What app you use to track you adventures?

[onuraiu]

Hi fellow adventures!

I've been travelling around the globe with different cars for 13y (last 14 months with Grenadier) and used different trackers and apps until I made my own, so I'm wondering now what you use, so I can maybe have some ideas how to improve my app

I don't know is it allowed to promote my free app or not, so just to be sure, I don't post that information for now...

 

[4x4Brick #1561]

2nd to last big trip I started out with a year long OnX subscription. The GPX my cousin found of our planned trip route was too big for OnX so we switched to GAIA (OnX rep says size no longer an issue I'm told). I found some of the multiple overlay / underlay maps an advantage of GAIA (BLM and wild fires) but it is NOT an intuitive program. And I'm still pretty savvy on the IT side. Last trip, Texas Grenadier Owner group at Palo Duro Canyon, the park, Merus Outdoors, has some kind of agreement with OnX. All the park's trails were already mapped on OnX and color coded for hard, medium, body damage ,etc... I still had a month left of my original OnX year subscription so I used OnX in the canyon with a Starlink and it worked well. I thought the route tracker of where I went was especially useful. Still have issues with both GAIA and OnX software's version on the Grenadier screen though Android Auto not having the same functions as the phone or tablet version. I for one would be curious what you have developed and been using. Either way before my next big trip I suspect I'll need to get a small 10ish inch (freedom units!) tablet and a suction cup windshield support arm. That should give me full access to whatever app, not mess with constant disconnects from the Grenadier wifi, and keep the android auto music streaming. Sounds trite but the music on a trip is pretty important to me.

 

[onuraiu]

1st I used satellite trackers (InReach, Spot), from apps I have used OsmAnd, GuruMaps. Lately I used FollowMee to save my active track to their server and then fetched it with my own script to display on my own map. Currently I made this: https://getwau.app. but reading your experience I already got some more ideas to implement, like track sharing and planning for upcoming adventures. Currently my app only saves tracks and you can share POI's. Now I need to figure out how to share tracks with friends without have a need for servers (I want to keep privacy and security).. But yes, thank you very much for your input, I was out of ideas, now I have many

 

[skinny_tom]

I usually use Gaia GPS. I can share my routes with the others on the trip. Good map layers, nice on device map storage, reasonable storage of waypoints, tracks and routes.

 

[Rok_Dr]

1st I used satellite trackers (InReach, Spot), from apps I have used OsmAnd, GuruMaps. Lately I used FollowMee to save my active track to their server and then fetched it with my own script to display on my own map. Currently I made this: https://getwau.app. but reading your experience I already got some more ideas to implement, like track sharing and planning for upcoming adventures. Currently my app only saves tracks and you can share POI's. Now I need to figure out how to share tracks with friends without have a need for servers (I want to keep privacy and security).. But yes, thank you very much for your input, I was out of ideas, now I have many

Thank you! I'll down load and give it a run.

Cheers
Steve

 

[onuraiu]

From whom I must ask permission to share my app updates here and collect feedback.. currently working on units selection (km/h or mph, etc)...

 

[Rok_Dr]

While I’m not a moderator, I would think that as long as it remains a free app and you aren’t charging anything you should be ok to post about what updates you make

In a similar manner I freely provide the Rok_Dr manual to all and periodically make update posts in the thread.

I’ve downloaded your app and hopefully in the next day or so will try it out and give you some feedback

Cheers
Steve

 

[Rok_Dr]

Hi @onuraiu

I've just given it a little test on my iphone 16 Pro. Works well but a couple of questions:

I've worked out how to save the track, but how can i export it so that i can view it in a GIS system like QGIS and/or share a file that friends can import to their mapping apps.

Also its not clear what the graphic toggle buttons either side of the GO button at the bottom of the screen do? I couldn't find anything in the about section. Unless I've missed seeing it perhaps a brief description in the how it works section on what each button does?

cheers
Steve

 

[globalgregors]

We track using a Garmin InReach. Among the PanAmerican Highway folks just now the most popular social/tracking options appear to be polarsteps, distantly followed by panamhighway.

 

[Logsplitter]

We track using a Garmin InReach. Among the PanAmerican Highway folks just now the most popular social/tracking options appear to be polarsteps, distantly followed by panamhighway.

We have been using polar steps for a few years now and is a great way for friends and family to follow our journeys.

 

[DenisM]

Hi fellow adventures!

