UKH

Has anyone found a good app for an iPhone that provides a GPS reading as a UK Grid Ref as well as Lat/Long and various other euro grid refs? It should also have the facility for plugging in coordinates in advance (by typing in letters and numbers, not just locating them on a map) in any of the above formats and give you a distance and bearing to your destination. Finally, it should work without maps if need be.

In other words a proper GPS app for a phone. All the ones I've found so far seem to do some but not all of the above.

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:
Viewranger, I don't know what coordinates you require but it does various countries grids including OS, it does lat and long. It has an enter coordinates function. It is also pretty fuss free in use, we managed to use it on a bad day getting off the Ben - had pre drawn the route off the summit.
http://www.viewranger.com/en-gb/get-the-app

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

The OS Locate app will give you your location in UK Grid ref. Unfortunately doesn't do the other stuff.

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

i use a app call Grid Ref. i use it all the time in work for very accurate readings.

or GB Converter

In reply to steveshaking:

Thanks - I'n trying that one as it sounds just the thing. However the list of grid refs it covers doesn't seem to include anything that looks like a UK grid ref. There's a National Grid but that starts with a minus number which it won't let me delete and there's no map square reference letters (like NY) - can't seem to find any meaningful instructions!

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

I use the Android version.
Don't know if its the same but under settings, under display, the top choice is national grid - so the country can be set, the second down the list is co-ordinate type which includes 6 figure ref and many more.
If its set for the UK and for 6 fig reference then when I go in through options and "enter coordinates" then I get SE 142 082 as you would expect for an OS grid ref. Its what is under the cross hairs, but you can enter a ref yourself just my touching the numbers to get the entry pad up.
Is it possible you have the wrong country.
At this point if it still doesn't work I am duty bound to also suggest ditching apple...

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Yes it does. Go tot the arrow on the top right then settings>map settings.

In reply to ankyo:

Ah go that - thank you very much.

Would you by any chance know how: having entered a grid ref of my destination, how do I store it to retrieve it later and how do I from any point in the day get a compass bearing and a distance reading to that grid ref without necessarily having a map installed?

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

I have VR installed on my Hudl, but I don't use it, preferring OruxMpas.

But, opening the VR app, I note the 'Options' button at the bottom of the screen. This brings up six buttons, the top-left of which is 'Create', which allows you to create a route or POI. That ought to do it, I think.

Menu/Help is probably useful, too: if in doubt, RTFM...

I'm sure you know it, but, just for completeness, I think crude 'GOTO' functions can be dangerous, if used without thought or consulting a map to see what's along the straight line between you and the destination...

In reply to captain paranoia:

That's it - After making the POI it can be found in the Organizer, you can center it on the map or navigate to it (as above - that is simply in a straight line). Obviously the same can be done with Routes and you can make routes out of tracks.
I don't think a map is needed. But you can download tiles of the free maps anyway - which I guess you would do if you were already thinking ahead with POIs. You can buy OS map tiles too. But the Routes and POIs work independently of the map view.

In reply to steveshaking:
Many thanks for your help. I have managed to find everything now I think (though how one's supposed to know that tapping the black circle top left produces a GPS screen I have no idea!)

The one thing eluding me is that have instructed the GPS to navigate to a POI, although the distance is correct and the ETA counts down as I get closer and the compass works, the Navigation Arrow stays aligned with the phone so that I can turn the phone round and end up with the arrow pointing in completely the wrong direction. I have emailed View Ranger about this - we'll see what reply I get. I have to say that there seems to be a real gap in the market for an app to turn a phone into a GPS that is simple and quick to use.

I use a GPS at present to enter a grid ref of my car, or my rucksack if I leave it at the bottom of a climb, or a mountain hut where I am intending to stay. When I get near to where I think I should be and the visibility is bad (dark or fog), then I’ll often turn the GPS on just to check how far I have to go and which direction. Sometimes one can be only 50m from a hut and not see it, less in the case of a rucksack (both these things have happened to me in the past!). Obviously with one’s car, or a rucksack one can take a reading and store it as a POI, with a hut that one hasn’t been to I would need to input the data manually from a map (if I didn’t have the map stored in my phone that is). On some expeditions I have been on (e.g. Greenland) there are no maps anyway.

