Travelling to Ecuador with Droid X. Use GPS without wireless service connection?

[ChadJ55]

Hi all,

I will be travelling to Ecuador in a few weeks and am hoping to be able to prepare my X to be used as a handheld GPS with street maps so I can easily get myself around Quito and surrounding areas. Verizon appears to have coverage there but I don't want to rely upon, or use, the Verizon service and incur roaming/data charges. I have heard people mention using something called Atlas Creator to build maps that can be used offline, but have no clue how to go about making the map or getting it on the phone. I'm a bit of a novice in that area, with this being my first android phone. Any help or alternative options you guys can offer is most appreciated.

-Chad

 

[inthefad3]

Awesome. I was born in Quito and will likely visit it next year with my X so I hope you can find a way to make this work.

 

[ChadJ55]

We are really excited about the trip! It would be so handy to be able to navigate the streets with the phone though. Hopefully someone can chime in and explain the process of making certain area maps available for offline use. I donwloaded an app called Maverick that I read someone else had used to get GPS and maps on the Droid X. But I can't see how I would create the maps or make them available on the phone without a web connection. Looking like I may have to just figure this one out myself.

 

[permitivity]

Did you ever get this to work? I've loaded Maverick on a HTC Hero, and created the maps using Mobile Atlas Creator. I put the maps in the SD card.

But I don't know how to tell Maverick to load those maps. I thought it would be obvious. But I've gone through seemingly every menu option, there doesn't seem to be a "load map" button.

 

[ChadJ55]

Did you ever get this to work? I've loaded Maverick on a HTC Hero, and created the maps using Mobile Atlas Creator. I put the maps in the SD card.

But I don't know how to tell Maverick to load those maps. I thought it would be obvious. But I've gone through seemingly every menu option, there doesn't seem to be a "load map" button.

I never did find a way to make Maverick work with the Mobile Atlas Creator maps. However, I did have great success using the GPS while I was in Ecuador. Before I left, and while I still had a data connection, I went in Maverick and panned all around the areas where I would be. I zoomed in and out and basically tried to scroll around the full city. It took longer than would be ideal, but it did work and I never found myself in an area where I could not find my location. I may have had to zoom in our out to get to the downloaded tile, but it really was convenient.

Another option you can try, depending upon how much detail you need, is MapDroyd. It's in the market. It lets you download full area maps right from the phone. Only draback is they are less detailed than the Google maps you can use with Maverick. I definitely suggest downloading it though and downloading a map of the area you will be going, even if it is just as a back up. MapDroyd worked very well in Quito, as far as detail goes, but was pretty lame for the rural areas of Ecuador as one might expect. I'd bet it would be good for most popular tourist areas. Let me know if you think of other specific questions.

 

[permitivity]

Thanks for letting me know.

With your method of saving the maps while you have a data connection, does the Maverick program always cache/save whatever map you're viewing at the time? You don't have to do anything special, or tick any special options, to get it to save the tiles?

I think I understand what you're doing. I'll have to give it a try when I have my phone back.