|
Table of contents |
|
- Search |
|
- Trainer |
|
- Locator |
|
- TrackMe |
|
- Geocoder |
|
- GPS |
|
- License |
|
- Language |
|
- Settings |
Tracky shows in its main screen the earth surface as a grid. On top of it,
maps, tracks and Points Of Interest (POIs) are depicted.
|
Main
screen. |
Legend. |
You can set a marker by
tapping with your stylus on the screen. This marker is used a.o. as center point
for zooming. By setting the marker on a POIs or track, more information about
this POI or track is given. Furthermore, the marker can be used to set the
ruler that shows the distance and angle between two points. The marker will be
removed if you tap it again.
You can freely scroll
through the area with your stylus by moving it over the screen. You can use the
zoom bar to change the size of the visible area. Tap the ‘+’ or
‘-’ buttons to zoom in or out by a factor 2, or move your stylus
along the zoom bar for finer zoom levels. You can also use the
up/down/left/right hardware keys of your PDA to scroll through the area. If you
have a digit key-pad, then press ‘1’ key to zoom-out and the
‘3’ key to zoom-in. The scroll-wheel on your PDA can also be used
to adapt the zoom level.
Hyper zoom
By pressing the icon 
on
the zoom bar, you activate the hyper zoom
feature: the zoom level will change such that you see the entire world:
Hyper zoom.
This overview picture
shows your position and also the positions of your tracks and POIs. You can
tell that hyper zooming is activated if the icon
is enlarged and shown with a red flashing border (see picture below). By
pressing the icon again, hyper zoom is deactivated and the
selected position (or selected POI or track) is shown.
Several overlays are
projected on top of the main window. They show additional information which can
also be requested via one of the available tools. The purpose of overlays is to
access this information (in brief format) without having to navigate to one of
these tools. By clicking on one of the overlays, an associated tool will show
up. To hide/show each of these overlays, please read Config settings tab Overlay and Configure settings tab PDA.
Overlays.
1) Basic info:
a. Track length and time of current track recording
(only visible when a track is being recorded). Click it to start the Trackalyzer tool.
b. Distance to target and expected time to arrival:
·
when no
target is selected, these fields show a question mark (‘?’)
·
if a POI is
selected as target, the icon 
is
shown, and the distance and expected time to arrival to this POI are shown
·
if a track
is selected as target, first the icon 
is
shown, and the distance and expected time to arrival to the nearest track point
are shown
·
once the
start of the track is reached, the icon changes to 
, and the distance and expected time to arrival
to the finish of the track are shown
Click
it to start the Trainer tool.
c. Connection status of GPS device and #satellites
in view. Click it to start the Satellite status tool.
d. Speed. Click it to start the Speed alert tool.
2) Pressing this small button will show/hide the
menu bar.
3) Speed alert which only shows up if a certain
maximum or minimum speed is exceeded. Clicking it has no effect.
4) The compass shows the heading direction. If
furthermore shows the relative position of the start of the recorded track (if
a track is being recorded), the relative position of the target with navigation
hints (if a target is set). Click it to start the Dashboard tool.
5) The ‘Locator’ overlay shows the
position with possibly a conversion to Grid, Datum, or Degrees/Minutes/Seconds
notation. Click it to start the Locator tool.
6) This button gives access to the ‘Big
Button Menu’, see below. This menu will also show up when you press the
‘select’ key of your PDA.
7) The zoom bar (explained in the previous
chapter).
8) The ‘Directions’ overlay shows the
first written direction hints in order to get to your target. Click the button
on the left to start the Directions tool.
Big Button Menu
Pressing button (6) gives
access to the Big Button Menu. The main menu gives access to several submenus which will be explained
in the remainder of this document. You can leave the main menu or any of its
submenus by pushing the button Back.
If you again press button (6) then the main or sub menu will show-up which has
been accessed last time. All menus can also be accessed via the menu bar at the
bottom of the main screen, but you will find the Big Button Menu probably much
more convenient if you want to control the application by your fingers instead
of the stylus. The menu items can also be selected by using your
up/down/left/right keys on your PDA.
The main
menu.
The view submenu looks
as follows:
The view submenu.
The top-most arrow
buttons allow you to jump to the previous and next submenu (left and right
arrow, respectively), and to go back to the main menu (up arrow). It
furthermore gives the following options:
1.
Set target
The target will be set at the position of the marker (or at
the current user position, if no marker is set).
2.
Goto target
The screen will jump to the target position. This option
can only be selected when a target has been set.
3.
Delete target
The target will be deleted. This option can only be
selected when a target has been set.
4.
Reset user pos
The user position is reset at the position of the
marker. This option can only be selected if no proper signal is being received
from your GPS device, or you disabled your GPS device (see Configure GPS).
5.
Goto user
The screen will jump to the user position.
6.
Follow current pos
Enables/disables the auto follow mode. When
enabled, the screen will automatically follow the user position. The
orientation of the screen will be set according to the configuration done in Config - tab view. If the marker has been set,
then this auto following mode is temporarily overruled. Once you remove the
marker (by tapping with your stylus on the marker position), the auto follow
mode is activated again.
Tracky can deal with
GPX files. Such files contain so called POIs
and/or tracks (or so-called routes). Tracky visualizes all POIs and
tracks. You can download GPX files from various sites, but you can also make
GPX files yourself. You first need to import them in Tracky as explained in import/export. The GPX menu looks as follows:
The GPX submenu.
It gives the following
options:
1.
Select
Select a Points Of Interest (POIs) collection or a track
from one of the available GPX files for further operation, see below.
2.
Details
Show details of the currently selected POIs collection or
track, see below.
3.
Add POI
Add a POI at the marker position (or at the current user
position if no marker is set).
4.
POI details
Shows the details of the currently selected POI, see GPX details dialogue.
5.
Record track
Start and stop recording the track you are
travelling. If a recording is stopped, the track is stored, and a new track is
created once the recording is started again. On creation, a pop-up shows up
which allows you to choose to create the track in a new GPX file or in an
already existing GPX file.
6.
Search
Search in several databases for POIs, see Search.
If you choose the
option Select, you enter the GPX dialogue:
GPX selection dialogue.
