[paul.haenel]

Blackstar works with any unlocked GPS Blackberry or with any bluetooth gps unit attached to it.

Paul

[cook46933]

Hi Cook,

New to this type application - just downloaded Blackstar Navigator and haven't had a chance to get out with it.

Does it work with a BB (8330, Alltel) that doesn't have it's GPS unlocked? If not, is there a way to activate the GPS on the 8330? I used Telenav for a while and found it "barely OK" as an ap and NOT worth the $10/month since I have a GPS in my car already.

Thanks for the application - will try it sometime today.

If your GPS is locked for third party apps, then I doubt it would work. Unless, as F2 stated, you use a bluetooth gps.

EDIT: Paul beat me by 1 minute

[chiefsmokedawg]

I was able to use the app on my blackberry storm a couple nights ago to locate my first geocache ever!! I had no problems loading my waypoint and all that.

What i had a major problem with was trying to figure out what the compass is telling me. It seldom changed even though I was walking in different directions for hundreds of feet. Is the arrow supposed to be pointing me in the right direction towards my waypoint? Is it just showing me what way i am heading?

[cook46933]

I was able to use the app on my blackberry storm a couple nights ago to locate my first geocache ever!! I had no problems loading my waypoint and all that.

What i had a major problem with was trying to figure out what the compass is telling me. It seldom changed even though I was walking in different directions for hundreds of feet. Is the arrow supposed to be pointing me in the right direction towards my waypoint? Is it just showing me what way i am heading?

Welcome to geocaching!

The arrow is supposed to point directly towards the destination, in your case, the geocache. It determines direction based on changes in position, and your position is polled approximately once per second. The BB api does that calculation automatically for us, and it sometimes seems to take a while for it to update the direction and azimuth. The gps readings typically have a 20-30 ft accuracy rating, which will also affect the direction the GPS thinks you are going. It may be trying to be smart and average several readings before agreeing as to which direction you really are going, I don't know. There may be some gps settings that could be played with, but that could cause more problems than anything else.

When you are close to the destination say a few hundred feet, pay more attention to the distance field than the arrow, as long as it is getting closer, you are going the right way. And don't forget, look for the pile of sticks, thats where it is

[chiefsmokedawg]

Welcome to geocaching!

The arrow is supposed to point directly towards the destination, in your case, the geocache. It determines direction based on changes in position, and your position is polled approximately once per second. The BB api does that calculation automatically for us, and it sometimes seems to take a while for it to update the direction and azimuth. The gps readings typically have a 20-30 ft accuracy rating, which will also affect the direction the GPS thinks you are going. It may be trying to be smart and average several readings before agreeing as to which direction you really are going, I don't know. There may be some gps settings that could be played with, but that could cause more problems than anything else.

When you are close to the destination say a few hundred feet, pay more attention to the distance field than the arrow, as long as it is getting closer, you are going the right way. And don't forget, look for the pile of sticks, thats where it is

Thanks!!

Gotchya. I'll have to check it out again over the weekend. Heading up to the same spot to fish and find some more caches. Is there any way to change the distance measurement? I was using it to find the cache more than the azimuth, but the only issue I had was it kept saying .1 mile until I got to like 600 feet. If the reading was in a smaller measurement other than tenths of a mile, like feet It would be a big help.

[fstbusa]

I was able to use the app on my blackberry storm a couple nights ago to locate my first geocache ever!! I had no problems loading my waypoint and all that.

What i had a major problem with was trying to figure out what the compass is telling me. It seldom changed even though I was walking in different directions for hundreds of feet. Is the arrow supposed to be pointing me in the right direction towards my waypoint? Is it just showing me what way i am heading?

I found 7 caches yesterday, and I had the exact same problem. I rarely looked at the compass arrow. I was just watching the distance meter and if it was going down then I just kept walking. After 30sec-1 min the compass would decide to cooperate and point me in the right direction. I got accuracy down to about 12 feet yesterday and found a cache so overall I'm pretty happy with it with exception to the compass.

One of the nicest features about having this on my BB is being able to pull up the cache's site and look at the hint if I'm stumped or even look at it on google maps to see if I'm anywhere in the neighborhood of the cache!

