Map Mobile Navigator User's Guide

Version 4.7.0

Content

Basics of MapNav
Application main menu
Information screens
Navigation
GPS-receiver
Track record
Using custom maps
Prepare your custom map
Nearest caches geocaching.ru
NetRadar - interuser location system
Additional abilities
How to get rid of program errors

Common issues

Map Mobile Navigator (MapNav) can be started on almost any mobile phone with Java support MIDP-2.0 and CLDC-1.1.

Memory heap available to application must be at least 500kb, when less memory is available application tries to start in safe mode when only one piece of map is displayed at once. Some part of the app functionality depends on phone support for different extension to J2ME platforms (JSRs) (phones with Symbian OS are limited in using external map).

This guide reflects abilities of listed version number above and can be behind of latest version available at forum in Debug Versions section ( Отладочные версии )

Remember, stability and performance of the app depends on particular phone model and varies much.

Basics of MapNav

At start application show startup logo with application name until initialization is done.

After that you see screen where maps and surfaces are displayed. After first run there is a planet view. Cross at center points to place coordinates of which are shown at right bottom corner of the screen.

Map keys

Map navigation use next keys:

Joystick – map move.

1 – zoom in

3 – zoom out

7 – track write write pause/resume

9 – map inverse (night mode)

# – changes between map/surface

0 – changes map source Google / VirtualEarth / Custom maps (Depends on Settings - Maps )

* – displays additional menu (menu content depends on active route and GPS).

5 ( as joystick press) – switch between GPS position and free map user scroll. When binded to GPS position joystick scrolls info screens. Also some info screens has several views so pressing left-right you may scroll through them too.

4 – rotates screen to 90 degrees (or part of screen depending on phone capabilities).

6 – switchs backlight.

4 hold – opens SMS send mode your coordinates

5 hold – adds waypoint to active route/waypoints with your current coordinates (creates waypoints and active it if no active present), or with azimut and distance to current. By using Settings you may set to add marks, not waypoints

6 hold – opens Settings screen

Additional menu with * press appears on screen. Its content depends on active route and application modes.

1 – no scale/scale (shows scale grid over the map)

2 – online/offline enables auto download necessary map tiles from Internet or only cached tiles will be used.

Additional menu content depends on current application state. When GPS is active items for map rotate and compass over map display appear.

Pointer support

Since 4.2.0 support for pointer is present. You may move your map, zoom in and out, change map server and type, bind to GPS position and change screen mode. If your phone support pointer you'll see next buttons on map screen at right side. When binded to GPS position pressing centre of top-bottom part of screen scrolls info screens when pressing to centre of left-right part of screen scrolls views of that info screen.

Long press for pointer add waypoint or mark as setuped.

Application Main Menu

Main menu consists of

• GPS on
• Navigation
• Marks
• Goto
• Refresh
• Options
• More...
• NetRadar On
• Exit

GPS on connects your GPS-receiver or activates other way of location.

Navigation lets you manage and activate waypoints, routes, track or set mark as waypoint. TrackBack function can be called here with active track (create back route by your track).

Marks are useful for saving locations for next quick return and reference. Here you can also turn on/off marks displaying on a map.

Goto is for entering location coordinates with next move to the place.

Refresh may be used in case of connection lost to download missed map tiles.

Settings let you tune MapNav for your only needs and phone abilities.

Settings are divided in groups:

• General - basic settings

Scaled preview – zoom in use previous level to display scaled image until current level image is available.

Parallel download – allow to download more then one map tile from Internet at once.

Full screen – display map in full screen area.

Safe mode – show only one map tile where cross is inside, decrease application memory requirements.

Show coordinates – display current coordinates at map.

Backlight on – turns on constant backlight (Nokia, SonyEricsson, Siemens).

Blink – check it in if Backlight on is not enough for backlight to function properly.

Fox Hunter – sound tone changes with approaching to waypoint.

Limit rotate image size – set limit for 256x256 pixels raster to be used for map rotating. Turn off if your phone have enough memory and its screen is larger then that.

Add Minimize – in main menu new item added Minimize to minimize application to run in background.

Cross – show cross in map center.

Transparent pointer – location pointer displayed transparent.

Light on lock – with keypad lock/unlock application turn on/off backlight.

Clear on reload – when Reload selected from main menu tiles are downloaded from Internet again.

Work path – browse for folder to open first in file browser.

• Appearance - visual settings

Font size and style let you set more useful text appearance for your particular phone device. You can select Large, Normal, Small font size and , independently from font size, normal or bold font style.

Opaque text – text on map is drawn over semitransparent panel.

50% (30%) – opacity of panel.