An overview is given of
all available GPX files. The + and – buttons on the left can be used to
expand the tree view and see the POIs and/or tracks of each GPX file. The
checkboxes indicate which POIs and/or tracks should be visible (checked) or hidden
(unchecked) in the main screen. Select a GPX file and press the new button to create a new track in this
GPX file (only 1 POIs collection is allowed per GPX file) and use the button rename to rename the file. Press the delete button to delete a track or to empty
a POIs collection, and press the details
button to enter the GPX details dialogue.
GPX details
The GPX details dialogue has 2 tabs for POIs
collections, and an additional tab for tracks.
The tab “GPX details dialogue – Info” gives
some general information/notes of the POIs collection or track. The name field and the text area allow you
to write down some notes. For tracks, you can change the style of the track
line by pressing the button style. A Color wheel dialogue allows you to set the color and
width of the track.
Color
wheel dialogue.
The tab “GPX details dialogue – POIs” gives a
list of all POIs. This list is also shown for tracks, where each track element
is listed. You can change the relative order of the POIs by the arrow button on
the left hand side. The following options are given:
1.
Target
The selected POI is set as target. If the POI is part of a
track, then the track is automatically set as target. This means that that the
navigation hints will guide you along the track. In Configure settings tab ‘Target’,
you can choose to navigate along the track in reversed direction (from finish
to start). By default, navigating a track will be done in the recorded
direction.
2.
Delete
The selected POI is deleted.
3. Show
The selected POI is shown on the main screen.
4. Details
Details of the selected POI are shown, see the POI details dialogues below.
5. Back
Any edits on this POIs collection or track are stored and
you return to the previous screen.
The tab “GPX details dialogue – Track” gives
information of the track, it is only supported for tracks, not for POIs
collections. It gives information of the track distance and time, the
max/min/average speed and altitude, and the total elevation and decline. The
checkbox ‘excl. stops’ allows you to exclude (checked) or include
(unchecked) possible stops/breaks during the track recording. This affects the
time and thus the average speed.
POI details
|
POI details dialogue - Info. |
POI
details dialogue - Data. |
Symbol
picker dialogue. |
The POI details
dialogues show detailed information of a POI. Four tabs are supported. The
buttons on the lower part of the screen have a straightforward operation and
need no further explanation.
The tab “POI details
dialogue - Info” gives the
name, a telephone number, and some text that you like to note down about this
POI. If you press the ‘Call’ button, the phone number will be
dialed, obviously only if you have a phone enabled PDA. In the tab “POI details
dialogue - Data”, you can
set the GPX file and POIs/track object in which this POI is stored. You can see
the date and time when this POI is created (read only). The symbol of this POI
can easily be changed by pressing the button by which you enter the Symbol picker dialogue. The exact coordinates
of the POI can be inspected/changed by pressing the button with the icon 
.
|
POI details dialogue - Image. |
POI details dialogue - Web. |
The tab “POI details
dialogue - Image” allows
you to associate a picture to the POI. Edit the path to the picture by editing
the text box or by clicking the button with “...”. The path can be
either point to a locally stored picture, or it can be a reference to a picture
somewhere on the web (URL notation). The tab “POI details dialogue -
Web” allows you to
associate a web address to the POI (URL). Edit the web address by clicking the
button with “...”. Note that this window only shows up properly if
you have a valid internet connection on your PDA.
The option ‘Search’
in the GPX menu allows you to directly access and search in various internet
databases with interesting POIs. As an example, we show how to search for pizza
restaurants around the Arc de Triomph. First make sure the main screen is focused
at the area you want to search in, see below where the Arc de Triomph is in the
center of the screen (step 1). Next, enter the Search dialogue via the GPX
menu, search in ‘Google Local Search’ (step 2), search for
‘pizza’, and store the results in ‘search.gpx’. Next,
choose a nice icon style, and press the button ‘Search’. An hour
glass will appear and some seconds later you will be informed how many POIs are
found, i.e., 10 in this case! (step 3). You will return to the main screen and
see the exact positions of all found POIs (step 4). The result is stored in
‘search.gpx’ which you can further inspect via for example the GPX details dialogue as explained before
(step 5 and 6).
|
Step 1: focus main screen. |
Step 2: initiate search in the Google database. |
Step 3: 10 POIs are found! |
|
Step 4: main screen shows found POIs. |
Step 5: select one and go to POI details. |
Step 6: see the address and telephone nr. |
Currently, the
following databases can be accessed:
1.
Geocaching.com
This database is the most famous database for geo-caches. Maximum 500 (!) geo-caches which lie in the main screen are found. You can choose to search for all geo-caches in the given region, or only for found, not-found, owned, and/or not-owned geo-caches (you need to be logged in at www.geocaching.com first). Each found geo-cache will automatically get an icon representing the type of geo-cache (earth, event, hybrid, in-out, mega, multi, mystery, traditional, virtual, or webcam geo-cache). In the POI details dialogue, the tab ‘Web’ shows details of the geo-cache. I was surprised by the enormous amount of geo-caches around; one of them is almost in my backyard!
2.
Google Local Search
This database typically contains businesses (restaurants,
tank stations, hotels, etc.). You can in the field ‘Search for’
specify what to search for, as demonstrated in the example above. The 10
nearest POIs will be shown, these do not necessarily lie in the area of the
main screen but can be slight off as well. The found POIs have a description
which typically describe more details of the POI, for example the telephone
number of the business. Just press the ‘Call’ button in the POI
details dialogue to make a phone to any of the found POIs.
3.
Panoramio.com
This database contains millions of photos. Search in it and check the tab ‘Image’ in the POI details dialogue to see these photos.
4.
Weather database
A search in this database will return the most nearby weather station. The tab ‘Info’ in the POI details dialogue show the actual weather condition at the found weather station.
5.
Wikipedia
The famous Wikipedia database at www.wikipedia.org also contains location based information. Search in it and check the tabs ‘Image’ and ‘Web’ in the POI details dialogue to get detailed information.
6.
Yahoo Local Search
This database is comparable to the one of Google and it
also contains all kinds of businesses. It only works in America though, I hope
Yahoo will expand its scope to other regions as well. You can in the field
‘Search for’ specify which business to search for. The 10 nearest
POIs will be shown, these do not necessarily lie in the area of the main screen
but can be slight off as well. The found POIs have a description which
typically describe more details of the POI, for example the telephone number of
the business. Just press the ‘Call’ button in the POI details
dialogue to make a phone to any of the found POIs.
