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testing BCN with italy maps
Hello!
I live on the island of sardinia, which is part of italy, and am at an early stage of organising an outdoor multi activity adventure sports event here.
I hope to include an orienteering/geocaching/treasure hunt section and was looking at providing each team with a pulse mini phone. This phone runs android 2.1 and is gps enabled.
The BCN software looks like it could really bring out the best in the functionality of the phone and provide a useful and fun tool for the competitors. Can you confirm that yuor software will work with this phone?
I understand from the website that there are free maps of italy available - do you have a link? and perhaps instructions on how to get the most from the maps when using them offline.
I will be ordering a phone shortly and hope to demo your software as soon as it arrives!
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I don't know about the particular phone, but bcn should run just fine on it. You should try it, of course, before making a final decision.
As for the maps, I don't know much about Sardinia, but bcn found it without problem, and OSM has some detail. I looked at the City of Olbia, for example, and there is lots of detail down to zoom level 17.
You may be able to find better Italian maps, but OSM would be a good start!
And bcn comes with a link to Italy maps, too. I just switched from OSM to Italy maps, and there is lots of detail for Olbia with those maps, too.
- Jeff
Fortunately, Italy maps are already in the menu. Use the Map Src menu button and choose Italy IGN.
I regret that that the app hasn't been localized in Italian yet, but we'll get people working on that.
The device sounds like a good one. The number of pixels is the only difference between it and other devices. So let me know if anything looks wrong on the screen, but it probably won't.
Thank you both for your replies... i justr had a look at osm on my pc. The area for the proposed event is inland from the town of Bosa on the west coast of sardinia.
Bearing in mind that much of the course/route will be on footpaths which are not marked on the current osm map, what would you suggest?
Does the italy IGN map show more detail - paths, boundary walls etc?
Or do i need to look at customising or editing the osm map?
Nothings ever as easy as it first seems!!!!
I can see contours, some dashed lines and some other lines and markings that may be walls. I think the Italy IGM layer will do much better than OSM.
I notice you have to be zoomed in to levels 13+ to see the data.
This is the agency that does the maps:
http://www.pcn.minambiente.it/PCN/
We are using the layer igm 25,000.
Finally managed to have a look at the maps on my pc - probs working out the page controls! There was much more data on the IGM map at 25,000.
What will the quality of the image be like on the t-mobile pulse mini phone?
I was also wondering if i can download the italy maps onto my pc and use your desktop version.
It will look like this, approximately.
Hopefully that puts some of the mystery to rest. Thank goodness for the emulator.
You can't use the desktop version to find that out.
The android phone has arrived... i have downloaded the BCN demo from the market... but the maps dont seem to show. i selected Map Src from Menu and italy pcn topo maps. a pale blue screen appears with a GN/IDN Geoporte Nazionale logo in bottom right of screen... but no map on any level/scale. Any ideas what i should try next?
I have been testing the phone using only wifi (no sim) and would like to start by downloading the maps of my local area and then use BCN with offline maps.
Here are two suggestions:
Make sure the map is centered in Italy by using the Find a Place Menu Item.
Zoom in to at least level 12 or 13. Apparently that map only shows blue past that.
OK! now i have a map of bosa - my home town... how do i save it for offline use?
I'd do what it says here on saving a map for offline use:
http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/content/common-tasks-backcountry-navigator-android
It should be pretty easy.
Hi all, is there any possibility to have all the italian IGM maps downloaded for offline use ? I see there are some open source .img files on the web (are they from Garmin).
Thank you in advance.
Matteo
Open Source .img files is a misnomer. Garmin .img format is not open and is not documented.
You can use this to convert files if they are in another format.
http://www.the-thorns.org.uk/mapping/
You can also download it all with BackCountry Navigator by drawing a box around Italy and being patient.
Thank you, I missed a question mark, I did not know if those img files are from Garmin. But the interesting thing is that I can draw a box around Italy: now I'm not able to see the whole Italy, if there is a secret, please tell me. By now I'm going to try by myself.
Regards.
Matteo
The map source doesn't allow you to zoom out far enough.
Try this: use Open Street Map as the preview layer while you mark the rectangles. Then just be sure and choose Italy PCN when you start the download.
... how huge are these maps! The trick functions. Thank you.