Dude! Where Are We??? -- Off-Roadin' With Fugawi Global Navigator 3.3.1 [Archive]

Don Tolson

03-07-2007, 05:00 PM

<img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-logo.gif" /> Product Category: Software – GPS Tracking Manufacturer: <A HREF = "http://www.fugawi.com/web/index.htm" target = "blank"> Fugawi</A> Where to Buy: <A HREF = "http://www.fugawi.com/web/products/fugawi_global_navigator.htm" target = "blank"> Fugawi (Northstar)</A> Price: $119.95USD including PDA Edition (PPC or Palm) and one Bonus <A HREF = "http://www.fugawi.com/web/products/fugawi_data_pack.htm" target = "blank"> DataPack for USA, Canada, Europe or International.</A> A fully functioning 10-day trial is available. System Requirements: Desktop version (required) must be Win 2000, XP or NT4. PPC requires PPC 2002, 2003 (and SE, I assume) or WM5. Specifications: Desktop application requires 500Mhz CPU, 256M RAM, 250Mb (including maps) CD and DVD drives. PPC application requires approximately 500kb of memory. Application and maps can be installed to storage card or main memory. Pros: <li>Able to track position off-road and navigate you back to starting point;<li>Has topographic maps of Canada available (one of very few);<li>PC application can accept a wide variety of map formats – even scanned in paper maps! Cons: <li>Need to run the PC application to load PPC application and to create & download maps;<li>PDA maps are raster only, so excessive zooming in will produce pixelization;<li>Maps available (topo and streets) are somewhat old;<li>Missing trip computer functions in the PDA version. Summary: Looking to do some off-road trekking? Fugawi's Global Navigator can help keep you on track where there are no tracks, and safely get you back home...or at least, back to where you left the car. While not quite as full-featured as some of the car navigation systems coming out now, it's a good companion for those times when the road is left far behind. Read on for the full review!<!> <PAGEBREAK> Introduction While there has been much excitement around using the latest convergent devices with built-in GPS to navigate the sometimes confusing streets of our cities, there is another use of these devices 'off road' – for hiking, biking, cache-hunts, etc. For myself, I frequently ride my bike around the city to work and with my sons and we are very fortunate to have a number of bike/hiking paths through the city created from old railway lines. Unfortunately, these routes are frequently unknown to the typical road-based navigation systems. For the last little while, I've been looking for a navigation system which would work off-road in Canada. Topographic maps for the US are available from a number of sources for GPS-enabled PPC's, but very few carry Canadian maps. (Yes, I know there's Google Earth, but I was looking for actual maps). Thus, I was pleased to find Fugawi's Global Navigator through a Google search and discover that this Canadian company did, indeed, carry Canadian maps! (what a concept!) Global Navigator is mainly a PC-based product (who has a GPS-enabled PC???) which also includes a subset application for Pocket PC and Palm OS PDAs. While most of the fun stuff (like 3D depiction of terrain) is located in the PC application, this review will focus on features of the PDA version. Installation To install the PDA software, you need to install Global Navigator on the desktop/laptop first, run the program, establish an Activesync connection to the PPC, then select a menu item in the PC application. The PPC version is relatively small (approximately 500Kb) and installs quickly. Along with the software a default map of the world is also provided. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-main.gif" border="1"> Figure 1: The main screen of the PPC version of Global Navigator, with the default World Map loaded. On my HTC Galaxy, Global Navigator found the built-in GPS receiver without any problems and started communicating right away. I'm not sure if this was because of fortuitous default configuration settings or intelligence built into the software. (I suspect the former) On my Eten X500, it required a bit more work to get things talking to each other, since the X500 uses one COM port for the hardware to talk to the GPS unit, and a different one for programs to receive GPS data. The advantage of the Global Navigator software is that it contains sufficient variety in its available configuration parameters to handle these situations quite easily. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-gpssetup.gif" border="1"> Figure 2: Configuration screen for Global Navigator to talk to the GPS. To get things working properly, you may have to adjust the baud rate (connection speed) to the GPS unit, as Fugawi defaults to 4800 and many units can handle 9600 or higher. After a bit of experimentation, I was able to get the X500 happily sending data to Fugawi as well (at 56700 baud). Another useful tool provided by Global Navigator to ensure the GPS is working well is the display of the NMEA log. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-nmealog.gif" border="1"> Figure 3: The NMEA log display (available from the GPS menu. When everything is working properly, you should see some relatively intelligible data running past. <PAGEBREAK> Installing Maps Unfortunately, installing maps to the PPC is a little cumbersome, since, again, they must be installed from the PC-based program. Northstar, the vendor/manufacturer in Canada, provides complete coverage of Canada using NRC maps at 1:250,000 (for an entire province) and 1:50,000 for specific sections. 