Maps are pictures of
for example street maps or satellite photos. For novice users, it is strongly
recommended to use the online Google maps or the free maps as are available at
the TrackMe section. Expert
users can import their own maps and calibrate them so that they show-up at the
correct positions and at the correct scale. The Map menu looks as follows:
The Map submenu.
It gives the following
options:
1.
GoogleMaps
Gives access to the GoogleMaps dialogue, see below.
2.
Select
Select a Map of the available Own maps.
3.
Details
Show details of the currently selected own map.
4.
Calibrate
Start or stops calibration of the currently selected own
map.
5.
Set ref 1
Sets 1st reference point of currently selected
own map.
6.
Details
Sets 2nd reference point of currently selected
own map.
Online GoogleMaps
GoogleMaps is a service
of Google. They provide world-wide satellite maps, street maps, hybrid maps (a
combination of satellite and street maps), and terrain maps. GoogleMaps is
fully integrated in Tracky so that you can use all these maps very easily. To
enable this service, press the Enable
button. Next, simply select the map type you like to use. When you press Back, you will return to the main
window. The maps of your choice will then be downloaded from Google, see the
screenshots below. Enabling ‘high resolution maps’ will give more
detailed maps. More data needs to be downloaded, so the download time will
increase if you enable this. By deselecting checkbox ‘download if not in
cache’, you can choose not to download any more maps, but only use the
maps which have been downloaded before and are stored in the cache folder.
Obviously, you need
internet access on your PDA to download maps:
1. via GSM, GPRS, EDGE, or UMTS: you need to have agreed on an internet service with a mobile operator, or
2. via WiFi to your own wireless router, or
3. via a connection to your internet enabled PC (with USB, serial cable, or BlueTooth)
Once maps have been
downloaded, they are stored in a cache folder on your PDA. These maps will
still be available if your PDA no longer has internet access, even if you
restart Tracky or your PDA. Since not many people have contract with mobile
operators yet, the typical usage of this service is as follows:
1. connect your PDA to your PC (see option 3 above)
2. enable GoogleMaps by choosing your preferred map type
3. move and scale the screen to those areas for which you like to see the maps, wait until these maps are properly shown (this sometimes takes a couple of seconds since your download connection can be slow)
4. repeat steps (2) and (3) for a different map type if you like
5. now disconnect your PDA and turn it off
Now get to the place where you like to use Tracky, and start it. You will see that all downloaded maps are still available!
Still, I can believe that you find the above steps too difficult and/or time consuming to do. There is an easier way to get your cache filled with the maps you need. Check out the PC tools mentioned under issue (8) at the Q&A section. With these (free!) tools, you can download maps for any given region and zoom level on your PC. Afterwards, you can simply copy the generated maps to Tracky’s cache folder.
|
Online GoogleMaps dialogue. |
Satellite maps. |
Street maps. |
|
Hybrid maps. |
Terrain maps. |
Own maps
If you don’t like
the GoogleMaps or if you have better maps yourself, you can use these as well! Examples can be exported at the TrackMe section. This service
is not very useful anymore since the integrated GoogleMaps feature is far more
convenient. You may have other maps yourself which you may prefer above
GoogleMaps. You first need to import them in Tracky as explained in import/export. The maps from the TrackMe section are already
calibrated which means that you do not have to study the possible calibration
methods as explained below. However, you must calibrate your own maps yourself.
This is a fairly complex topic, so be sure you want this!
|
Maps
dialogue. |
Choose Select in the map menu to enter the maps dialogue. This dialogue shows the available maps. The
checkbox in front of each map allows you to show (checked) or hide (unchecked)
each map. The list also shows which maps have not yet been calibrated (
) and if a map has load problems (
). A map needs to be calibrated before Tracky
can properly show it, i.e., Tracky needs information about the position on the
earth surface that is represented by the map. Two calibration methods are
supported:
-
1-point:
the latitude and longitude of 1 reference point of the map is required, as well
as the actual width of the region that is represented by the map
-
2-point:
the latitude and longitude of 2 reference points of the map are required
Push Details to enter the map details dialogue.
|
Map
details dialogue, info. |
Map
details dialogue, 1-point calibration. |
Map
details dialogue, 2-point calibration. |
The tabs in the Map details
dialogue show information about the map, and its calibration info according to
the two calibration methods. You can set your preferred calibration method in
the first tab. Besides this, you should specify the grid to which the map is
aligned. If you are not sure about the grid, then choose Default, which assumes that your map if aligned to the geographical
north. You can calibrate the map by the second or third tab, depending on the
chosen calibration method. Fill in the details of the reference point(s), their
position, and (only for 1-point calibration) the width of the region that is
represented by the map. The position of the reference points can be set by
clicking the icon . The Locator tool is
popped-up which enables you to set or convert the latitude and longitude via
various approaches. When pressing Ok, the map will show up in the main screen
at the specified position.
The reference points can
also be set from the main window. First select the map you like to calibrate.
In the main menu the reference point(s) will now be shown as icons 
and 
. You can reposition these reference points by
placing your marker at the desired spot, and selecting set reference 1 or set
reference 2 from the map submenu.
You can also calibrate
the map without the above mentioned information about reference points. First
make sure you recorded or are recording a track that at least partially covers
the area that is represented by the map. Now press the Calibrate button in the map details dialogue.
You can now choose whether to want to calibrate by moving/zooming the map (grid
is fixed) or the grid (map is fixed). After making your choice, you will return
to the main window where you will see the selected map. Scroll and/or zoom the
map or grid (depending on your previous choice) until it is positioned
properly. Once done, deselect the Calibrate
option in the map submenu. You can select this option in the menu again to
fine-tune the calibration if needed. Do not forget to deselect it when you
finished calibrating.
Calibrated maps can be
de-calibrated either by pressing the Decalibrate
button in the map details dialogue or by
removing the map calibration file.
If you press the Show button in the map details dialogue, you will return to the main
window where the map will be centered in the screen. The button is only enabled
for calibrated maps.
Note that calibration
settings are stored in a map calibration file, see import/export.
You can open this text file and edit it (on your PC, or even on your PDA.