I've been travelling around the globe with different cars for 13y (last 14 months with Grenadier) and used different trackers and apps until I made my own, so I'm wondering now what you use, so I can maybe have some ideas how to improve my app

I don't know is it allowed to promote my free app or not, so just to be sure, I don't post that information for now...

Welcome!! List it in "Resources". we're always up for testing free stuff!!

 

[onuraiu]

I've worked out how to save the track, but how can i export it so that i can view it in a GIS system like QGIS and/or share a file that friends can import to their mapping apps.

Also its not clear what the graphic toggle buttons either side of the GO button at the bottom of the screen do? I couldn't find anything in the about section. Unless I've missed seeing it perhaps a brief description in the how it works section on what each button does?

Export is waiting to be developed together with sharing tracks to friends. So at the moment you can only record your path or import existing ones.
Buttons from the left:
Followme - keeps your position on the screen
GO/Stop - track recording
Bearing - either sets bearing to the top of screen and then also followme position moves from the center of screen to lower part of the screen; or sets bearing North up
Fog - displays fog around your track, idea was to not only mark the track but have a little more mapped viewed area, as you obviously see around you
POI - displays your POI's on the screen or not

Now, if followme and/or bearing is activated and you accidentally pan the mapview then counter starts to move you back where you were (eg buttons are activated again), if you touch screen one more time, then those buttons are cancelled and you need to activate those yourself.

Hint: you can also do a long-press on the map

 

[Jeremy996]

From whom I must ask permission to share my app updates here and collect feedback.. currently working on units selection (km/h or mph, etc)...

@Stu_Barnes, admin@theineosforum.com

 

[Emil]

PAJ GPS tracking for various use cases. Protegear Safetrack/Tripview for hiking and climbing.

 

[Rok_Dr]

Export is waiting to be developed together with sharing tracks to friends. So at the moment you can only record your path or import existing ones.
Buttons from the left:
Followme - keeps your position on the screen
GO/Stop - track recording
Bearing - either sets bearing to the top of screen and then also followme position moves from the center of screen to lower part of the screen; or sets bearing North up
Fog - displays fog around your track, idea was to not only mark the track but have a little more mapped viewed area, as you obviously see around you
POI - displays your POI's on the screen or not

Now, if followme and/or bearing is activated and you accidentally pan the mapview then counter starts to move you back where you were (eg buttons are activated again), if you touch screen one more time, then those buttons are cancelled and you need to activate those yourself.

Hint: you can also do a long-press on the map

Thank you @onuraiu I really appreciate the work you have done getting it this far.

I'm glad to see export functionality is in your development road map and look forward to seeing it in a future version.

The Icon descriptions make sense. I really like your "fog" highlighting of the track. It makes it much easier to see the track with a quick glance of the screen. The cloud icon confused me as I associate the cloud symbol with cloud storage systems like Dropbox, One Drive etc. But currently I don't have any ideas of what other icon you could use to avoid the ambiguity.

Thank you again
Cheers
Steve

 

[Alprider]

I’ve just started using this

https://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/map.do?sw=-48.2246726495652%2C-181.40625&ne=79.87429692631282%2C-40.07812500000001&page=1

Seems ok to me!

I’ve also been using OutdoorActive app for hiking etc.

 

[onuraiu]

Thank you @onuraiu I really appreciate the work you have done getting it this far.

I'm glad to see export functionality is in your development road map and look forward to seeing it in a future version.

The Icon descriptions make sense. I really like your "fog" highlighting of the track. It makes it much easier to see the track with a quick glance of the screen. The cloud icon confused me as I associate the cloud symbol with cloud storage systems like Dropbox, One Drive etc. But currently I don't have any ideas of what other icon you could use to avoid the ambiguity.

Thank you again
Cheers
Steve

In the beginning I had this fog related to moving speed, eg the faster you go the little you see. but having 180 000km of tracks like I do, it did not perform well on older and slower phones.. so I made constant width for fog currently until I figure out better way (I used bitmaps and GPU rendering).

 

[TCMColorado]

I use a combination of Gaia, OnX and Avenza (geo located paper & PDF maps). I prefer Gaia for the availability of extensive multiple map options and the ability to layer those maps. The downloading feature is also much more flexible than OnX. I do not find the predefined routes in OnX all that valuable, but I know it is a very popular feature for many OnX users. Avenza is great because it is basically digitized versions of paper maps that are fully geo located and can be used on a tablet or computer with real time location tracking. So you have access to maps that are not available on any other platform. Note, this all applies to travel in the USA specifically.