[cook46933]

BlackStar 1.6.4 has been released 10/10/09
Changes included in BlackStar v 1.6.4 include:

* multiple track bug fix.
* text display of direction. change from compass to text with sideways scroll
* number of satellites locked display. But does not display until enough satellites are locked to create a location. I was hoping to display the number while still acquiring a lock, but I am not sure that will be possible.
customizable fonts for each screen
* fixed a bug in gps import if there is a line feed at the beginning or end of a geocaching log.
* fixed some formatting of gpx file to be able to import into gsak.
* fixed bug which prevented bcaching userids with embedded spaces in name from connecting to bcaching
* added date timestamp to waypoint
* Track in process display
* added Nautical Miles to units
* opened the file filter to allow gpx.rem and loc.rem files to be selected for importing
* added Cardinal direction (N/S/E/W) to units
* fixed bug in KML export that prevented routes from being displayed in google maps
* fixed bug to point bcaching back to production bcaching site.

The OTA link on our website has been updated http://blackstarnavigation.com/ota.
The Crackberry has been updated too.
The new release has been submitted to the BlackBerry App World, but it may take a couple of weeks to be updated.


5/31/2009 BlackStar 1.5 is now available.
OTA Download site has changed!!
OTA Download: http://blackstarnavigation.com/ota

Paul and Daniel have been busy working on improving BlackStar. They have a new batch of changes in this release.
New Features Include:
1. improved response time for compass
2. new tracking functionality
2a. start/stop tracking
2b. tracking history screen
2c. export tracks to GPX/KML
3. altitude adjustment in options. This value can be added or subtracted from your current altitude. I believe this was requested to be used in flying?
4. Altitude inversion. Some BB OS's are returning a negative altitude. This will allow you to invert(negate) your altitude to fix this until RIM fixes the OS.
5. Improved Options screen
6. Toggle geocaching hint from encoded to decoded in Waypoint Details
7. Improved GPX/LOC Import times.
8. various fixes


3/16/2009 BlackStar 1.4
Time for BlackStar to start a new thread. There is a long detailed history of how BlackStar came into existence here: http://forums.crackberry.com/f41/app...ut-maps-20979/

But that thread is now much larger than what is manageable. So, time for a fresh start.

Please visit out NEW WEBSITE: BlackStar Navigation. Feel free to join our forums there.

PLEASE NOTE: BlackStar 1.4 requires OS 4.3 minimum
OTA Link: http://tinyurl.com/gpsnav
ZIP file for installing on Desktop Manager available on our website.


3/16/09 It has just come to my attention that part of the app code requires minimum OS 4.3 If you are using an earlier OS, then you can use the attached ZIP file which is for BlackStar 1.3.3.5.


BlackStar 1.4 includes the following changes:

• log geocache online. Only works if geocache was loaded from gpx file.
• add field note for find in B*. I will eventually have an export for the field notes to be able to load into geocaching.com.
• mark geocache as found in B*
• mark geocache as DNF in B*
• indicate found or DNF on list waypoints waypoints screen
• arrow and compass drawn instead of image files
• disclaimer in about
• Options - allow ability to turn off geocaching menu items. Not a geocacher? Turn off the options to keep menus clean. But you should consider geocaching Requires B* restart to take effect
• Options - allow ability to turn off menu items that access data charges. Not responsible if I missed one  Requires B* restart to take effect
• night mode – Still a little quirky. I think it is more RIM limitations.
• copy location to clipboard
• Google maps integration. See waypoint location on Google Maps
• bb maps integration. See waypoint location on BB maps. Also see all waypoints on BB maps from the list waypoints screen
• backlight lock
• Ability to store more caches. No more 20 cache limit on GPX. You can now import hundreds of caches as a time, but the more caches you store, the longer it will take to calculate distances for the List Waypoints page.
• I compiled and signed with RIM JDE 4.7 hopefully this improves the interface for Storm users.
• lat/lon font sizes are customizable in the options screen. You must restart B* for the changes to take place.
• The location field and speed/distance fields font sizes are customizable in the options screen. You must restart B* for the changes to take place.
• As you resize the fonts, the compass will resize to take up the remainder of the screen.
• bcaching integration. Bcaching.com is a web application that allows geocachers to store the results of their pocket queries in a database with a nice mobile web interface. The website owner has designed an API to allow
  us to extract geocaching information from his website into BlackStar. Note that bcaching is only available for premium members on geocaching.com. That is because you need to be able to run pocket queries(pq's) which is a premium member only feature.
  
