 Michael
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Posted: 3 June 2019, 12:01 PM
A good summary Rolf. Could I add that (apart from the trickiness of control sites and possible influence of buildings and trees on GPS reception) there is the simple influence of map SCALE.
A rough assessment of cellphone wrist and handheld GPS accuracy is "5-10m with occasional flights of fancy out to 50m". The tramper with a 1:50,000 map will not see much error simply because 5-10m is less than the thickness of a track line. The orienteer with a 1:10,000 map who goes up and down the same track will see the GPS traces vary by 1mm (or 2 if they are are unlucky and the errors are opposite). The sprint orienteer with a 1:4,000 map could see the GPS traces vary by 2.5mm or even 5. (Hope I've got the decimal point in the right place but nevertheless think about the principle:-))
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Rolf
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Posted: 28 March 2020, 1:57 PM
Following up on earlier posts...
MapRunners remains a huge success for our Urban Rogaines.
Not quite the same user experience for our summer series (linear Orienteering... park/sprint Orienteering).
MapRunners F introduced a new feature where a competitor can claim a control that the app said the missed.
So this is how we organised the events:
1)Small flags hanging in tree or on small stake etc.
2) Competitors given pin to event and then walk to start flag while watching phone to ensure activation.
3) Put the phone away
4) Competitor runs around course. Our etiquette was that you had to touch the flag (pre Covid19 days!)
5) The phone does not been or activate. (this feature is turned off by our adminstrator)
6) At the end, check the time has stopped tracking on the app.
7) Check for a MP. If so, then the competitor can follow a process and claim any controls they missed (because their GPS was not accurate and so they did not get within the buffer distance of the flag. Or because the GPS locaiton was gathered slightly incorrectly somehow.
8) Now they have an official result, however the app shows the result as being tentative.
9) The course organiser can review the GPS track and decide to accept the competitors 'Claim' and make the result official.
If all this sounds like a hassle compared to SI, then I guess it is , but you need to keep in mind the reason we use this in the 1st place... ie easy to administer and instant results etc.
THere is always someone for whom the app gives trouble but for the vast majority it works just fine.
It will never(?) replace the accuracy of SI, but to make club events simple, we love it.
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Rolf
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Posted: 28 March 2020, 1:59 PM
Hmm, sorry about the typos in previous post. point 5) should say ...does not beep or vibrate.
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Michael
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Posted: 28 March 2020, 3:11 PM
Great to reactivate this thread, apps like MapRun (its not the only one) will be really useful when we get the OK to get out a bit further from home, but still want to avoid the congregations of a normal event. A MapRun event can be permanent, or open for a week or a month; and have or not have markers.
I've been asking questions of Rolf, as OW (that's Waikato not Wellington) has the greatest NZ experience. In OHV we met problems downloading the files in a place where the cellphone coverage is dodgy, and uploading results afterwards. OW is using it in urban areas so hasn't got the solution to this - maybe we cant use rural areas, or maybe advice to download/upload at home is the answer. We think the phone's GPS will record the control visits including S/F without being in coverage.
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Michael
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Posted: 28 March 2020, 3:31 PM
The developer Peter Effeney in Australia says that his new version MapRunF has had a good amount of use so we are going with that now. It has a few more features for both the user and the course administrator. Go to www.maprun.org.au and read "Technical" if you want to set up events on it.
OHV's latest test was an MTBO - two std courses but I just called it a score event. You can see the results and routes on the website, tho it's pretty clunky. Go "Results" and search on eg "Bar" to find "Baring Breeze Main". Go "Runners Routes" for a RouteGadget setup - find Baring Breeze Main by its date of 2020-03-15 on the EIGHTH page (because events since and future events are above it); or slightly easier by club "Orienteering Hutt Valley". While you're there, take a look at Orienteering Waikato's events too.
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darren
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Posted: 31 March 2020, 2:10 PM
We have a couple of urban MTBO (or Foot) courses on the go here in Rotorua for folks to 'Escape the Lockdown'.
