The new universal boydsmaps web app is (finally) here!

[imkms]

Went out for a road test and had a bunch of problems, it asked for permission then opened with no errors, but my position would not change as I moved. When I made that previous post, I somehow managed to turn off "share my location" in step 2 below. I believe these 4 things have to be set on the iPhone. Let me know if this is the way it works on your phone.

View attachment 16327

I just took a walk around my neighborhood with my IPhone 11 configured as you listed above and the tracking arrow moved as I did. And it was precise, when I got to a corner, the arrow was right there also.
When I viewed it earlier today I thought the Pointer was a dot and now it’s a blue arrow. I could be mistaken, just something I notified. The arrow is great and points in the direction I’m headed.

 

[Boyd]

Nope, the cursor is a crosshairs when the GPS is off and a pointer when it's on. It is never a dot. If you have it set for 3d mode (the default) the map will rotate so that your direction of travel is always at the top of the screen. Swipe up with two fingers to tilt the 3d view.

If you prefer always having North at the top, just tap the compass to switch to 2d mode. In 2d mode, the pointer rotates instead of the map to show your direction of travel.

I like the way 3d view shows the road ahead on the big 12 Pro Max screen.

 

[Boyd]

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but if anyone is concerned about GPS accuracy you might consider a bluetooth receiver such as the Garmin GLO2. I wrote a review and did a lot of testing. I felt it was more accurate than my both my GPSMap 60csx and Montana 600. Garmin markets this for private airplanes, so it is much faster than their handhelds or automotive units. Those units only update your position on the map once per second. You can cover a lot of distance in one second in an airplane! So the GLO updates your position 10x per second.

Just playing with my iPhone, I don't think the built-in GPS was even capable of one position update per second. No big deal for walking but gives sort of jerky motion when driving. I wrote my app to request a position update twice per second, which the GLO can easily handle, and that provides pretty smooth movement while driving.

Garmin GLO™ 2 | BlueTooth GPS Receiver

The GLO™ 2 is a GPS and GLONASS receiver that serves up Garmin caliber GPS data on the mobile device of your choice via BlueTooth® wireless technology.

www.garmin.com

Anyway, it makes a nice companion for the app (or any app that uses GPS). The nice thing about iOS is this is all automatic, you just pair the GLO with Bluetooth and your phone will automatically use it in place of the built-in GPS. Also works well on Android, but you need to download a little free program to get it to talk to the phone.

 

[manumuskin]

Nope, the cursor is a crosshairs when the GPS is off and a pointer when it's on. It is never a dot. If you have it set for 3d mode (the default) the map will rotate so that your direction of travel is always at the top of the screen. Swipe up with two fingers to tilt the 3d view.

If you prefer always having North at the top, just tap the compass to switch to 2d mode. In 2d mode, the pointer rotates instead of the map to show your direction of travel.

I like the way 3d view shows the road ahead on the big 12 Pro Max screen.

View attachment 16328

I"m a north up and 2 D man myself when moving anyway.#D is nice to explore a hilly area on screen but when moving I want a 2D map facing north.My Truck GPS will quite often revert while driving to 3D with the direction changing as I move.I absolutely hate it and have to hit like five different buttons while driving to get it back the way I want it of course accompanied with flowery language my wife doesn't appreciate.It's reall annoying when it happens in an unfamiliar area where I have to think fast.. My wife claims I have a built in compass in my head and i think this clashes with a map that refuses to put north up where it belongs

 

[this_is_nascar]

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but if anyone is concerned about GPS accuracy you might consider a bluetooth receiver such as the Garmin GLO2. I wrote a review and did a lot of testing. I felt it was more accurate than my both my GPSMap 60csx and Montana 600. Garmin markets this for private airplanes, so it is much faster than their handhelds or automotive units. Those units only update your position on the map once per second. You can cover a lot of distance in one second in an airplane! So the GLO updates your position 10x per second.

