FAQ
From gpsmid
Using Osm2GpsMid
Q: Are there ready-to-run midlets to try out on my phone available?
Some prebuilt bundles are linked from GpsMid's website. You might also want to check out these external pages (use links at your own risk):
- http://ronnsn.oos.cc/web/ for a precompiled midlet of Vienna
Q: Do I need to compile the application and map data each time I want a map update?
A: If the map area you want is supported by the prebuilds (and you don't want customizations), you don't have to build the app or the map, thus you don't have to use Osm2GpsMid. You can download and reinstall all of gpsmid (app+compiled map data) from http://gpsmid.sourceforge.net/prebuild/ each time you want a new map
If your map area is not supported by prebuilds, you do have to compile the OSM map extract with Osm2GpsMid to suit your area. You don't need a java development environment for this, just a java runtime. If you want a fresh (nightly development) version of GpsMid, you can grab a fresh Osm2GpsMid at http://gpsmid.sourceforge.net/nightlies/ - then you grab an OSM map extract and run Osm2GpsMid to create GpsMid. Instructions on using Osm2GpsMid can be found at http://gpsmid.sourceforge.net/osmtogpsmid.html
With signed Midlets and ZIP creation in Osm2GpsMid, you don't need to reinstall GpsMid any more to get a new map, see the question "How do I store the map data on the filesystem of my mobile?" below.
Q: How do I find out the latitude/longitude values for the properties file?
A: There are many websites displaying latitude and longitude values. One of those using data from the OpenStreetMap project is http://informationfreeway.org/ To get the values for an area in the properties file do the following:
- Visit http://informationfreeway.org/
- Zoom in to the area you want for GpsMid
- Move the mouse over the upper left corner of the area and assign the displayed latitude and longitude values to region.1.lat.min and region.1.lon.min
- Assign the lower right corner of the area to region.1.lat.max and region.1.lon.max
Since April 2008 it's even easier to find out the necessary values:
- Visit http://www.openstreetmap.org
- Click "Export"
- Zoom in to the area you want for GpsMid or "Manually select a different area"
- Assign the upper value to region.1.lat.min, the lower value to region.1.lat.max,
> the left value to region.1.lon.min and the right value to region.1.lon.max.
Or open your .osm file in a text editor and near the top it tells you the co-ordinates.
And since about 2010 it's even easier to get the values:
- Start Osm2GpsMid without any parameters to start its GUI version
- Mark one or more regions on the map
- Close Osm2GpsMid
- You'll find a last.properties file in the current directory containing the necessary values.
- Rename the last.properties file to yourregion.properties and use this as your .properties file
Q: Where can I get OSM data from?
A: There are several ways in which you can obtain OSM (openstreetmap) data for creating your GpsMid.
- Download a planet.osm from [[1]]. Not recommended, as planet.osm has become very big.
- Download a planet extract. See [wiki] for currently available extracts.
- [[2]] allows you to download and save .osm files for any areas you wish. Downloading larger regions may be a bit difficult with JOSM though.
- [[3]] allows you to download arbitrary sized regions specified by a bounding box.
- Since April 2008 directly from [[4]] using the "Export" tab
Q: Which planet.osm file should I use?
A: None as it's too big now. Better work with extracts as described above. But if you really want to - for versions up to OSM2GPSMid V0.2.32 use planet.osm files from 03-Oct-2007 or older. For versions of OSM2GPSMid V0.3.01 or higher you must use newer planet.osm.bz2 files because the OpenStreetMap project upgraded the planet file to [0.5] on 07-Oct-2007.
Q: How can I uncompress planet-latest.osm.bz2?
A: It is no longer required to uncompress the osm file, as Osm2GpsMid can now directly deal with .osm.bz2 files. But if you want to do it, on Windows use an unpacker utility like 7-Zip ([[5]]).
Anyway Osm2GpsMid also supports the direct use of osm.pbf files which are better compressed and can be processed very fast.
Q: How to configure other bundle-time behaviour (like whether the location API, JSR179 is used)?
A: With the <bundlename>.properties file - to have JSR179 support, you should specify app=Generic/full or Generic-editing in the properties file. There are also other options to configure, like filtering which ways will be put into the map on the phone.
Q: I don't see a map in the Osm2GpsMid GUI, probably I need to use a proxy
A: You can use a proxy with Osm2GpsMid as with any other Java application. At least on Windows, there seems to be a way to configure proxy settings for all Java applications in a config dialog - search on java.com to find out how to do this. Or you start Osm2GpsMid from the command line like this: java -Xmx1024M -Dhttp.proxyHost=<name or IP of proxy> -Dhttp.proxyPort=<port of proxy> -jar Osm2GpsMid-<version>.jar
Output messages from Osm2GpsMid
Q: What means //"Warn node (48.64281|9.957452) (suburb) id=247124445 name=Gussenstadt / node (48.64281|9.957452) id=247124444 name=null"//?
