[chbot] Open street map on adroid

Volker Kuhlmann list0570 at paradise.net.nz
Fri Feb 14 22:16:19 GMT 2014


OK here's how:

Install osmand~ 1.5 from f-droid.org. They don't have the latest version,
but theirs is fully open. Alternatively, install osmand 1.6 from google,
free or $10. Not a big difference between the google versions, except
for helping with development. I wouldn't trust the google versions not
to contain malware, esp the free one, they're not open source.

Download the osm map data from the link Andrew posted. It's 107M
download. You must have the world base map data too, 101M, otherwise you
only see white lines on a white background after zooming out to overview
level. As a bonus, you can view world maps down to a quite good level.
While you're at it, get the GPS altitude correction data too (1.6M).
Unpack the zip file and copy the .obf files to /osmand/ on the SD card.
SD cards are big and cheap, so who cares how big the data is.

Restart osmand. If your gps is locked, pushing the ring symbol moves the
map to your current position. Have fun map viewing. The default setting
is to use offline data only. Online data you may optionally use as well
is always tile-based, the vector data must be pre-assembled with other
software (also FOSS, but not on-the-fly from the map app).

osmand has functions for osm editing, gps tracking, route planning, and
giving directions for routes on-screen and spoken (using internal TTS,
american voice only...).

The screen display can be configured to some extent, both re UI and map
layers to show. There is even an inverted-colours mode for night vision
driving (can auto-switch from light sensor). All good.

Now the downsides:

At some zoom levels, the screen is pooped full of orange circles
(describing things like topo features). This makes the map useless.
The same holds for the world map - at some zoom levels, there are only
black dots on the screen, no city names with them, and crowding out all
other details (if present) like roads or rivers to put them into
position. Useless. Fiddling the layer-display when changing zoom levels
is not an option (and wouldn't help anyway I expect).

The user interface doesn't feel totally intuitive, but there are a lot
of functions and I'm not sure it could be improved substantially.

Putting map points into the route/directtion system can be a bit tricky.
There seems to be a resolution problem with 3 or 6 digits after the
point for lat/lon numbers, or something like that.

There seems to be little concept of multiple OSM-using apps to also use
the same data store. E.g. OpenGPStracker (f-droid, FOSS) is good, but
uses its own tile-cache only.


Obviously osmand can't overcome the inherent characteristics of OSM.
Compared with google maps, OSM misses
  A destination search that works most of the time.
  House numbers.
  Property section outlines (OSM won't ever have this unless LINZ
  supplies).
  The detail that comes from using LINZ licensed topo data. For driving
  this is not an issue though.

The online web browser OSM doesn't have a routes/directions function,
and its location search is, ehhm, in need of improvement.

Volker

-- 
Volker Kuhlmann
http://volker.top.geek.nz/	Please do not CC list postings to me.



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