This thread a few weeks back got me thinking, particularly Gribs's zero-budget solution of running Memorymap on a second hand PDA. I have a Satmap Active 10 which is a brilliant bit of kit but very costly, and the idea of having something which functions more or less the same, but a tenth of the price and a range of other functions is very appealing.

So, the question is, who else is doing the budget OS mapping thing on a PDA, and what's your set-up? Is there any decent freeware that will do a similar job to Memorymap? I've found GPSMap-OS which coupled with Get-A-Map looks like it could provide a decent enough basic navigation service, for local jaunts at any rate.

Now that's got me wondering if the above would work on…

£50 car sat nav
"Win CE.NET 5.0 Operating System" ?

http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm

You could take screenshots of the maps from here then import and calibrate them in GPSMAP-OS

Deft, have a look at the Get-a-map program linked to above. It automatically downloads mapping tiles from the OS website at 1:25k or 1:50k. Doesn't seem to be able to cope with more than a few tiles at a time though.

I have written my own GPS mapping software for my old Symbian phone (N70) using Java. Its great as it does exactly what I want it to do. Scaled scans of maps are loaded onto it and then it uses a Bluetooth GPS unit to get its location.

The BIG problem I now have is that the Java on my current phone (N95) has a new 'feature' where it won't allow a non-Nokia-signed Java app any access to the file system! Its for security according to Nokia even though its my phone and MY **** software!!!! Grrrrrr.

I'll show it to you if I remember next time we bump into each other Ant.

stuey – in theory, yes. In practice, it's a bit hit and miss. You also face the difficulty of trying to get the sat nav to start up in vanilla Windows mode.

Sammy, that sounds cool, there's a lot of home-brewed GPS applications out there but I'm not sure which ones work! I do have a Symbian phone as well but it's an old one (N5500 Sport) which has refused to work with GPS applications like TrailExplorer.

Phiiiiil posted a thread on the STW forum, pre-hack, regarding a £50 SatNav he bought and then hacked into the WinCE OS.

A few people did it and got TomTom running on the thing and Memory Map too and lots of other stuff.

I think the down side was Battery life.

So, while a cheap Windows PDA combined with MM might be a tempting Idea, just make sure your PDA has a decent/enough run-time.

I have a windows phone and just run MM on it. Only thing is, I don't mount my phone to the bars, so realtime directions aren't really practical.

In fact, in my limited off-road GPS experience, having a bar mounted, display isn't always very useful. The GPS signal could be 20m out, while you're trying to find a piece of ST maybe only 18" wide.

I've an Edge 305 and use it more for pre-loaded road rides or for trakcing where I've been when I've cycled off-road.

Solo.

I bought an old T-mobile MDA Compact III on ebay for around 60 quid, and it has GPS built in, plus lots of keys that you can use to zoom in/out of maps (with Memory Map), and a little scroll ball thingy. Works really well. Used it for around 6 hours on one charge, and if it runs out you can just put another battery in.
http://www.coolsmartphone.com/article705.html

ITs got wet and knocked around quite a lot and still seems to work.

If you buying on ebay, make sure its got Windows Mobile 5 as version 6.1 has issues with large map sizes.

If you're that way inclined i think they're reasonably easy to program with Visual Studio.

2nd what HH writes. I updated my phone OS from windows 6 to 6.1.

Had to reconfigure and reload all my MM maps !.

Goodness, can MS windows mobile be a pain in the behind, sometimes.

Stick to windows mobile 5 or 6, is my advise.

Good Idea HH, to buy a cheapy from ebay and run MM on it 😉

Solo.

I use an O2 XDA with Windows Mobile; this is pretty useful http://bikedashboard.mathieugardere.com/ – it's free and pretty good for tracking routes. Seems to get a lot more life out of the battery than MemoryMap does – not sure why / if it's just my imagination though ….

It can also be used as a route plotter / visual map but you've got to create the maps yourself – either screen grabs from Multimap in OS mode or scans of real maps work fine though.

Steve.

Thanks for that, looks interesting.

S.

Stevehine, I'd repeat the recommendation for Get-A-Map, which is available for free download here:

http://www.akadamia.co.uk/html/downloads.html

It downloads a user-defined number of OS map tiles around a grid reference you give it from, I think either the OS's own site or Multimap, and creates a calibration info file too. It's a bit buggy, particularly if you're trying to put together large maps, but it takes a lot of the faff out of scanning maps or the screen grabs method.

Its remarkable that some people cling to the belief that a £6 bit of paper is superior to these ingenious modern methods … 😉

I have maps too, but I'm f–ked if I'm going to look at an unwieldy giant crumply thing every time I go past a turning. 😉

You've got the beard, why not the map board? 😉

I do have a map board too. The one time I've used it so far, on an Audax earlier this year, we got royally lost somewhere round Cleeve Hill. Luckily we'd brought the satnav along, instead of leaving it in the car, and it was able to get us back OK just as it got dark. 🙂

Cheers Mr Agreeable – I was considering writing something that did the very same thing; but like a lot of things I never quite got around to it …

I'm disapointed you didn't balance a magnetised needle on a leaf floating in a cup of water, and triangulate your position from that.

2nd Mr A's comments. I have maps, but they are major faff while en-route. Best kept for dinning table planning and in-the-field back-up, imo.

And, if you can sort yourself a GPS for between £50 and £100, all-in, then I reckons its worth a punt.

S.

I'm just having a laugh with mr a Solo, I'm well aware of the limitations of maps 🙂

Good solution, just a shame that they're not waterproof – that's really the only thing that makes me stick with a dedicated GPS (Etrex H for me)

In all seriousness, since I got my dullard's Gameboy, I've been doing a lot more "natural" riding, for longer, instead of just hacking round the woods. And stuff like cycling to Bristol from Brighton off-road would have been pretty difficult using just paper maps – we'd have needed to take about six Landrangers, or god knows how many Explorers.

@SammyC — can you try this with your old app: helloOX2? I don't know much about it, but it seemed it could let you bypass the security…