Forum: General Topics

Hi Chris,

Try GPSBabel - that should be able to convert from the KMZ file into OziExplorer format for importing into TMJ.

(You might need to resave the KMZ file as a KML file in Google Earth first)

Cheers,
Stephen

Stephen,

If all those waypoints cause any problems, please just delete them - though if you do though, please try not to delete my 'normal' waypoints. All the SpeedCamera ones are in 'Group 5'.

By the way, for a laugh, I tried to load the file onto my phone (through the 'File' menu in 'TMJ Mobile'. It just killed the application with no warning or error message!! :-)

Regards,

Chris.

Hi Chris,

Ok, they're gone now - I'm not surprised they overloaded the phone somewhat!!

(It is actually possible to delete an entire group via the Waypoints page - just select the 'Display Group' and click the cross, then save changes - might still be a bit slow though with so many).

I checked the amount of data that they were using - around 700kB which I guess isn't too bad for the website (so long as everyone doesn't use this amount!). Makes me wonder again about an idea I posted somewhere here a while ago about having a special waypoint group so that when you use the Update Waypoints on the phone it only grabs the Waypoints within a certain distance of your current location. ie You can have all 5000 waypoints on the website, but only the ones within say 20 miles would download to the phone... Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Stephen

" Another thought I had was a filter on the .WPT import on the website, so I could process my big WPT file, but ask TMJ to only import points that were within a given radius of a specific point(and ignore anything else), maybe you could choose the point by clicking on a map...? "

I think there's an option in GPSBabel that will do this - haven't tried it myself though...

" What is a realistic number of waypoints that the PHONE could happily cope with? (My phone is a SE W610i if that makes any difference) "

I've not really put this to the limit - I've got around 300 on my W910 and it works fine, I know there is someone that has a couple of thousand (on a Nokia I think), though I wouldn't really recommend this amount!

It basically boils down to the amount of memory available to Java. Some phones have a fixed amount, but others can allocate more as it is needed, so are likely to be able to hold more waypoints. Keep an eye on the Total Memory figure on the Text/GENERAL page, if this is always a constant figure then your phone probably doesn't dynamically allocate more memory. Also, in the Menu/About... screen it give the amount of memory being used for the Track and Waypoints...

Cheers,
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Having fun here. I managed to 'extract' the cameras in a 20 mile radius into my waypoints (210 which is a bit more manageable than 5000!!).

I think even 200 waypoints might be a bit pricy to upload to my phone via GPRS as I don't have a data package, so I created a .WPT file and loaded it directly onto my phone (via bluetooth). Any idea of the size of transfer syncing this many waypoints would initiate?

The only 'problem' I have at the moment is that there doesn't seem to be a way of setting the 'type' of Waypoint on the phone doing it this way.
Is really isn't a big deal, but is there any way of changing the Type of all 210 waypoints on the phone? Or can I do anything to the .WPT file before I do the import on the phone?

Cheers,
Chris.

Ahh it's cheaper than I thought it'd be. Think I DO currently pay about £2/Mb, though no cap :-(
In that case, I'll delete the ones on my phone and re-sync with the website, and all should be great!

Thanks,

Chris.

Hi Chris,

Regarding the audio sound/display there is actually a 'flashLights' function available on some phones, which could be used. The audio volume/style is a bit tricky since different phones seem to have different ways of controlling the volume of the sound. Also, including an MP3 recording (to give the best sound) would make the JAR file hugely bigger, and I'm not sure I can get TMJ to play an audio file direct from the memory card without displaying a security prompt on some phones (which would kindof make the whole thing pointless!).

" Would there be any mileage in associating a direction with a waypoint, and only triggering the alert if you were travelling in (roughly) that direction? "

Is this direction information included in the speed camera data that you are using? It would ideally need to be given as a simple bearing that could be extracted, probably using a GPX waypoint importer (that I've yet to add to the website!). Then theres the problem of how to get this into TMJ. I'd rather not store a completely separate field for this as its a bit too specific. However, I am adding in a waypoint Description field into the next version, which could possibly be used for this purpose when the Waypoint type is set to Speed Camera.

I haven't thought this through fully but if the description was something like:
"DIR:270/30,MINSPD:25,MSG:30mph"
then the alert would only appear if you were travelling within 30° of due West and were moving at over 25 mph. It would then display the text "30mph".

I'm not sure how fiddly this would be to add - might be more trouble than its worth. Perhaps once the Description field is available I could look into it in more detail...

Cheers,
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

I've got the CSV file, or in fact about 10 CSV files (one for each type of camera, 30mph, 40mph, RedLight etc etc).
Looking through them, the 'Heading' indicator is not all that great. The whole thing relies on people reporting the cameras to a central database, and the 'Heading' seems to be free text, so although maybe 30% are N, NW etc, there are lots with no entry at all, or stuff like 'southbound' or 'on gantries' or 'SO' and 'NO' and 'BS' which I guess are South/North and Both Sides respectively, so I think it'll need some tidying up.
Still, if you could let me know how the .WPT file format works, or more specifically, where I need to put the important stuff (Lat, Long, Description etc.) I'll try and have a go at munging it all into a format that could be imported into TMJ

There are lots of other file formats on the website, for various brands of SatNav equipment, so I will also have a look through those and see if there is anything a bit simpler...

Regards,

Chris.

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the info.
One more question(to be going on with) - Where does your new 'Description' field fit into that format?

Using the 'Alarm Clock' sound should work for me. If it's enough to wake me up it should attract my attention when I'm driving the car!!

Cheers,

Chris.

" Where does your new 'Description' field fit into that format? "

It doesn't, unfortunately! It will be editable on the phone and website Waypoints page, and will be importable by the website LOC and GPX (eventually) import pages. So if you need to use the description field then you'd probably be better off translating the speed camera files into LOC files and loading them via the website for the moment...

Cheers,
Stephen