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jri

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Posts posted by jri

  1. All navigation apps are going to be a big battery drain on a smartphone, because the phone's GPS receiver draws a fair amount of power. Look for apps which have the option of disabling the GPS while the screen is switched off - it means you don't get a fix so quickly when you turn on again, but the battery will last longer. Another major power drain is the radio connection to the internet. Geocaching apps will generally use the network for getting downloading maps and Geocache data. The radio will use more power when the connection is weak, which is often the case when geocaching out in some shady countryside valley. However, there are offline solutions that avoid this problem.

     

    For maps, you can download free offline vector maps from OpenAndroMaps. These are based on OpenStreetMap data, and are available for most of the world at varying levels of detail. See their FAQ page for the list of apps the maps work with. The GB map is about 650MB, which fits OK on a modern smartphone. Alternatively, some apps let you cache small portions of online maps, but these take up a lot more storage on your phone compared to the amount of detail you get.

     

    Most geocaching-specific apps should be able to work with offline geocache data. If they get the information directly from Geocaching.com, then they are supposed to use the Geocaching Live API. Unfortunately, this is rather limited unless you are a Premium Member. There is a list of Geocaching Live apps at http://www.geocaching.com/live/partners/. However, many apps can also accept Geocache data as .GPX files. GPX files (either pocket queries, or from individual cache listings) are also a Premium Member feature, but they can also be generated in various other ways, e.g. basic members can download .LOC files and convert them using GPS Babel. GPXs made this way won't contain so much information as the ones from the website, but should have the essentials: name, GC-code and coordinates. GPX files can also be created by other navigation programmes and websites, to show routes, tracks and other, non-geocache waypoints.

     

    As Tyke points out, the Radar navigation function is part of the GPS Status app, and can be used as a plug-in to various other navigation apps. GPS Status is worth having in its own right as it lets you download Assisted GPS (AGPS) data, which makes the GPS time-to-first-fix much shorter.

     

    One free Android app that works with all the above is Locus (with its Geocaching plugin). It displays various online map services (either live or cached offline) as well as offline vector maps, can take cache data from either Geocaching Live or GPX files, and will integrate with GPS Status. That said, it does come with hundreds of configuration options, and isn't so user friendly as other apps you may have tried.

     

  2. Just spotted a different bug, also associated with this website update. This one is specific to Chrome v32 (Firefox and earlier Chrome versions seem OK).

     

    If you try to zoom the map on a cache listing page by double-clicking or using a mouse wheel, the map will zoom in on a point way to the north, rather than zooming in on the centre of the map. Using the zoom buttons works OK though.

     

    This is a documented bug in Leaflet Maps v0.7.1, caused by a change in how Chrome reports the mouse location. According to the Leaflet Changelog, it has been fixed in v0.7.2. See the entry in the Leaflet Issues Log for more details.

  3. Edit - Just noticed that I don't get the cross hair cursor, do I need to do anything to get it?

     

    What browser and hardware are you using? You shouldn't have to do anything other than clicking the 'i' icon, but it might not work for all systems, especially if they're touchscreen-based (on account of not having a normal mouse).

  4. It's weird that the Moun10Bike's one displays correctly - map with waypoints zoomable/movable. :blink: (Do you have sort of an exception from the devs? :) )

    I know of many others with additional waypoints which have the map blind and stuck...

     

    I've been doing some more testing and found the following:

     


    1.  
    2. If a cache has no additional waypoints, the map loads at zoomLevel 14, and everything looks fine.
    3. If a cache has got additional waypoints, the map initially loads at zoomLevel 14, but then pans and zooms to fit all the points into the map view. This currently breaks the map.
    4. If a cache has additional waypoints at just the right spacing, the map still pans, but doesn't have to zoom to fit them all in. It stays at zoomLevel 14 and everything works.
       