[GooberNS]

This is the best app on my blackberry! Thanks so much for creating it. I'm in the military and I have been using this app for my patrolling course, and the integration into google maps means I find my objective everytime, no matter how obscure it is. However I seem to be having a problem with waypoints. I'm in the 14U grid zone designator (MGRS) and when I save a waypoint it saves it as 14R everytime. Even after its created and I try and edit it back to 14U it doesn't save the change. It reverts back to 14R.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Krashedin2u]

I have a question about entering a waypoint manually. How would I enter a waypoint as DDD MM.MMM

In other words generally, geocachers list there coordinates this way so if I have a redirect thats let say N 43� 18.652 W 080� 21.125 how would I enter this? I don't see any option for degrees and minutes.

Thanks in advance

[plcdude]

I noticed a disappointing feature with the Storm (9530) today. If I have no cell service the phone appears to turn off the GPS receiver.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[jmgilliam]

I downloaded Blackstar - when i try to open it on my VZW 8330 it says "No gps receiver available" -

I've changed to "Location On" - and the GPS works on BBMaps now (since VZW unlocked)....

Any help?

[cook46933]

I downloaded Blackstar - when i try to open it on my VZW 8330 it says "No gps receiver available" -

I've changed to "Location On" - and the GPS works on BBMaps now (since VZW unlocked)....

Any help?

Verizon has not fully unlocked their GPS. They just opened it for BBMaps, or is it Google Maps, I don't remember. Anyway it is still not open for third part apps like BlackStar.

The exception to this rule is the Storm which is fully open to third party apps.

[cook46933]

I have a question about entering a waypoint manually. How would I enter a waypoint as DDD MM.MMM

In other words generally, geocachers list there coordinates this way so if I have a redirect thats let say N 43� 18.652 W 080� 21.125 how would I enter this? I don't see any option for degrees and minutes.

Thanks in advance

You can change the coordinate format in the BlackStar Options screen.

Formats supported are dd.ddddd, dd mm.mmmm, dd mm:ss.s, and MGRS

[cook46933]

This is the best app on my blackberry! Thanks so much for creating it. I'm in the military and I have been using this app for my patrolling course, and the integration into google maps means I find my objective everytime, no matter how obscure it is. However I seem to be having a problem with waypoints. I'm in the 14U grid zone designator (MGRS) and when I save a waypoint it saves it as 14R everytime. Even after its created and I try and edit it back to 14U it doesn't save the change. It reverts back to 14R.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

The MGRS conversions are done by a conversion routine that I found and translated for Blackberry. The conversion is quite extensive and complicated.

All waypoints are stored in dd.ddddd format regardless of what format is displayed. So when you enter it in MGRS, it converts it to dd.ddddd to store it then when displaying again, it converts it back to MGRS. So it could be having a problem from MGRS to dd.dddd or from dd.dddd to MGRS.

Then you enter it as 14U and it changes it to 14R, does it show the right location if you navigate to it or bring it up in google maps or bb maps? If so, switch to dd.dddd format and see what it shows for the coordinate. Then enter those coords into a web conversion and see what it returns. such as Latitude Longitude to MGRS and MGRS to Latitude Longitude Conversion or if you want to PM me the coords you are using, I can look at it if you want. It is just sometimes people do not want to give the exact coords they are using because it is personal or private such as someones home.

[cook46933]

I noticed a disappointing feature with the Storm (9530) today. If I have no cell service the phone appears to turn off the GPS receiver.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Most phone GPS units are Assisted GPS which uses cell towers to assist in getting GPS lock. Most units should also be able to work in autonamous(sp) mode, or unassisted. But a service provider could be locking that down.

When you are out of cell service area, if you go to Options/Advanced/GPS , and click Refresh GPS menu item, does it return a location? or give an error?

I would be interested to hear if others have problems using cell GPS when there is no service.

[nicman]

I downloaded the new version last night and tried it out today. I like a lot of the new features. I have the storm on the verizon network. The main problem I have is that the arrow seems to respond lower than the previous version. It takes a couple of seconds for the distance to updated and then a couple of seconds after that for the arrow to update which totals 4-6 seconds walking at 2mph for the arrow to update (over 60 ft to cache). Besides that B* works great. Also it still does not work on the storm in portrait mode. I love that I can download it to google maps.

