Offroad Navigator 1.6b2 - wrong Favorites coordinatex

[olivenj]

Hi!
I've started to use offroad navigator in order to be able to geocache with my GO710 unit and it works just great... except that I have the coordinates of the caches as POIs and offroad navigator can only handle favorites or itineraries. When I make an itinerary with the POI and load the .itn file in offroad navigator no problem, but when I add a new favorite from the PDI and then load the favorite in offroad navigator, the coordinates are off by something like 600m last time i tryed it!
Could this be a bug in coordinate transformation/retrieval?
Best Regards,
Nuno.

 

[roussillat]

Hi!
I've started to use offroad navigator in order to be able to geocache with my GO710 unit and it works just great... except that I have the coordinates of the caches as POIs and offroad navigator can only handle favorites or itineraries. When I make an itinerary with the POI and load the .itn file in offroad navigator no problem, but when I add a new favorite from the PDI and then load the favorite in offroad navigator, the coordinates are off by something like 600m last time i tryed it!
Could this be a bug in coordinate transformation/retrieval?
Best Regards,
Nuno.

As you describe the problem, I would say it's a Tomtom problem when creating a Favorite from a POI, but I may be wrong.

After creating a Favorite from a POI, did you try to navigate to this favorite ? and if so, was the Favorite at the same place than the POI ?
Is the error still 600 meters or does it change for another POI ?

Can you try to use POIEdit to browse your POI and Favorites files and see if the coordinates are the same ?

 

[olivenj]

As you describe the problem, I would say it's a Tomtom problem when creating a Favorite from a POI, but I may be wrong.

After creating a Favorite from a POI, did you try to navigate to this favorite ? and if so, was the Favorite at the same place than the POI ?
Is the error still 600 meters or does it change for another POI ?

Can you try to use POIEdit to browse your POI and Favorites files and see if the coordinates are the same ?

That was my first tought, but when I changed to map view (tomtom map at maximum zoom) I get the favorite's icon right on top of the POI icon, and both at the right location (I easily navigated to the cache using only the map view).

Follwoing your suggestions, I just tryed the following:

1. Already had a POI that when I navigate the map reads N 40.19275, W 8.88300

2. Created a Favorite from it, and in the map it's dead-on (same coordinates)

3. Started offroad nav. and select that favorite as destination

4. The coordinates at the top-right corner of offroad navigator are N 40.19138, W 8.88275 (about 150m off!).

5. Open Mapsettings.cfg in PoiEdit: the favorite's coordinates are N 40.19138, W 8.88275. This is what offroad navigator reports, but not what TomTom shows in the map!!!!!!


Conclusion: The ov2 file with the POIs is correct, the POI position in the TomTom map is correct, the Favorite position in the map is correct, but the record in Mapsettings.cfg seems off!

Is tomtom SDK giving you the values, or are you acessing and interpreting the Mapsetting.cfg file directly (If this is the case, maybe both offroad and PoiEdit are making the same error reading the file...)?

Best Regards,
Nuno.

P.S.: Thanks for Tripmaster and Ofroad Navigator: they make TomTom usefull for 2 of my favorite hobbies: geocaching and photo geotagging

 

[digital-flex]

hmmm...I don't seem to have that problem. Could it be just a particular model?

1. I first looked at the POI coordinates using the browse map function. I write it down.

2. I then save the POI as a favourite.

3. I browse the map again, this time using the find feature to locate my favourite. Look at the coordinates, exactly the same.

4. Load up the favourite in off-road navigator and in the top right it has the same exact coordinates.

 

[roussillat]

4Is tomtom SDK giving you the values, or are you acessing and interpreting the Mapsetting.cfg file directly (If this is the case, maybe both offroad and PoiEdit are making the same error reading the file...)?

I get the values from the SDK.

I'll try this on the different Tomtom I have at home and I'll see if there is a different behaviour between them, as someone mentioned here that he hasn't seen the problem.

What's your device type and tomtom application version ?

 

[olivenj]

OK! Now I'm really ... Either I'm doing something silly or when TomTom reads the favorite data it gets the wrong coordinates, but still manages to draw the point on the right spot on the map ?!

My unit is a GO710 (same as GO510 with a different map set) and I don't have it here to check the software version, but I do know that TomTom home updated it by mid April and when I run it yesterday it said my unit was up to date.

At some point I also tought it might be an issue with the conversion from degrees-minutes to degrees decimal. I set up my unit to show the coordinates in degree decimal (+41.23456, -8.76543) both for TomTom apps and Offroad navigator (not shure about Tripmaster, though)... could this be an issue? How is your unit setup?

When I get back home I'll run a test trying to import POIs from a different ov2 file and some of the built-in POIs also to see if they behave the same...

Best Regards,
Nuno.

 

[digital-flex]

hmmm...it appears that I am now experiencing the same issue.

The POI I added as a favourite yesterday is not giving me the same coordinates in Off-Road Navigator.

 

[olivenj]

I'm back home and got a chance to run a few tests with interesting results!

