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Subject:Download route (problem?) 

yano

14:31
Wednesday
24-Feb-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Hi Stephen!

When I download a route of mine from your website to my mobile, the number of points is reduced from almost original 500 to almost 130. Is it a feature or a bug? :)
For your info: the route is fortunately not cut (i.e. the starting point and the end point are downloaded) - it's only reduced in details.
I was not able to find any previous post here or any settings related to that ...

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,
yano
 

Stephen

18:11
Wednesday
24-Feb-2010

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Hi Yano,

I'm not sure whether to call it a 'feature' or a 'necessary limitation'!

It does do this by design, in order to reduce the number of routepoints that the phone has to store. It aims to get the total points below about 150 (if I remember correctly), by removing points that are spaced (unnecessarily) close together. It was originally intended for when downloading a previously recorded track as a route, although it might do strange things if downloading a manual or CloudMade-created route on the website.

I could probably increase the 150 point target (or eventually make it customisable) if you are finding it too restrictive...?

Cheers,
Stephen
 

yano

8:58
Thursday
25-Feb-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

" I could probably increase the 150 point target (or eventually make it customisable) if you are finding it too restrictive...? "

making it customisable via a new setting on the TMJ web site would be perfect, thanks! Assuming then that the mobile application will be able to cope with a larger amount of routepoints ...

Cheers,
yano
 

yano

14:07
Thursday
25-Feb-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

I forgot to mention that it would be great if you could define on the settings page of the TMJ site the "Min distance between points" to download rather than entering the max number of routepoints to download ... Hopefully I'm not too much pretentious ... :)

Thanks&Cheers,
yano
 

Stephen

19:57
Thursday
25-Feb-2010

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Hi Yano,

Oops, too late (for the moment at least)!! ;-)

I had actually already begun to add a Maximum Routepoints option on the ACCOUNT/Settings page, which I've just made live. I guess I could also add a 'Minimum Distance' variable as well, but perhaps see how well the current method works - it may be good enough as it is.

(In fact, when downloading the route the Minimum Distance is actually derived from the Maximum Routepoints anyhow - it is simply the Total Route Length divided by the Maximum Routepoints setting, with a minimum value of 15m.)

Let me know how it goes...

Cheers,
Stephen
 

yano

10:25
Friday
26-Feb-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

thanks for your prompt reaction! Your solution and explanation fit perfectly my needs! :)

Unfortunately it doesn't work so far ... :(  I've changed the settings (tried with 600 and 500 points), restarted TMJ mobile, cleared the route, updated the route list (just in case) but all the time the same result: only 124 points are dowloaded (I've tried with my "1day TransAlp 2010" route which contains 494 points).

Any thoughts ... ?

Thanks&Cheers,
yano
 

Stephen

12:44
Friday
26-Feb-2010

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Hi Yano,

Mmm, a bit confused here! Which version of TMJ are you using on the phone - the route updates will only work in v0.7.3 or above...?

Cheers,
Stephen
 

yano

14:29
Friday
26-Feb-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

I still run v0.6.9 because I'm happy with it (or I should say now was) and I don't need the major changes of v0.7.3 which are mainly touch screen phones oriented ...

The "route update" I was referring to is available in Main Menu/Web/Download Route/1.Update Route List and it works fine.

Actually I wouldn't expect that your new "max download points" web setting is client version dependant ...

Cheers,
yano
 

Stephen

19:17
Friday
26-Feb-2010

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Hi Yano,

Though the settings on the website are client independant, each TMJ version talks to a different server script, so that I can make changes to new and test versions without affecting the live versions. I've just updated the 0.6.9 script for you (though haven't tested if it works or not!), so give it another try.

I'd recommend upgrading to the latest version - there are loads of other non-touchscreen-related changes as well, including some recent necessary changes to the vector maps (if you use these) that will eventually prevent these from working correctly on older versions...

Cheers,
Stephen
 

yano

12:03
Monday
1-Mar-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

thank you for your explanation and effort! Now it downloads more routepoints than before but it still doesn't work as expected: time for me for the upgrade then ... As soon as I have some spare time, I'll back up my settings and install your latest version and let you know ...