1:50,000 is OK for longer hikes or bike rides where you're covering tens of miles in a day, but it would be better to have something like 1:20,000 for more in-depth detail at a local level. To transfer a map to the PPC, you need to bring it up on the PC, select an area to be transferred, zoom into an portion of the selected area to set the level of detail desired, then 'prepare' the map for the PDA. Preparation of a map basically consists of rasterizing the selected area of the map (i.e. creating a bitmap image) at the detail shown by the current zoom level. Depending upon the size of area selected and the zoom level, this preparation can take 5 to 10 minutes. It is possible to rasterize the entire map, but this would take longer and could require considerable storage space. The PC version of Fugawi Global Navigator also supports overlaying of maps, such as placing the Street map over the topographic, to produce a pretty complete view of the terrain around the streets. Unfortunately, the PDA preparation routine only works with the base map selected, so you only get the topographic in the final PDA-ready image – not the streets. Once the preparation is complete, you then select another function in the PC version to 'manage' the maps located on the PPC. This includes transferring from PC to PPC, deleting from the PPC main memory or storage cards, etc. Prepared maps are found on the 'Exported Maps' tab – which is not well explained in the documentation. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-PPCDE.gif" border="1"> Figure 4: The Data Export screen on the PC version of Global Navigator. Transfer occurs through the ActiveSync connection and, depending on the size of the map section, can take 15 to 20 minutes (for large sections). <PAGEBREAK> Fugawi on the PPC Once you have some maps downloaded to your PPC, you're ready to roll. As mentioned earlier, functionality on the PPC is limited to a subset of the PC-based version. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-topo.gif" border="1"> Figure 5: Main screen of Global Navigator with a local topographic map loaded. As you can see from the screenshot above, the interface is built on the PPC2002/PC2003 o/s style, with most of the functionality built into the menu options at the bottom of the screen. From the File menu, the Maps/Open function provides a list of maps available for loading. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-loadmap.gif" border="1"> Figure 6: List of maps available in both program and storage memory. Unfortunately, only one can be loaded at a time, and there is no 'automatic' loading of the adjacent map once you hit the map boundary. Moving around on the map is accomplished by tapping and dragging in the opposite direction to where you want to see – much like sliding a paper map under a glass viewing window. (I know, it sounds weird, but it's quite intuitive, actually.) Zooming in or out of the map is accomplished using the top or bottom buttons (or up/down if it's a joystick) of the PPC's D-pad. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-speckeys.gif" border="1"> Figure 7: Depiction of the special functions of the D-pad keys when in Fugawi Global Navigator (from the Help file). Be careful how much you zoom in, however, since the maps are raster versions and if you get in too close, they will become pixelized beyond usefulness. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-pixelize.gif" border="1"> Figure 8: Excessive zooming in can render the map useless, since the graphics are not 'scaled' but simply bitmap pictures of the original map. The top left of the screen provides information on current speed and heading. In the right top is the current map scale, an indicator of whether the GPS unit has a 'fix' yet, and whether the GPS port is open (the P in a circle in the top right). Along the bottom is the menu system, then icons for toggling centering of the map on the current GPS position on and off, accessing the GPS information screens, and turning Tracking on and off. The PDA version of the application basically provides the ability to track current location, mark waypoints, create a route of waypoints, and follow a route. You can also download routes and waypoints from those created/managed on the PC version None of the fun stuff like 3-D rendering and flythough based on elevation data is available. <PAGEBREAK> The main difference between this and a road-based GPS application is that you really can't ask GN “How do I get there?” because it will simply draw a straight line between you and destination, regardless of the terrain. Even using the street map overlay, Global Navigator is unaware of the use of streets as preferred routes for travel. This application is most useful for back-tracking to the starting point when out on a hike (using the tracking function) or following a route predefined by you or supplied by others. The tracking function allows the application to mark your route as you travel, by recording your current position at regular intervals as you hike (or ride) along. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-trackingprefs.gif" border="1"> Figure 9: Setting up how GN tracks your progress. