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smart phone gps options?

D
Nov 1, 2011
79
9
8
*doh!* should have used search function first. heres what I've found for anyone else curious:

http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/showthread.php?t=215489

ended up downloading the "back country navigator" app for $9.99 from the marketplace. got very good reviews. I was testing its' function by putting my phone in "airplane mode" to turn off all cell signals and the GPS still works and it loads saved maps quickly.

I downloaded a very large area of eastern washington and it took up about 3gb on my phone at maximum quality/zoom. (i've got a 16gb card so no worries there)

trail test when we actually get good snow!

thanks guys and sorry for the useless post.
 
D
Nov 1, 2011
79
9
8
btw this did not have snowmobile maps on it as it came. the extra snowmobile map 'layer' was $15.99 (yikes!) but looks to be worth it, includes all snowmobile trails through 17 states or something like that lol. a few little loading issues and downloading maps is rediculously slow on my wifi at home here (2-3+hours for all the snomobiling areas from I90 down to oregon) but once i get it all set up I will trail test and report back!

overall if this works good then it will be a good option compared to garmin handhelds for hundreds of dollars with small screens and limited storage!
 

PowerJoe

Member
Lifetime Membership
Jan 9, 2008
270
9
18
BackCountry Navigator Review

I go out west 1 week a year and just got back from Island Park. I have a Galaxy Nexus (android) and downloaded BackCountry Navigator Pro for $9.99.

I have never personally owned a GPS before, but multiple people in my group have them and have seen them in action. I took a snap shot of the topographical map for the IP area in case we didn't get cell service and needed to rely only on satellites but we had good service everywhere we went. I did run in airplane mode one day just to verify it worked without cell service

I thought it worked great. Having a touch screen that is large and full color is a huge upgrade over the standard GPS units we had in our group. It was very easy to zoom in or out and plot waypoints with a touch screen.

I didn't notice any issues with draining the battery. We would only ride for about 6 hours per day and I never got close to draining the battery. I didn't do any tracking and don't know if that would drain the battery faster. I didn't always leave the app open, but it opened and found my location within a minute, sometimes within 15 seconds. If you left the app on it would tend to keep your location.

One thing I didn't take the time to figure out was that sometimes the screen would automatically rotate like a compass to show north and other times it would not. Might be a way in which I was using the touch screen to zoom in and out was turning this on and off.

Some of the negatives... Having a $600 phone out in the snow made me a little nervous. I kept it in my coat pocket and just pulled it out 5-10 times a day to look at it. So not being able to have it mounted to the handle bars and view may be a negative for some people, but for me we are pretty familiar with the area we ride and I don't need it for that. Just pull it out once in awhile to see where we are and what direction we want to go next.

Another negative for me was the quality of the topo map. It worked well for Island Park but not quite as good as Google Maps. Also I wanted to be able to view my waypoints on satellite view instead of just topo and have not figured out if I can even do that. I searched quite awhile for an app that would work like BCN but on Google maps and did not find any.

Overall I was very happy with the performance of it and feel I only understand about 50% of the app. I would have paid more than $9.99 for it.

Joe
 

w2bridin

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Jan 26, 2008
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nd
I downloaded the polaris app. has map like google earth and most groomed trails in the us on it. it also gives you listings of the nearby businesses like food lodging dealers ect.

I just dont know it the map works without cell service?

And its free!
 
C

CCGR Guide

Well-known member
http://www.gaiagps.com/

This is what I use. I load my map prior to losing cell coverage and then I track myself using the GPS.

HTC Evo
That app is awesome. That is what I use also. The maps are great they show every goat path, topography lines, and where there are trees and no trees. It works awesome for finding new riding areas in the back country. Then at the end of the day you can upload your tracks and look at where you went on "Google Earth" which is very cool. As far as I know you cannot get snowmobile trail maps on it but, if you keep tracking everywhere you go eventually you will have them.
 
M
Feb 20, 2008
109
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La Center, WA
I use GPS Essentials. You can create waypoints and has a great dashboard for viewing stats. Also does tracking which can be exported as Google Earth file. Hopefully it will support offline maps soon and then it will be perfect!
 

Rick!

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Nov 26, 2007
793
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63
I downloaded the polaris app. has map like google earth and most groomed trails in the us on it. it also gives you listings of the nearby businesses like food lodging dealers ect.

I just dont know it the map works without cell service?

And its free!

I've heard the trail map thing is not quite lined up with the earth - like pictures were lined up with with the eyeball/Oziexplorer thing. In some parts of northern MN it is up to 15 miles off. YMMV.
 

Matte Murder

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Premium Member
May 4, 2011
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With Gaia does your iPhone need to have service for it to work?
 
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