Android device I (PeeWee) have recently bought
an Android device (Samsung Galaxy Gio) so
I could see for myself what the possibilities are for navigation. OK,
currently these devices are not
waterproof, have poor battery life and a screen visibility that has a lot to be
desired but this will change in the next years I expect. Apart from that the
possibilities for navigation on Android are enormous. I do not have permanent internet
access on my phone so I had to find an app that can work with offline maps.
Besides, the GSM network has no worldwide coverage so offline maps may also be
handy when you are out in the bush. I
have installed 2 GPS apps that can work with OSM data. Osmand (0.6.5) and
Oruxmaps (3.5.28beta). Osmand (0.6.5) Osmand works exclusively with OSM
maps. It has turn by turn navigation,
uses vector maps, has address and POI search and voice assistance. GPX files can be imported and used for turn by
turn navigation. I am experiencing some
problems with this app. Especially the offline routing does not seem to work
properly. This may be caused by my inexperience with this tool. It may very well
be that if you have permanent internet access everything works fine. As far as
I can judge Osmand is very promising for offline navigation. Osmand has a lot more features. Please see link
below. Oruxmaps (3.5.28beta) This app is really amazing. Let me
start with the negative part. Maps are bitmaps so turn by turn navigation or
address/POI search is impossible. This drawback is not very import because you
can instantly switch to Osmand and do a search. Apart from this drawback
Oruxmaps is a brilliant app. You can
import predefined GPX tracks from many
sources on the internet. It has a nice editable dashboard showing things like ,
speed, heart rate, GPS accuracy, elevation gain etc. etc. The user interface can also be styled in many
ways. It records tracks and lets you upload this to e.g. GPSies. Very nice and
handy. The best part is that you can use almost any map available on the
internet. Both online and offline. The
app even lets you download a map for offline use (if you are connected off course) as long as it is not too large. Offline maps
(with acceptable zoom levels) take quite some memory space so, unlike Osmand, Oruxmaps
cannot work with a offline map of let’s say the Netherlands. This is simply too large. Online of coarse
this is not a problem at all because it downloads tiles that are needed
instantly. Although Oruxmaps has a (limited) map downloading feature for
offline use your best option for offline use is the PC application “Mobile
atlas creator”. Mobile atlas creator (1.9 Beta 6 (1831)) short (MOBAC) This tool can create maps for
various other applications. For example, you can create your own Google maps satellite
map for Garmin GPS. But you can also create maps for Android apps like Oruxmaps. MOBAC will let you choose from a large number of maps for creating your own offline map.
You can pick Google maps, Google earth, Openstreetmap (Mapnik) , Openstreetmap
(Cyclemap), etc. etc. but also……..Cloudmade. This Cloudmade option attracted my attention.
Cloudmade uses OSM data and on top of that the Cloudmade site give you the opportunity
to create your own style of OSM map. This
in turn gave me the idea that it should be possible to create an “Openfietsmap
style“ offline map for Oruxmaps or any other app that works with offline maps
created by MOBAC. Minko had already made an “Openfietsmap” style on Cloudmade.
The way to create your own offline Cloudmade-style map is quite simple. Every style on Cloudmade has
its own StyleID. OFM has number 40898. So here is how you create an offline
map with MOBAC from any of the available Cloudmade styles. This example uses
the OFM style by Minko. Create an XML file with the
following code: <cloudMade> <displayName>Openfietsmap Cloudmade</displayName> <styleID>40898</styleID> </cloudMade> You can change the name of the
<displayName> and <styleID>
if you like. Place this file in the “mapsources” folder of MOBAC program files on your
computer. Once that is done you can start MOBAC and pick your “Openfietsmap”
map source for map creating. Openfietsmap online on Oruxmaps Once the offline “Openfietsmap“
style was available I thought it should also be possible to have this style
available when using Oruxmaps online (Wi-Fi or permanent internet connection). This can be done by changing the “onlinemapsources.xml”
file which is in you SD-card on your Android device (once Oruxmaps is
installed) . In this file you have to add a little code. To add the
“Openfietsmap” style from Cloudmade the
next code was added: <onlinemapsource uid="19"> <name>Cloudmade OFM</name> <url><![CDATA[http://{$s}.tile.cloudmade.com/1227e19c2c014816b45d5ced9ab373c6/40898/256/{$z}/{$x}/{$y}.png]]></url> <minzoom>0</minzoom> <maxzoom>18</maxzoom> <projection>MERCATORESFERICA</projection> <servers>a,b,c</servers> <httpparam name=""></httpparam> <xop></xop> <yop></yop> <zop></zop> <qop></qop> </onlinemapsource>
The “onlinemapsource uid” should be unique so pick any number that is not used by any of the other maps in the .xml file. The “Name” can be changed to any name you like. The URL to the Cloudmade tile server is important. In order to get the Cloudmade ID you like the only thing you have to do is change the number “40898” in the URL to the Cloudmade styleID number that you want. See the Cloudmade editor to get the StyleID number. Once this is done you can start
Oruxmaps and pick this style from the online maps list. I have added some links to internet sources that may come in useful.
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