Map font: Forecolor – select color for text over map.

Map font: Shadow – select color for shadow text outline.

View 2, View 3, View 4 – select screens to show in multiscreen mode.

• Alerts - settings for sound alerts

Sounds on – turn on/off special sounds.

Satellites status – sound alarms when satellites are lost or found by GPS-receiver.

Vibration – vibrate when BT GPS connection lost.

New track point – signals when new point is added to track

Max Speed – signals when speed exceeds the value.

Volume – set volume for sound alerts.

• Keys – settings for keypad use

Hold 5 add – you may select to add new waypoint or mark on long key 5 hold.

Smooth scroll – make map scroll smooth.

Here you can redefine most keys.

 

Definition	Action
Not selected	no action assigned
Landscape mode	rotates screen for 90˚
Light	backlight change
Send coordinates	shows dialog for SMS
Zoom in	zoom in for 2
Zoom out	zoom out for 2
Add mark	opens dialog for to add new mark or waypoint (depends on Hold 5 add)
Settings	opens Settings dialog
Screenshot	saves screenshot with latest used settings
Flickr	opens Flickr function list
Map source	changes map site
Map	changes map in site
Precise position	start precise position mode
1 - next	changes to next waypoint
Nearest WP	changes to nearest waypoint
Sounds	sound on/off
1 - Track recording	pause/resume track record
GeoCache info	shows nearest geocaches
My POI	shows nearest My POI
Send NetRadar	activates coordinates send from map for once
Track cross	creates cross on track
Zoom in 3х	triple zoom in
Zoom out 3х	triple zoom out
Map source/Map	changes all maps one by one
NR: send message	sends voice message to users NetRadar (in realtime mode)
Inverse map	inverts map colors (Night mode)
2 - viewport	changes display layout
1 - scale	changes scale display
2x	double map display

• Geo Info – coordinates display format

Show location as – select coordinate format you need (23˚40'47'', 23˚40.783, 23.67972˚).

Display datum – select datum to display (WGS 84, Pulkovo 1942).

Projection – for what projection display coordinates (Geodetic, Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM), Gauss-Kruger).

Measure units – select system to display (metric, nautical, imperial).

• GPS – setup GPS-receiver connection

Connection type – select type of connection to your GPS-receiver (Bluetooth, Com-port, internal location).

COM-port – if you use com-port connection specify its name.

Auto reconnect – next time app is started it tries to connect to GPS-receiver.

HGE-100 – check to use the application with the device.

• Track - settings for track record and display

Show track points – track may hold thousands of points. To speed up its display select to show only last 100 points.

Record track by – check necessary events that triggers add new track point.: time period, min distance, course change. You can select any combination of events. If no events selected track record is disabled. You can tune record write period and Next point min distance farther.

Waypoints proximity – distance from current waypoint to autoselect next waypoint in active route.

Auto start track – with application start if no active track is available starts default track record with 200 points and cycle overwrite. To save this default track go to Navigation - Track and select Close Track. After it select it in the list as normal track

Autoselect next waypoint – with enough approach to current waypoint (to distance set in Settings-Track-Waypoint proximity) selects next waypoint in active route.

Clear default track – clears default track on application start up, on exit it saves separately in Tracks.

Autoselect next waypoint may be To next only or To nearest next (may be used when actual route significantly differs from planned one).

Speed color – show speed with track color.

• Maps – list of used maps

Check map servers in list you want to rotate by keys 0 and #.

Autocenter – centers map when switching user's custom maps.

Cache index – cache map tiles info for external map display speed up. Do not use for maps with more then 10000 tiles because high memory requirements.

• Language – user interface language

Select your native language.

• NetRadar - setting of NetRadar system

Login – Your login (you must registered at Map Mobile Navigator site, it's free).

Password – Enter your password.

Hold background connection – application tries to hold constant connection to Internet to avoid traffic rounding and operator's charge (but use a lot of phone battery).

Realtime – coordinates are sent and recieved in realtime manner so you can see others with about 1-2 sec of delay (but use a lot of phone battery).

Show track – displays track of last information received from NetRadar.

NetRadar traffic – approximation of data exchange volume.

Additional – leave mapnav.spb.ru for system to function.

• Cache - information about cache state

In-memory image pool – extra count of tile that holds in memory at once. Used for phone with large screens and to speed up display. You don't need to change it in most cases. But

2 - phone with at least 1Мb,

4 - for phones with at least 1,5 Мb of memory heap size.

Image cache size (Internet) shows volume of downloaded tiles and how much is available for internal map and cache.

Also there you can see loaded Map image size.

