presence of a description in the GPX file), Maemo Mapper will pop up a text box with the contents of that description. When downloading routes from within Maemo Mapper, the text describes your next action, e.g. "Turn left at Main Street. Go 2.4 miles."

    As you approach a waypoint, Maemo Mapper will continue to display the description of that waypoint, so long as you are within the range defined by the Advance Notice option, or until you pass the waypoint. Because the amount of notice is dependent on your speed, it is possible to see the text, then slow down to a point where the notice disappears. This is possible, for example, if you are stopped at a red light. The text will reappear when you have picked up enough speed to again break the Advance Notice range.

    If you have installed flite, which is available in the same repository from which you downloaded Maemo Mapper, then Maemo Mapper can optionally also speak the same directions that appear on screen. Maemo Mapper will only speak the directions once, at the exact moment you first reach the distance from the waypoint defined by the Advance Notice option. The same directions are on-screen if you need to reference them.

    Misc.

    The Misc. and Misc. 2 tabs contain miscellaneous options.

    POI

    The POI tab allows you to define your POI database and how POIs are drawn on the screen.

    About Maemo Mapper

    Current Version: 2.4.1

    Maemo Mapper was created and developed by John Costigan (aka gnuite).

    Copyright © 2006-2007 John Costigan.

    POI and GPS-Info code originally written by Cezary Jackiewicz.

    Default map data provided by OpenStreetMap.org - other map repositories are subject to their own licenses and may or may not be suitable for use with Maemo Mapper. It may be illegal to use a certain repository with Maemo Mapper or under certain conditions. This includes the repositories downloadable directly in Maemo Mapper. If you are not sure if you are legally allowed to use a particular repository, you should delete it from your list of repositories. The authors of Maemo Mapper cannot be held responsible for your use of a particular repository.

    Maemo Mapper is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

    Maemo Mapper is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.