    You can test this by viewing a puzzle or multi-cache, then adjusting the Corrected Coordinates. e.g. If you look at my cache GC1K327, the map will be broken. But if you correct the coordinates to N51 29.595 W2 35.783 (not the actual location), the waypoints spread out far enough to fit in the map view at zoomLevel 14. When the page reloads, the map will work again and you can zoom/pan as normal.

     

    I think that this proves that the problem is linked to having to zoom and pan the map on page load. I guess that it might be something to do with animation in Leaflet, if the map tries to zoom mid-way though panning or visa versa. My solution would be to re-code the page to get the map to the right place first, then add on the waypoint markers afterward.

  5. Off topic, but this reminds me how much I'd love the "show larger map" to take me to a map that shows the waypoints, since that's what I typically want the bigger map for. But, of course, it just takes you to the standard map showing all the geocaches in the area. Not a surprise, but for some reason I'm always disappointed...

     

    Edited to add: Oh, I should have mentioned: Firefox 26.0 without Greasemonkey.

     

    Now that's why you might want to have Greasemonkey installed! :P See http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm#features

  6. My fix in the script was to pan the map fractionally from its starting point (not enough to trigger a new tile load), then zoom, then listen for the zoomend event before panning back to the correct point. Hope this helps!

     

    While writing this a much more elegant solution occured to me: using a layerGroup to hold all the markers, zoom the map to the bounds of the group first, then add group to the map afterwards.

  7. I'm seeing that on your listing, but not on one of my own with additional waypoints: http://coord.info/GCH6R6

     

    I'll continue to investigate; shout if you discover something!

     

    At a guess, it's something to do with zooming, possibly a bug in Leaflet. The website change also introduced a similar bug in my Geocaching Map Enhancements script: waypoint markers would show OK, but the basemap and polylines drawn on it appeared half-zoomed (blurry and enlarged), and the map controls wouldn't zoom or pan. It seemed that Leaflet couldn't handle panning and zooming the map in quick succession. This happened whether I panned and zoomed separately, or did both together with map.fitBounds(). Panning the map using the javascript console rectified the problem.

     

    My script was fine for showing a basic cache without waypoints, but zooming in to focus on a collection of points broke it. I'm guessing that it's that similar problem on the unadulterated website, with the map breaking when it tries to zoom in to show waypoints. I think your cache works because the waypoints are spread wide enough apart that the map doesn't try to zoom to fit them in.

     

    My fix in the script was to pan the map fractionally from its starting point (not enough to trigger a new tile load), then zoom, then listen for the zoomend event before panning back to the correct point. Hope this helps!

  8. :lol: GME v0.6.8 is online :lol:

     

    Hopefully this will work around the new bugs caused by the recent website update. It also adds in a few features requested by users. When you use the map information tool (the 'i' icon), the mouse should change to a crosshair so you can aim it better. When you use the 'i' tool to measure out a route, you can now click on the route markers to show their coordinates, or to delete the marker. That should mean you can edit a route rather than having to redraw it from scratch.

     

    I've tested this on Win 8.1 on the current versions of Firefox and Chrome. And yes Blue Square Thing, it should work on Opera Classic (v12) as well! (I use GME with Opera on my Android tablet...)

     

    As ever, docs and installation instructions at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm

  9. I've updated Geocaching Map Enhancements to correct this problem. The new version can be found at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm

     

    The script update also improves some of GME's features and works around a bug that the latest update seems to have introduced in displaying maps for geocaches that have waypoints.

  10. The update seems to have introduced a bug on cache listings that include waypoints. The map shows the waypoint markers, but no basemap, just a grey background. You can't zoom or pan the markers either. The maps still seem to work fine for geocaches that don't have waypoints listed. Here's one of my caches that now exhibits the bug: http://coord.info/GC1K327

     

    I've got this problem on Firefox 26, Chrome 32 and Opera 12.16, all on Win 8.1. I'm guessing it has been caused by the update of the maps API to Leaflet 0.7.1.