A: As far as I (mbaeurle) can see in the code this is because there are two points at exactly the same location (you can also guess that from the message as lat and lon are identical). I think one of them has to be a place node for this message to appear as there are many nodes like this in the OSM data. If I am right with my guess, this message should be made clearer.
Q: What means //"STRANG: place with out name, skipping: node (48.392254|10.83552) (town) id=9025042 name="//?
A: Osm2GpsMid found a place node in the OSM data which has no name. This is an error that should be corrected in the OSM data as all villages, hamlets etc. have names and a place node without name is useless.
Q: I get //"WARNING: could not reduce tile size for tile//" and "//Error: Tile is unsplittable, but too large. Can't deal with this!"//. Why needs Osm2GpsMid to split tiles? What's wrong with the resulting midlet if Osm2GpsMid could not split a tile?
A: ???
Q: I get messages like //"ERROR: overflow! Routing connection (34967m) too long://" when creating midlets from greece.osm.bz2 or spain.osm.bz2. What's the effect from this on routing in GpsMid?
A: ???
Installing GpsMid
Q: Just having installed an updated GpsMid I get the message "Fehler in der Anwendung" ("Error in application") when I try to install GpsMid on the phone. What's wrong?
A: Try deleting GpsMid from the phone and then installing GpsMid again.
A: I (mbaeurle) think this also happens if you install a variant of GpsMid that uses APIs that your phone does not support. Check the list of devices on the Wiki to find out which variant will work on your phone. If you have no success, post in the [Forum].
Q: How do I store the map data on the filesystem of my mobile?
Note that this method can be slower than map data which is included in the GpsMid...jar itself, especially if you are not unpacking the contents of the ZIP.
(1a) If you create your midlet with the Osm2GpsMid GUI, use the button "Create GpsMid map zip" instead of "Create GpsMid midlet". (1b) If you use the Osm2GpsMid command line, use the option "--mapzip".
Unpack the ZIP, that was created by Osm2GpsMid, to a subdirectory and make the unpack tool keeps the directory structure. In that subdirectory, there must be directories such as "d0", "d1", "t0", "t1" etc. If not, you have made a mistake. You will need to copy the entire map directory (containing quite a lot of small files) onto your phone.
You can also just copy the ZIP to your mobile if you have problems to unpack it. Unless there are good reasons against unpacking, you should always do it though, as ZIP access on the phone always needs more RAM and is usually also slower. One good reason for not unpacking though is that some phones are slower at startup or after a reset because they check all files on the internal file system or the memory card.
(2) Once you have done that, you can start GpsMid and select the directory or the ZIP as map source in the setup menu.
To avoid problems with J2ME permissions, you should always used the signed versions of GpsMid that are being released. (Which means you can't do this if you are compiling GpsMid from source code.) Otherwise, a permissions dialog for every file access the midlet tries to make will probably pop up, which quite a lot. Whereas on newer Sony Ericsson phones (like K550i or C702) you can say to only ask you once, at least some Nokia phones are particularly annoying in that respect, as for unsigned midlets like GpsMid, you cannot select that option.
Using GpsMid
Q: Why does GpsMid connect to the Internet at startup when used with internal GPS (JSR-179)?
A: It's not GpsMid, but rather your mobile phone itself that tries to speed up the localization process by using A-GPS (Assisted GPS). Disable this feature in the phone settings to avoid the data connection.
Q: How can I search for a space or "-" character ?
A: Use the "1"-key of your phone's keypad.
Q: How can I stop the routing? I want the arrows and the line to the destination to disappear again.
A: Use the menu entry "Clear destination" for that. or A: On SE phones like C702 press the c button. or A: On mobiles with touch screen interface touch the distance to start / stop routing.
Q: How does the Overview/Filter map mode work?
A: The dialog for the Overview/Filter map mode can be opened from the main menu with "Overview/Filter map".
When activated, GpsMid shows only the chosen hideable POI/Area/Way types in the map regardless of zoom level for an overview.
This can be useful to get a quick overview of a certain POI/Area/Way type in the area, e.g. hotels or railway stations. You can optionally choose to show POI/Area/Way types that are not selected in the Overview list at the normal zoom levels or filter them out from display.
