PlayaGPS - a GPS for Black Rock CIty

[PocoJoe]

We (HopperCodes) have written an app (android) that serves as a GPS for the Playa.
It is currently beta, but appears ready for early release - and we would appreciate it some of you fine folks would give it a go and report bugs if present. (send bug reports to [email protected])

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... s.playagps

It is called "PlayaGPS" and it is rather lean. The only permission requested is "FINE LOCATION" meaning your GPS.

Features...

- BIG SCREEN BLACK AND WHITE - it sort of screams at you under normal settings, but trust me, you can read the display in the full noonday sun;

- REPORTS WHERE YOU ARE IN PLAYA-SPEAK (eg 5:45 and Donatello);

- REPORTS YOUR CURRENT HEADING using the magnetic compass built into your handheld;

- MARKS A LOCATION so you can navigate back to a marked location,

-just for fun, NAMES THE COMPASS HEADINGS IN OLD ITALIAN, naming the wind directions as Da Vinci would.

It is a little funky on start up and shut down but it appears to work correctly; It was tested by setting the golden spike to the intersection of Campbell and Grant here in Tucson. When the Playa City Plan is overlaid, the addresses that were reported appear to be correct. If Bob Bookman ever decides to host burning man, and the man in his parking lot, we should be all set for where to set up Center Camp.

For fun, when you are outside the perimeter, it reports your distance in miles as well as your clock hour angle to the man- so sort of a countdown timer for the drive home.

Please give it a try and let us know if the backtrack function works for you. It was written with the Mutant Vehicle driver and DPS in mind; the headings are reported as compass headings so a compass on the dash could be used by the driver and navigator. If we find bugs (like the math is for the southern hemisphere) please let us know.

From your friends at Camp Aesop-

The HopperCodes team.

[PocoJoe]

PS - the version on Google Play is a beta (2016.0.6) The hiccups at start and stop of the app are being resolved, and an update will be pushed prior to the event.

Any feedback would be appreciated, especially with respect to readability in bright light with your device, and use of the compass for backtrack. It is a different approach.

Our contact is [email protected]

Thank you. The HopperCodes team - http://www.hoppercodes.com.

[trilobyte]

I'm giving this a nudge to the Q&A board, as that's a better fit for general discussions and app threads. Looks like a fun project for those who want to use their phone's GPS on the playa.

[Eddaytona]

The same folks who do "Playa Compass", a great app that lets you backtrack to a location like where you parked your bike.

GPS looks good and really simple. I was playing with it today and seems ok. Only bug I've found on my LG phone is it shuts down or something when I go to another app.

Thanks for explaining the Italian compass points. Was confused by that.

I hope you adjust Playa Compass for 2016 locations. Really useful app. Thanks for gifting this!

[PocoJoe]

Hi Eddaytona!

Thank you for the kind words.

Yes, the burp at shutdown is a tradeoff - if it doesn't do the forced shutdown thing (that generates the error message) I cannot be CERTAIN that the GPS receiver is turned off. On the playa, it is really important to conserve battery life, since for so many people charging is a hassle. The "polite" shutdown leaves the GPS receiver running until the Android OS notices that nothing is listening to it. Please don't worry about the burp "Unfortunately PlayGPS has shut down" - the notification just means that the GPS receiver was FORCED to stop and not run in the background. I can't find any side effects other than having to tap the button a second time to clear the screen.

Regarding PlayaCompass - It is currently being updated, but last years version will work on playa this year BECAUSE THE MAN IS IN EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE IN 2016 as it was in 2015!, The 2015 version should work just fine - that is why I haven't posted an update (yet).

I'm glad that you found it useful, and I hope you have a great burn!

Joe