  11. I am seeing the same issue on Win 7 both with Firefox 26.0 and Chrome 31.0.1650.63, but not IE. A little experimentation shows that for me it's the Geocaching Map Enhancements script causing it, so if you're using that I suggest disabling it and trying again and take it from there....

     

    Yup. GME is causing this behaviour. I'm working on an update to the script that will fix this and another bug caused by the website update.

  12. The same is happening to me, with grease monkey enabled the cache page jumps to the bottom, with it disabled it opens normally.

    I am using Firefox

     

    View large map image on the cache page, doesn't seem to be affected on the cache page. and is working fine in the larger view

     

    This bug will most likely affect everyone, regardless of which web browser they use. It is caused by Groundspeak upgrading the version of the Leaflet Maps API that they use from v0.5.1 to v0.7.1. I do have a fix for it, but I am working on a worse bug caused by the same change, which affects the maps on cache listings that have waypoints or corrected coordinates.

     

    Geocaching.com is now using at least three different versions of Leaflet on different parts of the site, so there may well be more bugs to follow with future updates...

  13. Hey guys!

     

    I've been also writing similar application in the past weeks.

     

    It works in connection with c:geo app. You select the geocache, click navigate and select Pebble and that's it.

     

    It should be published on Google Play in couple of hours: https://play.google....ajstr.pebble_gc

     

    Let me know what you think :)

     

    jri: your idea is also good so I hope you manage to do it too! (mine supports only android, sorry :( )

     

    I've just tried the Pebble Geocaching app and unfortunately couldn't get it to work (I'll PM the details). However, I think there's room for both apps. I use c:geo too, and it would be great if that integrated with the Pebble. But also, I'd like an app that will alert me when I happen to walk near a geocache, without having to choose it specifically. Spare time permitting, I'll see what I can do!

  14. Good news. Thanks to the info in CavebadgerMan's post, I've uploaded another bugfix update to GME, which should automatically detect and fix the problems shown in Muddy_Puddles' screenshots. If you're not getting automatic updates from Tampermonkey, you can download the new version from http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/109145

     

    For the morbidly curious techies, GME stores it's parameters as a JSON-formatted string that represents a Javascript object. Within the object there's supposed to be an array of map information. This array had somehow got converted into a string, and GME was trying to interpret each character as a separate map... Still not sure how the corruption comes about though.

     

    For the non-techies, if this type of corruption comes back, the script should just put it right without you having to do anything. Fingers crossed!

  15. I've had my Pebble a little while now, and have just got round to getting the development kit installed to be able to write apps for it. It's early days yet (and I don't have much spare time :() but I've managed to hack together a watchapp that displays your GPS position on your wrist (sorry - it's not yet fit for public consumption!) However, I want to turn it into a proper geocaching/navigation app, and was wondering how people thought it might work. I'm going to be using the Pebble Javascript API, which is supposed to let you write one program that will work with both Android and iPhone, without needing a helper app on the phone.

     

    To get the caches onto the watch, you would paste the address of a GPX file into the phone (e.g. from your Dropbox account). This could be from anywhere, so the app could be used for any sort of waypoint, not just geocaches. Perversely, the permissions for the Pebble app probably mean you won't be able to use local files, but can get them from the web.

     

    The phone would figure out which were the ten closest points from the file, and send the shortlist to the watch. I think that if you tried sending the whole list to the watch, it would be unmanageable to use (and probably run out of memory).

     

    The watch would show an updated list of the 10 closest waypoints, with a range and heading.

     

    If you got within a set distance of a waypoint, the watch would vibrate.

     

    If you selected a waypoint, you would get an easier-to-read screen with range and heading. I thought of combining this with a north-up compass ring that shows the direction of the waypoint, the direction of the sun, and the GPS heading reported by the phone. Using a solar compass would help get you started in the right direction without needing to know what direction the phone and watch were pointing in.