There is also a name check, use it to show only POIs/Areas/Ways whose names match certain conditions. There are 4 options: Off - No name check will be performed only unnamed - only unnamed POIs/Area/Ways will be shown only named - only named POIs/Area/Ways will be shown containing... : When you select this option, you are offered to enter a name part that must be contained in an element's (POI's, way's or area's) name to be displayed. This is hopefully useful during mapping to display e.g. only POIs containing "FIXME". On the other hand it's also amazing when using the map: You can e.g. display only supermarkets with a certain name when you are hunting for a special offer that is already sold out in your local market.
- Please note
- If no elements (POIs / areas / ways) are selected, the name check will be performed on ALL elements of the selected type. Thus in most cases it will be enough to only enter the string to be contained to get the desired result.
- If you also select one or more elements from the list, the name check will be performed only on the selected elements and the other ones will get filtered out.
Q: What are clickable markers and how do I recognize which objects are clickable markers on the map?
A: Add <clickable clickable="true"/> as (last?) entry for a POI into the style file and generate a map with Osm2GpsMid. Usage (from WHATSNEW): "Clickable markers for POIs: URLs on map are now optionally touchable links which open the URL in a web browser, and with a long tap open a context menu (Here&Online). On keyboard-only phones, the same is achieved by positioning the cursor marker inside a marker area and choosing Here&Online. Long tap on map now opens a context menu which now has nearby POI search in addition to the previously-existing online functions; also has options to route to and set as destination. Long tap on a clickable marker POI allows for opening POI url, phone or editing POI tags. On keyboard-only phones, the content menu is accessible as the Here&Online menu (formerly names as Online)."
Q: How accurate are waypoints which are saved while moving?
A (by mbaeurle): There is one main factor other than the general inaccuracy of GPS which plays a role when in motion: GPS receivers usually send position information every second. So you can be unlucky and trigger the waypoint saving just before a new position is sent to GpsMid. Then this position will be from almost a second in the past. This is the biggest factor of inaccuracy and not special to GpsMid. In one second, you move 10 m at 36 km/h, 20 m at 72 km/h, 30 m at 108 km/h etc. If you have a track with one point every second, make the following clear to yourself: The actual waypoint position can be anywhere between the recorded position (which will be exactly on a track point, naturally) and the next point in the track log. Note that the delay seen before the "Save waypoint" dialog is shown doesn't matter as the position is taken at the time when you press the key. There is a delay though between the sending of the position by the GPS receiver and the taking over for the waypoint. So you can be unlucky that the processing of the key press takes so long that the next position is used instead of the one when you pressed the key. But that may be more accurate because you have already moved more than half the value above since the last position was received... Confusing, right? Maybe it helps to draw a line with points and go through the different cases. Conclusion: Stop if the waypoint must be as accurate as GPS allows. If stopping is not possible (because you're tagging speed limits or emergency phones on the motorway) keep in mind that the position can be off as described above. One way to estimate the delay is to put a dummy waypoint, for instance when passing a crossing. Then you see how far from the crossing the waypoint ended up, and thus how much earlier you need to press the button when placing waypoints.
Q: How do I export tracks?
A: Select "Manage Tracks" from the map menu, choose the track(s) to export, then select "Export" from the menu. If you get the error message "GPX upload failed:" and nothing more, you probably have to set an output directory to save files in. Main menu -> Settings -> GPX receiver (file). Note - some (even quite new, like E71) Nokia phones can be very slow in exporting GPX tracks, it might take several minutes to export a track with just a few hundred points, so you may have to wait a long time to see export happening. But there is a dialog which shows the progress. Based on comments on DevicesList for N95, it might speed things up if GpsMid is installed in phone's memory instead of memory card.
Q: Help, GpsMid froze/crashed and I had to reset the phone and now all my tracks and waypoints are gone!
A: This is fixed in V0.4.51, so it's a good idea to upgrade. Note that you can still lose the currently recorded track if your phone freezes/crashes as the track is only in RAM at this point. But it is stored when you suspend recording so this may reduce the amount of lost data. If you also have stability problems then please do report them to the forums so that we can narrow down and eliminate the root cause for them.
Q: I don't have GPS, but I've heard about cell-based locating. Can I use that?
A: Gpsmid (versions since 0.5.09, maybe 0.5.00 for Sony Ericsson?) has support for cell-based locating on some phones. Cell-based location has drawbacks when compared to GPS. First, it usually is not nearly as accurate as GPS, accuracy varies from 100m to 40km or maybe more. Second, coverage is not global but depends on data uploaded to the opencellid service, see the next question. However when it works, it also works inside buildings where GPS mostly doesn't work. In cities, where cells are small and GPS fixes may be incorrect or unavailable due to tall buildings, cellid may sometimes be actually more accurate than GPS.
