 | Home > Expedition & Overland > Tripmeter app - any recommendations? |
 
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| donmacn Member Since: 07 Nov 2017 Location: Nth Scotland Posts: 1829  |
Hi folks,
Another installment in my new series of ‘daft laddie’ questions in advance of next year’s Pyrenees trip. Someone (on here I’m sure) mentioned using a trip meter app alongside their navigation system. A quick Google shows lots available for Android, but as always, what works…? I did have a search on here to see if someone had already asked or commented on this, but nothing came up. I’ll be using an 8” tablet for GPS nav, so I guess a trip meter isn’t essential, but maybe it would provide an additional back up, or (best case scenario!) avoid a his ‘n hers argument about whether that was the correct junction! Has anyone here done this and got any recommendations? Ideally something that could be minimised into the corner of a GPS map display? Ta. Donald 1994 Defender 300Tdi 110 SW - owned since 2002 - 230k miles and going strong (The 'rolling restoration' or tinkering thread: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic58538.html ) 2000 Range Rover P38 4.0L V8 in the past.. RR classic - fitted with 200Tdi 1984 RR classic - V8 with ZF auto box 1993 Discovery 300Tdi not to mention the minis and the Type 2 VW camper... |
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30th Sep 2022 10:55am |
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| donmacn Member Since: 07 Nov 2017 Location: Nth Scotland Posts: 1829 |
Thanks very much - I'll have a look at that. It's a 1994 Tdi, so the phone I'm using now is the nearest it has to an ECU
 Donald
1994 Defender 300Tdi 110 SW - owned since 2002 - 230k miles and going strong (The 'rolling restoration' or tinkering thread: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic58538.html ) 2000 Range Rover P38 4.0L V8 in the past.. RR classic - fitted with 200Tdi 1984 RR classic - V8 with ZF auto box 1993 Discovery 300Tdi not to mention the minis and the Type 2 VW camper... |
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30th Sep 2022 11:19am |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4388 
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There are some good ones and some alright ones.
I have used Memory-Map and Two Nav for doing what you want; Mapping, GPS and track record. Both work well and can be found on most platforms. I mostly use Memory-Map here in the UK as I have all the OS maps on it. You can set out way points and routes, navigate to them (but it is not a SATNAV with turn by turn instructions) and on the other page start your route logging and view live data.  Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge For a turn by turn satnav I use CoPilot and it is excellent for everywhere I have been in Europe. |
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30th Sep 2022 11:58am |
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| donmacn Member Since: 07 Nov 2017 Location: Nth Scotland Posts: 1829 |
Thanks again guys,
Geobloke - your picture made me sit and think "Hang on... maybe I can do this another way?" I'd asked another of what I'll call my 'daft Pyrenees questions' earlier - about satnav options (hardware and software). Based on the replies to that I decided to go with a Samsung 8" tablet; RAM suction mounts, and I've subscribed to LocusMaps. At that stage I thought we'd run the GPS primarily, and as a back up use the vibraction tulip diagrams and a 'trip meter'. Your screenshot made me realise that I could create my own 'route' on LocusMaps by matching the waypoints with the Vibraction ones (and doing a visual cross-reference through a combination of the tulip diagrams in the books, satellite imagery from LocusMaps and Google, and even streetview). This has been a pretty laborious process - a few days of clicking and routing and checking satellite pics - but I'm happy that I now have all of the VRB5 waypoints added to a series of my own individual tracks. This takes me to the stage where I think I won't need the 'traditional' trip meter after all. There's another plus side to this which is that my wife, who'll primarily be the one in the passenger seat, can spend more time looking out the window; less time pressing trip meter buttons and reading a book. I think these potential stress points have been avoided: "Where are we now exactly? - "Oh, I think I forgot to press the button.." Onwards and upwards, but thanks again for posting something that made a satnav newbie pay attention! (Edit - I meant to say this question was specifically Europe related. In the UK, I'm a real OS 'fanboy'. I love OS maps and can spend a happy hour 'reading' a map or two. I subscribe to their app too and have that on phone and tablet.) Donald 1994 Defender 300Tdi 110 SW - owned since 2002 - 230k miles and going strong (The 'rolling restoration' or tinkering thread: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic58538.html ) 2000 Range Rover P38 4.0L V8 in the past.. RR classic - fitted with 200Tdi 1984 RR classic - V8 with ZF auto box 1993 Discovery 300Tdi not to mention the minis and the Type 2 VW camper... |
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5th Oct 2022 10:06am |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4388
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Well that's a win for your Mrs Don then
I had the pleasure of being the navigator for a trip to the Pyrenees with the Disco 3&4 boys back in 2012 (where did the time go) and if I recall correctly we had some routes that I plotted in to TwoNav as that was all I had at the time. I then eloped to Gib via a lot of places in Spain in Miffy and used nothing but coPilot and paper maps as my copilot and soon to be wife loves map reading. If you fancy poking your head out of the Pyrenees then head to the Bardenas Reales (The Bad Lands) and whilst you are there the Desfiladero de Vellos and Anisclo canyon and absolutely worth a visit. Simply stunning part of the World. The Pyrenees are such a beautiful place to tour around you are going to have a fab time. I wish I was coming too, to be honest. 