  Why do use bcaching when we can just import the PQ directly into B*? You will notice as you add hundreds of caches into B* that the time it takes to open the list waypoints page will get longer and longer and longer. bcaching.com has a much larger capacity to store caches. So we can take advantage of that by storing large pocket queries on bcaching and use a menu item in B* to extract the 20 closest, or view the 20 closest on the web interface using the coords from B*. Right now those are the only features I am implementing. Mainly because I have to draw a line in the sand for this release somewhere But I think for die hard geocachers, this will be way cool.
  
  In order to use bcaching, you will need to register on bcaching.com. Then you will need to load your "My Finds" PQ and another PQ result. In order to meet Groundspeaks TOU for geocache data, Mark needed to sign an agreement with them that stated he had to restrict user acces to only the data they loaded themselves, not others' data. So you will only be able to see caches from your own pq's. Then you can enter your userid and password into the B* options screen and click the validate and store userid button. After that, you just need to click the "get closest from bcaching" menu item and it will extract and store the 20 closest caches you have on bcaching.com

I feel like I am forgetting a few items, so feel free to explore it and see if I forgot anything.

[FF22]

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR OWN THREAD.

THANKS for your team's incredible efforts at creating and evolving this application.

[w_bovine]

Well now...all this is indeed interesting. Sounds like the deal with bcaching.com can help to overcome one of the terrible limitations of Geocache Navigator, that being the inability to use PQ's and import .gpx files. You folks could really be on to something here. I'll check it out as soon as I get the opportunity. Thanks!

[gsalt]

Have tried to install on my Voda UK 8310 (running 4.2.2.146) and get the following error:
Error starting BlackStar: Class 'net.rim.device.api.system.WLANInfo' not found

I was running previous version OK.

Initially tried installing "over the top" without un-installing the old version. When it didn't work I un-installed, rebooted and tried a clean install. Same error.

Any guesses how I can get it working?

Did support for Ordnance Survey co-ordinates get added to this release?

[cook46933]

Have tried to install on my Voda UK 8310 (running 4.2.2.146) and get the following error:
Error starting BlackStar: Class 'net.rim.device.api.system.WLANInfo' not found

I was running previous version OK.

Initially tried installing "over the top" without un-installing the old version. When it didn't work I un-installed, rebooted and tried a clean install. Same error.

Any guesses how I can get it working?

Did support for Ordnance Survey co-ordinates get added to this release?

Hmmm. That Class should be available.
I don't know if that could be resolved without reloading the OS which I doubt you want to do... It is not because of the way you installed, it is just part of the new code and that piece should be included in your OS. I will research this one a bit and let you know.

In the mean time, I could give you the 1.3.3.5 ZIP file so you could reinstall using Desktop Manager if you want it.

And I have not done anything with the Ordnance Survey yet. In all honesty, if I knew there was more of a demand for it, it would get more priority. But I have not forgotten about it though.

[cook46933]

Hmmm. That Class should be available.
I don't know if that could be resolved without reloading the OS which I doubt you want to do... It is not because of the way you installed, it is just part of the new code and that piece should be included in your OS. I will research this one a bit and let you know.

In the mean time, I could give you the 1.3.3.5 ZIP file so you could reinstall using Desktop Manager if you want it.