Cheers,
yano
 

yano

13:58
Monday
1-Mar-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

here we go: I've already found "some spare time" and successfully upgraded to v0.7.3 FULL with my old settings having restored! That's the good news! :)

The not-so-good news are still the same ... here is the list of my tests with my usual 494 routepoints route:

max down. points 100 --> 88 downloaded
max down. points 200 --> 149 downloaded
max down. points 300 --> 202 downloaded
max down. points 400 --> 240 downloaded
max down. points 500 --> 274 downloaded
max down. points 600 --> 297 downloaded

Am I missing something? Any thoughts?

Cheers,
yano
 

Stephen

14:30
Monday
1-Mar-2010

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Hi Yano,

Glad the upgrade worked, and didn't delete all the settings!

Looking at that route, it is about 76km long so with the maxpoints setting at 600 the Minimum Distance threshold in the web script will be about 127m. This is only an average value though, so if the route has some sections where the points are closer together then some of these will still be stripped out, even though the total number of points in the route is already less than the Maxpoints setting to start with.

I've just increased the 'maximum' Max Points setting to 1000 so try it again with that value. Additionally, maybe I should just alter the script so that if the Route points count is less than the Max Points then it just delivers every point, and doesn't bother with the filtering (or perhaps switches to a very low threshold, eg 15m)... what do you think?

Cheers,
Stephen
 

yano

15:24
Monday
1-Mar-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

thanks a lot for your prompt reaction!

" ... the Minimum Distance threshold in the web script will be about 127m. This is only an average value though, so if the route has some sections where the points are closer together then some of these will still be stripped out, even though the total number of points in the route is already less than the Maxpoints setting to start with. "

Got it, finally! :) Now for example, with 1000 max points, 377 are downloaded: it makes sense.

Since you've asked me, personally I would find more useful (as already mentioned -too late- in this thread) the same option as for uploading: instead of a "max points" setting, a "min distance between points" option ... I don't know how much effort is needed from your side to change the script: if too much complicated, your suggestion " the Route points count is less than the Max Points then it just delivers every point, and doesn't bother with the filtering " will do! :)

Thanks&Cheers,
yano
 

Stephen

20:50
Monday
1-Mar-2010

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Hi Yano,

I've just tweaked the script yet again! As suggested in my previous post if the total routepoints are less than the Max Points setting then all points are now returned (still subject to a 15m minimum separation). For longer routes I've also reduced the Minimum Separation by a further 20% or so to encourage a few more points to make it to the phone.

As regards having a 'Min Distance Between Points' setting on the website, this isn't hard to do from a technical point, but I'm a little bit reluctant as it could result in some very big routes being sent to the phone, which may overload it. For example, lets say someone is going for a short (3km) walk. They might set the Minimum Distance to say 20m, resulting in a nice 150-point route. But if the next day they re-trace a 100km drive, the resulting 5000 points would probably cripple TMJ! Having the setting as Max Points instead should make this less likely.

Having said that, since the script is pretty easy to alter, if you wanted to try it I could change it so that it overrides this just for your account and uses a Minimum Distance threshold instead. (I'd probably just take the threshold as, say, 1/5 of the Max Points setting (in metres) to avoid having to re-format the Settings page itself, but so that you could still change it as necessary)...?

Cheers,
Stephen

 

yano

9:33
Tuesday
2-Mar-2010

Location:
Germany

Phone Model:
SE K610i

Stephen,

" I've just tweaked the script yet again! As suggested in my previous post if the total routepoints are less than the Max Points setting then all points are now returned (still subject to a 15m minimum separation). For longer routes I've also reduced the Minimum Separation by a further 20% or so to encourage a few more points to make it to the phone.
"


Tests passed! Perfect! :)

" As regards having a 'Min Distance Between Points' setting on the website, this isn't hard to do from a technical point, but ... "

I see&share your point, no prob.

" ... if you wanted to try it I could change it so that it overrides this just for your account ... "

Thanks for your offer but it's definitely not necessary to make that exception! As mentioned above, your last tuning works fine for me! Well done! :)

Cheers,
yano
 
 

Stephen

13:47
Tuesday
2-Mar-2010

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Righto, glad its working better now!

Cheers,
Stephen
 

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