Whilst I am thinking of it the DK Back Roads of France and Spain are surprisingly good as a back up for "what to do next"
Disco Trip Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Miffy Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge |
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5th Oct 2022 11:05am |
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| donmacn Member Since: 07 Nov 2017 Location: Nth Scotland Posts: 1829 |
 Thanks - any thread with pictures and I end up thinking that I wish I could go tomorrow! Oh for the day that I stop being a 'waged slave'.
I think the Vibraction book takes in some of the 'badlands' - I certainly recognise the Bardenas Reales name from one of the Caminos that it follows. But tbh given that we were both educated as 'geographers', even if we don't work in that area, we will still get a kick out of seeing any different landscapes. Donald 1994 Defender 300Tdi 110 SW - owned since 2002 - 230k miles and going strong (The 'rolling restoration' or tinkering thread: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic58538.html ) 2000 Range Rover P38 4.0L V8 in the past.. RR classic - fitted with 200Tdi 1984 RR classic - V8 with ZF auto box 1993 Discovery 300Tdi not to mention the minis and the Type 2 VW camper... |
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5th Oct 2022 4:56pm |
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| Retroanaconda Member Since: 04 Jan 2012 Location: Scotland Posts: 2545 
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Do vibration not supply a gpx file for the route? You can just load that into a free mapping app like Guru and then just follow the line. No need for directions or tulip diagrams.
I use a combination of the above for off-road route navigation and google maps or similar on my phone for any of the on-road bits. |
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5th Oct 2022 7:52pm |
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| donmacn Member Since: 07 Nov 2017 Location: Nth Scotland Posts: 1829 |
Thanks,
They did supply a route GPX file, but when I imported it into LocusMaps the connections were 'straight lines' - not following any routes. So, where there were lots of squiggly lines between point A and point B, indicating tracks on the ground, I was just seeing a straight line between A and B. They sent two files for each section of the traverse a "traversewest.gpx" and a "traversewest-rte.gpx". Neither of these provided an actual route on the ground when imported - though I have to say it is entirely possible that this is my own mistake, being a GPS newbie, and still learning my way around a complicated mapping app. Indeed even when building the route on the mapping app, I had to specify which mode of transport I was using - a "car" wouldn't follow tracks; a "bicycle" would default away from larger roads. So I guess that whatever mapping app you use would need to know how you were planning to travel?? I agree about Google maps for the road sections, though I'm yet to play with Locus. Google was great for Nth France/Brittany this year. Donald 1994 Defender 300Tdi 110 SW - owned since 2002 - 230k miles and going strong (The 'rolling restoration' or tinkering thread: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic58538.html ) 2000 Range Rover P38 4.0L V8 in the past.. RR classic - fitted with 200Tdi 1984 RR classic - V8 with ZF auto box 1993 Discovery 300Tdi not to mention the minis and the Type 2 VW camper... |
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5th Oct 2022 8:06pm |
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| Retroanaconda Member Since: 04 Jan 2012 Location: Scotland Posts: 2545
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If they’ve only got the turns in as the waypoints then sadly that’s all it will be able to do. A shame if that is the case though.
This is what I’ve got in Guru maps, mainly gpx trace files people have sent me or collected from Wikiloc or similar: Click image to enlarge And this is what it looks like at scale (actually Slovenia as that’s the map I have loaded at the moment). It uses open source mapping as the base, which is downloaded prior so no need for a data connection: Click image to enlarge |
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5th Oct 2022 9:03pm |
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| donmacn Member Since: 07 Nov 2017 Location: Nth Scotland Posts: 1829 |
"If they’ve only got the turns in as the waypoints then sadly that’s all it will be able to do. A shame if that is the case though."
I'm assuming it's to do with the principle of them supplying a road book with tulip diagrams and KM distances - they've obviously put a lot of work into that, and must see this as their selling point. I can see that it might be fun to use. If they supplied turn by turn route data via GPS, who would look at the diagrams?? I think you would really need time to kill though, to be taking things extremely slowly. In fact, having done essentially a 'point to point' match up between the book and GPS, I can see that it really is pretty accurate. With a satellite image it really is possible to see the tracks, ruins, bridges etc which are their 'thumbnail' landmarks/sketches. Even the given distances between points are pretty good. Given that I was putting an electronic pin on an electronic map from 'space' it was surprising just how good the distances were. A bit out on the longer legs, but again, I suspect they must have real metre/kilometre distances logged rather than GPS generated ones. I'll be using my GPS route now though  , but taking the books for all the ancillary info. My French is not wonderful, but I get the gist. Donald
1994 Defender 300Tdi 110 SW - owned since 2002 - 230k miles and going strong (The 'rolling restoration' or tinkering thread: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic58538.html ) 2000 Range Rover P38 4.0L V8 in the past.. RR classic - fitted with 200Tdi 1984 RR classic - V8 with ZF auto box 1993 Discovery 300Tdi not to mention the minis and the Type 2 VW camper... |
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5th Oct 2022 11:09pm |
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