     

    Any thoughts?

  16. I'm glad to hear folk find the route feature in Geocaching Maps Enhancements helpful. One less obvious feature of the script is that you can use it to display GPX files produced by other programs. With GME enabled, you should be able to drag'n'drop files from your desktop onto the geocaching.com map. I've not had much feedback on these features so far, so if you've any suggestions on how they could be made better, let me know. If you don't already use GME, you can find out more at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm

     

    Myself, I only tend to plot routes to figure out rough distances for longer walks or bike rides (often after I'm back!) I don't bother with plotting a fixed route as I will vary it depending on how time is going, and what the conditions look like on the day. I tend to use a combination of OS maps and aerial photography to plan out rough routes in my head, then the c:geo Android app to navigate in the field. I have it pre-loaded with OpenStreetMap vector maps from OpenAndroMaps (free, donations requested).

  17. Well, now I've got a different set of maps to the normal ones (Thunderforest, Esri & Stamen), no OS, satellite, google maps etc. Seems a bit like when GClh used to over the maps.

     

    Something like this is "normal". It's not what we want from GME, but it's what you would get if you didn't have any scripts installed:

     

    Capture94.JPG

     

    GME1.jpgGME2.jpg

     

    OK, those ones aren't normal! And I haven't been able to make the script do that yet either.

     

    To help me out fixing this properly, please could anyone who sees screens like these do the following, and send me the results (do this before trying to fix the problem, or you'll destroy the evidence!):

     

    1. Check you are using GME v0.6.7.2 (the version number is in the title of the configuration screen).
    2. Open the Chrome console (Ctrl-Shift-J).
    3. Check you are on the Console tab of the pop-up panel.
    4. Type "localStorage.GME_parameters" (without the quotes) and press enter. This should return a long string of code representing GME's stored settings. Please copy'n'paste that into an email to me.
    5. Type "localStorage.GME_custom" (without the quotes) and press enter. This should return "undefined". If it doesn't, please copy and paste the output into the email to.
    6. If you happen to see any suspicious looking error messages or GME debug messages (lines starting "GME: ") in the console window, please let me know.
    7. If you are running any other extensions or userscripts for Geocaching.com, please let me know what they are. These might either be installed as native Chrome extensions (listed at chrome://extensions or under Tools/Extensions on the Chrome menu), or installed via Tampermonkey (click the Tampermonkey icon and tell me the names with numbers against them).

    If you're seeing these odd screens and you're not using Chrome + Tampermonkey, please let me know too!

     

    That done, once you can see the GME configuration window, you should be able to get back to normal by using the "Defaults" button (the one between "Cancel" and "Save" - not the default map selector). If it doesn't, then please repeat steps 4 & 6 above so I can try to figure out what happened.

     

    NB other than the one about hitting the Defaults button, none of the instructions above are intended to fix the problem - just to give me debugging information so I can try to stop it happening again!

  18. I started using your great tool to plan my (usually small) tours.

    It works great, but it removes the filter-button of the CGVote-script (http://gcvote.com/index_en.php) from the map and I usually use this very much to get a first overview of the really good caches in an area.

     

    I've included some tweaks in GME v0.6.7.2 to help my script play nicely with GCVote. It looks OK, but I haven't tested all GCVote's features, so let me know if there's still a problem.

  19. Happy New Year!

     

    I posted an update to Geocaching Map Enhancements last night, which is hopefully a step closer to fixing the "undefined" maps bug. Thanks to everyone who has posted screenshots or emailed me other clues. I've not figured out why the problem is happening, but at least I've worked out what is going wrong, and updated the script to work around the problem.

     

    It seems that for some people, GME's preference settings (including the list of maps to show) had got corrupted in some way, causing the "Undefined" map in the selector widget and the blank grey canvas. Unfortunately, Leaflet Maps doesn't seem to be especially robust in its error handling, and trying to display the Undefined map threw an error that stopped the rest of the GME script loading.

