1.65 Bugs and Suggestions

[jmstacey]

Went on a rode trip, and decided to load TopoFusion on my laptop and take it with me, so most of these problems/suggestions refer to the Live  tracking portion..

1. Suggestion: The ability to keep a log on the computer while your in live tracking mode instead of having to download the tracks from you gps when the memory has filled up (Would be more acturate logging on the computer to because there isn't a limit to the number of bread crumbs that can be used.

2. Suggestion: In the live tracking details box, it would be nice if the latitude and longitude were displayed in the format you chose in preferences instead of utm (I believe thats what it is)

3. Bug: TopoFusion causes a fatal error when trying to close the program after using live tracking and sometimes when starting or stopping. I can give you the error report, just need to know what you need. The one winxp produces?

4. Bug: During Live tracking mode the "Center Map on Position" feature does not work as expected. Instead of continuosly keeping the map centered it only centers it when I try to move the map

Just a question:
How is the est. Error calculated? For me at least it never goes below 50ft accuracy even though my gps reports that it has around 8ft accuracy (waas)

-Jon-

[Krein]

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1. Suggestion: The ability to keep a log on the computer while your in live tracking mode instead of having to download the tracks from you gps when the memory has filled up (Would be more acturate logging on the computer to because there isn't a limit to the number of bread crumbs that can be used.

Good suggestion, it's on the todo list, but there are other features/additions/fixes higher in priority for now.

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2. Suggestion: In the live tracking details box, it would be nice if the latitude and longitude were displayed in the format you chose in preferences instead of utm (I believe thats what it is)

I believe that it already does that.  I changed my settings to Lat/Lon and that is what it displayed for me.

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3. Bug: TopoFusion causes a fatal error when trying to close the program after using live tracking and sometimes when starting or stopping. I can give you the error report, just need to know what you need. The one winxp produces?

Thanks for pointing this one out.  Since we (Alan and I) never use this feature, it never received a thorough testing.  I had actually given it another look last week since someone pointed out that it crashes if you try to run it without a GPS hooked up.  It was the same bug as the one you are describing.  When the next beta is released give it a try.

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4. Bug: During Live tracking mode the "Center Map on Position" feature does not work as expected. Instead of continuosly keeping the map centered it only centers it when I try to move the map

I noticed this while testing it and fixed it as well.

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Just a question: How is the est. Error calculated? For me at least it never goes below 50ft accuracy even though my gps reports that it has around 8ft accuracy (waas)

According to the Garmin spec, the epe in the protocol is:

/* estimated position error, 2 sigma (meters) */

Perhaps what the GPS is displaying is not 2 sigma?  I'm not sure.

Thanks for the bug report!

[jmstacey]

Got some more.

1. Bug: Interesting little bug, again with the live tracking. The speed is accurate if I'm going straight, but if I go on a winding road, every time I turn it becomes inacurate even though the gps shows the acurate speed constantly. There also seems to be some sort of trend because it always seems to shoot up 10-20mi ph with each turn (I didn't test to see if km ph would do this)

2. Bug?: When trying to access the climbing analysis section, TF crashes with this error :: Run-time error '380' "Invalid property value"

3. Feature: It is Listed on the "possible features" page and just like to back it up. I'd like to see TF with the ability to be smart and put all congruent maps in one data file (if it doesn't already) for no fragmentation, then the ability to tell it where each data file is located then TF can check the index and see if those maps were downloaded or not. If they were it will either display them, display a tile of where I stored the maps (cd #3 eg) or try to download them. The location would be customizable of course

4. Feature: Don't know if this is also part of the map managment plan, but the ability to download selected scales of the maps instead of all scales or going to each scale that you want. For example, I could be zoomed out and select an area I wanted to download and choose like I want 2m and 64m maps for this area...

5. Feature: Another live tracking one. I noticed that the elevation data is collected from what the gps is reporting. How about an option to get the elevation from the barometer (if the gps has one) or average them for a more accurate report?

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Quote 2. Suggestion: In the live tracking details box, it would be nice if the latitude and longitude were displayed in the format you chose in preferences instead of utm (I believe thats what it is) I believe that it already does that.  I changed my settings to Lat/Lon and that is what it displayed for me.

