OS maps – MOBAC not working anymore?

MOBAC 1.9 allows you to define your own mapsources in a manner compatible with Bing mapping, I’ve generated my own Bing map key and will put that into a MOBAC custom mapsource*. Should work, I’ll report back tonight!

* OS maps using Bing as the tile source.

I’ve been using MOBAC 1.8 to create my own custom maps to download and use in my Garmin 800 and it’s been working fine for a few years now. It was showing them up fine on MOBAC on Staurday night but I didnt try to down load a map.

Is this what has stopped working or now or is it just the Orax maps that are effected ?

MOBAC will no longer fetch new map tiles in OS format.

It was displaying the maps on Saturday night. Is it displaying but not down loading then, and is the fix people have been talking about just for Orax then ?

Tried MOBAC briefly last night… and ohhhhhhhhhhh bo11ock5 !!!

It displays the OS OK until you start zooming in to level 14 & 15 which is when it switches from 1:50,000 to 1:25,000 maps, and then it appeared to be leaving random squares out reverting to a basic Google map. When I tried creating a custom map and opening it in Google Earth it was as it was on the screen IE with the tiles missing. It could be that it was displaying the maps I’d downloaded before and no new ones in my new selection so I need to try it in a totally new area where I haven’t created a map before.

So, is there a fix so you can still download the custom 1:25,000 Explorer maps either in 1.8 or 1.9 as allthepies has suggested ?

Don’t you just hate it when when the loop holes gets closed by the powers that be!!!

@jairaj if you are still trying to find the fix through Orux then you need to find the onlinemapsources.xml file in oruxmaps/mapfiles folder.

Open this with notepad or similar

paste the relevant text as an addition to the section that has the header <Ordnance SM (UK)>.

This only works if you have the old version of Orux.

This is not 100% as it only pulls through 1:50,000 and there are still some duff tiles.

I would still be grateful if someone would pass on NRE’s fix.

NRE’s fix is an OS download of all of the UK on a USB or similar.

Sorry to have gone quiet on here – there is no ‘secret fix’, I was just wanting to avoid being bombarded with requests for the files 🙂

As nemesis says, I have both the MOBAC tiles cached and Orux atlases for the whole UK at 1:25000.

In the past I have helped a couple of STW users get copies of these files (by posting SD cards / USB sticks back and forth).

I think the plan of pfrumpy (who I recently helped out) was that he would help out the next in the ‘queue’, and the chain continues such that everyone helps out someone else.

I will try out my fix this afternoon and report back.

Ah OK, I have the newer version which removed that bit from the header from the list so was a bit lost. I tried to create a new header but I don’t really know what I’m doing so it didn’t do anything.

I think I’ll just use NRE’s workaround version

thanks for the help though.

Can I get next in the queue for some help then?

Fasterferret You don’t have an email visible in your profile. Send me a mail and I’ll reply back with some details.

Profile updated. Thanks.

Seems that most people want the Orux files and I’m the first for the Mobac files, so I’ll post on here when I have the files for the next person to grab them off me.

Right, I’ve got MOBAC 1.9 working with OS Mapping again.

To do so I had to :-

1. Create a Bing Map key here
2. Create an xml file in the mapsources folder under the MOBOC install location. Filename doesn’t matter but must have “.xml” suffix, say “os.xml”.
3. Copy/paste the following into the os.xml file

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<customMapSource>
<name>OS Maps with Key</name>
<minZoom>0</minZoom>
<maxZoom>18</maxZoom>
<tileType>png</tileType>
<tileUpdate>None</tileUpdate>
<url>http://ak.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{$q}.png?g=3440&productSet=mmOS&key=INSERT_YOUR_BING_KEY_HERE</url>
<backgroundColor>#000000</backgroundColor>
</customMapSource>

4. Change the two ampersand characters in the url above to actually be & amp ; without the spaces inbetween The forum won’t let me post the exact text.
5. Change the text INSERT_YOUR_BING_KEY_HERE above to be the Bing Map key you generated in step 1.
6. Save the os.xml file and start MOBAC.
7. Select “OS Maps with Key” in the MOBAC mapsource dropdown on the left.
8. Enjoy OS mapping again.

Note: This only works with MOBAC 1.9, not 1.8.

4. Change the two ampersand characters in the url above to actually be & amp ; without the spaces inbetween The forum won’t let me post the exact text.

Cheers allthepies. Genius if it works. Just struggling with step 4. I presume you mean the two &’s (ampersands) after …3440 and …mmOS in the URL but not sure what we change them to. Do you mean change them to ‘&’, and then ‘amp’ and then ‘;’ with no spaces.