Tracky features several tools which can be accessed via one
of the two tools submenus:
|
Tools 1
submenu. |
Tools 2
submenu. |
Select Trip computer
in the tools menu to go to the Trip computer tool.
Trip
computer tool.
The Trip computer shows on tab ‘Trip’ some
basic information of your ‘trip’. The information is reset each
time you restart Tracky. The tab ‘Total’ shows the same
information, but then accumulated. This information is therefore not reset when
you restart Tracky. You can – on both tabs – manually reset the
values by pressing the button Reset.
The following information is shown:
-
distance
-
time
-
maximum/minimum/average
speed
-
maximum/minimum/average
altitude
-
elevation/decline
The checkbox ‘excl. stops’ determines whether
any stops should be excluded or not from these figures. When stops are excluded
(‘excl stops’ is checked), the time will not proceed when you are
standing still, and the average speed will not change. If stops are not
excluded, the time will also proceed when you are standing still, and the
average speed will gradually drop.
Select Dashboard in the tools menu to go to the
dashboard tool.
Dashboard
tool.
The dashboard shows the
following figures:
-
the current
speed,
-
the time
per distance (used by runners to show how much time it takes at the current
speed to traverse a certain (configurable)
distance),
-
the current
G-force (in G),
-
the current
altitude,
-
the current
slope (in %, a positive number means you are ascending, a negative number means you are
descending),
-
track
length and time (if a track is being recorded), and
-
(over the
air) distance to target and expected time to arrival (if a target has been set)
A compass shows the
relative position of the (geographic) north/east/west/south. The orientation of
the compass, as well as most icons/labels/etc. can be configured in Settings tab Compass.
The big red navigation
arrow shows the direction you are travelling. This is also depicted in the
label with the ‘U:’ prefix (User
direction). The label with the ‘T:’ prefix tells you the absolute
angle to the Target (if a target is
set). Furthermore, the home and the target icon show which direction to travel
to get back home (the start of the track recording), or to get to the target
(if a target is set), respectively. When the proximity to home/target is less
then 100m, the respective icon will further approach the center of the compass,
and thereby enabling you to precisely navigate where you want to be. Centrally
positioned in the compass, a blue navigation arrow will appear when a target is
set. This arrow shows which direction to go in order to reach the target. Moreover,
navigation hints are given by spoken voice (!) to enable you to navigate to the
target without having to look down to your PDA all the time.
The dashboard tool also
features a G-force meter. This unique feature gives insight in the G-force that
you are currently experiencing. The G-force is not only quantified in size,
also the direction if visualized! You are accelerating when the
‘bomb’ icon is shown in the upper part, and you are decelerating
when the bomb is in the lower part. When it is on the left hand side or the
right hand side, you are sharply turning left or right, respectively. The
maximum G force it can show is 0.5G… it takes extreme muscles or a fast
car to reach that!
Tap anywhere on the
screen to return to the main window.
Select Speed alert in the tools menu to go to
the Speed alert tool. The speed alert tool is a
straightforward tool which alerts if you exceed a certain minimum or maximum
speed.
|
Speed
alert – max speed. |
Speed alert – min speed. |
Enable/disable it by
pushing the button enable/disable, respectively.
Toggle between a maximum speed or a minimum speed alert by pushing the button max/min. Choose the threshold speed by
pressing one of the three speed input boxes. You can simply edit each of these
entries by typing a different speed value in it. If enabled, the tool will
remain enabled once you return to the main screen. If the chosen speed
threshold is exceeded, you will get visual and audible (“speed
alert!”) feedback.
Select Stopwatch in the tools menu to go to the
Stopwatch tool. The stopwatch tool is comparable to a
normal stopwatch, except that this one (also) triggers on speed and distance.
Stopwatch
tool.
Start criterion. Whereas a normal stopwatch starts when pushing some
button, this stopwatch starts at a certain speed. You can set this speed in the
text box ‘start (kmh):’. If you for example set this to
‘0’, then the stopwatch will start as soon as you start moving after
you have been standing still. If you set this for example to ‘80’,
then the stopwatch will start when you either accelerate from below 80kmh to
above 80kmh, or if you decelerate from above 80kmh to below 80kmh. Until the
stopwatch starts, you will see a red box around the speed indicator to tell you
that your speed still did not trigger the stopwatch. Once started, you will
hear some audible feedback, and the big clock will start running.
Stop criteria.
A normal stopwatch stops when pushing some button. This stopwatch stops on
other criteria, i.e., speed, time, or distance. Select the stop criterion by
pressing the arrow keys next to the ‘stop (...):’ input box and
edit the value in the input box to a desired value.
1.
speed
The stopwatch will stop running as soon as the specified
stop speed is crossed. Once stopped, you can read the elapsed time and the
distance that was traversed. Use it to for example to measure how much time it
takes for your car to accelerate from 0 to 100kmh or from 80 to 120kmh.
2.
time
The stopwatch will stop running as soon as the specified time has elapsed. Once stopped, you can read the distance that was traversed and the end speed that was reached. Use it for example to see the distance you can sprint in 10 seconds. Or use it for example to measure which speed you can reach in 10s time when accelerating full throttle.
3.
distance
The stopwatch will stop running as soon as the specified
distance is traversed. Once stopped, you can read the time it took, and the end
speed that was reached. Use it for example to see the time you need for a 100m
sprint. Or use it for example to see which speed you can reach in 100m when
accelerating full throttle.
The stopwatch time is
depicted in thousands of seconds. This suggests an extremely high precision.
This is not completely valid of course, since your GPS devices provides
position samples only once per second. The actual precision furthermore heavily
depends on the precision of your GPS device and the current quality of the
received satellite signals. However, Tracky does some fairly advanced
interpolations on the position samples, which results in a higher precision
then you would probably expect.
A hidden feature is
that both starting and stopping the stopwatch can be forced by pressing the
boxed speed, time, or distance indicator. I used this for testing purposes, but
left it in for convenience. I use it myself for boiling my eggs: set the stop
criterion to 240 seconds (4 minutes), and press the speed input box to start
the stopwatch once the water starts boiling:)
Press the button Back to return to the main screen. The
Stopwatch tool will automatically be disabled.
Select Satellite status in the tools menu to go
to the satellite status tool.
Satellite status tool.