Keep up the great work and thank you.

[Smurfy71]

Keep up the good work! I've been following this thread since the first version, and it just keeps getting better.

[SDStormer]

I don't know about the Alltel (verizon) gps in that unit but I use a separate Bluetooth gps puck with my verizon 8830 with Blackstar since the INTERNAL gps is locked.

On my Storm, all I did to unlock the GPS was to use download and use Googlemaps. Before I did that, the BBmaps would not work, it said GPS not activated or something like that, but after installing Googlemaps, any program that uses the GPS works with no problems.

[cook46933]

I downloaded the new version last night and tried it out today. I like a lot of the new features. I have the storm on the verizon network. The main problem I have is that the arrow seems to respond lower than the previous version. It takes a couple of seconds for the distance to updated and then a couple of seconds after that for the arrow to update which totals 4-6 seconds walking at 2mph for the arrow to update (over 60 ft to cache). Besides that B* works great. Also it still does not work on the storm in portrait mode. I love that I can download it to google maps.

Keep up the great work and thank you.

Daniel, our newest team member, has figured out that the image was not painting on a regular basis. The issue is being discussed on our forums: BlackStar Navigation; View topic - compass tracking

Hopefully we will be able to release a fix soon.

[belowi]

I am really interested in trying out this app, but when I try to run Blackstar v1.4 I get the error message "Uncaught exception: java.lang.Error". I am new to using the blackberry and would appreciate any help you can offer. I am running 4.5.0.110 on a 8310. Thanks!

[cook46933]

I am really interested in trying out this app, but when I try to run Blackstar v1.4 I get the error message "Uncaught exception: java.lang.Error". I am new to using the blackberry and would appreciate any help you can offer. I am running 4.5.0.110 on a 8310. Thanks!

I have not seen that error with anyone else which leads me to wonder if a battery pull will fix it. Can you try that and let us know how it worked?

[BBOOSE]

I was looking for an app that would let me mark dive and fishing spots and came across the original 50 odd page thread. I read through most of it and can't believe how this great app evolved from such humble beginnings.

Great work to everyone involved!!

One little irrelevant thing I noticed which probably gets changed everytime you do a new release anyway is that on the OTA download link where you get asked if you want to download the app and it gives you basic details like size etc, there is a typo in the description (no p in 'waypoint'). It would only bug the perfectionists out there which judging from how well the app works I am guessing you all are...

Anyway I had never heard of geocaching before and figured perhaps it wasn't down my part of the world (from New Zealand) but I went to the geocaching.com link from the app and did a quick search for my area and found half a dozen within 1km from my house!!

Guess I'm going to be taking a walk now...

Thanks again!

[belowi]

I have not seen that error with anyone else which leads me to wonder if a battery pull will fix it. Can you try that and let us know how it worked?

I tried taking the battery out for about 5 minutes and then replacing it, but no change. I updated the OS to 4.5 yesterday and everything else seems to be working perfectly (I never had BlackStar installed prior to the upgrade), should I try to reinstall the OS?

[MajorMajor]

Is their any kind of documentation/manual on either the Blackstar or Bcaching website? If there is I sure can't find it. If there's not can that be done? Wandering through threads is tedious and still doesn't tell me what I need to know. Thanks.

[stuhl232]

One thing i have noticed in the 20 minutes i have had this program is that there is no date and time saved when you mark a spot (waypoint). will that be added in the future? if i am wrong let me know, but i dont see one. i am going to use this as a fishing log and maybe for a little geocaching though i have never tried it, so the date and time would be huge for me. also if there was an option to save the weather at the time you mark the waypoint that would make a big difference to the fisherman/hunters out there. i dont know if that would have any use for the geocachers, but again for fishing purposes it would be very nice. this is a great program, and i am very excited that i have found it.
-Stu

[cook46933]

I tried taking the battery out for about 5 minutes and then replacing it, but no change. I updated the OS to 4.5 yesterday and everything else seems to be working perfectly (I never had BlackStar installed prior to the upgrade), should I try to reinstall the OS?

After trying BlackStar and getting the error, hold the ALT button while typing LGLG. This will bring up the event log. Scroll down looking for messages that have BlackStar in it it should be in bold. If so, select "Copy Day's Contents " and post them or PM me.