First of all, I'm running with the following software version:
Aplication: 6.525
GPS: v1.21
Map: Wester_Europe v650.1047

I repeated the tests with a few more POIs but this time I made a note of the "wrong" coordinates and then I could go back to the map and check where they are and... they allways correspond to the closest point in a road!
It seems that somehow TomTom stores the "correct" position (since it shows the favorite on the right spot on the map), but also the "snapped to road" position - and this is the position that the SDK sends to offroad navigator and the one tha POIEdit grabs from the Mapsettings.cfg file!

If this behaviour is consistent, it kind of beats the purpose of using favorites for offroad navigation On the other hand, the "correct" position must be burried somewhere in the TomTom, probably also on the Mapsettings.cfg file... I wonder if there is a way to access it

 

[roussillat]

I repeated the tests with a few more POIs but this time I made a note of the "wrong" coordinates and then I could go back to the map and check where they are and... they allways correspond to the closest point in a road!
It seems that somehow TomTom stores the "correct" position (since it shows the favorite on the right spot on the map), but also the "snapped to road" position - and this is the position that the SDK sends to offroad navigator and the one tha POIEdit grabs from the Mapsettings.cfg file!

If this behaviour is consistent, it kind of beats the purpose of using favorites for offroad navigation On the other hand, the "correct" position must be burried somewhere in the TomTom, probably also on the Mapsettings.cfg file... I wonder if there is a way to access it

Thanks a lot for those informations. This behaviour is quite normal for Tomtom which is designed for road navigation. Unfortunately, I have no access to the real coordinates.

 

[olivenj]

Well... I guess I'll have to keep away from Favorites, then

I created an itinerary with just the PI I want offroad navigator to lead me to and that seems to work fine

Anyway, rousillat, I leave with something for you to think about if you get some time to play with offroad navigator's code : I notice that when I open the "Navigate Map" option, TomTom always remembers the last position of the cursos, so that info must be stored in TomTom somewhere. If you manage to access it with the SDK, then you could setup an option where the user can navigate the map, set the cursor at the position he wants to navigate to, close the map, open offroad navigator and tell it to to the last map position... wouldn't that be cool ?

Finally, just a short offtopic question: I'm guessing that the last field in tripmaster's csv file structure is the number of visible satelites. Is it?

 

[roussillat]

If you manage to access it with the SDK,

Unfortunately, not...

 

[olivenj]

So I guess this closes the subject...
Thanks roussillat and digital-flex for your help in getting to understand what is going on!
By the way, digital-flex, did you get a chance to test if the point you tested is also getting snapped to the closest road? I'm pretty shure that's what's going on, but I'm curios wheter it is a consistent behavior across all models...
Best Regards,
Nuno.

 

[digital-flex]

So I guess this closes the subject...
Thanks roussillat and digital-flex for your help in getting to understand what is going on!
By the way, digital-flex, did you get a chance to test if the point you tested is also getting snapped to the closest road? I'm pretty shure that's what's going on, but I'm curios wheter it is a consistent behavior across all models...
Best Regards,
Nuno.

I will try and test it once I get home from work. I'll update you once I test it out again.

 

[digital-flex]

Hey olivenj, I got back home and tested out your theory and it appears to be correct. The marked favourite wants to be on the closest road.

 

[roussillat]

Hey olivenj, I got back home and tested out your theory and it appears to be correct. The marked favourite wants to be on the closest road.

Quite normal, as favorites are made for navigation and Tomtom is unable to make an itinerary to a point outside of a route.

 

[digital-flex]

Quite normal, as favorites are made for navigation and Tomtom is unable to make an itinerary to a point outside of a route.

Yup, I should've realized that as I use the Browse map function all the time.

Thanks roussillat.

 

[olivenj]

Yup, I should've realized that as I use the Browse map function all the time.

That's possibly because when you browse the map the Favorite's icon shows up on the correct position and not on the snapped one - that's what REALLY puzzled me at the beggining!

On the other hand, when I run the Mapsettings.cfg file through POIEdit the snapped coordinates are listed, so it seems that TomTom stores both the real and the snapped position of the favorite - I just don't know if they both get stored on the Mapsettings.cfg file (and the real position are buried where POIEdit can't find them) or if there is another file where the "real" coordinates of the favorites are stored...

 

[JimT]

Off-Road Navigator

Are there any alternative screens available for off road navigator? I like the extra screens for Tripmaster and would like to change the current screens for the off-road navigator!!

 

[JimT]

Hi!
I've started to use offroad navigator in order to be able to geocache with my GO710 unit and it works just great... except that I have the coordinates of the caches as POIs and offroad navigator can only handle favorites or itineraries. When I make an itinerary with the POI and load the .itn file in offroad navigator no problem, but when I add a new favorite from the PDI and then load the favorite in offroad navigator, the coordinates are off by something like 600m last time i tryed it!
Could this be a bug in coordinate transformation/retrieval?
Best Regards,
Nuno.

The TT Pois are very inaccurate. I try to use coordinates now when i plan a trip. In my area TT has a poi, at a certain address, as a Chinese Restaurant when in fact it is an autobody shop!!

 

[digital-flex]

Are there any alternative screens available for off road navigator? I like the extra screens for Tripmaster and would like to change the current screens for the off-road navigator!!

You should be able to change the background in the settings menu.