GMapCatcher offline tiles downloading and setup
Note: tiles downloading and resizing is much simpler now please follow the wiki instructions
video setup instructions courtesy of Built from Home
The following procedure explains how to download the required "offline" map tiles used by the Yaapu Mapping feature.
For each flying site the pilot will have to download the mapping tiles required to "cover" the area that the widget will display.
Up to 3 zoom levels are supported (max zoom level is -2)
A typical setup would use zoom levels -2, -1, 0.
To switch between levels a radio channel must be assigned to the zoom toggle function from the yaapu configuration menu.
The basic steps are:
- download tiles for the area at the required zoom level
- copy the tiles to the radio scard
There are no limits to the number of sites and/or tiles that the widget can handle. The only limit is the size of the SD card.
What you'll need:
- Custom gmapcacther for Yaapu Maaping Widgets with integrated tiles resizing to 100x100
- Run GMapCatcher (More information in the GMapCatcher User Wiki)
- GMapCatcher starts in "Offline" mode at zoom level 15. No tiles will be shown. Don't worry, we will fix that later.
- Select a mapping provider, a good one is Virtual Earth Satellite (Bing Maps). To switch provider follow the offical GMapCatcher wiki
- Assuming you'll use zoom levels -2,-1 and 0, do all the searching after setting the zoom level to 1, this will not download tiles for higher zoom levels (0,-1,-2) that you'll use for the widget. If you'd like to use lower zoom levels simply do the searching at 1 level lower than the one you'll use to fly.
- Enter your flying site location in the box. You can just enter the site's GPS coordinates and hit okay, or enter a location's name like "Old Settlers Park", or an address.
- Uncheck the "Offline"box to allow tiles to be downloaded as you browse, and the map shown.
- right click and select "batch download"
- define min zoom -2 and max zoom 0 and start downloading
Note The GMapCatcher User Wiki shows how to set a path and then download the area that would be included in a visual path. Shown below is an example 100km path. (thanks to Greg Covey for the example)
When you Shift+drag the map, then the area included in the visual download zone is queued for download, from the zoom level below the current view zoom level, to the visual download’s minimum zoom level as set
One main function of the tool is to allow you to download close-up maps along a path; it gives feedback of the number of tiles downloaded/requested while downloading
- go to the download folder
"%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/100x100/sat_tiles/*"and copy the required zoom level folders ( in this example 0,-1 and -2) to your sd card/IMAGES/yaapu/maps/sat_tiles.
Note if you selected the option 'Use different folder per map service' in the mapping provider settings page folder structure is slightly different.
Example without the 'Use different folder per map service' option checked:
- copy
%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/100x100/sat_tiles/-2/*to/IMAGES/yaapu/maps/sat_tiles/-2/* - copy
%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/100x100/sat_tiles/-1/*to/IMAGES/yaapu/maps/sat_tiles/-1/* - copy
%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/100x100/sat_tiles/0/*to/IMAGES/yaapu/maps/sat_tiles/0/*
Example with the 'Use different folder per map service' option checked:
- copy
%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/100x100/Nokia/sat_tiles/-2/*to/IMAGES/yaapu/maps/sat_tiles/-2/* - copy
%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/100x100/Nokia/sat_tiles/-1/*to/IMAGES/yaapu/maps/sat_tiles/-1/* - copy
%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/100x100/Nokia/sat_tiles/0/*to/IMAGES/yaapu/maps/sat_tiles/0/*
folder structure should be something like
- power cycle the radio
Just repeat the above steps for a new location, copy the 100x100 sat_tiles directory again to the SD card, and just skip copying files with the same name, when asked to speed the process. Remember, if you move to a new location or zoom level while "online", GMapCatcher will load tiles as you move the map. This just clutters the tiles directory. No impact on function, just a house-keeping issue
Note if incorrect tiles have been loaded by mistake (using a non-modified version of GMapCatcher, for example), you will need to delete the "%UserProfile%/.GMapCatcher/sat_tiles/*" directory since it caches the normal size tiles and the 100x100 size tiles will not be created
The final steps are:
- do a sensor discovery and make sure you have a valid GPS
- define a home reset channel in the widget config menu
- define a zoom toggle channel in the widget config menu