In the upper left
corner, the connection status with the GPS device is shown. An increasing bar
shows that data is being received from your GPS device. The bar colors green if
the data is valid, or red if the data is not valid (probably a wrong baud rate
setting is configured). The figure in the satellite icon corresponds with the
number of satellites in view from which reliable information is being received.
The large compass is
explained before. Furthermore, it shows the actual positions of all satellites
that are in view. The numbers correspond with the numbers below the bars at the
bottom of the screen. These bars show whether reliable or unreliable data is
received from the satellite (green or red bar), and its signal strength. Tracky
should receive from at least 3 satellites reliable data to determine your
position. Reliable data from more satellites will in general lead to more precise
position information.
At the bottom of the
screen, the current GPS quality, and the PDOP, HDOP, and VDOP values are given.
Use this tool to optimize the position of your GPS receiver. Since the
satellite status is updated each second, you will quickly find out what
influences the position of the GPS receiver.
Tap anywhere on the
screen to return to the main window.
Select Trackalyzer in
the tools menu to go to the Trackalyzer tool.
Trackalyzer
tool.
You can use the
Trackalyzer tool to analyze your tracks in a graph. Select a GPX file and
track, and select the data you want to analyze:
-
altitude,
-
G-force (in
G),
-
forward
oriented G-force (in G), positive values indicate acceleration, negative values
indicate deceleration),
-
sideward
oriented G-force (in G, positive values indicate left turn, negative values
indicate right turn),
-
slope (in
%)
-
speed
You make independent
choices for the left and the right vertical axis. You can choose to plot that
data on a distance scale or on a time scale (horizontal axis). Besides the
plot, the minimum and maximum values are depicted. By tapping or moving your
stylus in the graph area, a measurement line appears that gives detailed
information of the selected data at that point.
Use the button Refresh to include the latest
information in the graph (only useful if the track you are analyzing is
currently being recorded).
Use the button Export to export the plotted information
to a file. It will be formatted in a so called Tab Separated File (.tsf) which
can for instance easily be imported in spreadsheet programs such as MS Excel.
Such programs allow you to further analyze the track data, e.g., to compare it
with former track recordings.
Warning.
Tracks that you download from the internet sometimes show extreme values for
speed and/or G-force. Typically, these tracks have not been live recorded, but
they have been ‘drawn’ from behind a PC and the time stamps in
these files has been ignored.
Select Trainer in the tools menu to go to the Trainer
tool.
Trainer tool.
If you have set a track as target, Tracky will navigate you
along the track. As add-on, the Trainer tool can be used to show how you are
performing relative to a virtual ‘trainer’. The trainer can be
configured, see Configure settings – Tab target, so that it moves at a configurable constant
speed, or at a speed which is relative to the speed when the track was being
recorded. So when you have recorded your favorite tracks, you can next time try
to beat your previous time! The trainer is visualized in this tool, but also in
the main screen. While the trainer is progressing, you will hear audible
feedback that warns you that the trainer is head of you (“faster!”), behind you (“slow down”), or within reach (“hang on”). If the trainer finishes earlier then you,
then you will hear “you
loose!”, but that will of course not happen for you and you will hear
“you win” instead!
At the top of the screen, you constantly see the delta
between you and the trainer in distance and time. The large graph shows the
altitude profile of the track and your progress and the progress of the
trainer. It furthermore shows in text your relative performance compared to the
trainer.
The compass in the top-right corner, and the recording and
target distance/times at the bottom of the screen are the same as the ones
shown in the main screen and the dashboard tool.
The buttons have the following meaning:
-
Back : returns to the main screen
-
Disable :
disables/enables the trainer
-
Reset : sets the progress of the trainer equal to your
progress
Locator
Select Locator in the
tools menu to start the Locator tool. The tool enables you to convert any location
to several grids, zones, and datums, and vice versa. The tool is also embedded
in the map details dialogue and the POI details dialogue and can be started by
clicking on the icon.
The tool contains five
tabs, so called D, DM, DMS, Grid, and Earth. Each tab shows – in some format – a
position. When the Locator tool is started from the main window, this position
represents your actual position, or the position of the marker (if set). Each
tab shows the position in a different format. If you confirm these changes by
pressing the button Ok, you will
return to the main window and the marker will be set at the changed position.
If you press the button Cancel, the
changes will be lost and the marker will remain at its previous location. The
button Export will copy the position
in the selected format to the clipboard, so that you can paste it in for
example an SMS or email message to send to your friends.
|
Locator
tool, tab D. |
Locator tool, tab DM. |
Locator tool, tab DMS. |
Tabs D, DM, and DMS show the position in latitude and longitude in
degrees, possibly split-up in minutes and seconds. The altitude is given in the
configured altitude unit. All positions are given in the currently configured Datum, see configure
settings. Check the box ‘follow current pos’ to have the
position continuously updated to follow your current position.
|
Locator,
tab Grid. |
Locator
tool, tab Earth. |
Tab
Grid is used to convert a position to the currently configured grid (in Northing and Easting values), see configure
settings.
Dependent on the
configured grid (see supported grids), a zone will be shown. The following zones
are supported:
-
Universal
Transverse Mercator (UTM)
-
State Plane
Coordinate System (SPCS) - write only
-
Ordnance
Survey
-
Deutsches Haupt Dreiecks Netz (Gauss-Krüger) (DHDN) - write only
Tab
Earth show a map of the Earth. The pointer 
represents the defined position. By
tapping or moving with your styles on the map, you can change the position of
the pointer. The corresponding latitude and longitude values are immediately
updated.
Select Accurator in the
tools menu to go to the Accurator tool.
Accurator
tool.
The accurator tool is an advanced tool to gain more accurate position
then given by your GPS device. It uses advanced forward reckoning and averaging
techniques. Averaging means that
multiple samples of the position as given by your GPS device are taken and
averaged to filter out small distortions in the position information. By
averaging alone, the averaged position would always lack behind your current
position. Only if your speed is zero, averaging would not have this undesired
effect. To overcome this, the forward
reckoning technique is used: for each sample, the speed as well as the
acceleration is used to compute the predicted position of the sample at the
current time. By this, moving at constant speed, but even moving at constant
acceleration will still give a very accurate and valid indication of your
position! The data which is used for these techniques is depicted in the
dialogue:
-
as basis,
the compass is shown as introduced before
-
each sample is represented by the icon with
a label which indicates the ‘age’ of the sample: the current sample
is 0 seconds old, and older samples have age -1 second, -2 seconds, etc.