Use file cache - use file system to store image cache from Internet. You should select in menu Browse for correct specify File cache path. Remember to disable confirmation for file access in application security.

 

You can use CacheClear (frees space occupied with Internet cache). You can also use Reset (to set all setting to default values. Cache and map are not cleared).

• Debug - additional settings to fix problems occured and custom map binding

Enable – activate debug information write to log.

Map correction mode – after enabling this joystick let you move custom map binding at the same time showing map from Google. This helps you to finish creating your custom map. Displayed values must be entered in Map Creator to appropriate fields and map must be converted again with this values.

Save map correct – stores correction after app exit.

Correct for all maps – shifts all maps not only user's.

Save NMEA – write all messages from GPS-receiver to file.

Path to save – path to folder used to store log exported with menu Log2File.

Check debug update – the application will automatically check for new debug version instead of release (as it do by default).

Log – log itself.

Menu item More… moves you to short help, about program, send SMS with coordinates and take screen shot (to file or MMS).

Also from here you can Load your custom map and get closest five cache from GeoCaching.ru. MapNav support photo upload to service Flickr with geotagging. In More... also possible to make backup of application data in Service section.

NetRadar is ability application to send your location to internet server so you can see location of your friends and your self from the application and from web site.

Information screens

MapNav has not only screen with map but many other information screens. Two arrows from each other in caption signals about possible other views for current screen. Use left-right to scroll through.

Keys 2 and 8 change current screen (in forward and backward order) to next:

Map	Compass	Track profile	Track Info

Location	Directional speedometer	Navigation (with route)

When track information screen is selected you see short line under the screen name which means there are a lot of other screens are available. You may scroll it with left-right press. Some screens like next are seen:

Key 0 clears current information screen statistics, if possible.

When GPS is active compass displays northern direction relatively to your move direction (blue arrow end), green arrow must be pointed forward away from you.

If route is active then it displays information about selected waypoint: name, distance, ETA hh:mm. Green triangle at circle shows direction to the waypoint.

Track record makes possible to see track profile. At this screen you see total track length, max and min altitude.Use joystick left-right to get more info.

Screen Speed displays current speed and selected waypoint information in active route.

Screen Navigation displays your position relatively to current route step (between active waypoint and previous one). The screen lets you ability to move alone route with high precision staying on a shortest possible path. Different variants of the screen display as your position to route as route position to you (like HSI - Horizontal situation indicator). You may change scale or scroll waypoints list with keys 1 and 3.

How screen Navigation is functioning (large view):
1. On rotating round scale you see your current course on the end of big light green arrow, yellow number it is.
2. Through the center comes blue line - line of route current step, direction on it is shown with white triangle in center so where it cross round scale is your course to current waypoint, this value is not displayed. But with blue number is displayed your "must be" course on current route step. Sure, it is constant value at all.
3. In the center is indicator of you position relative to route line (step). It is displayed with yellow color. When it goes off blue line you have offset from route line displayed in right bottom corner with direction to route line. You may change scale of offset with 1 and 3 keys (distance between points is displayed at left).
4. When you are more then 10 meters off the route line green highlighted sector so you big light green arrow must be inside the sector to get back on route line.
See the picture:

It means you are moving towards waypoint Cross (course of route line to it is 200 - constant, your current course is 195) and you are 0,03 km to left from route line (so arrows show you move to right). Each point of scale is 31m currently set.

To get back on route line you have to change course into green sector like this:

The navigation in this way is very useful in flight, sea navigation and moving across landscapes with no visible references where you need to move from A to B by shortest path.

Multiscreen mode

Multiscreen mode makes it possible to display several screens at once. To activate the mode open quick menu with key * and select 1 - View. Then with 2 - viewport change multiscreen mode.

Examples of multiscreen modes::

Three and four screens modes.

Navigation

Navigation objects

Objects are Waypoints, Routes and Tracks.

Each object is a set of points with coordinates and some additional info.

Waypoints and Routes is a set of a waypoints but in Route order of waypoints is important when with Waypoints it is not. Waypoints and Routes always have active (current) waypoint which is used for current navigation to its location: displayed its name, distance to it, ETA and others. You may create and edit Waypoints and Routes in the application changing any of its attributes.

Track is a set of ordered points with coordinates and with information when and at what speed the point information is recorded. It is an information of a real route you done. Information about time and speed lets calculate different statistics and display speed and altitude graphs.

Menu item Navigation

Here you can select what kind of object to load for navigation. You can use waypoints and routes created with application OziExplorer.

How to create its in OziExplorer see that program help.

You may load waypoints and routes by two way: from Internet and from local file.