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Michael
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Posted: 2 April 2020, 4:52 AM
Have found "Escape the Lockdown 2". Have felt constrained by exhortations to "stay local". Technical issue - why does Erin's route do a beeline in a couple of cases - lockdown is a good time to explore these app or cellphone woopsies. Found "Lockdown 3", was there a "Lockdown 1"?
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darren
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Posted: 4 April 2020, 2:09 AM
Hi Michael,
Lockdown 1 was using Sporteering and we know the limitations of that  .
'Stay local' is open to interpretation but my take on it is, if you can run,ride,walk from home then you are all good. Luckily you can get anywhere in Rotorua from home on foot or bike
I think Erins straight lines might have been a phone setting issue. The app wasn't allowed to 'run in the background' so timed out a couple of times and had to be 'resumed' each time.
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Michael
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Posted: 6 April 2020, 9:55 AM
Ahhh yes I remember when I was struggling with timing out. I appear to have avoided it by increasing display timeout but I never could find out how to force the app to run in the background. Can you give me the secret?
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Rolf
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Posted: 7 April 2020, 12:28 PM
The developer of MapRun has been flooded with enquires since the Covid19 lockdowns. When he gets a general enquiry, his initial response is to send the following email:
Thanks for your interest in MapRun.
There are a few things to become familiar with regarding setting up events for MapRun. We normally help set up the first couple of events with a new club.
The preferred App is MapRunF from the App stores.
The steps to set up events in MapRunF are at: http://maprunners.weebly.com/maprunf---new-user.html and general support info is under the “Technical” tab on www.maprunners.com.au.
If you’d like to setup an event - prepare a Map and Course file as per the instructions, then confirm that they work OK using the CheckSites feature of MapRunF. This publishes the event to the server with a confidential code for checking. (ie Not as an event that can be shared and results displayed.)
If you get errors uploading the files with CheckSites, it most likely means that there is a problem with files. One good check is to open the KMZ and KML files in Google Earth and confirm that your map and course look OK.
If you haven’t set up a course for GPS-based orienteering before, I draw your attention to the need for controls to be accurately located (latitude and longitude). This is why you will see us recommending using features you can see in Google Earth satellite imagery as control locations. See more discussion on this at: http://maprunners.weebly.com/accurate-control-latlng.html
You might like to test your course in the field and once you have a “CheckSites” event you are happy with, send me the 6-digit code and I can publish the event as your first public event. Once you are in the swing of things, and want to continue using MapRun, we can set you up as an administrator in your own right.
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KevO
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Posted: 7 May 2020, 10:16 AM
I don't have ocad, just openorienteeringmapper [0.9.2]. I have a georeferenced file and I want to make a kmz file so I can import it into Google Earth to play with MapRun.
Any suggestions?
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Michael
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Posted: 7 May 2020, 5:42 PM
I haven't done it, but the MapRun website, Technical menu appears to offer a utility to do it.
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Michael
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Posted: 23 May 2020, 8:47 AM
The timing out issue has bugged me as my level of Android doesn't give any controls over running in the background. But on a hint somewhere I explored Settings->Battery and found there something called "app optimisation". For each app I can have "always power saving", "Auto optimising (optimise when not used for 3 days)" and "disabled".
On the hunch that it could be the power saving setting that is causing MapRun to go to sleep I (a) did a test and noted it going to sleep at about 25min into the course (b) changed to auto optimising and re-did the same controls and time schedule and the app did not go to sleep.
OK its a sample of one but encouraging. Would like further testing and reports. My understanding is that Android versions are all different and cellphone makers all incorporate various tricks to (eg) get better battery life, so what works for one may not for another. And of course my apparent success may be due to something else altogether heh heh.
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darren
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Posted: 24 May 2020, 6:18 AM
Hi Michael, have you checked out this site? https://dontkillmyapp.com/
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Michael
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Posted: 3 June 2020, 3:37 AM
I didnt feel any of the guides for MapRun users covered all of our situation so I wrote one. I acknowledge POTOC for their nice enthusiastic video.
https://www.ohv.org.nz/about/maprun-guide/
Gave it a hammering last weekend
https://www.ohv.org.nz/events/66312/
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