-
the green
line starting from each sample represents the predicted speed of that sample at
the current time
-
the (often
very small) red line starting from the end-point of each green line represents
the predicted acceleration of the sample at the current time
-
the green
circle visualizes the spread and accuracy (see below). If these values are very
large, and your position information is thus very imprecise, this circle is
colored red.
Furthermore, the
following information is given:
-
Your exact
position in latitude, longitude, and altitude
-
The
direction to the target, the distance to the target, and your relative speed
towards the target (VMG: ‘Velocity Made Good’)
-
The Spread is the maximum distance between
the predicted positions of all samples. It represents the reliability of the
accuracy, i.e., a high spread (one or
-
The Accuracy is the estimated deviation of
the computed position with your actual position.
The number of samples
can be configured by the buttons – and +. It is advised to use around 2
to 10 samples. Only when you want to have a very accuracy, and realize that you
should not move then too unpredictably, increase the number of samples.
The TrackMe tool allows
you to follow others live and others can follow you. You can follow others live
on internet as well as on your PDA! For this tool to work, you need to have an
internet connection on your device by for example GPRS or WiFi. Please refer to
your telecom service provider about details how to obtain this and how to
configure your device. Test if you have internet connection (e.g., by running
the internet explorer) before you proceed with the TrackMe tool.
Select TrackMe in the
tools menu to go to the TrackMe tool.
|
TrackMe tool, tab Config. |
TrackMe tool, tab Buddies. |
In the tab Config, you should specify a unique
nickname and a PIN code to use the TrackMe service. You should give this
nickname and PIN code to those who like to follow your position on internet.
You (and/or your friends) can open an internet explorer on your PC and go to
the TrackMe
section. Fill-in the nickname and PIN code, press the button Follow, and see where you are,
beautifully projected on a map of GoogleMaps! The checkbox can be used to
enable a pop-up when a buddy chats with you. More information about chatting
with your buddies is given below.
You can also track
others on your PDA. Therefore, go to the tab Buddies. A list of all your buddies is show (which is empty
initially). If you know the nickname and PIN code of your buddy, then add your
buddy to the list by pressing the button Add.
You can add me if you like, my nickname is Harro
and my pincode is 0000. If you add a
buddy to your list, then you are automatically added to the list of your buddy.
So if you add me, then I will always know where you are hanging out! You can
select one of the listed buddies and press Show
to return to the main screen where the focus will be set to the selected buddy!
You will see that the positions of your buddies are continuously updated, i.e.,
you follow then live! If the buddy icon is marker with a 
, then he is not online at the moment. Press Target to set the selected buddy as
target.
|
TrackMe tool, tab Chat. |
TrackMe tool, tab Status. |
Go to the tab Chat to chat with your buddies. Simply
type the message, select the buddy you want to address, and press the Send button. The text area in the lower
part of the screen gives a historic overview of all sent and received messages.
The Clear button will clear this
area. If a buddy is not online, you can still send messages to him. He will
read these messages once he gets online. If you receive a message, then you can
configure Tracky to show a pop-up, so that you are immediately notified that a
message has been received (see tab Config).
The tab Status shows the status of the TrackMe
components and allows you to change the update intervals:
-
upload position : shows when your position has been uploaded and
made available to those who follow you
-
download buddy positions : shows when the positions of your buddies have
been received
-
poll chat messages : shows when the server has been contacted to
collect the messages that have been addressed to you
The button Refresh enforces that your position is
uploaded and that buddy positions are downloaded and messages are collected.
The Geocoder tool
allows you to find an address. Given a country/state, city/POBox, a street name
and a house number, you can search for its exact position. Just fill in this
information, or part of this information, and press the Find button. The Geocoder tool is an online service which requires an
internet connection in order to process your request. The result is shown in
the text area. It furthermore shows the exact position in latitude/longitude
and its distance from your current position.
The button Clear just clears the input fields.
Press the button Target to set the
found location as target. Press the button Show
to jump to the found location. In the main screen (see picture below), the
found location is marked with the icon 
. Simple and powerful!
|
Geocoder tool dialogue. |
Found location. |
Select Directions in
the tools menu to go to the Directions tool.
|
Directions
tool dialogue. |
Directions tool – store track. |
The Directions tool
shows in written text the directions to get from your current position to the
position of the target. The information is retrieved from Google, see http://maps.google.com, and you thus require
an internet connection to use this feature. The directions are refreshed when
you press the button Refresh. The
dialogue shows a complete list of direction to get to your target, whereas the
Directions overlay as explained in Overlay and Config settings tab Overlay only shows the
first two entries.
By pressing the button Store you can store the directions as a
track. A dialogue appears (not depicted) where you can select the GPX file in
which to store the track. Next, a GPX details
dialogue is shown with the track details. You can for example press Show to see the track in the main
screen. You can typically press Target
to select the track as target: you will return to the main screen where you
will get visual and audible feedback how to get to the selected target, see
pictures below. In combination with the Directions overlay, this will for sure
bring you where you want to be! Note that the track is stored locally so it
does no longer require an internet connection to use. The direction hints do
however require an internet connection to be refreshed.
|
The directions stored as track. |
Track set as target. |
To be honest, it is not
as fancy as in TomTom and/or Garmin, but ok, Tracky is much cheaper and offers
a lot of other features these systems are lacking. Moreover, you do not need to
buy those expensive country specific maps but you can profit from the regularly
updated road databases from Google for free!
You can use the
Directions tool in your car (take care not to loose attention since the text
messages are a bit small!), but it really works fine when you are walking in a
city. In combination
-
with the Search
tool you can easily get to interesting POIs (restaurants found via Google
Local Search, places found via Wikipedia, etc.),
-
with the Geocoder tool you can easily get to a certain
address, and
-
with
manually added POIs you can for example easily find back your car after a long
day of shopping.
The Config submenu
looks as follows and gives access to several configuration dialogues:
The Config submenu.
GPS
The menu config gives access to the GPS configuration dialogue.
GPS
configuration dialogue.