Change the single character & to a & followed by the word amp followed by ; (semicolon) no spaces. So yes, what you said 🙂

Bear in mind that the Bing key is registered to you and so be careful with how far and wide you share it. I would imagine that single users / single key is OK but if your key gets shared everywhere then not so good.

allthepies…. you God like bloody genius, it works !!!

Cheers

😛

Oh yes. Thanks allthepies 🙂

Excellent! Working for me. Thanks allthepies.

Thanks allthepies!

Hi, and thanks allthepies that worked perfectly !

However, I would like to know if there’s any way to get smaller scales of these OS maps (e.g 1:250k and OS District) ?
I found some sites displaying them, like http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with the URLs retreiving the tiles : http://212.71.238.40:443/geoserver/gwc/service/wms?KEY=&URL=http%3A%2F%2F212.71.238.40&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&STYLES=&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&LAYERS=osgb%3A250k&SRS=EPSG%3A27700&BBOX=210000,945000,215000,950000&WIDTH=200&HEIGHT=200

Cheers for info will have a play later

Just wanted to add my thanks for the very useful information above. Great to have MOBAC working again.
Re the question about smaller scale maps, I get 1:25000 tiles using the instructions above if I keep zooming in.

Thanks allthepies that fix is awesome!

In terms of the Bing API key I chose the basic version which said you can do something like 120,000 transactions for free. Is that something you have to worry about? Does that mean the limit is 120,000 tiles or something on each key?

Cheers

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<customMapSource>
<name>OS Maps with Key</name>
<minZoom>0</minZoom>
<maxZoom>18</maxZoom>
<tileType>png</tileType>
<tileUpdate>None</tileUpdate>
<url>http://ak.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{$q}.png?g=3440&productSet=mmOS&key=INSERT_YOUR_BING_KEY_HERE</url>
<backgroundColor>#000000</backgroundColor>
</customMapSource>

Hi,

I created bing key and xml file. but when i go to mobac and i am selecting OS maps with key i don’t see any maps-i have only red crosses. i can add that google maps provider locked me. what can i do in this case?

Yes, I followed these instructions and have the same outcome ie red crosses but no OS map. Did I do something wrong, or have they closed a loop-hole?

If you’re on android and you can’t get it working, I’d recommend Backcountry Navigator. It’s only £8.99 for full 1:25k OS. There’s a free trial app to download and see if you like it.

1) Is the Bing hack still working for anyone?

2) The Bing OS maps are not as up-to-date as those on Streetmap.co.uk. There’s recently been a new bridleway dedicated near to where I live and it’s showing on Streetmap but not Bing.

Just found this thread. I’ve got Oruxmaps working with Streetmap tiles, therefore solving both of those issues. Very impressed with the performance – tracking appears to be accurate to within a few m once I’ve calibrated the maps properly (unfortunately the standard Oruxmaps desktop isn’t that accurate at converting OS refs to WGS84, so I’m doing that myself).

Currently working on a Windows Forms app to generate the Oruxmaps tiles and the calibration automatically from a larger map image, which I’ll happily make available to download when it reaches a half decent state – at the moment it requires quite a bit of manual intervention.

I will investigate if this is still working. I haven’t fired up MOBAC since I posted the “hack”.

Mine’s been working happily ever since… 🙂

Excellent!

Dear all – & especially allthepies

Apologies for the fact that I’ve only joined the forum because I found this thread; I used to use Mobac 1.8, but now find missing tiles, so I got myself a Bing key & tried the ‘os.xml’ workaround on 1.9.4 – but can’t find ‘OS maps with key’ in the drop-down options. Assuming I’ve done something wrong (though I thought I’d followed the instructions, including the & bit), can you suggest what?
Thanks
Pete

OK . . . discovered what I had done wrong – put the .xml file in the Mobac root, not /mapsources. Doh.

Now, ‘OS maps with key’ is listed in the sources – but all I get are thumping great red crosses.

Any recommendations?

Have you replaced the & character with & amp ; (no spaces in between) in the bing webpage URL in the .xml file ?

In this bit

<url>http://ak.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{$q}.png?g=3440&productSet=mmOS&key=INSERT_YOUR_BING_KEY_HERE</url>

The above should all be on one line too, no line break.

As confirmation, the MOBAC 1.9 OS maps fix I posted in this thread still works.

I see there is a MOBAC 2.0 beta available, I haven’t downloaded/tested this so currently only recommend v1.9.

Update: the same mapsources xml config file works just fine with the MOBAC 2.0 beta.

Thanks everyone for your help. I’ve just downloaded MOBAC 2 beta, copied over the os.xml file I created before . . . and it works fine.

Go figure, as they say. Perhaps the file works best with a vanilla install; MOBAC does alter its .xml files as it goes along, I think – but whatever the explanation, it seems to be working perfectly, so thanks especially to allthepies – you deserve them! (the pies, that is)