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-trackinghome.gif" border="1"> Figure 10: An example track following along a street. Then, once you've gone as far as you want, you can ask Global Navigator to run through through the route backwards and voila, you're back at your starting point! On the Road The Canada Data Pack which comes with the software includes a Streets map, which can be used separately or as an overlay on any other map on the PC version. For the PPC version, it can only be loaded as a standalone map. Unfortunately, it was almost 10 years old so it had limited use in driving around in the city. I contacted Northstar, and no more recent version is available. There are some major roads shown on the topographic maps, but none are named or 'bounded'. Street maps are available, I believe, for most major cities in the US and Europe as well, but be sure to check the date of issue/update. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-streetmap.gif" border="1"> Figure 11: An example shot of the Canada Streets overlay map. As noted before, the street map overlay can't be used to 'route' between locations since the software is not set up to recognize directions, addresses, etc. I did, however, find the positioning on the maps to be fairly accurate (tested at various street corners and at known topographic locations) which is crucial for these applications. <PAGEBREAK> On the Water Although I couldn't test it (since I don't own a boat), Fugawi also sells Marine ENC for marine navigation. The package provides a complete set of Navionics or NOAA charts, including depth soundings, navigational aids, hazards, restricted zones, maritime place names and landmarks. The charts are available for all major waterways throughout North America, South America, Central America & the Caribbean, Europe, Africa Oceania and Asia. On Land If you know where you are going and the steps along the way, you can create a route consisting of a number of waypoints, then have Global Navigator direct you along the route, from waypoint to waypoint. Waypoints are created by tapping on the map at the point where you want to stop or change direction. Think of them as rest stops at the end of each leg of a journey. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-editwpt.gif" border="1"> Figure 12: Editing a waypoint after it's created by tapping on the map. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-editlocation.gif" border="1"> Figure 13: By tapping the Edit Location button, you can provide more precise locating info (e.g. if you have exact coordinates). Alternately, you can use these screens to create waypoints anywhere, as long as you know the coordinates. To create a route, you specify one of the waypoints as the start and add waypoints until you identify the last one as the end of the route. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-newroute.gif" border="1"> Figure 14: Naming a new route. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-newrouteb.gif" border="1"> Figure 15: Creating the route by adding existing waypoints. Global Navigator then creates a route by connecting the waypoints. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-rtepic.gif" border="1"> Figure 16: A route created from 6 waypoints. To navigate the route, you select it from the menu and then select 'Navigate'. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-rteinfo.gif" border="1"> Figure 17: Selecting a route for navigation Fugawi starts you from the closest waypoint along the route, then points to the next waypoint, along with the compass direction and distance. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-rtetrack.gif" border="1"> Figure 18: OK, so which way to the next waypoint? (Note, in the example shown, I wasn't actually on the route, so ETA and heading for the next waypoint aren't shown). If it has current speed info from previous movement, it will also show approximate ETA at the next waypoint. Order of the waypoints (and hence direction of travel) is defined by the order in which they are added, but they can be re-ordered with the route. <PAGEBREAK> Documentation Help is available within the PPC application but is limited to short descriptions of the main features available. <img src = "http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-feb07-fugawi-help.gif" border="1"> Figure 19: Help function within Global Navigator. A little light, but it covers the basics to get you going. Better documentation is available in the PC application but there is definitely an assumption that you understand the basics of mapping such as scale, waypoints and layers. Conclusions For those looking to trek off the roadways, the PDA version of Global Navigator provides the basic functionality needed to navigate terrain. While other programs, such as GPSTuner can work with generally available maps such as Google Earth, Global Navigator is one of the few products which provides topographic and marine products for Canada. With the addition of some trip computer functionality to the PDA version and more modern topographic and street overlays, this could become the ultimate off-road companion. Don is an Associate Director with Fujitsu Consulting and a member of its Enterprise Mobility Community. Getting 'lost' and 'found' is just part of the fun in life!!! :devilboy: