for Android - Help

OziExplorer GPS mapping real time tracking software for Android Devices

Version 1.09 Software Help

Changes


Menubar Buttons

Note - small screen devices will only have a subset of these buttons.

Show Menu - Shows the Option Menu - same as pressing the Menu hardware button.

More Detailed Map - Searches maps for the next map with lower pixel scale (better detail).

Less Detailed Map - Searches maps for the next map with higher pixel scale (less detail).

  Detailed Map On / Off - Turns the automatic search for more detailed map ON or OFF.

Create Waypoint - Creates a waypoint at the current position.

Center on GPS position - The map is centered on the GPS position. When not active the map can be manually scrolled.

Previous Page - Go to the previous page display.

Next Page - Go to the next page display.

Show Main Toolbar - Shows the main toolbar which has additional options.

Note - the page displayed can also be changed by swiping the finger along the bottom of the screen in either direction.


Main Toolbar

Page Menu - Select Screen Page from menu.

Nearest Waypoint List - Shows the nearest waypoint list, a list of waypoints by nearest to current position.

Find Maps - Find maps at cursor position.

Detailed Map Search - Activate/Deactivate the search for more detailed map [ON]. The current state is shown in [].

Zoom 100% - Select 100% map zoom.

Zoom 10% - Select 10% map zoom.

Brightness 100% - Sets the screen brightness to 100%.

Brightness 50% - Sets the screen brightness to 50%.

Show/Hide Track - Show or hide the track displaying on the map.

Show/Hide Waypoints - Show or hide the waypoints displaying on the map.

Show/Hide Route - Show or hide the route displaying on the map.

Name Search - Display Name Search Window.


Buttons on the Map

North Arrow - North Up / Course Up. The default button background color is green when Course Up is ON.

3D - 3D Perspective View On/Off (only if in Course Up mode)

Zoom In - Zooms the map to larger scale.

Zoom Out - Zooms the map to smaller scale.

Create Waypoint - (May not exist on all screens - for larger screen devices it is on the menubar) Creates a waypoint at the current position.


Option
Menu (The options menu is shown when you press the "Menu" button on the device)

Main Menu - Show the Main Menu.

Load Recent Map - Choose a map from a list of recently used maps.

Load Map - Choose a map to open from the memory card.

Create Waypoint - Create a waypoint at the current position.

Quit - Exit the program.


Main Menu

Operation - Show the Operation Menu.

Configuration - Show the Configuration Menu.

Update Software - Show the Update Software Menu.

About - Show the About box.
 

Operation Menu

General - Show the General Menu.

Waypoints - Show the Waypoints Menu.

Route - Show the Route Menu.

Tracks - Show the Tracks Menu.

Map - Show the Map Menu.

Navigation - Show the Navigation Menu.

 

Configuration Menu

General Settings - settings to control program operation. Configure File Paths, Vibration, Check for Updates and more.

Units - Specify units for position, speed, distance, altitude, degrees.

Waypoints - Configure waypoint size, color and more.

Tracks - Configure Track Tail, Log Track File and Track Point Reduction Factor.

Moving Map - Configure the pointer size and color, detailed map and projected line properties.

Navigation - Configure waypoint size, color and more.

Routes - Configure route size, color, line width and other properties of a route.

GPS - Configure altitude correction.

Resetting System Defaults - Settings are reset to program defaults.

 

Update Software Menu

Check for Update - Check the OziExplorer website to see if there is an update available.

Download Update - Download the OziExplorer apk file to the memory card of the device.

 

General Menu

Name Search - Find entries in the Name Search database.

Load Name Search File - Load Name Search database - the current Name Search database is displayed in [].

Load Page File (portrait) - Load a portrait page file - the current portrait file is displayed in [].

Load Page File (landscape) - Load a landscape page file - the current landscape file is displayed in [].

 

Waypoint Menu

Waypoint List - Shows a list of waypoints loaded alphabetically. Clicking on a waypoint in the list will allow the waypoint to be navigated to, edited or deleted (see waypoint editing below).

Nearest Waypoint List - List waypoints by nearest to current position. Clicking on a waypoint in the list will allow the waypoint to be navigated to, edited or deleted (see waypoint editing below).

Waypoint Set List - List the waypoint sets loaded. Clicking on an item in the list will allow the waypoint set and all the waypoints in the set to be deleted.

Import Waypoints - Import waypoints from OziExplorer .wpt file.

Export Waypoints - Export all waypoints to a standard OziExplorer .wpt file.

Delete All Waypoints - All waypoints are completely removed.

 

Route Menu

Load Route - Load Route file (.rt2 or .rte).

Clear Route - Remove route from the map.