It does change, its just there aren't any dots where you'd expect them after the first set of digits and the numbers don't quite match up with the gps. I'll have to experiment with it some more

-Jon-

[Krein]

Quote (jmstacey @ Mar. 12 2004,10:11)

Got some more. 1. Bug: Interesting little bug, again with the live tracking. The speed is accurate if I'm going straight, but if I go on a winding road, every time I turn it becomes inacurate even though the gps shows the acurate speed constantly. There also seems to be some sort of trend because it always seems to shoot up 10-20mi ph with each turn (I didn't test to see if km ph would do this) 2. Bug?: When trying to access the climbing analysis section, TF crashes with this error :: Run-time error '380' "Invalid property value" 3. Feature: It is Listed on the "possible features" page and just like to back it up. I'd like to see TF with the ability to be smart and put all congruent maps in one data file (if it doesn't already) for no fragmentation, then the ability to tell it where each data file is located then TF can check the index and see if those maps were downloaded or not. If they were it will either display them, display a tile of where I stored the maps (cd #3 eg) or try to download them. The location would be customizable of course 4. Feature: Don't know if this is also part of the map managment plan, but the ability to download selected scales of the maps instead of all scales or going to each scale that you want. For example, I could be zoomed out and select an area I wanted to download and choose like I want 2m and 64m maps for this area... 5. Feature: Another live tracking one. I noticed that the elevation data is collected from what the gps is reporting. How about an option to get the elevation from the barometer (if the gps has one) or average them for a more accurate report? Quote Quote 2. Suggestion: In the live tracking details box, it would be nice if the latitude and longitude were displayed in the format you chose in preferences instead of utm (I believe thats what it is) I believe that it already does that.  I changed my settings to Lat/Lon and that is what it displayed for me. It does change, its just there aren't any dots where you'd expect them after the first set of digits and the numbers don't quite match up with the gps. I'll have to experiment with it some more -Jon-

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1. Bug: Interesting little bug, again with the live tracking. The speed is accurate if I'm going straight, but if I go on a winding road, every time I turn it becomes inacurate even though the gps shows the acurate speed constantly. There also seems to be some sort of trend because it always seems to shoot up 10-20mi ph with each turn (I didn't test to see if km ph would do this)

This is probably due to the fact that the GPS unit updates itself more frequently than it sends out PVT locations.. which is only once per second.  Plus with the timer running in TopoFusion it could be off by almost 2 seconds before it updates.  It's likely there is very little we can do about this--it is probably a symptom in other GPS programs as well.

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2. Bug?: When trying to access the climbing analysis section, TF crashes with this error :: Run-time error '380' "Invalid property value"

Thanks for finding and reporting the bug.  George Mitchell had pointed this one out to us (by email earlier) and it should be fixed in the current beta (1.70).  Let us know if it isn't.

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3. Feature: It is Listed on the "possible features" page and just like to back it up. I'd like to see TF with the ability to be smart and put all congruent maps in one data file (if it doesn't already) for no fragmentation, then the ability to tell it where each data file is located then TF can check the index and see if those maps were downloaded or not. If they were it will either display them, display a tile of where I stored the maps (cd #3 eg) or try to download them. The location would be customizable of course

Right now it does put all the maps in a single data file, until the file grows larger than 650 mb, then it goes to another one.  So there is neglible fragmentation.  I'm not sure what you mean by display cd #3... HD space is so cheap these days that even if you have a few gigs of maps there is really no reason to be running off of a CD.  We do plan to write the "librarian" program that organizes and shows you what you have downloaded.

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4. Feature: Don't know if this is also part of the map managment plan, but the ability to download selected scales of the maps instead of all scales or going to each scale that you want. For example, I could be zoomed out and select an area I wanted to download and choose like I want 2m and 64m maps for this area...

Agreed.  We'd like to see some checkboxes for different scales on both downloading and display.

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5. Feature: Another live tracking one. I noticed that the elevation data is collected from what the gps is reporting. How about an option to get the elevation from the barometer (if the gps has one) or average them for a more accurate report?

I think the barometric elevation is the one sent, though I'm not sure.  Unfortunately there is no way in the protocol to "select" which elevation the unit will send.  Email Garmin this request if you really need it.

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It does change, its just there aren't any dots where you'd expect them after the first set of digits and the numbers don't quite match up with the gps. I'll have to experiment with it some more

There are multiple Lat/Lon display settings--this is probably what is throwing you off.  There are straight degrees, deg min seconds, decimal minutes.. etc.  Check your settings on both the GPS and TF.