Home made GPS with mapping and tracking

This is exactly what I was looking for! I think I may be ordering a Motorola Defy Mini when I get paid on friday! Although I think I will be running View Ranger on it, which should provide all the functions that I want! How sturdy is the Hope light mount/Phone join? Any pics of it mounted on the bike?

Thanks

Adam

I’ll get some other pics up at some point, but if I forget it wont be for 10 days or so.

Current iteration is solid. I’ve had to modify the case back slightly so that the metal washer sits underneath with the screw head. This has produced a slight “bow” on the case, and it applies some pressure to the battery. Don’t believe that there are any issues with this.

Have had occasional rotation of the phone around the screw, but only when knocked and not while riding. Did some pretty hardcore descents yesterday and had no problems at all. Was also caught in rain, again no issues.

I think the important thing is finding the right screw, I have used a PC fan screw which was slightly long so trimmed it down. These screws are designed to cut their own thread into plastic and suit this application nicely.

I’ll post a pic of mine too once it’s set up

Glad to hear it held up ok! I was thinking of maybe aralditing a thin metal bracket onto the back of the case, as it would remove the issue of it spinning on its screw, we shall see, I am planning on ordering the phone tomorrow when i get paid. I will get some pictures up when i have sorted it!

Something I noticed last night – you can download maps to use offline directly in the app – eg you don’t have to use MOBAC – as such you can download the OS maps (select Ordnance SM(UK) as the map and then click the map button (top right) and select ‘Map Creator’. Then just select which levels of zoom you want) to use offline too.

Orux really is a very good app – takes some playing with to work out everything it does but I’ve found that I can set it up exactly how I want.

I haven’t explored OM fully yet, so there may be better ways to use it. Also looking into viewranger next time I go on a local ride…

I tried to glue the mount, however had issues relating either to the plastics involved, or vibration, which led to the glue not being as firm a joint as I’d have hoped. This is why I’m not relying on glue to hold the thing on!

A proper 2-part adhesive would probably work better and might solve the issue.

Here are some pictures of my setup.

Xperia Active is still the best phone to use from a technical point of view in my opinion. Full waterproofing, ANT built in and a pressure sensor. About £150 in the UK. There is a commercial mount available but I go with the homemade. The only thing to change since the pictures is that I have a bit of string attaching the phone to the stem as a backup in case of a mounting failure. I also have a small cut-out on the bit of white plastic at the top to expose the pressure sensor as I have added a facility into IpBike to enable it to be woken up just by waving your hand in-front of the sensor.

For £150 I’d rather get a Bryton 50 or Edge 705…

I picked up a brand new phone from tescos last night for £38
Saw they had the deal online a month ago and went into my local big one and asked.
They were not out on display but she had 5 in stock 🙂
Just worth a shot if you have a Tesco extra locally

Are you using that as your main map? bit mental if so? Personally, I stick with paper maps, and GPS for when I’m lost to pinpoint location(memory map on the phone.)

Personally i find I can do most routes I’ve not done before with minimal reference to a map mind you, just purely from studying and remembering it. never really had the need for a handle bar mounted map..

My original need was to have a way of logging routes without using my phone, so as to save battery power for when it was needed.

But since this was fairly cheap, it allowed me to have a digital map with planned route displayed.

seosamh – I don’t think anyone is advocating going out into proper wilderness with a phone as their only means of navigation. For me, I rarely ride places where I’m really at any risk of getting lost – I might just waste time if I do. I’m sure anyone going somewhere where there was real risk would be taking a backup map, etc.

numpty tech question here- would the defy phone with no sim work if wanting to use a live-tracking GPS app like endomondo, or is a sim and phone connection required for this?

thanks

Live tracking would require a sim. Although you could probably get a pay-as-you-go sim, the £10 or whatever would probably go pretty far…

or as I’ve considered, carrying your normal mobile with you (since I’ll still always have that with me) acting as a wifi hotspot which the ‘GPS mobile’ could then piggy back on.

or as I’ve considered, carrying your normal mobile with you (since I’ll still always have that with me) acting as a wifi hotspot which the ‘GPS mobile’ could the piggy back on.

cheers, conan, clubber.

so in the above, piggy back via bluetooth onto my basic cheapo Nokia?
would this possibly help with battery life issues mentioned on the other threads about live GPS tracking?

cheers

possibly but if it’s a basic Nokia then you’re unlikely to have a data contract (eg access to the internet). I guess it depends on how basic it actually is.

It won’t do anything for battery life either – the GPS on the ‘GPS mobile’ will still be being used and in fact, since you’ll be connecting to your normal mobile by wifi or bluetooth, you’ll actually be using (a bit) more power.

OK ta.

Well I have bought a Defy Mini, it has a faulty speaker, but I am not too fussed about that! Hopefully it will rock up tomorrow and I can have a bash at making some sort of mount and giving it a try! Quite excited to give it a try!

I’ve done similar to the OP. A few points:

Defy minis are £38 sim-free in tesco at the moment.

The defy mini is not waterproof. Though it is more splashproof than most phones.

Alpinequest is a good app for mapping and creating/following GPX tracks (needs the full version which is a fiver).

You can get OS/IGN etc. maps in the latest mobac with the appropriate map source script. I’m sure a little googling will see you right. Mobac is also good for creating GPX files to follow, but it’s also quite easy to do in alpinequest.

Running a wifi-hotspot on your “proper” phone will run down its battery in short order.

