foxtrot_xray

For those using the GE Tools, at the moment the USGS Topo Map server is down. So any Topo Map overlays will be a giant red ugly 'X'. I informed them of it, but haven't heard back, don't know if they're working on it or not.

And they never will. It's a completely different agency - that's like going into BP and asking why they don't carry Exxon gas. SOME USGS marks are in the NGS database, but in the whole, only a tiny percentage of the USGS marks are. I can have a program ready by the end of the day that will let you enter in all the information.. but someone has to transcribe ALL that information, and as you found - a lot of it is very limited, especially on height runs. The problem isn't the software - it's the transcribing of the data.

"Federal Highway Administration". No 'Works' in there. They do ALL roads in the US - not park roads. They allocate funding to interstates, US Highways, and then do grants and studies for state/county roads. Their biggest 'contribution' is the MUTCD - which is the regulations that state that, 'hey, stop signs have to be red, not blue'.

Was gonna say, "Sure, you can ask , just send your request to the Help Center", then realized benchmarks don't seem to fit in any request drop down. Though in reality, unless they finally counted benchmarks as finds in the US, and get a heckofalot more folks interested than what's here, that's more than likely never gonna happen. Honestly, even if you get in touch with the folks up above, they won't do anything. For a few reasons - (1) They haven't updated their BM database here since 2000, I believe. (Maybe 2001?) So you're lookin' at 15-16 year old data. (2) USGS marks are not NGS (NOAA) - different gov't agency completely. USGS does not have an electronic database of their stations. To get a datasheet(*), you have to write them, they make a copy of it and mail it out to you. (I'm not even sure if they could scan and email it to you..) (2a) Other gov't agencies, like the Dept of Interior, National Park Service, have their own marks as well. I don't know off-hand how to even get info about those, or if they are online. (3) Ref (*) above in #2, I used the term 'datasheet' lightly - USGS marks do not have the formatted, pretty datasheets that NGS has - often times, the 'sheet' is nothing more than a paragraph with the height and to-get-to directions. And sometimes, it's even hand-written. (4) The USGS, DOI, NPS and other agency marks that you DO FIND in the NGS database means that those marks were used for an NGS project, usually. So they have the data and accuracy needed and then were entered into the NGS database. (i.e. There's a USGS mark at the top of a mountain, and enough data was obtained on it to get an accurate reading, the survey crew didn't want to put in another mark on the same mountain, they used the USGS one..) Hope that helps. Canada has their mark database online, and I've been lookin' at ways to tie it into my android app. Any agency that has an online database is pretty fair game, in my view.

*MOST* of them are not.

Uhm.. I had to double-check. Canon EOS 10D or 7D, depending on the age. I dunno why they posted SO HUGE here.. I thought the forum software limited their size. Sorry! Honestly, I wasn't even trying. You'll see grain and blurryness in most of them - I didn't set the shot up, put on the good lense - I just snapped and went.

Here are some of my favorites. Sorry no PID are given, since when I copied these off my drive, I forgot to write down their stations. D'oh. The only real interesting one is the last one, the Tybee Lighthouse (CK3749) - I actually had to submit a recovery, because the US Power Squad apparently 'couldn't find it'. (And, interestingly, looking at the datasheet - they're *STILL* recovering intersection stations. I thought they were told to stop recovering *in general*?) if anyone WANTS any info on any of these, let me know, I'll look them back up. Anyways -

Near Mint? Near Mexico? New Mexico? .. I dunno.

For those Android users, I have an app ready, called 'BenchMap'. Feel free to use it. I have that on my Galaxy S6 Active and my Monterra! Thanks for fixing the Android 4.0 issues! That took forever. The 6.0 SDK really broke 4.x Android. A LOT of developers are going to have issues with that. Oy.

For those Android users, I have an app ready, called 'BenchMap'. Feel free to use it.

Wow.. a reply after 8 years.. I'm impressed.

They keep all state-wide datasheet files on FTP as well, and they're usually updated at the beginning of each month.

Excellent! I will buy it for sure. It's going up on the Play Store in about an hour. However, depending on how long it takes them to propagate their servers, you may not see it for a few hours after that. But it's early enough where everyone should have it for the weekend.