 

Tracks Menu

Clear Track tail - Clears all the points from the track of the path you have followed.

Load User Track File - Load an OziExplorer track file and display it on the map. The total number of points for all tracks loaded is displayed and the maximum points allowed will be shown in [].

Unload All User Tracks - Removes all user loaded tracks from memory.

 

Map Menu

Find Maps at Position - Find maps at the current position.

Index Maps - The maps are indexed to enable map searching - this is essential when new maps are added.

 

Navigation Menu

Cancel Navigation - Stop navigating to waypoint. The status is displayed in [].

 


Pages

One of the features of the software is the ability to display many different screens by paging through them. To change pages, use the main menu bar buttons "Next" and "Previous" . (Pages can also be changed by swiping across the bottom of the screen).  Each page has a theme, the default pages are listed below.

Note: the number / layout of pages may differ slightly for portrait and landscape and for different screen sizes.

Several pages may have a map and may have buttons on the map such as Zoom In, Zoom Out, Zoom %, North Up /Course Up, and 3D.

Page 1. Main Map - See the "Buttons on the Map" section above.  May also show parameters such as speed and the current map zoom.

Page 2. Moving Map - shows cursor position in the units configured in Configuration / Units, Satellite information - Hdop, Number of Sats and small SNR Graph, Speed, Heading and Altitude.

Page 3. Odometer - the page has one or more odometers, each odometer has a start / stop and reset button.  An odometer reset can have reset with confirmation Y / N.

Page 4. Waypoint Navigation - shows the parameters Wp name, distance and bearing to Wp, Wp ETE and ETA. The Nearest Wp List shows the waypoints in order of distance from the current cursor position. Approaching waypoints are shown in green. Buttons are provided to cancel navigation, show/hide waypoints, show the Wp List and Nearest Wp List. To navigate to a waypoint, show one of the lists and click on the waypoint. Select the Navigate To option from the menu.

Page 5. Route Navigation - shows the parameters Route name, distance remaining, Route ETE and ETA, next Wp and distance and bearing to next Wp, Wp ETE and ETA. Navigation buttons are provided to move to next / previous Wp, show route, show Wp names, commence forward  / reverse navigation, cancel navigation and load a route. To navigate along a route, load a route and press forward (or reverse) navigation. To skip a waypoint, press the Next button.

Page 6. Compass - shows a compass and parameters VMG, XTE heading, bearing to Wp Route ETA and Wp ETE.  The compass shows current heading (blue triangle), bearing (green arrow) to the next Wp (orange).

Page 7. Information - shows many parameters such as date, time, sunrise, sunset, memory, speed (avg and max), acceleration (min and max), altitude and climb rate.

Page 8. Profiles - profile graphs of speed and altitude.

Page 9. GPS Satellites - shows satellite graphic and signal strength graph, HDOP, and number of satellites the GPS is using for a fix and other general parameters. HDOP is Horizontal Dilution of Precision - a guide to the current accuracy (1 is good 50 is very bad).

The screens can be designed on the PC by using the "OziExplorer Android Screen Designer" program. This program can be downloaded from the OziExplorer Android page of our website.


Limits

Waypoints - there is a maximum of 10,000 waypoints.

Tracks - up to 25 user tracks can be loaded. The total track points for all tracks cannot exceed 30,000. To allow the maximum number of tracks to be loaded, the tracks are filtered using the Track Point Reduction Factor in Configuration / Tracks.

Routes - one route can be loaded.


Type of Maps Supported

OZF2 and OZFX3 are fully supported.

ECW are supported but zoom levels cannot go below 50 or 60% at this stage, we are working on the code for lower zoom levels. ECW is slow to use because of the high compression and the need to decompress the image page. The ARM cpu used by Android devices is not powerful enough for high speed ECW decompression. Even with the slowness ECW maps are quite usable for moving map.

PNG and JPG - for small images only (under 25Mbytes uncompressed size), the images must be fully loaded into memory. It is recommended these maps be converted to OZFX3 using img2ozf for use in OziExplorer for Android. The zoom for these images is restricted to 50 or 60% and above.


Working with Waypoints

Waypoints are stored permanently in a binary file and are automatically loaded each time OziExplorer is started.

Waypoints can be created at the current position.

Using the Waypoint List, waypoints can be edited and deleted.

Many OziExplorer waypoint files containing sets of waypoints can be loaded and are stored in the binary waypoint file. The waypoint files loaded are viewed in the Waypoint Set List.  Waypoint sets can be deleted from the Waypoint Set List.

Waypoints created can be exported to OziExplorer waypoint files for loading into the PC OziExplorer.