Cell-based location works with stand-alone Gpsmid on many Sony-Ericsson phones and Nokia S60 3rd edition feature pack 2 phones and also with the E71 phone (S60 3rd ed. feature pack 1). However the S60 Nokia phones lack support for getting LAC (Location Area Code) in j2me, which might sometimes cause incorrect locations to show up. To overcome this, it's possible to install a separate Symbian server app on the S60 phones to get full cell-id information with LAC. (A S60 python script has been written -- see OpenCellID for more info). The separate server app can be used to have cell-based location service on S60 models other than those mentioned above. Currently cell-based location lookup works on-line (with a cache to limit traffic), causing data traffic and fees (if fixed-fee tariff not available/subscribed to), but in the future Gpsmid might have locations bundled inside the app, thus avoiding data charges.
Q: How does cell-based locating work? It doesn't seem to work in my area?
A: Cell-based location looks up the cell-id at the opencellid[[[6]]] database. If it doesn't work in your area, it might be because no one has uploaded GPS/cell id information to the service. If you have GPS, you're encouraged to upload the data! If you use a Nokia S60 phone, you should use the separate app so you get also LAC information (see OpenCellID). You can set Gpsmid to log cell ids and later upload the log files to opencellid. There are plans to make Gpsmid do the upload for you. In either case you need to register with opencellid to get an apikey which is needed for uploads. You can upload the files via web at http://www.opencellid.org/measure/upload - note however that the message for succesful update is a bit hard-to-grasp at first. The message is "Added 1 Errors:" which means "One accepted" and "No errors" because there's no errors listed after the Errors: text.
Q: What is the difference between Bluetooth (Sirf) and Bluetooth (NMEA) location receiver?
A: SiRF binary mode delivers HDOP but not PDOP or VDOP. SiRFs in NMEA mode deliver all three. Bluetooth (Sirf) does not provide time from GPS receiver.
Output messages from GpsMid
Q: What does error message "//err BT: No such port//" mean ?
A: If you phone indeed supports Bluetooth, make sure bluetooth is actually enabled.
Q: What does error message "//Data was not uploaded (411): Length required//" mean when I tried to upload OSM way updates using GpsMid?
A: ???
Q: What does error message "FATAL Trace thread crashed. unexpectadly error with 0" mean at program startup?
A:The message is shown very short and don't seems to lead to any strange behavior within GpsMid. This error occured by the useage of an external bluetooth GPS Receiver. At standard settings GpsMid will use an internal gps receiver but works apparently also with the external gps receiver without a flaw except that error message. If you look in "Setup" --> "Location Receiver" and change the standard setting "input from Internal (JSR179)" to "Bluetooth (NMEA)" that error message will disapear. Simultaneously you will never asked the questions about the bluetooth and location usage at GpsMids startup phase.
Routing
Q: What does "Routing Ex null" mean?
A: ???
Q: What does the varying information in the title bar during route calculation, i.e. "16min, 33%, m:20k" mean?
A: ???
Sounds and Voice Routing (GpsMid 0.4.51 and higher)
Q: I don't get any sound output from my phone or it's too quiet
A: This can hace different causes:
- On SE phones you need to turn up the volume with the volume keys after every phone start.
- On Nokia phones (especially S60 series) you must turn on warning tones in the phone's profile configuration to get sounds.
- Currently GpsMid gives only voice instructions if the map is drawn, so you need to keep the backlight on
Did you try another sound format? So you e.g. define useSounds = wav, mp3, amr in the Properties file in order that amr, wav and mp3 are packed into the midlet.
Q: Can I create my own voice instructions or other sounds for GpsMid?
A: Yes! For this you need to have recorded files in one of the following formats: .amr, .mp3 or .wav For more informations please have a look at Properties_file#Sound formats
We would be pleased if you upload your sound file sets to the Patches section. They must be copyleft under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Bug Reports
Q: What informations should be posted when reporting problems?
A: If you have trouble with creating new midlets please post your properties file and the used OSM file-date in the [Forum]. Don't forget to mention what version of Osm2GpsMid you are using. This is the only way to debug problems! A: If you have a problem with GpsMid, also post to the [Forum]. Also mention the version of GpsMid and the hardware you are using. If an alert message popped up, report the message text as exact as possible. If the problem is reproducible, try to switch on the debug log to a file on the phone in the Setup. Check if this shows any indication of the problem. If it does, add the relevant part of it to the message you are posting.
