[eternalrestt]

I've searched around the forums and have yet to find a decent tutorial on this, so i decided to make my own!

I have been searching online all night for an offline solution for GPS and found a great one!

Things you'll require:
1: Computer with Internet Access and Blackberry Desktop Manager.
2: Blackberry with GPS capabilities. (obviously)
3: A MicroSD Card, i suggest at least a 4GB card if you want to map out around 100 square miles.
4: SD Card reader or USB cable for your berry.
5: The Ability to follow basic instructions.

Step 1:
Download (download URL will be up soon) rar file with all the programs, and blackberry apps you'll need.

Step 2:
Unrar the files to your desktop, and open up Blackberry Desktop Manager. Plugin your blackberry and install Trekbuddy in the root of the folder.

Step 3:
Open up Trekbuddy on your berry, it should prompt you to create a folder on your SD card click "yes" Then hold down # until you see something that looks like crosshairs come on your screen, then press menu and hit "Start". This should turn on your GPS and if you see a compass in about 30 seconds you're set, if not you'll have to troubleshoot.

Step 4:
Go to the folder "Map Tools" and open up "Mobile Atlas Creator" (you'll require java to be installed on your computer for this). Once that opens, click the drop down under "Map Source" and select "Google Maps". You can select Google Hybrid if you prefer, but from my experience the map files turn out HUGE (over 1GB just for my city). Now drag the Zoom selector at the top middle of the screen and set it to zero, now scroll with your mouse on where abouts you want to make a map of then go to the map and left click & hold, and drag across the map where you want to make a map. A pink box should pop up, everywhere that's inside the pink box will be apart of the map you're making. After you're done that head over to the Zoom Levels box at the top right, and select the zoom levels you want. I Suggest 17,16,14,12,10 & 9.
Now the hard part is done (if you'd like to call it that.) Beside "Name" you enter what you want to name your maps, then click "Add Selection" right above the text field. Now check to make sure that "Trekbuddy tared Atlas" is the format under "Atlas settings". If it isn't change it so it is. Now hit "Settings" and head over to the Directories Tab and select where you want the maps to be saved to then hit OK. Depends on the zoom levels and size of the area you selected it will take in between 10-120 minutes to save the maps, after this is done we can get to testing!!

Step 5:
Now that you're done creating the maps, all you have to do is put them on your berry! Plug your berry in and put it in USB mass storage mode, or put the SD card in your reader, and then go to "Trekbuddy -> Maps" now remember where you saved your maps? open up that folder and you should see a folder with the name you selected and a winrar archive named "cr". Drag these both in to the maps folder on your berry and you're just about done.

Step 6:
Unplug your berry from your computer, or put the SD card back in and open up TrekBuddy. Once that's open press Menu, and select "Load Atlas" Then select "cr.tar" Then an option to select a layer pops up, this should be what you named your maps, select that. Now it gives you a list of maps you made, it should be "Mapname 09 Mapname 10 Mapname 15" etc, whatever zoom levels you chose. I suggest choosing "Mapname 16" if you selected that as a zoom level, as i find that's the best suited view for blackberries. It should give you an option to set that as your default, select Yes. Once your map is load press menu then "start" and this will start your GPS receiver, wait a couple mins and it should be up and running, just press down on your trackball and it should jump to your location.

This pretty much wraps up this tutorial, i will be updating this regularly to include pictures, how to enable turn by turn navigation etc.

I hope this helps anyone out there that require offline GPS, or want to save a few bucks.

[jeffh]

Thanks for your post. I frequently recommend TrekBuddy to users looking for an offline mapping app; I'm going to add your post to my recommendation.

[stasisael]

ur tutorial looks good but i havent managed to do it correctly. im missing the download links to the programs needed. im dedsperate on achieving offline gps navigation with trekbuddy or any other program on my blackberry 9700 OS 6.0.0.448

[madaley]

Thanks for your post. I frequently recommend TrekBuddy to users looking for an offline mapping app; I'm going to add your post to my recommendation.

Hi Jeff, have you tried "nogago Outdoor" as an offline mapping app yet?
The whole procedure in setting up offline maps and transfer them onto the SD-Card
has been made more easier and faster by their portal at nogago.com
I think the app is available in BlackBerry AppWorld for free and does pretty well with OSM.
The rendering worked astonishingly fast on older BBs as my Bolt 9000.
Compared to Trekbuddy the nogago app did go fluent through the different zoom levels.
As far as I know the currently support OSM maps with zoom 0-6 and 10-15 from continental view to street level view.

Best

[coco_crunch]

please link

[gunyip]

Great tutorial but when I start the TrekBuddy on my Torch I receive the following message.

"DataDiR [file:///SDCard/TrekBuddy/] not accessible - please fix it and restart"

I am not sure what the appropriate path should be, nor can I find where the app files are stored on the BB or the SD card. I have tried to edit the path, but when I restart the app, I receive the same message...

Please take pity on me, this is my first BB and I have only had it for a few weeks.

Thank you.

[madaley]

please link

Company:
Welcome to Nogago Portal!

BlackBerry AppWorld Version available at:
Download nogago Outdoor GPS - BlackBerry App World

Description from their AppWorld Item:
"Nogago Outdoor is a great companion for international travelers and outdoor enthusiasts alike. Thanks to GLOBAL pedestrian routing and offline maps for every place on planet earth, you can move with greater privacy, outside of mobile network coverage and without paying data roaming fees. Download offline maps at Welcome to Nogago!, where you can also plan and find tracks for your next weekend or afterwork outdoor activity.

Next to being the best maps application available for BlackBerry�, nogago outdoor also transforms your phone into a fully-fledged outdoor navigation device. Track and measure time, distance and speed of your activities; view maps of the area anytime and offline; navigate along tracks and planed routes with routing optimized for walking and biking. Nogago outdoor is made for people not for cars !"

Despite the complaints in the rankings I found the offline maps of reasonable size. Why would I need as a hiker a map bigger than 29000km� ?