Waypoint Editing

Waypoint position editing is limited in this version but will be improved in later versions. The position can only be edited in Latitude/Longitude. The position is always displayed in degrees and minutes but you can enter the position in Degrees, Degrees and Minutes or Degrees and Minutes and Seconds.

Examples

Degrees
28.54676
-34.47563
34.47569S

Degrees and Minutes
29 15.4567
-125 23.874
133 45.6754W

Degrees, Minutes and Seconds
34 23 45.5463
-45 34 23.456
48 23 56.345S


Working with Tracks

Track Tail

The track tail keeps a temporary record of where you have been. The tail is only 1,000 points but can record a reasonable distance because of the "smart" logging of track points.

If you want to see where you have been over a larger distance then use "Log track to File" to keep a track for each day. The logged track can then be loaded as a user track to see where you have been

Track Logging (Log Track to File)

This can be turned on in configuration and logs track points to a file for each day of travel. An OziExplorer track file is created with a name based on the days date.

User Tracks

Up to 25 OziExplorer tracks can be loaded but there is a total limit of 30,000 track points for all tracks combined.

OziExplorer will automatically reduce the number of points in a track as it loads, a "smart" algorithm is used so the track will still essentially look the same but the number of points can be reduced significantly in most cases. The amount of point reduction is controlled by the "User Track Point Reduction Factor" in Track configuration. The default is 10, the higher the number the more points are eliminated. The aim is to reduce the number of track points loaded to keep performance at an acceptable level.

Individual tracks have a limit of 30,000 points - a track larger than this will be truncated, at this stage no warning is given if this happens.

To automatically load user tracks when OziExplorer starts put the track names in a file called "TrackLoadList.txt" and put the file in the "Data File Path" of OziExplorer. Each track file name is put on a new line in the file. Sub-folders of the "Data File Path" can be used.

The track files must be placed in the "Data File path" or sub-folders of the "Data File path".

examples entries in the "TrackLoadList.txt"
mytrack.plt
track_west.plt
;example in a sub-folder
mysubfolder/mytrack.plt
 


Modifying Page Files

Page files (which contain the screens) are created and modified using the Screen Designer which can be downloaded from the OziExplorer for Android page on our web site.

Do not modify the standard page files which are installed with OziExplorer, these will automatically be overwritten when a new version of OziExplorer is installed - you must give them a different name.

The standard page files are provided with the Screen Designer install and have "user" as part of the name, these can be used if you just want to modify to standard pages.


Waypoint Navigation

Navigation to a single waypoint can be done. Change to the Waypoint navigation page to have access to the functions and parameters.

To select a waypoint open the Waypoint List. Press on a waypoint in the list and select the "Navigate To" option.


Route Navigation

At this stage there is no ability to create a route in OziExplorer Android but routes created in PC OziExplorer can be loaded. Route creation will be done in a later version.

Change to the Route Navigation page to have access to the route functions and parameters.


Odometers

Three odometers are available on the Odometer page. Using the Screen Designer you can place 1 or more odometers on any page.


Profiles

Track profiles are available for Speed and Altitude - Distance is on the x (horizontal) axis.

The profiles use the data from the Track Tail.

The profiles need more development.


SMS position sending

OziExplorer can send and receive SMS messages containing position data from another device running OziExplorer.

The position from others is stored as a waypoint and updated as new positions arrive.

For now the SMS messaging system is controlled by a text file called sms_data.txt - the file must be stored in the OziExplorer/Data folder.

Add or modify the fields in this file to control the SMS messaging system.

Below is an example file.

;must be true for any part of the SMS messaging system to function
active,true

;name sent to others
name,Fred

;how often to send (minutes)
interval,5

;do not send sms unless position changed by at least this distance (meters)
static_lock,25

;put altitude in waypoint description
alt_in_desc,true

;send position parameters

;must be true for sms position to be sent
auto_send,true

;list of numbers to send to (20 max)
;each number is a separate sms message

send_to,0410436553
send_to,0407864750
send_to,0465489566

 

Modifying the Menus and Toolbars

The layout files (.dat) and the glyphs for the menus and toolbars (really just menus) are stored on the memory card in the "/OziExplorer/System Data" folder.

Do not modify the standard menu files which are installed with OziExplorer, these will automatically be overwritten when a new version of OziExplorer is installed.

Instead copy the folders of the menu or toolbar you want to modify to a folder called "/System Data/User Menus" (for menus) and "/System Data/User Toolbars" (for toolbars). OziExplorer looks in these folders first and will load these menus in preference to the standard set.

Note : you cannot add new menus or toolbars - you can only modify the existing ones.

The .dat file is a simple text file, there are instructions in the file for the layout.

There should only be a need to modify the "Main Toolbar".


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