Just playing with my iPhone, I don't think the built-in GPS was even capable of one position update per second. No big deal for walking but gives sort of jerky motion when driving. I wrote my app to request a position update twice per second, which the GLO can easily handle, and that provides pretty smooth movement while driving.

Garmin GLO™ 2 | BlueTooth GPS Receiver

The GLO™ 2 is a GPS and GLONASS receiver that serves up Garmin caliber GPS data on the mobile device of your choice via BlueTooth® wireless technology.

www.garmin.com

Anyway, it makes a nice companion for the app (or any app that uses GPS). The nice thing about iOS is this is all automatic, you just pair the GLO with Bluetooth and your phone will automatically use it in place of the built-in GPS. Also works well on Android, but you need to download a little free program to get it to talk to the phone.

Which additional app or program is required for Android?

 

[Boyd]

Android doesn't have native support for bluetooth GPS (kind of surprising, after all this time IMO). However, there's a very clever little hack that works perfectly. Android has a test mode where the built-in GPS is disabled and you can manually enter a "mock location". So, there's a little free program that reads the position from the external GPS over bluetooth and puts it into the mock location.

Bluetooth GPS - Apps on Google Play

Use an external bluetooth GPS device with Android mobile or tablets

play.google.com

See the instructions on Garmin's site. Note that once you set this up, every program on Android will have access to the bluetooth GPS. But if that GPS is turned off, then it won't have any location data.

Pairing GLO with Android device | Garmin Customer Support

Garmin Support Center is where you will find answers to frequently asked questions and resources to help with all of your Garmin products.

support.garmin.com

 

[Boyd]

BTW, if you get the GLO, here are a couple helpful (but not required) accessories. the friction mount is a small rubber mat with a pocket the holds the GPS. Works well on your vehicle's dashboard (but on a hot sunny day, make sure the dash doesn't get too hot for the GPS)

GLO™ Portable Friction Mount | Garmin

www.garmin.com

I think the belt clip might very well be the cheapest thing that Garmin sells. Very handy if you are on foot, but could also be used to clip the GPS somewhere in your car. On foot, you could clip it to your hat. It's another factor that should make the GLO outperform a handeld GPS, while clipped to your cap your body will not interfere with the GPS signals. Trying to locate my own property corners, I screwed a small piece of metal to an 8-foot pole and clipped the GLO to that. Planted it in the ground next to my property marker and let it acquire a good fix while it was well over my head.

GLO™ Belt Clip | Garmin

Keep your Garmin GLO™ within reach while navigating on foot with this durable belt clip.

www.garmin.com

 

[Boyd]

Just finished a big update to the app, the main attraction is a detailed help file for both the mobile and desktop versions. Definitely a version 1.0 document that could use more work, but I hope it will answer most of your questions.

A number of bugs have been corrected, several things could cause the map menu to appear blank in the mobile app. There were also some cases when the main menu was displayed instead of the map menu. Some bugs in the favorites editor were also fixed.

Finally, there's a new topo map of France and a detailed map of Paris from my British friend, John Thorn who also provided the Great Britain and New Zealand maps.

Unfortunately, these changes to the site will probably create cache problems if you have used the site recently. This might require deleting the mobile app from your home screen and re-installing. On a computer, clearing the browser cache should fix any problems. Do a google search such as "clear cache chrome" for help. If you're using the website version (instead of the app) on your phone, you may have to delete all site data in the settings. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I don't know any way to avoid these problems after a major update.

Looking ahead, I will do further testing/debugging over the next few days. Then I will probably "pull the plug" on boydsmaps online and boydsmaps mobile later this week. After that happens, any links to these old sites will automatically re-direct to the new boydsmaps app. So, now is the time to start using the new site, the death watch has begun on the old sites!

Just to be clear, if you currently have this icon on your phone, you should delete it and install the new app (see the instructions in the help file). This old app will stop working later this week.

