OUTDOOR NAVIGATION: GPS DEVICE OR SMARTPHONE?
Just a few years ago, a "real" GPS receiver was essential for navigation on tour. Mobile phones had certainly been able to receive and process GPS signals for some time. But for a long time, the display of maps and tracks on mobile phone screens was far from being suitable for practical use on tour. Since the advent of modern smartphones, this picture has changed. Even the screens of mid-range devices now offer a better display than the flagship GPS devices from outdoor GPS manufacturers. In addition, receiver chips that can receive not only the signals from the American GPS satellites but also those from the Russian Glonass satellites have become the standard for high-quality smartphones. In terms of reception accuracy, smartphones are therefore at least theoretically on a par with specialised GPS devices.
In practice, however, the reception accuracy is not only influenced by the chip, but even more by the reception antenna installed in the device. As far as this point is concerned, the special devices are normally much better equipped. For navigation on the trail, this is not very relevant in good reception conditions. In both cases, the accuracy is sufficient to reliably find the route. In difficult conditions (dense forest, steep slope or ravine), however, you are usually better equipped with a specialised GPS device. This also applies to all those who not only go on tours but also want to correct and archive the tracks later. Correcting tracks from an outdoor GPS receiver usually takes considerably less time. Another point in favour of purchasing outdoor GPS receivers is their significantly longer battery life. Even on a single charge, they usually last a full day or more of touring without any problems. However, if you use your smartphone intensively for navigation, you will need an additional external battery pack for tours lasting more than three hours.
Last but not least: outdoor GPS receivers are significantly more robust than smartphones. These devices usually survive even falls undamaged. They can also be attached to the handlebars without any great risk and are therefore always in view. Of course, this is also possible with a smartphone. But do you really want to expose a 600-euro device to the risk of falling? Anyone who navigates with a smartphone usually has it somewhere in their pocket. The biggest advantage of GPS navigation, namely having your own position constantly in view in "real time", is lost again in this way.
MAPS FOR OUTDOOR GPS RECEIVERS
Special GPS devices are optimised for use with vector maps. The display of these maps runs smoothly and free vector maps from OSM data can also be used without any problems. At least higher-quality, modern devices can usually also display raster maps. However, you have to make significant compromises in terms of visualisation performance. Even the displays of the best GPS devices can only achieve a quarter of the resolution of an average smartphone. Raster maps are actually displayed very much "rasterised" here. This cancels out the actual advantage of raster maps - the much more attractive map image.
However, the raster maps sold by the usual manufacturers are quite expensive anyway. You can either use the much cheaper vector maps - the area coverage is the same and you will quickly get used to the simpler terrain visualisation (see also Bikeguide, Part 3 in BIKE 3/16). Alternatively, you can simply create your own GPS-compatible raster maps. With the help of the MOBAC (Mobile Atlas Creator) software, this is child's play and is also free of charge (see box below).
On the other hand, the smartphone has no display problems. The resolution is brilliant and many displays are still perfectly legible even in direct sunlight. However, this is also the reason why smartphone batteries are drained so quickly. Unfortunately, the power consumption of the displays is immense.
MOBAC - CREATE OFFLINE-CAPABLE RASTER MAPS YOURSELF
With the Mobile Atlas Creator, rasterised online maps can be easily converted for offline use on smartphones. As MOBAC is written in the Java programming language, the software works independently of the operating system on any PC. The software is extremely easy to use. After selecting the desired online map and the target format, the map section is defined with a mouse click using a selection rectangle. If the target format allows it, the map can also be created with several zoom levels. Once the settings have been made, MOBAC downloads the required map tiles from the Internet and packs them into a file that is saved on the PC's hard drive and loaded onto the smartphone from there.
mobac.sourceforge.net/
OUTDOOR MAPS FOR SMARTPHONES
After all, for a change, there is no fundamental decision to be made here. Anyone interested in GPS navigation via smartphone has already bought their device. And that also settles the question of the operating system. The question of whether Apple's iOs, Google's Android or even Microsoft's Windows is the best operating system for smartphones can therefore remain a matter of faith. The fact is that when it comes to GPS navigation, the operating system from search engine operator Google is far ahead. There are practical and recommendable apps for all operating systems. However, Android users have by far the most resources available for free map downloads. Whether vector or raster map is relatively irrelevant in this case. All the apps presented here can handle maps from both worlds without any problems. Most freely available digital maps are also available for smartphones in vector format. However, if you want to use raster maps, you can easily create them yourself thanks to the MOBAC software.
RECOMMENDED APPS
BIKE tour author Ralf Glaser has extensively tested these three apps:
SMARTPHONE OR GPS?
PLUS The Smartphone most people have with them on tour anyway. The display has a much higher resolution and is therefore usually easier to read. You can even spontaneously pull up tours from the portals when you're out and about.
MINUS There is still no really secure mount for the handlebars, and the battery is drained after about three hours.
PLUS GPS devices are robustly built for outdoor use and have a more sensitive antenna. The latter is particularly helpful when recording tours in difficult terrain. The battery lasts longer than one day of touring.
MINUS The displays have a lower resolution and the display of raster maps is coarse. Expensive to buy!
LEFT: VECTOR AND RASTER MAPS FOR THE SMARTPHONE
On the website of the project Openandromaps ready-to-use smartphone vector maps are available for download. TYP files are also available there, with which the map image can be customised to suit personal requirements. www.openandromaps.org
The project 4umaps offers smartphone-compatible (raster) maps based on OSM. These can be called up as online raster maps from the apps or converted into offline maps using MOBAC. The website also offers a number of ready-to-use map sheets for downloading for use in Oruxmaps or Locus Map. www.4umaps.eu
You can read this article or the entire BIKE 3/2016 issue in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or buy the issue in the DK shop reorder:
Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
