Great review......Since this is my first time in this forum, I would like to submit 2 items....

First, a want......Is there or will there be a "Trip Counter" that can be activated and kept going until stopped to determine one's distance traveled......

Second, a peeve......When using any Microsoft Streets and Trips, up to 2009, every once in a while, the program locks up and the only way to get out of it is to reboot, thus loosing all the recent data....It's a real pain as one cannot be saving things every second because that creates segmented blue snail trails.....When will M/S fix this bug....I have read that it has something to do with the way they poll the GPS receiver.....

Regards, CC

cowboychris55 said:
I have never experiement any crash with the 2009 version of S&T while navigating. What is your hardware setup and what are you doing exactly?

Hi There,

I run S&T 2009 on Vista but it also happened to me with 2007 & XP and leaving the little blue trail of the places that I have travelled........

I do this because I then cut and paste all my little blue lines onto a master map which then shows me all the places that I have traveled to......

When you run S&T for a few hours as you are going from "A" to "B", every once in a while, S&T locks up and the only way to get out of it is to reboot......

I have researched this situation and have discovered that the way that M/S polls its GPS unit sometimes causes a loop waiting for something and then you are stuck.......

Every time that one saves the data, it slices and dices the blue line so when I cut and paste it, I have to do it for each little piece.....It is a pain in the butt.....

I will try to find where the link to the bug was......If you "Google" the following "Streets & Trips with gps lock up", several references to my problem will show up.......

A few of the entries say that I should unplug the USB GPS then replug it in.........They say that it should fix the problem.....I will attempt it next time it locks up and hope that I will not lose my data......

Regards, CC

Prior to the 2009 release the GPS trail feature did lockup the program such as you have described. With the the current editions that is no longer an issue as MS fixed it. Not sure about your trip counter request as I have not used the GPS trail feature lately.

Hi There,

Sorry to say that it still happens with the S&T 2009....

Hope 2010 works better.....

Regards, CC

RE: Trip counter
Would the distance estimates available from the various configurations of the written trip directions suffice?

Hi There,

I understand what you are saying but if one deviates from the original trip or re-plans a route then these counts are all off......

Besides, I would like to have an aggregate total between resets.....

Regards,

CC

Regarding the problem of a very long trip with GPS trails on causing S&T to lock up ... Can you somehow save the GPS trail periodically so that it will reset?

I've never used GPS trails in S&T so I'm ignorant of how it actually works. In my Garmin stuff (handhelds and Mobile PC) they're called "tracks". I can save the current track file any time I want, giving it any file name I want. I can also clear the track file at that point so it starts fresh.

Mobile PC also has a nice trip computer display. If you take a close look at each of the items displayed I think you'll see that it pretty much covers everything asked for here for distances and times.

I'm not trying to convert anyone. I'm suggesting you look and see if you can periodically save and clear the GPS trail as a workaround to stop the lockup and showing off a trip computer function that you could push MS for in a future version.

...ken...

Attached Images

GMPC Trip.jpg (42.4 KB)

One option may be to:
1) Download a free GPS program that has a trip counter. Here is a site I have seen in the past; Free GPS Software - An Up-to-Date List. I know nothing of the site or the programs offered and make no recommendations or warrants regarding them.
2) Download the free software thingy from Laptop GPS World that allows you to run multiple programs off one GPS receiver. [At least I think I remember seeing it offered here.]
3) Run the two GPS programs concurrently to achieve the needed info.

I have had some success with downloading free GPS software. I downloaded a marine application and NOAA charts. Can't wait to go sailing; it's been years... This program was offered out on the net, but when I downloaded the charts, I noticed that NOAA had links to various free programs - of which one was the program I had downloaded.

I look forward to knowing of your solution. I think it would be nice to have, myself.

That's GpsGate by Johan in Sweden.

Actually the free COM port replicator is Xport. The other one costs money.

Xport will work fine if the GPS driver creates a virtual COM port. Xport will probably work for the greatest majority of USB and Bluetooth receivers.