And I have not done anything with the Ordnance Survey yet. In all honesty, if I knew there was more of a demand for it, it would get more priority. But I have not forgotten about it though.

Oh, that class is only available in OS 4.3 or higher. I will put the old ZIP file into the first post of this Thread and you can reinstall BlackStar 1.3.3.5 using Desktop Manager. Then we will decide what we want to do going forward.

[nobius]

cook, in answer to your question about my missing entries after reimporting, I do see the data there in the gpx file. I'll just manually enter them in. I wonder if it had trouble since there were a few entries where I left the default name in there.

[acerunner]

Love the new gui (being able to resize), and the dynamic redraw of the compass.

Some suggestions:
1. draw an arrow for direction of compass. I know up is always the direction your traveling, but i think some kind of indicator would be nice. Like a red little dot or arrow at the top.
2. Option for digital compass. Direction displayed as N, NW, W, SW, etc.

[w_bovine]

I just uploaded the required information to bcaching.com to see how things would pan out. I must say, it looks as though the combination of B* and bcaching.com could crush Geocache Navigator for some of us! May not be quite as "pretty," but from a functional standpoint it looks very promising. Granted, I don't do much caching from my phone, but with respect to the way I go about all things geocaching, this could be the one for me.

[CyberSnyper]

Hey David, when viewing coordinates in MGRS mode, I noticed there are about 4 or 5 spaces after the colon, which pushes the second half of the coordinates to the next line. Example:

MGRS: 11S MS 12345 e
67890 n (it's not saving all the spaces in there after the colon in my post, but you get the idea)

Could you get rid of the extra spacing? Also, I suggest getting rid of the "e" and "n" values. Anyone who uses MGRS already knows that is read as east and north, and those who don't use it won't understand what the numbers mean anyways. I suggest just listing it as "MGRS: 11S MS 12345 67890". If you feel that you must have the "e" and "n", could you at least get rid of the space between the numbers and letters; 5e not 5 e. Just trying to help clean it up a bit.

A digital azimuth in the middle of the compass would be cool, too.

[CyberSnyper]

Thanks again for the great app and Congrats on your own thread and new website!!!!

[cook46933]

Hey David, when viewing coordinates in MGRS mode, I noticed there are about 4 or 5 spaces after the colon, which pushes the second half of the coordinates to the next line. Example:

MGRS: 11S MS 12345 e
67890 n (it's not saving all the spaces in there after the colon in my post, but you get the idea)

Could you get rid of the extra spacing? Also, I suggest getting rid of the "e" and "n" values. Anyone who uses MGRS already knows that is read as east and north, and those who don't use it won't understand what the numbers mean anyways. I suggest just listing it as "MGRS: 11S MS 12345 67890". If you feel that you must have the "e" and "n", could you at least get rid of the space between the numbers and letters; 5e not 5 e. Just trying to help clean it up a bit.

A digital azimuth in the middle of the compass would be cool, too.

removing the e and n and extra spaces will not be a problem. The digital Azimuth in the middle of the compass... definitely will consider it, we'll have to see how it will look. Thanks for the feedback.

[cook46933]

Love the new gui (being able to resize), and the dynamic redraw of the compass.

Some suggestions:
1. draw an arrow for direction of compass. I know up is always the direction your traveling, but i think some kind of indicator would be nice. Like a red little dot or arrow at the top.

OK, good idea

2. Option for digital compass. Direction displayed as N, NW, W, SW, etc.

Are you just talking about displaying the N, NW ... instead of a compass face? We were kicking around the idea of having another screen that just shows all the information as text, no images. Lat/lon, speed, dist,direction, azimuth and anything else we decide to throw in. direction and azimuth could be configured to be degrees/mils/cardinal(N/S/E...). Does that cover what you are thinking about?