Having been through the system over the phone with the VR help centre, I have to say that I don’t find it at all intuitive, though I can see that everything is there that one needs - it’s just not in a very convenient order to get at. Often when one is operating these things it is very cold and windy with hail/sleet blowing in one’s face and the last thing one wants to be doing is trying to remember just how you access a particular screen when your fingers are numb and there’s a real risk of frostbite if you don’t keep moving. At the same time one does not want to have to carry more gear than one needs to so if a phone can act as a GPS why carry a GPS too?

Personally:

I would like to be able to set up folders for POIs so that I could store ones for say a forthcoming trip to Italy in one folder and Lake District ones in another. Folders within folders would be good as would be the ability to move POIs from one folder to another.

It would be good if one could easily get to the GPS screens and the folder of POIs (and maybe a few other things, in fact basically anything that you can get at by swiping or tapping elsewhere) from the Options Screen.

It would be good if when you wanted to create a POI from the POI Organiser it gave you the option of creating it from:
a) current position,
b) position selected from map,
c) manual entry of coordinates.

Likewise, it would be good if when you go to the Enter Coordinates screen it gave you the option of saving them as a POI and giving them a name and/or navigating to to them using the GPS.

I imagine that as the app is free to download, they must make their money selling the maps that go with it and I’d be more than happy to purchase some of these and recommend the app to others if I can get the thing to work properly.

Looking at the apps currently on the market, very few seem to have a GPS that tells you more than your current position and track it on an inbuilt map - this one does but it could be a lot easier to use than it currently is and the instructions could be much clearer. How is one supposed to know for instance that touching the bottom of the map brings up some controls or tapping the black circle (top left) activates the GPS while keeping ones finger on it produces a page called Trip Readouts? I can’t see that anywhere in the instructions.

I think if anyone could produce a GPS app and make it super simple and super user friendly I’d gladly pay for it on its own and buy the maps as extras, and, I imagine from my fruitless searches for a GPS app which does what I want, so would 1000s of others!

Anyway, we'll see what the VR help centre says!

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

I think the i-phone app is possibly slightly different, I don't black circle GPS business, just trip screens that I don't use.

I guess its always a balance between features and simplicity of use - I agree simplicity of use goes a long way when you are cold and tired. I tried Locus for a while, its good in terms of features upon features, but more me its too fussy. I guess we all want different things design wise.

I have found VR easy to use in tough circumstances, may be its familiarity - the main thing I learned was to change the screen time out and security settings so you don't have to deal with short time outs or putting in pin numbers - so you can minimize taking off gloves.

The folder idea sounds good. Don't understand the navigation arrow issue, mine moves to point towards the POI or track point, the map can also be set to rotate or not.

VR can give you POIs in the three areas you want - at your position (that's where it goes to if you have already centered your position on the map), it is also easy to position with the offset thing (and will work browsing a map anywhere) and it you press the manual button you can put in OS coordinates.

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Like most dedicated GPS receivers, then...?

You may find that there's a setting to control how the route arrow works. Since most smart phones include a 3d magnetometer, they ought to be able to use it as a compass, and measure the orientation of the phone (wrt the display orientation), and show absolute direction. I'm pretty sure OruxMaps will.

Most GPS mapping apps offer a lot of features, and, as much as The Ghost of Steve Jobs might think that everything can be made intuitive, the reality is that it can't. Sometimes, you have to take time to find your way around a complex system. You might even have to RTFM. I'm making the rash assumption here that the manual is any good; many are rubbish...


Bear in mind that, in mountainous areas, the GPS may give a reading hundreds of metres out, due to signal reflections. And that error will not be repeatable. Carolyn posted a good example of this from her MRT, where a helicopter got called to an incident, but on on the wrong side of a ridge, due to an incorrect GPS fix. But, ironically, I can't pinpoint the thread at the moment...


What's the battery life like on your iPhone?
Can you replace the batteries?
What happens if you drop it?
What happens if it's raining?
Can you operate the controlks, in the wet, with gloves on?
Can you read the display in sunlight?

These are some of the limitations of most smart phones.

http://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/t.php?n=604194
http://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/t.php?n=589482

In reply to steveshaking:

Thank you - VR have been very helpful so may be getting somewhere.