TrekBuddy

[easypeacy42]

I want to share my experience with running Trekbuddy on the HTC Touch HD. It's a Windows Mobile 6.1 device with a screen resolution of 480x800 (touchscreen).

Trekbuddy V0.9.81 with GpsPortPPC V0.36 (using COM4) was installed. I copied over my Atlas directory structure I used on my Nokia N95 8GB. The Atlas contains 7 maps (~10500x7500 each), having 3 layers.

Well, there is good news and bad news. Good news is that it kind of runs. Bad news is it only runs "kind of".

Good news is:

- It can be installed and started
- It is loading my Atlas correctly and I can switch between layers (looks great on such a display)
- I get the GPS signal and it positions me then correctly on the map when I tell it to go to current GPS position
- I loaded a list of waypoints and could see the track on the display (couldn't test if 'route along' is working)

The bad news is:

- (It only works with the option "1-tile scroll" (otherwise it creates 'out of memory' errors, although having plenty of it free) ... which is very inconvenient and renders the large display a bit obsolete, unfortunately) Resolved
- (When selecting a waypoint and use "Go To", it does not load the correct tile of the map (looks like it's positioning the Cross at the 'correct' location on the screen but does not load the correct tile but any). Might be that this mainly happens when it has to load a tile from a different map of the same atlas? Hard to test currently. And when I then try to move on this wrongly loaded tile, it immediately loads a very different tile again) Resolved
- (When changing the layer (especially after scrolling across tiles), the wrong map tile gets loaded (usually the tile of the area where you started the scrolling and not where you scrolled to)) Resolved
- The user interface on the touch screen is not very convenient (simulating the areas of an imaginary keypad). Besides it being a kind of try-and-error to hit the right area, you cover the screen with your hand when scrolling and you don't see where you are. I'd prefer to scroll by touching the edge of the middle of each side and focusing on current position by touching the center of the screen. To walk through the compass / CMS screens, you could keep the current lower right corner. For everything else a menu point would be more convenient in my opinion as you don't use it regularly. Maybe for layer switching the lower left corner could be used if desired
- When looking at the waypoint list, the text is extremely small (hard to select the right list even with a stylus)
- The SMS function ("I'm Here", ...) does not work
- (GpsPortPPC is not an installed application appearing in the "Programs" list but I have to first open the file explorer and load it (very inconvenient ... but maybe I'm doing something wrong?)) Resolved

So much I could find out at the moment. This is no critizism at all. I love Trekbuddy and I was positively surprised that it even runs "kind of" on this phone, as some things are rather unusal / unexpected for many programs (new WM6.1, large screen resolution, touchscreen).
Of course, it would be great if kruch could make it work smoothly on such devices. With a 3.8" display and 480x800 pixels, Trekbuddy just rocks even more!

Edit [21-Nov-08] :
With the resolved problems thanks to the 8M setting, Trekbuddy now works perfectly fine for me. The remaining points are mainly "just" about the user interface.

[easypeacy42]

Some additions:

1. The compass screen has the same issue as described here:
http://www.trekbuddy.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15781#15781

2. Known problem that with fullscreen mode you cannot access menu on touchscreen device. How about opening the menu by touching e.g. the upper left corner? (that corner is still free, when following my user-interface suggestion of the previous posting ...)

3. Who can provide a CMS for 480x800? ... I used MaleSMurfs great CMS on my N95 and liked it a lot

[tomiskavac]

Hi, I have HTC Diamond and TB works good. Yes, there are some problematic things, but TB is primary made for mobile phones not WM communicators. Java emulators for WM aren't so good.
For navigation on touchscreen you have to imagin standard mobile keyboard. Just split the screen form 3 columns and 4 rows and press the relevant area.
For GpsPortPPC you have to create a shortcut. Place it to directory Windows\Start Menu\Programs and then you will see it in Programs tab.
I'm looking for someone who resize CMS too. Its annoying to see CMS only on 1/4 of screen.
Sorry my english.