     

    GME v0.6.7.2 now does better checking for invalid map sources, and if it can't find any, falls back to using the selection provided by Geocaching.com, as per GAZ's screenshot. From this point, you ought to be able to use GME's configuration screen (click cog icon at the bottom-left of the map) to reset to Default settings, which should restore the normal selection of maps.

     

    You can get the new version of GME from http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm#install or http://userscripts.o...pts/show/109145

     

    Unfortunately I've not had this problem for real myself, and I've only been able to try recreate it with some fairly complicated fiddling around. Hopefully the current fix should solve the problem, but without knowing what caused the corruption, I don't know if it will recur. Some people have said that the problem has come and gone without any obvious prompt, and one person reported that removing some malware from their machine cured similar symptoms. If the new version of the script doesn't fix it for you, or only works temporarily, please send me an email through my profile, and let me me know what's happening. Things that could be relevant are the type of web browser you use (AFAIK everyone who has had problems was using Chrome + Tampermonkey), what other extensions you use, whether you've deleted your cookies recently (GME uses browser storage ("localStorage"), not cookies, but it's data might get wiped too when you clear cookies), and if you have a cookie-blocker or any other privacy/security software that might try to stop websites storing preferences in your browser.

  20. Whatever has happened to Groundspeak's geocoding seems to be causing problems in the UK too. Searching by UK postcode also seems to have stopped working properly, as reported in this thread. However, it's inconsistent: some postcodes work, and others don't. Several postcodes I've often used for searching now fail, but when I tried some at random (to protect my privacy in this post!) I found that some others worked.

     

    e.g. For me, entering a postcode like KT9 1AJ on the Hide & Seek page or the main Map page gives an error message, but KT9 1AA behaves as expected.

  21. For caches with additional waypoints, GME will show those waypoints for this listing also on the large gc.com map, if you click the "View larger map" link. This works as expected.

     

    But if you drag-and-drop a listing icon (in the upper left corner) to an already opened large gc.com map (e. g. because you want to show additional waypoints for more than one listing), the waypoints show up fine, but a second header coordinate icon will appear stacked with a slight vertical displacement.

     

    I believe the displacement comes from a difference in the interpretation of the exact icon position. While gc.com seems to interpret the icon's center as its position, GME seems to interpret the icon's bottom middle as its position on the map.

     

    This is intended behaviour. Unfortunately, Geocaching.com is inconsistent in how it draws geocache icons. On the big map, they are centred on their coordinates. On the small map, they are shown as markers, with a small 'V' at the bottom of the icon pointing to their precise position. I've written GME to be consistent with how the website normally displays points on the small maps. This saves me having to code separate behaviour depending on which type of map you drop the point onto. I also find that having visual difference is helpful on the big map, so that if you drop points in a crowded area of the map, you can distinguish the new points from the ones that were already there. It is also handy when you drop the coordinates for a previously found cache, as it helps you spot the smiley face on the map, which would otherwise get covered by the cache icon.

  22. The fix worked well but it's all gone again, back to undefined again. HAs it changed or is there a proper permanent fix? Got to redo my overlays and map choices again.

     

    Unfortunately, I've not been able to replicate this problem, and so far, no-one has given me enough detail to be able to figure out what is going on. I'm not sure what might be causing people to see the problem magically get fixed and then broken again. Also, I haven't got a good idea of how the "undefined" problem presents itself. Does it appear in place of the map tiles, or as a pop-up error message, or in place of the map selector widget? What version(s) of GME and your web browser are you using? Was the problem preceeded by getting a message telling you the script was updated? If you're still having problems, let me know - the more detail the better (email via my profile if you don't want to spam this thread).

     

    I have put an updated version of the script (v0.6.7.1) up on userscripts.org that has slightly better handling for configuration errors. That might improve things a bit, but I'm really just guessing at the moment.

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