Use the GPS configuration dialogue to configure the
connection to your GPS receiver. On Windows Mobile 5 and 6, the proper GPS
configuration is probably automatically determined. The colored icon shows the
connection status with the GPS device. An increasing bar (green or red) shows
that data is being received from your GPS device. The bar is colored green if
the data is valid, or red if the data is not valid (probably a wrong baud rate
setting is chosen). The figure in the satellite icon corresponds with the
number of satellites in view from which reliable information is being received.
Most GPS devices work fine with the ‘default’ baud rate, or at
4800baud, but you can choose other values, inspect the documentation of your
GPS device which baud rate to choose.
If the option
‘Configure GPS’ is checked, Tracky will try to configure the GPS
each time it connects to it. For most GPS devices, this is not required, and
for some GPS devices this is even not desirable. Only use this option if no
proper GPS connection can be configured with the given COM ports and baud
rates.
The option ‘log
to file’ can be selected to log all data from you GPS receiver to a file.
All data will be appended to the specified file. Also when you quite Tracky and
start it next time, the logging will continue. Be careful with this option,
since the log file will grow and may clutter your file system.
The checkboxes
‘use heading from GPS’ and ‘use speed from GPS’ allow
you to choose whether to use these values from the GPS device, or to let Tracky
compute these values based on your movements. Your GPS is often more capable to
determine these values, so it is advised to check both checkboxes. However, if
you experience this is not working fine for you, e.g., the indicated heading is
nervous (changing all the time) or the speed refuses to drop to zero if you are
standing still, then you could try to uncheck these checkboxes and let Tracky
compute them.
The menu config gives access to the License configuration dialogue.
License configuration dialogue.
The License configuration dialogue shows detailed information about which license is active. Tracky includes a free TrackyTry license that allows you to experiment with all features. To get rid of the limitations, you can buy a TrackyPro license which is based on your User name. The user name can be configured in your PDA settings, see http://www.trackthisout.com/UsernameHelp.html. You can fill-in the license key that you will receive after buying a license, and activate it by pressing Register.
The menu config gives access to the Online Services dialogue.
Online Services
dialogue.
Online services are
services that require internet connectivity. Tracky currently supports the following
online services: GoogleMaps download, TrackMe, Geocoder, Directions, and (POIs)
Search. In order to use these services, you must be registered so that the
server can properly provide the required online services for your device. Registration for online services is FREE. It even works in combination with
the free TrackyTry license.
To register for online services, just specify your email address and a password, and press the button Enable.
Once enabled, you can press the Disable button to disable online services. If disabled, no attempt will be made by Tracky to connect to the internet.
The menu config gives access to the Language configuration dialogue.
Language
configuration dialogue.
You can choose your
preferred language. All texts, buttons, and pop-ups will appear in the selected
language.
The menu Config gives access to the settings
dialogues.
|
Config
settings, tab View. |
Config settings, tab Compass. |
Config settings, tab Overlay. |
Tab view allows you to control the orientation
of the main screen:
-
Orientation:
The orientation determines how the main screen should be rotated. The main screen will only rotate according to the chosen option, if the current user position is being followed (see View). If following the current user position is disabled or temporarily overruled because you moved the main screen, then the orientation is not being adapted.
-
north
The screen will rotate such that the top of the screen
points north. Not the geographical north is taken as reference, but the north
direction of the currently selected grid, see Settings
tab Grid.
-
cur dir (no maps)
The screen will rotate such that it points towards the
direction you are currently heading. Maps
will not be depicted.
-
target (no maps)
The screen will rotate such that it points towards the
configured target. Maps will not be
depicted.
-
Follow marker : If selected, the
screen automatically centers the screen to the marker (if set). If deselected,
you can only move the screen by moving your stylus over the screen as explained
above.
Tab compass allows you to control the
orientation of the main screen:
-
Compass :
show/hide compass overlay
-
Orientation:
-
north
The compass will point north (the north direction of the
currently selected grid, see Settings tab Grid).
-
cur dir
The compass will point to the direction you are currently
moving.
-
target
The compass will point to the direction of the target, if a
target is set (otherwise it will point north).
-
Heading :
show/hide triangular shape indicating your current direction, and set its style
and size
-
Labels : show/hide the label with your current
direction (prefixed with ‘U:’) and the target (prefixed with
‘T:’)
Tab Overlay allows you to control the
visualization of the overlays (see Overlay):
-
User :
show/hide user, and set icon
-
Heading :
show/hide triangular shape indicating your current direction, and set its style
and size
-
Labels :
show/hide labels, and set label style
-
Zoom :
show/hide zoom bar
-
Basic info :
show/hide basic info (distance home-user-target, GPS status , speed)
-
Locator :
show/hide the position information
-
Directions :
show/hide the Directions information, if shown, the information will regularly
be refreshed.
-
Small icons :
when checked, the icons for POIs will be depicted at half of the normal size
(useful if you have a high-resolution screen)
Tab Units allows you to configure the units.
Different units can be selected for speed, distance, and altitude. Furthermore,
an offset can be configured. The altitude offset corrects the altitude
indication. A northing/easting offset corrects the placement of GoogleMaps. Use
this if the GoogleMaps show-up at a consistently wrong position. Finally, the
basis for the ‘time per distance’ can be given, see the Dashboard tool.
Tab PDA allows you to configure/overrule some
PDA settings:
-
enable audio :
enable/disable the audio samples which warn you about the GPS lock found/lost,
and the spoken navigation hints
-
never turn off device :
when checked, the device will never turn off (or hybernate, or go to standby),
even if you specified some timeout in your general PDA settings
-
never turn off backlight :
when checked, the backlight will never turn off, even if you specified some
timeout in your general PDA settings
-
hide title bar :
when checked, the title bar in the main screen (not in the dialogues!) will be
hidden
-
hide menu :
when checked, the menu bar in the main screen (not in the dialogues!) will be
hidden
|
Config
settings, tab Data. |
Config
settings, tab Internet. |
Config settings, tab Track. |
Tab Data allows you to set the primary and
secondary data folders. These folders are used at start-up to read all maps and
GPX files. The primary folder is used to store newly created GPX files. When
you change these data folders, you should press the button ‘Refresh’
to re-read all data in the newly chosen folders. The checkbox tells the
application if files should be saved in UNICODE format (otherwise ASCII is
used). The UNICODE character set is much bigger which allows you to use
‘strange characters’ in the tracks and POI names and descriptions.