To load from Internet you need to load up your file to some site and get its URL. Then in MapNav select Load..., specify URL (without http://) and select Load from Internet and menu Load. File will be downloaded and object appears in list.

To load from local file specify path to file, like c:/other/route.rte, usually files of unknown type stored in folder Other (другое). Use menu Browse to run browser of file system.

Number of points is not limited, however 1000 points any phone loads with no trouble.

From routes MapNav loads next information of OziExplorer:

• Route name and its color
• Point name, coordinates, color of text and background, symbol from Garmin set.

For example, have this route in OziExplorer:

Then in phone you can see next screens (depends on selected map mode, or no map at all)

You also can edit waypoints and routes right in application. You may create create and clone routes, add and remove waypoints, edit waypoints: location, label, symbol. You can alse export and import all navigation objects in different formats: PLT WPT RTE (OziExplorer), KML (Google Earth), GPX (universal format).

Waypoints and Routes edit

Goto to Routes/Waypoints, (close Route/Waypoints, if active), highlight route, select in menu Edit. Waypoint's list appear from the route. You may rename route, change waypoint's order, add and remove waypoints. Select waypoint in list to edit. To save changes select Save in menu. On exit program asks for changes save.

Active object handling

When you select waypoints/routes in list it becomes active. It means you they displayed on map and one waypoint become current waypoint. Program shows its name, distance to it from current location, ETA. When navigation object is active in quick menu (call with *) appears Navigation item. After press 3 quick menu for navigation is displayed. It lets you select waypoint, change object display options. When GeoCache waypoints is active additional info is available.

GPS-receiver

Of course, true navigation is possible with GPS-receiver only. You may use external Bluetooth GPS or internal. See Settings - GPS. To connect Bluetooth GPS-receiver select menu item GPS on (Bluetooth must be activated in phone before you run MapNav). After device search select your BT GPS in list and select Connect. After that confirm connection to BT GPS. When satellites are found and location is known you see you current location. Also your speed, direction and coordinates are displayed. Active route displays direction to selected waypoint and other important information: name, distance, ETA.

If not route is active displays speed and course only.

Track record

One of the most important GPS navigation item is track record. To start track record (if default track is disabled or track was closed) select Navigation - Tracks - Start track. If you want to continue existed track just select it in list. Track can be selected any time but record is available with active GPS only. Track records according to Settings - Track. You may also see your current settings at Information screen.

Track saves every 10 minutes of record, when closed or selected other track or MapNav exit (with use Exit menu item!).

In Track list also available Delete, Save and Delete all. Delete will delete selected track. Save will offer to save selected track to selected track file format (OziExplorer , GPX) with name TRYYYYMMDD_HHNN.PLT to specified path.

You may send track directly to site for later review and download with Send - WWW in track menu.

Track view

Active track display on map screen. Here is a small example of snowboard ride. Download.

Using custom maps

MapNav may use maps from files. Custom maps (offline maps) are internal and external ones.

Internal maps are loaded into application so it's size is limited by free space of application location and count of tiles shouldn't be more then 10000. Map load time may take several minutes.

External maps are ready for use immediately from its location and aren't limited in size so they are more useful because no actual load comes with. But not all phones may be used with external maps due to phone capabilities (for examples, Nokia phones with Symbian OS).

To load map select in menu More... and then Internal or External maps. List of loaded maps appear. Select Add Map. Fill map name and Browse to map file. Then use menu item Add map. After map completes it loading it appear in map list. To view your maps in Settings-Maps User Map must be checked. Switch to your map with key 0 (until No appear - no maps) and then # to select each your own maps.

To view your map you may just select it in list.

Embedded map

You may insert small map (< 1 Mb) in the app before install. Just add in jar file map.mno file and after install it'll be installed and activated.

Prepare your custom map

Raster map conversion

Since version 2.4.7 Map Mobile Navigator can use its own raster maps. Source of maps is maps for OziExplorer or files GeoTIFF with projection Mercator. To prepare map you need Download Mobile Map Creator.

With MapNavEditor you can create your own maps with OziExplorer maps, export OziExplorer maps to GoogleMV2 cache , merge many ready maps to one. Since build 30 it creates two map files *.MNM and *.MNO.

• *.MNM – internal map. It needs to be loaded before use. And the map needs free space in phone twice as map file size. After load map file may be deleted. It may be used on any phone with file access from java-applications. But large maps of the type require a lot of heap to store map tiles information.

• *.MNO – external map. Connects immediately (no beforehand load needed) and may be any size. The point is to support advanced file access interface (fast position skip in file) or your external map become too slow to use. So external maps work with any phone with file access but quality of use depends on interface implementation.

Map creating consists of two steps only.

