11/12/2009

Gps map cooking on a knee

Sometimes you don't have a gps map when it's really needed. Let's do it weird way.

All We need:
    a) cell phone (I used Nokia 6110 Navigator with installed SmartcomGPS on it);
    b) any PC to convert a raster image into ogf2 format (I found the one in the Inet-cafe
connected my cellphone to its USB to convert a picture into Ogf2 using ogf2tool);
    c) Ogf2tool (any raster image converter into Ogf2 that supported by SmartcomGPS)
    d) Map calibration the way I described here

If you're in the jungle, You are in trouble.
This post won't help you at all. You outta prepare better before then.

1. Try to find any map (wall map, paper map at the book store, street map etc...)
Found! then unfold it flat and take a picture using a cell phone camera in the photo mode.

*) Lens has a focal diffraction, and to improve a raster image, take one picture of a white list with black grid for that (to change a field curvature) to make in the Photoshop a map image more flattened to get same shape as an original one.
I didn't use that so it's skipped...

2. Turn on a PC, connect your phone by USB to it (or just use a flash card or flash drive instead)
I have an ogf2tool the lite version (no need installation, it goes with any version of Smartcomgps), Copy a map image onto PC and run ogf2tool to convert into ogf2 file. after it's done, copy your ogf2 into a map directory on your phone.

3. At this point you have a map image that needs a calibration. I wrote a post about that here

4. Hubla-Bubla.... and I had a map, not a masterpiece of course, but better than nothing.