The drawback of saving files in UNICODE format is that UNICODE files consume
twice as much storage space compared to ASCII files.
Tab Internet shows how much data has been
uploaded and downloaded over your internet connection since Tracky has been
started up. By this you can keep an eye on your mobile operator expenses. The cache size determines how much data can
be stored locally before it will be deleted. Locally stored data is reused as
much as possible to save on download capacity. For now, the cache is used for
downloaded GoogleMaps, but the cache may be used for other purposes in the
future. The cache utilization shows
how much cache space has already been used. If the cache utilization reaches
the cache size, then downloaded files (GoogleMaps) will be deleted so that they
must be downloaded again once you want to access them. Deletion of such files
is ‘smart’: the least recently used files will always be deleted
first. The cache folder allows you to
set the location of the cache. Typically, you should use your external memory SD-card
for this since it requires quite some memory.
Tab Track allows you to configure how tracks
are being recorded and how stored tracks are being loaded. GPS devices usually
output samples with position information each second. Tracky can be configured
such that all these samples are being recorded. This however costs considerable
storage size. Therefore, more advanced options are supported to allow you to compress tracks by only storing samples
of interest:
-
max time : if enabled (checked), samples are at least
stored each x seconds.
-
max distance : if enabled
(checked), samples are at least stored each x meters.
-
max deviation : if enabled
(checked), samples are at least stored when the track deviates more then x
meters from what can be extrapolated from already stored samples.
The above strategies
can be combined by checking multiple options. It is strongly recommended to use the settings as shown in the screenshot
above, because these give the best results in general: hi-precession tracks
with acceptable file size.
|
Config
settings, tab Target. |
Config
settings, tab Grid. |
Config
settings, tab Datum. |
Tab Target allows you to configure the target to which
navigation should take place.
-
Target :
Show/hide target, and set icon.
-
Trainer :
Show/hide trainer, and set icon.
·
constant speed: the trainer will move along the targeted track at the
given constant speed
·
relative performance: the trainer will move along the targeted track at a speed
relative to the speed when the track was being recorded. 110% means that the
trainer will be moving 10% faster
then recorded. 90% means that the trainer will move 10% slower then recorded.
-
reverse track : Normally if a
track is selected as target, the navigation hints will lead you from start to
finish of this track. Check this checkbox if you want to navigate along the
track in reversed direction, i.e., from finish to start of the track.
-
ETA x :
A configurable factor which is used in the expected time to arrival
computation. The expected time to arrival is computed by dividing the expected distance
to the target by the average speed. The expected distance to the target is the
over-the-air distance multiplied by this factor ‘ETA x’. If you are
by foot, ride a bike, or drive a car, a factor of 1.41 could be taken since you
will probably never be able to get to your target in a straight line. If you
are flying a plane or using a boat over water, a factor of around 1 could be
optimal since you are able to reach the target in a straight line.
Tab Grid allows you to configure the grid to be
used, see supported grids. Grids and their associated
zones are widely used in cartography, i.e., (paper) maps. If you have such
maps, then you can use this feature to find e.g. your current position on these
maps. First configure the required grid in this settings dialogue, and then use
the grid tab in the locator tool to inspect and/or set the position based on
this grid. The checkbox ‘Set grid to visible map’ will
automatically select the grid which is associated with a map once this maps is
visible. Maps will only be shown when its grid corresponds with the configured
grid. So by checking this box it is ensured that your maps are visible.
You
can also enable/disable visualization of the grid, and set its style (the value
for step represents the distance
between the grid lines). The grid will automatically fade away if zoomed out
too far and the grid lines would have cluttered the screen. The background
color of the main screen can also be set, by default it is white.
Tab Datum allows you to configure the datum to
be used, see supported datums. By default, GPS
positions are given in the so called WGS_84 datum. Other datums do however
exist, which all try to better model the earth shape by means of different
shaped ellipsoids. All coordinates that show up in Tracky are given in the
selected datum.
Data for tracks/POIs and
maps is stored in one of the two configurable data folders on your PDA. You can
use the files in these folders to exchange tracks/POIs and maps with others.
The data folders will only be processed when (re)starting Tracky or if you use
the refresh option in Settings tab Data.
To import/export files,
first connect your PDA with you PC with a serial/USB cable or via Infra Red or
WiFi. Now start Microsoft®
ActiveSync® and select
Explore in the menu bar to browse to the
mentioned folder on your PDA. Now you can either import files in Tracky, i.e.,
copy files from your PC to one of the data folders, or export files by copying
them from your PDA to your PC.
The table below gives
an overview of the supported file formats.
|
extension |
type |
format |
|
.gpx |
POIs/track file |
GPS Exchange Format |
|
.gif |
map picture |
Graphics Interchange Format |
|
.bmp |
map picture |
Windows® Bitmap |
|
.jpg |
map picture |
Joint Photographic Experts Group |
|
.ico |
map picture |
Windows® Icon |
|
.png |
map picture |
Portable Network Graphics |
|
.txt |
map calibration file |
Tracky map calibration format. A map calibration file <map>.txt stores calibration info for map picture <map>.gif or <map>.bmp. The file has the following
contents (given numbers are examples): width = 1024 Width and height specify the size of the map picture (in pixels). Grid specifies the grid to which this map is aligned, see supported grids. Ref1x and ref1y specify the position of the first reference point (in pixels, relative from the top-left corner of the map). Lat1 and lon1 store the absolute position of that reference point (in degrees using the WGS_84 datum). The attribute widthM specifies the area width of the map picture. Instead of the attribute widthM, also a second reference point can be given. The file then has the following contents: width = 1024 Note that you can also omit this file and use Tracky to calibrate your maps, as explained in the section map feature. |
|
.tsf |
track export file |
Tab Separated File with track data |
|
.pgl |
GPS log file |
NMEA-0183 standard |
We
adopt the try before your buy model.
Tracky includes a free TrackyTry license which limits usage to 15 minutes, i.e., the application will
abort. In these 15 minutes, you can freely discover all features and determine
any possible compatibility problems with your PDA and/or GPS receiver. If you
have become interested in Tracky, you are encouraged to buy a TrackyPro license and you can use
Tracky without any limitations.