(nearly) real time gps mapping app for lejog??

barney69

I'm doing lejog from 20th August and will be using routes I create on my Garmin 800. I'm also taking my netbook so I can download the data each night and post it to my blog and social networking sites.

I'm looking for an app for my iphone that could track (almost in real time) where I am each day. As the daily cycle will be up to 12hrs it can't be something that would hammer the battery so something that I could get to send a signal every 20/30 minutes.

Does anyone know of such an application?
Regards

andymiller

I know there's cyclemeter, but I don't know how heavily it uses the battery. I guess in normal operation it should work without the display.

I'm puzzled: why not use the Garmin? (OK yes I can imagine: the logistics of keeping two devices charged up).

Are you planning to wild camp? If not there are ways to recharge gizmos.

barney69

Thanks for your reply

I'm puzzled: why not use the Garmin?

I will be using the Garmin 800 for my route following and will upload each night the route of that day but I wanted an app that would update a map in real time (or once every ten minutes) so family and friends could actually see where I was at any given point (+/- 10 mins).
Apparently there's an app called Follow mee which I will give a try.
Regards

Jo C

I have Endomondo on my BB.

It has live tracking and allows friends and family to log in, see where you are and to send you messages which the phone speaks to you as you go!!

On my BB it lasts for 13+ hours from a full charge - but a friend runs it on a HTC desire and only gets 4 or 5 hours out of it. I am not sure if you can alter the upload interval to reduce battery consumption :?

I believe it is available for an iphone.

Just one other thought, with live tracking you are using data services. I only get a limited qty (50MG) on my contract, it might be worth looking into that too, just to make sure that you don't go over your bundle qty and get stung by charges (I have no idea how much a days tracking would use).

Good luck - I start my first LEJOG on 28th July.

rob_finch

I use MotionX on the iPhone. You can send your position to Facebook, Twitter or by email every 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes.If I turn off Wifi, 3G and Push Notifications and do not use the screen much (i.e. navigate by map/GPS unit), the battery will last me well over a day whilst tracking my position.

barney69

Thanks for even more suggestions - don't you just love forums :-)
Followmee seems to do exactly what I need and doesn't drain the battery - happy days
Good luck with your Lejog Jo C I'm really excited by mine now and I'll be a month after you !!

CakeLovinBeast

There's another one called, I think, InstaMapper. You set the time update to your desired article and the app sends your coords to the InstaMapper servers, where it plots it on a nice Google Maps display for you. You can either allow access to the map based on email address, or they give you the code to embed it in your own website.

rich164h

I've got the same problem for my JOGLE in September and whilst there are apps that offer different amount of control over the frequency of the location, most don't allow full control over getting access to the data stream afterwards so you are always limited by what you can do. I haven't tried Instamapper as recommended above which sounds promisng but I was really ater the data stream itself rather than a googlemap so that I could put my own overlaps etc into the map on my blog.

Fortuntatley I work for a geospatial company so I've managed to get one of our experts to pick up the google latitude feed, construct a new file that is the history of where I've been form the start (rather than just current position) then add this to a custom map using google technologies again. This menas I can do things like add the planned route alongside what I actually do as well as show things like average speed based on distance no verses previous positions etc (ok it's rough but it's easy to do) The look and feel is the same a normal google maps but it's how I want it to be rather than how the app provider has styled their output interface.

One thing that I'm yet to crack is the issue of battery life and I've come to the conclusion that unless I spend a fortune on a professional tracking devices (£1000s) the only way to do this is to take battery extenders. One option was the Garmin GTU10, but that's huegly expensive for what it is and I'm still not sure that you get full access to the raw data feed, just access via their portals.

My blog is here: http://extremejogle.blogspot.com/p/equipment.html where you can see what I'm doing. The interactive map is still being constructed so at the moment it's just a static image of a google map but I'll let you know when it's live so you can see what's possible.

Rich

EnglishChris

I'm looking for something similar for a ride from London down to Switzerland... Using my phone just doesn't seem sensible as the battery would need charging each day and I'll be camping (hopefully wild camping some days) and don't want to be tied to charging up every day.

I did consider a solar charger but they are expensive and possibly not that effective in northern Europe. The best seems like it might be the Power Monkey Extreme but I'm not totally convinced.

Then I came across the Spot 2. This seems a bit extreme but is no more pricey itself than a decent solar charger. Its actually a satellite GPS messenger, runs off AAs I think (or AAAs) and the battery lasts for weeks. You do have to pay a subscription for the services though, which does almost double the initial cost. But, it has an option to send a tracking location every 10 minutes, or a one-off whenever you hit a button. You can use their adventures website to track your route and post location based photos, or link it through to Google maps, Facebook, Twitter etc. It also allows you to send an emergency assistance message which is apparently routed through to the nearest emergency services, together with your location. And because it uses GPS, you don't lose it all when you're in an area of poor mobile reception. There were very mixed reviews of the first version that you'll see if you trawl the web, but the updated Spot 2 seems to have sorted all the original issues.

It seems a little overkill at first but the more I think about it, the more I think it could be kind of cool. This might be because my cycle is solo and a lot will be on mountain bike routes in Germany / Switzerland, so the safety aspect kind of appeals (although thousands of bike tourists have ridden these routes without ever needing this!).

This might not be quite what you're looking for, especially for just one trip of a couple of weeks, but thought it might be worthy of consideration.

barney69

You don't do things by half Chris
I'll be B&B'ing it so can charge my phone nightly + I have an external battery which gives 2 extra charges.
I'm really liking the followmee iphone app which seems to take nothing out of the battery and pinpoints where I am on a map evry 10 mins (or dureation I choose).
Good luck on your adventure - maybe next year for me but don't tell my wife yet :-)

EnglishChris

barney69 wrote:

You don't do things by half Chris

Do you mean the ride or the GPS thingumy? That does seem a bit overkill but I know that even using my iPhone for a few hours with gps seems to kill it. Ok if you're charging every night though. Hard to work out exactly what the right balance will be between keeping things simple and light, having stuff that works, and not spending a fortune!

I will have to check out that app you mention though, that sounds good.

barney69

I meant the GPS thingyme
I've pm'ed you