smart phone app to turn phone into real gps?

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bnorth said:

No F^cking way is there an app for this. There are apps that advertise they do this but they do not!!! They will only locate other smartphones that are running the same app. Do not trust your life or others to these gimmicks!

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Don't know where this miss-information comes from. Trimble Outdoors Navigator and BackCountry Navigator Pro both work as well as my Garmin 60CS and use much better maps. If you are going to be in an area without cell service you just preload the maps.

ProClimb 800 said:

Don't know where this miss-information comes from. Trimble Outdoors Navigator and BackCountry Navigator Pro both work as well as my Garmin 60CS and use much better maps. If you are going to be in an area without cell service you just preload the maps.

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Whoops I read transceiver and went off on a tangent on avy transceiver apps.

Sledbrain2 said:

Is there an app that will do this? Otherwise you need a cell tower or 3 cell tower to get triangulation.

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Try " Ski Tracks " works pretty well.

Galaxy s4 and Google MyTracks works great.

I use back country navigator. Only issue I ran in to is if it's cold enough outside, your screen will stop working on your phone.

I use the App called Ski Tracks as well. It is by far the best GPS tracking app I have found. It works without Cell service. True GPS. Only problem like stated before is the map needs service. You can cache the map before while you have service. What I do though is use Google maps and cache the maps of where I'm going to be in Google maps on the iphone before I go anywhere. Google maps also uses true GPS and you can see where you are on the map but it does not track you.

So i downloaded the app ski tracks. How do i do what you do yamadoo to get the map to work better? And can i still use the tracker when my phone is on airplane mode when im riding? And does it just track each day seperetly?

is there an app that can turn my my old pants into a prize horse?

that would be really cool...

I use Motion X. It works awesome and is very accurate, with-out changing the settings when I am in town the map has me right at my house. The topography maps have the two hill climbs in my riding area and when I make a track you can see me going up all day.

The downside is it does drain the battery quick.

shelbwyo said:

So i downloaded the app ski tracks. How do i do what you do yamadoo to get the map to work better? And can i still use the tracker when my phone is on airplane mode when im riding? And does it just track each day seperetly?

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Couple of things.

First any tracking app does not work in airplane mode as this setting cuts the GPS tracking in the phone itself.

If you have any questions visit this site. Its the owner of the App
http://www.corecoders.com/CoreCoders/skitracks.html

Here is a link to the user guide.
http://www.corecoders.com/Docs/SkiTracks_UserGuide_V1_3.pdf

Yes each time you track it creates a new file. So you can hit the start button in tracking mode track as long as you wish and then hit pause when you are done and then hit the save button. (You can view this track at any time by clicking on "Ski Tracks" at the bottom of the app.) It then creates a KMZ file that you can email to yourself and open in Google Earth on your computer. See pictures below.



As far as viewing the map while riding without service goes i use a combination of the Ski Tracks app and the Google Maps app. So in order for the map (basically Google earth map) to show up on screen to see where you are at, first you need to open the app up and go to the map and zoom into the are where you are going to ride while you still have cell service. Then you can close the app. When you start riding you should be able to pull up the map after you start tracking and the map should open to where you last left it. By now you should be able to see the blue dot of where you are at. During the ride you should be able to hit the "done" button in the map view and then open back up the map to see all your tracking so far. While in Map view the red line will not update. You have to hit the done button and then open up the map view again for the red tracking lines to update. So now in order to really make this useful information as to where I have been and where I want to go I use Google maps as well. So what I do is open up the Google Maps app and zoom in the general are I will be riding for that day (again while I have cell service and the map can update) I then zoom in so I can see the satalite terrain really good. I zoom in quite close and then move the map all over to "cache" the map in the app so that when I don't have service the map is still crystal clear. I will move the map and then wait for it to upload the new data and then move it some more. You'll see what I mean when you start messing with it. So then when I am out riding i can open up the Ski Tracks so I can see where I have been and then I will open up the Google Maps and see where I want to go. Google maps with keep the maps cached for as long you you don't "close" the app. And by close i don't just mean shutting down the screen and opeing a new app. I mean hitting the circle on the iphone twice and swiping up to close the app for good. Sorry I am rambling. Here are a few pictures of the app.







Google maps app zoomed in

maps

what yamadoo is saying is what i have done while on vacation in Europe.

us your smartphone, if like mine wont work in eorope. get a wifi signal use google maps to zoom in on your current location. i like to zoom in and out a little trying to "soak" the map for say barcelona. then use my tracks for the day to see where you are and how to get back and to and fro around the city area you are at. pretty cool. you can start and stop my tracks to "mark" certain spots and give them names. sure was handy when you are mostly walking in other countries or taking a bus.

My phone tracks in airplane mode. RAZR MAXX

Thanks Yamadoo I understand what you are doing now. It sounds pretty cool and I can't wait to try it out . My only concern about not putting my phone on airplane mode is it messing with my beacon. Is this a valid concern?


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airplane

sometimes i have my little garmin with me with worldwide basemap. pretty cool to see where you are and what your flying over. how fast and how high etc. wish it had a button to put the wife into " mile hi club mode" that would be the chit

I thought there was a way to disable the network without putting it into airplane mode but I cant find a way to do that anymore. Well at least on my iphone 5. I haven't tested my phone and beacon together in a real world situation but we do a quick beacon check every time before we go ride and it always finds it pretty close. I really do need to do a real world test with our phones to see what kind of interference we get on the hill. I guess it is known that if there is something that happens all phones will be turned off from everyone that is involved in the search. I guess from my perspective anymore the beacon is a body finder and I don't rely on that alone to save my life, that is used to recover my lifeless body. I now have an ABS bag and that should keep me close enough to the top for someone to find me and pull me out quickly. That is if I am still alive when I stop sliding down the hill. I am not saying I will not wear me beacon anymore I am just not relying on it completely for someone to save my life. I do like what snengineer does and that is he has his phone in the handle bar bag and not on his body. Pros and cons to each I guess. Maybe I will try to test it more thoroughly this week.

I loaded USGS quad maps on mine for my last ride out. Pretty cool as the little blue dot would show you where you were and would move as you move.

Handy to have to find the little goat trails back to the road as it was getting dark.