BackCountry Navigator for Android phones

[troyboy162]

just starting up a new post for this. You guys may have read about my love of google earth for offroading/mine exploring. That eventually went sour after a few GE updates and a few wrong button pushes leaving me mapless offroad. BackCountry Navagator is a worthy successor.

key points:
-easy to get free, large, Sat or Topo maps for offline/no signal use
-import/export google earth .KMZ or .GPX tracks
-fully optimized multi-touch screen interface
-simple one touch waypoint input (mark something cool you find)
-zoom way in for rock by rock directions or way out for the big picture.

http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/...d-gps-software
the website is cheesy and several versions behind.

Ive been using it for awhile now and it takes a bit of getting used to but It hasnt failed on me in any way yet. You can use a program called MOBAC to get google earth sat maps or ARCsat maps. I actually have the entire SBNF trail system, hammers, cougar buttes, and calico on my phone now. On top of these maps I have all the google earth tracks Ive been collecting for years now.

If you have an android phone and a use for a GPS its a no-brainer at $9 with free maps.

[4x4mike]

When you say free maps do you mean quad maps? Do you always need a network signal for the maps to work or do they need to be cached. I've seen a lot of guys talk about this over on Expo and have been meaning to give it a try. The only one I've downloaded and played with is gps logger.

[Scuba]

Troy, I figured since you'll need to mount that in the truck, you may want to check out http://ram-mount.com/ for mounting solutions. If you didn't already know about them yet.

[troyboy162]

When you say free maps do you mean quad maps? Do you always need a network signal for the maps to work or do they need to be cached. I've seen a lot of guys talk about this over on Expo and have been meaning to give it a try. The only one I've downloaded and played with is gps logger.

is free usgs topo and arial maps. They need to be dowbloaded for offline use.

[Seanz0rz]

the great thing about android compared to iOS devices, the typically come with some sort of removable media. so having a few with different map sets is possible and probably not a bad idea.

ill have to give it a try later this year when im out exploring more.

[troyboy162]

I had planned on having multiple microSD cards but im finding the ARCgis sat images to be very detailed and much smaller MB wise then google earth. Another space saving feature is in MOBAC where I set it to download detailed sat images only 60 meters on either side of the trails in SBNF. this works out since there is no off trail travel allowed anyhow. that brought the SBNF down to 2 gigs from the 15-25 it would have been to DL the whole thing. calico or the hammers cant be cheated like that so they came out to ~3 gigs each. I should mention that topo maps should be considerably smaller.

[troyboy162]

Troy, I figured since you'll need to mount that in the truck, you may want to check out http://ram-mount.com/ for mounting solutions. If you didn't already know about them yet.

ill probably use the same suction cup mounts i used for the little tablet i was using. yesterdays john bull came out pretty good. I think we could find our way in the snow now lol

[slosurfer]

Troy, are you still using this? I have an android phone and am looking for cool usefull apps

[Seanz0rz]

likewise. ive committed myself to using my phone as a decent gps

[troyboy162]

yes im very happy with it. Its doing everything google earth was for me. I carry SBNF, calico, pismo, cougar buttes, and the hammers with me now.