Hey guys - Just to let you know, look for v2.0 hitting the play store later this week.

Note that the DESIGNATION of the station is NOT ALWAYS what is stamped on it, however.

NGS recently changed the output format of their GetList API call. They didn't announce it, and no record of the change anywhere on their site. However, they added two fields ('Set Year' and 'Setting Agency') - and they added them in the middle of the format, which mis-aligned all the other fields that came after those. So the app was looking for Lat/Lon in positions that were now held by other non-numeric fields. Unfortunately in this return call, I cannot use a regex against future changes, since the field data is so .. similar to each other. however, I posted a new 1.x version to the play store - you should get it when Google updates their servers. This will correct the map displaying issue for v1.x versions. Until you get the update, you can switch to the 'Backup Server' (in the settings) until you get the update. --Mike

Yeah, unfortunately the new Maps API doesn't support the floating/hiding buttons, so now they're *always* visible. (So, I removed the satellite button, and left the 'center on location' button.) The other down-side to the new API is that it won't *stay* auto-centered on your location. On v1.x app, you notice that when you hit the 'center' button, and then move, once your location is off the map the map re-centers. On the new API, the map will not move again until you hit the button. The plus to the new Maps API? I have have WMS tile overlays. The first v2 version will have USGS Topographic map overlays (part of the paid features). In the future, I may add others. (OSMap? etc.) To me, having Topo overlays out-weighs the auto-center and button fading.

Huh. I didn't know anyone used that button on v1.x. I'll re-add it to v2.0. The beta email won't have it available, as I just finished packing up the APK to send out in the email. I removed the button in v2.0, currently you have to go into settings and change the map display there. (I removed the button in v2 because I wasn't aware that people used it, and I like having more map visible. )

I was able to escape the family yesterday, and went out on an 'unexpected' benchmarking trip. (Despite the heat and humidity.. Or because OF it, I got some really easy ones.) Used the app, and am happy with how it worked. Will be sending it to Beta folks later today, and should then be able to post it up on the play store soon.

Just an update for those not in the beta test group - Due to family issues, I haven't been able to get much work done on the App. (Heck, I haven't been able to do ANY benchmark hunting since earlier this past winter!) However, it's just about finished, and will be posted soon. (Hoping to get last beta out this month, and then final on the store soon after, assuming no issues.)

D'oh, sorry - I didn't mean YOU were misleading, I meant the datasheet with the 'monumneted' recoveries. My take on the disk - It's possible that part of the company (Esso part) has certain divisions under it (read: surveying crews) that work in both countries, so their disks read 'Esso' - while the US company counter-part wouldn't have a surveying team. I've seen railroads do this often. (i.e. Different divisions of CN or CP..)

This is misleading. Keep in mind that the scripts that generate datasheets *always* give the first entry 'monumented' or 'description' recoveries, even if they're not the ones that did it. Since there are no original notes from Esso in the NGS database, MD SHA's recovery note is the first, and therefore their entry is marked in the history table as being 'monumented' by. (Hell - I had two in the NGS database that said *I* monument them, until I asked Dave to correct it - once he imported notes from paper files into the stations, I was no longer the monumenter. )

Is the 50-100' number some kind of standard? I'm not sure I've ever found scaled coordinates to be within 100'. My expectation is within a tenth of a mile, but I keep my mind open to a even larger offset. Maybe that's just California. Like BM Hunter said, it's a rough guesstimate. It can vary, too in the longitude scale (E<->W) depending on your latitude. It also is assuming that the folks doing the scaling chose the right position on the map. There have been some I've found where the scaler(?) picked the wrong road, or the wrong bridge, etc.

I may have misunderstood your question - if this was in relation to why I had to update some things on my local server - Yeah, the In-App_Billing (the 'purchase' of advanced features) is handled by Play. However, they very strongly recommend that a key/value pair is stored on local servers to verify responses back from the Play server. (In the rare case that you get a new device, or do a factory reset, or install a new ROM..) So I had to add some code/database on my site to handle the data to verify against Play's servers.

By being a part of the beta - it's not yet released. But no worries, it should be out in a couple months. I'm finishing up some stuff on the server side before I can send out one more beta for testers and then putting it up on Google Play.