The new app icon looks like this

 

[Boyd]

I will probably "pull the plug" on boydsmaps online and boydsmaps mobile later this week. After that happens, any links to these old sites will automatically re-direct to the new boydsmaps app. So, now is the time to start using the new site,

Currently planning to make the transition sometime this Thursday, this could create some DNS issues opening old links for a few hours until the changes propogate. Will also be shutting down lidar.boydsmaps.com at the same time.

 

[Boyd]

Changes are in progress today, you may get errors from old links to boydsmaps mobile and boydsmaps online until I get everything properly configured. Already screwed one thing up and am going to need tech support to help me fix it.

 

[Boyd]

Sorry, still trying to resolve DNS and SSL problems here. At the moment you will get a warning that mobile.boydsmaps.com and online.boydsmaps.com are not private. Hopefully I will figure out the missing piece of the puzzle soon, with the help of tech support.

Everything is working properly at the new boydsmaps.com however.

 

[Boyd]

Sorry, still trying to fix these problems...

 

[Boyd]

Unfortunately still not working properly and I doubt that I'll hear from tech support again until tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you have old links you need to open, just remove the "online" or "mobile" from them so that the link starts with

https://boydsmaps.com/

 

[Boyd]

Things are looking better this morning. I *think* everything is all sorted out now and old links to online.boydsmaps.com and mobile.boydsmaps.com should now automatically re-direct to the new site. If this isn't working, you might need to clear your browser cache. Will do some more testing, but so far, so good.

 

[Boyd]

Just a FYI, everything was working properly on Chrome and Edge on Windows and the Mac as well as Safari on my iPhone. however I was having problems with Safari on my Mac. Clearing website data fixed the problem with Safari however. This is probably because I have used Safari so heavily for testing, but if you are experiencing problems, it might be necessary to do this.

To clear website data in Safari, go to preferences > privacy and click Manage Website Data. Type boydsmaps in to the search box, click on the result and click remove. DO NOT CLICK REMOVE ALL!

Note that this would remove any waypoints you may have stored in the new boydsmaps app.

 

[Boyd]

Looking at the log files this morning, I noticed that some very old links to online.boydsmaps.com were causing the new app to crash. Specifically, these are old links that end with -x, such as the ones in this old thread:

https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/welcome-to-the-new-boyds-maps-forum.13009/#post-155080

That's fixed now and the links should be correctly translated to the new format. Let me know if you run into any problems with old links. Some map names have changed over the years, and those should be automatically fixed when you open them. There are also some maps that aren't available anymore. You'll see an alert like this if you click on one. Although old links should work, when possible, try to update your bookmarks to new links from the boydsmaps app.

Looking at that old thread, I was surprised to see it is only two and half years old. Seems like a lifetime to me... like they say, "computer years" are like "dog years"!

 

[Boyd]

Here's another issue I noticed in the logfile, some people are using www.boydsmaps.com instead of just boydsmaps.com. This works, so it's not actually "wrong", but I strongly advise you not to do this - don't add www to the address. The issue is, this is a web app that stores preferences and data in your browser. The storage location is based on the address that you use, so they will be treated as different sites with their own storage.

This is likely to get confusing, since your preferences, waypoints, favorites, etc. will be different on the two sites. If you have old bookmarks/links to the site that contain www, I suggest that you change them. Bottom line is.... it's not 1999 anymore, you don't have to use www in web addresses.

 

[bobpbx]

Boyd, I set up some new favorites (a work in progress) and when I did, I note that when I click on the HEART symbol, the list comes up on the other side of the screen. Before you updated, my favorites came right up next to the heart. Can that function be restored?

 

[Boyd]

Sorry, the new favorites are completely unrelated to the feature on the old site. They are just another mapset and those always open at the top right. It would really be too much trouble to change that now.

 

[bobpbx]

Boyd, when I use the measuring tool, and then when finished with it by clicking the 'X' on the screen, it does not fully turn off unless you hit activation button again (like a toggle switch). Not sure if you knew that.