Start MapNavEditor. You see next screen (may evolve with permanent development):

Step 1.

Set JPEG compression , map quality and file size depends on it. To help choose desired compression level two map tiles are shown, without and with compression.

You may choose how many levels of downscaled map must be available (how far you may push map from you). Changes in position of Levels of scaling to smaller size from Orig to Orig/32 increase map size in 1.3 . If you choose Orig , you'll be able to see map only in one scale.

Parameter Map fit define way to create base map scale because only predefined scales can be used (like Google Map).

For map with low color count you may want to use PNG format, so no JPEG artifacts will present in map.

For map fast correct use values dX & dY acquired in app, or just leave it 0.

If Ignore borders is checked map tiles from borders is ignored and not included in map.

Absolute black tiles are also ignored always.

Step 2.

Browse to OziExplorer map, click fist button in panel. Select *.map , after that browse for ready map store (must be enough free space).

That's all! Wait for finish. After finish you get *.mnm (internal map) and *.mno (external map), which you need to transfer in you phone. To load internal map select More in menu, Load custom map. It takes time to load large maps. To load external map goto More, External map. It connects immediately, but see notes upper. After load phone transfers you to map center at smallest scale. Advice create mark at the location to fast return.

You still may change map with 0 and #.

Export to GoogleMV2 cache

Bind correctness you may check by export to GoogleMV2 cache, by second button at panel.

Map merge

You may merge several map files into one. Click third button at the panel. Specify file list to merge. When tile overlap occurs tiles from upper file in list are used.

Convert process automation

The application is an automation server with COM interface. So it may be used from any programming language. In the application folder are several examples on Visual Basic.

Using online-maps

The convertor (from 50 build) can display maps from online sources and create map from it. Also you can load ready map and Ozi map to view it.

To load map from file use command from tab Convertor. To load from Internet just select source and zoom.

To compile map select region, specify zoom and add to build list.

• click Set On Map;

• select region on map with mouse (with left mouse button hold);

• specify zoom, in pic lower specified zoom 15;

• click "+" to add to build list;

• when all part are added click Compile Map.

Both MNM & MNO maps are created.

Cached maps stored in folder Cache.

Caches geocaсhing.ru

In section More... with active GPS function is available to get location of three nearest to your location caches geocaching.ru.

To get locations select GeoCache nearest, program will access online database and then display its on the map. Recieved locations become waypoints so you may select next with additional menu with key *.

Please, get familiar with rules of the game before cache visiting.

NetRadar - interuser location system

System NetRadar allows to see locations of other users as their speed and direction. User location may be seen from the application or from the site. Goto to NetRadar Settings site section and select user which may see your location. You see also list of users visible to you.

To function in phone enter your login and password (for the site) in Settings - NetRadar. After it select in main menu NetRadar On.

To get list of users use fast menu with * key. In list you may goto user location, navigate on user or bind to it (useful when only of you has GPS).

Latest version support for real-time tracking and text and sound messages between users.

Additional abilities

Application also has next functions for your comfort (More... menu item):

Screen shot

You can take screenshots from map or any other information screens and save it in BMP or GIF format file, or send it by MMS.

Send coordinates

This mode let you send your current position by SMS. If receiver also has MapNav running he may goto to location or save it as Mark.

My POI (gps-club.ru)

Displays POI from poi.gps-club.ru, located in screen borders. You may add or edit POI by yourself. Goto to GPS Club.

Precise position

This mode accumulates GPS measurements and calculate statistics info: measurements count, maximum deviation from medium, medium coordinates, CEP50 precise (50% of made measurements are in circle of displayed radius) and CEP90 (90%).

Flickr

This mode makes photogeotagging with the phone camera. To use it register at http://flickr.com and authorize MapNav by the link http://www.flickr.com/auth-72157602577356052 . Enter the result number in Registration. You may send photos from the app or ready files in phone. Its would be tagged with location from GPS or map. Mode PhotoLog - sends shots until battery is depleted or you cancel it.

How to get rid of program errors

If program displays messages with error or you see some goes wrong you can help with the program development.

You have to install debug version of the application, the last one you may find in the forum section. After install you need open Settings - Debug, check On. Then Save it and restart the program. Try to reproduce wrong situation. After error then in Settings-Debug choose LogSite and log will be sent directly to developer's site or choose LogFile and the same will be save to folder which is displayed at the same screen. Content of the error log and error symptoms post to site forum in section Errors and troubles. Thank you!

Abilities of the program grow every day. If you still have any questions please visit forum of the site.

All used in this guide registered and trade marks belongs to their respected owners.

Updated 24.07.2008 with MapNav version 4.6.12