Mate of mine did some OS maps for me. I use Trekbuddy with the maps loaded onto an SD card.

like this

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P1050201[/url] by eastham_david[/url], on Flickr

I have my HTC on sale at the moment.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-%e2%80%93-htc-desire-s-with-os-mapping-package-and-casemate-cover-%e2%80%93-pics

I find it works great with both the internal GPS or a bluetooth one (which saves the phone battery)

Defy minis are £38 sim-free in tesco at the moment.

I hope not! 🙂 I can’t find them on their website…

I hope not! I can’t find them on their website…

Yup! I have one right here that I got a couple of weeks ago. Also see cr500dom’s post above. Not on their website though. In store only.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/motorola-defy-mini-39-instore-tesco-1540086

Yep fraid so, In store on wednesday I picked one up for £38
Wasnt on display, I had to ask, but they had a few in stock 😀

I found a dead link on ukhotdeals or something to tescomobile at £38 from 4 weeks ago, so I thought I`d chance a trip into the store and ask.

EDIT: that link there ^ 🙄

Running a wifi-hotspot on your “proper” phone will run down its battery in short order.

so just one (final) numpty question, the issue with the GPS tracking live on say Endomondo, is battery life, not really network/data usage?

I ask because if I try this for a few hours on my work phone and go over the limit our finance dept would no doubt give me a rollocking!

cheers

I`ve ordered a couple of cheap hard cases (just the backs really) from China / hongkong to make bike mounts out of.
That way I can have one fixed on the road bike and one on the MTB and just snap the phone into which ever one I am riding.

Now I just need to find an Ant+ HRM and Cadence/speed sensor for the road bike and I`ll be laughing

The more I play with Oruxmaps the more features there seem to be 😀

This is where I got my oregan 450 from and love it. I’m not sure about the dakota but I know the oregon supports heart rate monitors and cadence sensors. The bike mount is a extra tenner.

Quick note about the Defy here, the original Defy is IP67 rated, the Defy Mini isn’t waterproof at all.

There seems to be a lot of confusion over that issue. Some places say the phone is IP67, others do not. There are videos of it dunked in water…

It should, however, have no issues being rained on, or being splashed from the trail. I’ve certainly had no problem in rain and from mud…

so just one (final) numpty question, the issue with the GPS tracking live on say Endomondo, is battery life, not really network/data usage?

Not quite sure what you’re asking here… tracking your route doesn’t need data at all (no sim in my defy mini). If you want to “live track” publishing your route online to some service, that will use some data.

Now I just need to find an Ant+ HRM and Cadence/speed sensor for the road bike and I`ll be laughing

Don’t think the mini does Ant+ though? Unless you know otherwise…can’t find anything suggesting that it does…

There seems to be a lot of confusion over that issue. Some places say the phone is IP67, others do not. There are videos of it dunked in water…

As myself and ir_bandito say, the defy mini is NOT waterproof.

The motorola manual states this too. P4: https://motorola-global-en-uk.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/434897/1337763040/redirect/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzY5OTk0ODE5L3NpZC9veVRoVHlybA==/filename/DEFY-MINI_EN_UG_68016767006.pdf

“Note: Your phone is not designed to float or work
underwater.”

The Defy+ and original defy are IP67 (waterproof).

The mini does have some water resistance, but it’s not supposed to be waterproof…(water may or may not kill it…)

Also see more comments here:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/motorola-defy-mini_Mobile-Phone_review

theirs stopped working after they dunked it thinking it was waterproof…

IA
Don’t think the mini does Ant+ though? Unless you know otherwise…can’t find anything suggesting that it does…

Ah ok, I was going from the software being able to support it…

Is there an Add on way of doing it ? bluetooth maybe ?
I know there is a plug in for the iphone to support ANT+ ?

cheers IA- yes, i was meaning live tracking and live posting so others can view from comfort of their home screen- do you know if this uses a lot of data, or just battery?
thanks

cheers IA- yes, i was meaning live tracking and live posting so others can view from comfort of their home screen- do you know if this uses a lot of data, or just battery?

Well that’ll have to use some data, how much I don’t know. I can’t imagine it being very much data though it’ll depend on the service.

To give some idea, for some work stuff we log GPS position data once a second. 3 hours of GPS log is under a megabyte.

Is there an Add on way of doing it ? bluetooth maybe ?

It’s technically possible*, but not very practical.

(*you could in theory talk to an ANT+ transceiver over a BT->UART bridge, though I don’t know if the software would support it, it’d maybe need new drivers or some kernel hacking on the phone. Or you could also connect one over USB where the device supports USB host/accessory profile, but I don’t think the defy mini does)

EDIT: here you go http://www.selfloops.com/resources/tech-guides.html usb dongle for ANT+, don’t think it’ll work on the d-mini tho)

“Note: Your phone is not designed to float or work
underwater.”

I don’t think anyone is planning on doing either, but thanks for the strong viewpoint on the matter.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has posted info in this thread. I’ve now got oruxmaps running on my low end handset and am loving it. Used it twice this weekend and i didn’t know it was possible before this thread. Thanks!

Update,
The 2 hard cases (Just backs really) I ordered have arrived from China and HK, now need to sort out a bar mounting solution ?

Any Ideas on Light/accessory type mounts for bars ?
Cheers
Dom

Just search CRC or Wiggle in the “lights spares” section. You can usually find a handle bar clamp for a light for a few £’s that can be modded for other uses.

If I ever find time, I’ve bought the velcro alternative I mentioned and just need to actually put it all together. It is very grippy though so I’m expecting it to be ok.