Edit:
I tried to resize Gris2 theme to VGA and it's posted in thist thread
http://www.trekbuddy.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2175
Try it. For WVGA it's better than QVGA.

[easypeacy42]

[vincent]

I confirm the memory leak when used with map.

Concerning the touch screen after a long time I use the border zone of the screen and it okay for me.

I have adapted the theme with 640*400 and it okay for me.

[kruch]

Well, memory leak... what map tile dimensions you use?
I also wonder about the "java" - it is Esmertec Jbed, I assume - which version? How much total/free memory is reported by TB (Info->Technical)?
I agree the "scrolling" areas could be narrower; I need to check other touchscreen-related issues.

Thanks for the report!

[easypeacy42]

Hi kruch,

many thanks for your investigations. I try to answer your questions:

1. map tile dimensions: 507x507
2. Java: Yes, it's Esmertec Jbed, Build ID 20080418.2.1
3. TB "Memory" says: 4194240/3195616

I also tried with a different Atlas which has map tiles of dimension 256x256. There, the funny part is that, without "1-tile scroll" enabled, I can scroll to the right quite a while and no error happens. But as soon as I scroll down, I get the error message immediately.
With the 507x507 tiles, I basically get the error pretty immediately after I start scrolling in any direction.

I don't know if it goes into the category "memory leak" or if it's general handling of map tile selection / treatment.

Btw, the exact error message when trying to scroll without "1-tile scroll" activated is:
[7] null: InvalidMapException[null]: Failed to load tile: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

Please just let me know if I can be of any help for troubleshooting (more info, tests, etc.), I'm happy to help where I can.

[kruch]

4 MB heap is probably too small for such large screens, and I have no idea how to solve this now. You could try modified Jbed (20080328 build is the most recent I could find) with 8 MB heap (I'm using this version on HTC Artemis).

http://rapidshare.com/files/165454994/Esmertec_JBed_20080328.3.1_Large_Heap.CAB.html

Btw, jbed.exe has a command line option -heapsize, but it does not seem enough, midlet still reported only 4 MB total heap. These patched builds one can come across apparently do something more...

[easypeacy42]

Great, thank you very much for your help!

I have one "little" question, though, as I'm not experienced with Windows Mobile or those Java installations:

I'm a bit hesitant to install this version. What happens to my current JBed version? Do I have to uninstall first? What happens if this 8MB heap version does not work properly on my phone? Can I get back my current version? How?

Sorry for all those questions, but I would feel much better if I knew a way to revert to the current situation if anything goes wrong ...

[temptrekbuddy]

[kruch]

Java on WM is a kind of 2nd class citizen. I hope Xperia will bring better support, although it still be Esmertec Jbed...

@easypeacy42 There seems to be registry value that affects image buffer, default value is 2M (and not set). You could start with setting that option to larger value, eg. 4M. I was too lazy to try larger-tiles map on my HTC, but TrekBuddy worked ok with this option. I tried 1M and got OutOfMemoryError during map scrolling, so the option has some effect

key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Apps\Esmertec Java\Properties
value name: com.jbed.imagebufferlimit
value sata (string): 4M

I'm attaching a small CAB that does it for you, just install it and then try TrekBuddy (no need to reinstall).

[easypeacy42]

Hi kruch,

First of all, thank you very much that you take so much time for this problem. This is much appreciated.
Second, kruch you are my hero!

I tried your .cab file to set the 4M option, but it didn't have any effect. So I took your file and changed it to 8M (see attachment) ... and now it works perfectly fine!!!

I could remove the "1-tile scroll" option. No error messages any more. All tiles are loaded correctly. Also when I change layers, the correct tiles are loaded. Everything is just perfectly great! Thanks again!!!

Btw: I will have the opportunity to test Trekbuddy on Sony Xperia very soon. I'll quickly write some results as soon as I have them.

[temptrekbuddy]

Great thing to hear. One of the reasons I abandoned my Samsung i600 was that it dodn't handle Trekbuddy well. Waiting for your report easypeacy42.

[vincent]

I confirm that the problems sound better with 8/meg