A Bluetooth GPS Navigation system for the Sony Ericsson P800/P900 mobile phone

Hosted by www.rpcsoftware.co.uk

Introduction

Application Views

Menus

Toolbar Options

System Requirements

Product History

Data Loss

GPS Compatibility

Data Compatibilty

Contact Information

For more information on the GPS system see http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gps.htm

Trial Version

Upgrades

Purchase

Introduction.

Welcome to the Bluetooth GPS Application for the Sony Ericsson P800 Phone.

The Application requires the Socketcom (Emtac) Bluetooth GPS compass or Navman 4400 Bluetooth GPS compass which must be purchased separately. See www.socketcom.com and www.emtac.com or www.navman.com

This Application has been written with the Outdoor enthusiast in mind. It has the following functionality:

Before you start to use the application, please make sure that bluetooth is either 'On' or 'Discoverable' on the phone (control Panel -> Connections -> Bluetooth).

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Application Views

The application has 7 Views that handles the above functionality.

Intro View

This view is displayed when the application is first started. The menu and toolbar options available here are common to all views.

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Main Menu

The Main Menu is available in all views.

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View Menu

The View menu enables the user to change between the available views.

The View Menu is available on all views

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Toolbar Mark Option

This serves two purposes:

If the current position is not known then the position will be N 00 00.000 E 000 00.000. The format for the Lat/Lon is ddd mm.mmm (d - degrees, m - minutes).

The Mark option is available on all views except the track analysis view..

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Map View

This View displays a user created map with your current position indicated by the blue arrow that rotates to show your direction, North and current speed are displayed.

The '+' and '-' on the toolbar are zoom in / out functions. The Scale donates how far it is across the map

The options Menu allows you to select:

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Map View with Goto and Track Up selected

Note that the Red/Black arrow points to the selected waypoint (relative to direction of travel) and the North Arrow on the Map rotates to show the direction of North.

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Trip View

Using the Reset menu you can reset the Trip, Max Speed or reset All.

You can now:

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Waypoint View

Toolbar Options

Goto - This tells the application that you whish to goto the selected waypoint. This will invoke the Map View and the Red / Black Arrow will point to the waypoint (relative to the direction of Travel). The Map view will also display the distance to the selected waypoint. Use the 'Point to North' option on the Map View Options Menu to cancel this function.

Del - This deletes the selected Waypoint.

Edit - This allows you to edit the selected waypoint with the same dialog box used in the Mark option

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Track View

Record Menu

Start - This starts the recording of tracks.

Stop - This stops the recording of Tracks

New Track - This Stops the recording of the current track and immediately starts the recording of a new track.

Toolbar Options

Del - Enables the deletion of the selected track.

Analyse - This will display a graph of the selected track.  The view will change to Analysis View (only available from the Track View toolbar).

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Analysis View

To get  to this view select Track View, The select the track you want to analyse by taping on it. Then select the Analyse button.

To display the red cross hair then just tap on the graph at a particular point. The cross hair will then appear as well as the text in red at the bottom of the view describing information about that point.

Toolbar options

<< - Move the cross hair 10 points to the left.

- Move the cross hair 1 point to the left.

>  - Move the cross hair 1 point to the right.

>> - Move the cross hair 10 points to the right.

Nxt - Display the next track

Prv - Display the previous track

The Graph Menu

Speed - Displays a graph of the speed against time

Distance - Displays a graph of distance against time.

Altitude - Displays a graph of altitude against time.

Ascent - Displays a graph of total ascent against time.

Descent - Displays a graph of total descent against time.

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Satelitte View

This view displays the number and position of the satellites on the horizon together with there signal strength from 0 - 99.

Colours

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System Requirements

The application can be installed on either the phone memory (C:) or the memory stick duo (d:). However in both cases data is stored on d:. The app (C; or D:) is about 100K and the required bitmaps are about 125K (D: only). User data containing waypoints and tracks is also stored on D:. These files start at 1k and can go up to several hundred K. However try to avoid growing them to large as this will tie up the display mechanism when the map is on view. Try not to go above 250K. The only limit on the number of files you whish to have is controlled by the amount of storage space on the memory stick. 128Meg memory sticks are currently available.

Data Loss

Every possible measure has been taken to avoid data loss. However there is one circumstance where data loss can occur. It can happen if the phone is switched off while the GPS is connected. In order to prevent this you must disconnect the GPS before the phone is switched off. There are three ways to do this.

  1. Select Disconnect or Close from the Main Menu.
  2. Turn the GPS off. This method works but it takes about 30 seconds for the lower bluetooth levels inform the application that it is disconnected. So if you choose to disconnect this way, wait 30 seconds before switching the phone off.
  3. Select Close from the Main Menu.

In cases (1) and (2) you should see an InfoMsg stating "GPS Disconnected" after the disconnection has occurred. It is then safe to turn off the phone.

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Product History

V1.01

Initial Release

V1.02

Bug fix in positioning. Possibly affected a location West of the Greenwich meridian and South of the Equator.

Improved Track Display routine.

V1.03

Improved persistance handling.

Optimised Track Display routine.

V1.04

Fixed bug with Decimal Seperator. If the locale used a comma (,) as the Decimal Seperator. The Lat/Lon was rounded to the nearest minute cause distortion of position by up to 1 Knot.

Added Altimeter Calibration see Reset Menu.

Altitude now displays "--" when tracking less that 4 satellites (used to display 0,0).

V1.05

Included Save option on File Menu.

Included Close option on Main Menu.

Tracking Algorithm now completely re-written. It is 60% more efficient in terms of data saved and includes altitude information.

Added Track Analysis. This displays graphs of recorded tracks enabling the user to select between, Speed, Distance, Altitude, Total Ascent and Total Descent. The user can select select points on the graph to view information at that point.

Added Satellite View - This displays the position and strength of the satellites on the horizon.

The Preferences Dialog also allows the selection of meters/feet for altitude.

Fixed bug when non recommended GPS units are used that caused a crash when there was no GPS fix.

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GPS Compatability

At the moment only the Emtac (Socketcom) Bluetooth GPS and the Navman 4400 GPS is supported. The NMEA sequences the application interperets are:

In theory any Bluetooth GPS that includes the above commands in its NMEA Data should work, but no other GPS has been formally tested and you do this is entirely at your own risk. I would however be interested if anyone does try, and what success / failure they have.

I have been informed the the TomTom Bluetooth GPS works as well. But I have been unable to test this myself.

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Data Compatibility

The files that are saved by Monas are stored in D:\Media Files\Document\GPS. The files have the extension ".mps" these should be Garmin Mapsource compatible. You can create files of waypoints with MapSource and download them to the phone. You can also upload the files created by Monas to Mapsource to analyse them on the PC. Monas supports only the ".mps" format.

To convert to other formats you can use GPSBabel (see http://gpsbabel.sourceforge.net/index.html).

If you wish to transfer the data to the PC, please make sure you try this with a trial version to make sure it works before you buy.

Contact Information

For Information / Queries / Bug Reporting please email Rowland Cook

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Upgrades

You are entitled to free upgrades for up to 18 months after purchase. If you believe you are entitled to a free upgrade, please email me stating the Date you bought it, the version no. and the Handango Reference no. and I will send you an upgrade as soon as possible. For an upgrade email Rowland Cook

 

Download a Trial Version

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