Version 1.0.2 adds a few new capabilities and fixes two known problems. All of these have been requested by RideTrac users:
- New setting to keep map centered on your location when GPS is on
- Better checking of sdcard availability
- More informative error messages
- Adds explicit English localization for Android Market
- Corrects export problem for phones using to non-US time localization
- Corrects inconsistent, wildly inaccurate statistics reporting when both GPS and Network location are enabled
Explanation of New “Keep Map Centered” Setting in 1.0.2
This new setting forces the currently reported location to always stay at the center of the screen whenever GPS is turned on (whether you are tracking or not). A consequence of turning this setting on is that you will be unable to roam off of the current location (for example to look ahead on the map) for very long while GPS is on. Whenever a new fix is received the map will jump back to keep you at the center.
The default behavior is the same as in previous RideTrac versions:
The location marker moves on a fixed map until its about to move off-screen and then re-centers the map about your current location. It does this unless you have manually moved the marker off-screen yourself, in which case you can hit the re-center button to get your location back on-screen.
Explanation of Export Problem Corrected in 1.0.2
Some users (all in Europe) were reporting that track export would fail and RideTrac displayed a message stating that the sdcard was unavailable. It did this even though sdcard access was actually fine. This problem was tracked down to an issue in converting date strings that used the GMT+01:00 type notation for the time zone into the name of the exported file. Thanks to two of our users in Europe for helping me pinpoint the actual problem here.
Explanation of Inaccuracy Problem Corrected in 1.0.2
Some users were reporting wildly inaccurate statistics displayed in RideTrac (see A Note on Accuracy). These problems were tracked down to phones that had both GPS and Network Location turned on at the same time. RideTrac would receive location fixes from both providers and not distinguish between them. GPS is generally much more accurate than cell tower triangulation, so if two fixes came in sequence, one from GPS and one from the network, if the two locations were far from each other RideTrac could think you were moving at light-speed type rates and report bad statistics. This has been fixed so RideTrac now only utilizes the most accurate provider available at any given time and ignores all others.
dave RideTrac
Kevin comments on the Android Market:
Not accurate. I was driving at 20mph and the app said I was going at 243mphs.
An Explanation
The speed displayed by RideTrac in this version is the exact value that’s reported by the built-in Android GPS software. What happens in the code is every time a location change is detected by Android, it notifies RideTrac and sends a packet of information called Location. One of the elements of Location is a speed value and that is the value that is displayed in RideTrac. When crazy values are reported, this is most likely because during that time the GPS location is inaccurate and jumping around a bit while the GPS tries to lock onto the satellites. If the GPS has you at one spot one second and at another 30-40 meters away the next second as it refines its position, it looks like you’ve been beamed up by Scotty and the reported speed reflects that. You usually notice this most often when you first turn the GPS on. You will see the blue accuracy circle around the current location start large and begin to shrink while the location gets refined. In good coverage this happens quickly, but if the configuration of the GPS constellation is poor or if you don’t have a clear view of the sky, refining the position might take a while.
In any case you shouldn’t see prolonged, grossly inaccurate speeds unless you are in a very poor coverage area. Also, the prime function of RideTrac is to record your rides and the instantaneous speed is not part of what is recorded. If you do see very inaccurate speeds while in a good coverage area, let me know and we’ll see if something else might be going on there.
The next version of RideTrac will attempt to do some better filtering of the GPS data to avoid this sort of thing, but remember it is dependent on the built-in GPS accuracy no matter what. Filtering can only remove blunders, not make the GPS any more accurate than it actually is.
Thanks for the feed back.
dave RideTrac
I received lots of good feedback on the initial release of RideTrac. The most popular complaint was that the buttons are too small. Another popular suggestion was to allow for exporting to KML as well as GPX.
Version 1.0.1 addresses these issues and more:
- 30% larger icon buttons for all those fat fingers out there
- Option to export to KML (for use in Google Earth) as well as GPX
- Trackball now zooms the map
- FAQ added to explain the basics of RideTrac
- Restructured option menu to hopefully organize it a bit better
Get RideTrac and get riding!
dave RideTrac
RideTrac is a GPS-enabled Android application to track, record, and manage your bike rides (or whatever else you might want to track - hikes, runs, road trips, etc). RideTrac is modeled on a GPS-powered bike computer, like the Garmin Edge. I’ve been using RideTrac side-by-side with my Garmin Edge 305 for a few months now. Battery life has been fine, even for rides upwards of 4 hours. Basically it does everything the 305 does (that I care about anyway) and more except:
- the on-board G1 GPS is inferior to a Garmin (although usually not too bad),
- GPS-based elevations are FAR less accurate than the 305’s barometric altimeter, and
- the G1 doesn’t come with a handlebar mount (next product idea???).
Of course my Garmin cost a good deal more than my G1 and it isn’t nearly as useful if I need to make a come-and-get-me call during a ride, or do a thousand other important things like play Pac-Man at work. So all in all it’s a reasonable compromise.
So what does version 1.0 do?
- Integrates the Android MapView
- Easy control of all map functions
- One click jump to Google Street View
- Real-time time, speed, distance, elevation gain/loss statistics
- On-screen compass
- Super-fast track overlay rendering, even for very large trips
- Record rides and save in internal database
- Load/delete saved rides
- Export rides to sdcard in GPX format for simple import to desktop training packages or any standard GPS software package
- Customizable user preferences for units, colors, tracking sensitivity
- Backup & Restore internal database
Get it on your Android powered phone from the Android Market.
Check out the User’s Manual.
What’s coming in future versions?
- Real-time web posting of current location
- Publish rides to the web
- Organize rides by weeks/months/years
- More extensive management of saved rides
- Elevation profile view
- Ride playback/review/annotation capabilities
- More
dave RideTrac