[cook46933]

I just uploaded the required information to bcaching.com to see how things would pan out. I must say, it looks as though the combination of B* and bcaching.com could crush Geocache Navigator for some of us! May not be quite as "pretty," but from a functional standpoint it looks very promising. Granted, I don't do much caching from my phone, but with respect to the way I go about all things geocaching, this could be the one for me.

Yes, I love the way bcaching gives me access to hundreds of nearby caches without B* needing to store it all. You can also set your PQs up to go directly to bcaching and they will be loaded "automagically".

[cook46933]

cook, in answer to your question about my missing entries after reimporting, I do see the data there in the gpx file. I'll just manually enter them in. I wonder if it had trouble since there were a few entries where I left the default name in there.

I am glad you are able to recover, but I don't understand why it happened. Unless you used "<" or ">" in some of your descriptions.

[nobius]

I am glad you are able to recover, but I don't understand why it happened. Unless you used "<" or ">" in some of your descriptions.

No, just - since that's the default. I just emailed you the file.

[cook46933]

cook, in answer to your question about my missing entries after reimporting, I do see the data there in the gpx file. I'll just manually enter them in. I wonder if it had trouble since there were a few entries where I left the default name in there.

I had changed some of the format of the gpx export and import, but I thought it would still be compatible.

The problem is the <name> attribute WAS the same for each of the waypoints, defaulting to gcxxxx and the name was getting put in the descrription. So the now inappropriately named "smart update" inserted one waypoint and updated it with each of the other waypoints.

So if this happens, open the BlackStar.gpx file in a text editor on your computer and search for <name> and for each one, change the value to make it unique. Then save it and it should work.

But going forward, now when you export the name and description go into the right places and the waypoints will load properly. This should only be a problem for exports you did with BlackStar 1.3.3.5 and earlier.

[nobius]

Thanks for checking it out for me.

[acerunner]

Are you just talking about displaying the N, NW ... instead of a compass face? We were kicking around the idea of having another screen that just shows all the information as text, no images. Lat/lon, speed, dist,direction, azimuth and anything else we decide to throw in. direction and azimuth could be configured to be degrees/mils/cardinal(N/S/E...). Does that cover what you are thinking about?

I was talking about something like the digital LCD displays on some rear view mirrors of cars that tell you what direction your going. So instead of the analog rotating compass circle, you get a "LCD" digit dislay. But what you mentioned is kinda cool too! =)

Keep up the good work! One of these days, I'm gonna learn to program something too. But right now, I'm busy with windows programming.

[DMoyn]

Woot!! Had a good time today. Found 4 Caches. B* worked great. When I click the LOC Waypoint file they all seem to save with the same name. Can I change that or do I have to download them one at a time (which is still better than manually inputing them)? Thank for the FUN!!

[cook46933]

Woot!! Had a good time today. Found 4 Caches. B* worked great. When I click the LOC Waypoint file they all seem to save with the same name. Can I change that or do I have to download them one at a time (which is still better than manually inputing them)? Thank for the FUN!!

Are you talking about the filename that downloads? If so, as long as you have 4.5 OS, you should be able to change the names when you save them. Just make sure they have .LOC extension.

[FF22]

When I've downloaded, I've scrolled back using the trackball and inserted a NUMBER after the filename and changed to LOC for the extension.

[nobius]

Are you talking about the filename that downloads? If so, as long as you have 4.5 OS, you should be able to change the names when you save them. Just make sure they have .LOC extension.

I know that for the Waypoints screen, if you choose "Export GPX file it creates a BlackStar.gpx file in the root of your SD card without an option to change the location or give it a different name.

BTW I did this before I had to wipe and reload my 8900 yesterday because my address book got hosed, and I was able to import everything back just fine, so the export is working well in newer versions like you said.

Here's a suggestion: On the main screen, make "List Waypoints" the first menu choice instead of "New Waypoint."

Also, I don't know if you saw it from the old thread, but there is still a lot of whitespace on a lot of the screens when in night mode.

[puppyluv]

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.

[FF22]

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.