...ken...

My mistake, I overlooked the word "free" in the reply.

I browsed the free download site I had mentioned above to just see what might be fun to add to my system. Here is a "Skinnable Compass" that offers tracking and a trip log (from start). NMEA Compass It appears to track independent of a map, which would keep you from having to load maps separate from S&T. I believe it works of off Xport. I don't know anything about it other than just scanning the text.

Hi There,

Thank you all for your replies and great suggestions.....

Can't wait to try them out.....

Regards,

CC

If ya don't mind me asking, How do you do this?
I've got a few different maps saved and would like to consolidate them.


I'd like to have a trip counter also. Good idea.

Hi There,

1. Create a "Master Map"...Usually a "Blank" map.....

2. Then open your saved map beside it.......

3. The all you need to do is "Cut & Paste" on the "Blue Snail Trails" from the saved maps to our master map until there are no more left......

4. "DO NOT", I repeat, "DO NOT" re-save your saved map which you are cutting from......Just kill it so the saved version which you loaded it from is still there......You may need them sometime again......

5. Open the next saved map and repeat 3. & 4. until all your blue trails have been transferred to the Master Map......Be advised that if you have a lot of blue trails on your master maps, you better have a really fast machine because there is a lot of vectoring to be done as you move across the master map.........

You should save your Master Map every now and then so you will not lose all your work if something happens.....

BTW: The pasted Blue lines find their way to their correct places on the Master Map which I thought was pretty cool.....

Regards,

CC

Cool! Thanks CC!

One more question,

2. Then open your saved map beside it.......

Beside it? Just reopen S&T to open the saved map? Or is there a way to actually get side by side maps on one screen?

Hi There,

When I said "beside it", I meant that you should have both maps open at the same time so that you could "cut & paste" from one to the other.....

Regards,

CC

Re: Trip Log
I am working with Xport and the skinnable Compass. I do not like the way they install. They are intended to always launch at start up. They do not show in the programs listing. If you close them to turn them off, the icon disappears from the tray. I am not sure how to get them back.

I have re-downloaded, saving them to their own files, and will need to clean up the first installations.

I am also having trouble with Xport. It appears that S&T is reading the gps directly and not through Xport. The Compass is permanently assigned to Xport and is getting its feed. This accomplishes what I had wanted, but Xport may not feed any additional programs. I am still working on it.

The programs are free, but there is no support.

I do very much like the Compass. It has great features, including your desired trip log, and you have a lot of control over configuring it. The writer is gracious to have made them available!

Only one thing can use your GPS at one time. So, if xport is using it, S&T can't. If only the compass program appears to work, maybe it is using the GPS and blocking xport. Check your COM port assignments carefully.

You might also want to consider spending about $13 for GPS Gate Express, a much more flexible program than xport.

Terry

Streets & Trips and XPort were both using com4 for the incoming feed at the same time. I was having trouble enabling the outgoing ports. I realize, now, that I had made operator errors in enabling them. They have little circles next to them that look like they should be "checked" to select them. Checking is not necessary. Just select a com port number from the drop down list and enable. After discovering my error and correcting it, I was able to assign S&T to com10, which I had created, and it ran just fine.

All in all, XPort and Compass are good programs. Thanks to their author, an ingenious and gracious guy. I would suggest that he make launch at startup just an option instead of the (only) default. I would e-mail him directly, but I could not find his address on his site. Does anybody know how to reach him?

More XPort and Compass Operator Errors:

My apologies to the author, I just found the launch function option in the configure menu. I will set it to "off". Now, I am really rather impressed with the programs...

I'm glad you found that setting. I was going to say that I've got an Xport shortcut on my desktop and I just run it when I need it. Then I turn it off from the system tray icon when I'm done with it.

I haven't used Compass but it sounds neat.

...ken...

I found the launch option button for the Compass. How are you keeping XPort from launching at startup?

Uncheck 'Enable Ports' and it won't start ever. You have to run the executable and check that to start it.

Terry