Fugawi 3.0 and the iQue

[Deuterium]

Okay gang I got Fugawi 3.0 this evening and loaded it onto the ique. I've played with it for about two hours and here is what I found out:

1. Works as advertised. It recognizes the GPS and gave me a fix as quick as the internal program. Infact you can run both at the same time, well sort-of. If you switch back to the internal program you have to reload the map you want for Fugawi.

2. Loadable maps. It comes with a super-macro map which is worthless. I went to my copy of National Geographic Topo! and saved a section as a BMP. I then registered three points on the picture in Fugawi and then Fugawi did the rest. After I synced there was the topo map all ready to use. I'll be experimenting with imagery next. If I use the stylus to drag the map its super quick, faster than the ique program I think.

3. Fugawi doen't know the first thing about documentation. IT SUCKS!!! If I didn't already know about the process of doing this kind of software I'd be sunk.

4. Kinda pricey, $99.00. I really wanted to be able to use topographical maps on the iQue and not the worthless outdated ones I have with Garmin TOPO. For me its worth it but for others its a stretch. I also want to use imagery along with the topos and this is the first product out the door that will do this.

Just a few thoughts for now. I'll publish more after I play with it tomorrow. Here is a screen shot I took after I loaded that map I made from NAtional Geographic Topo!, Hey Garmin this is what you should have given us!!!!

http://users.adelphia.net/~jcbcpc/test/fugawi.jpg

The picture doesn't do the screen and program justice. The quality is very good, 256 colors and no distortion or fuzziness in the map.

[rick417]

The picture you have looks awesome, and you say the actual is even better? I have been considering the National Geographic Topo maps for some time, but have been hesitant about being able to use them with GPS. Can you tell me what file type options you have to save the map? Can you only save as BMP or is there a JPG option to make the map size smaller? Is Fugawi and the NG Topo maps pretty seamless as far as getting the map overlayed in the right geographic area or do you have to tell the program what your area is? Thanks.

[Deuterium]

I will repeat by saying this is not a point and click type program. The documentation sucked. JPG is an option. You are really limited by where you're getting your map from. You could go to MAPQUEST, TOPOZONE, TERRASERVER, and get a picture/map/imagery, right click and save to your hard drive, you then must register three points on the picture with the correct coordinates. All you do then is load it to your iQue and away you go. Now from what I saw last night the drawback is it will only load one map at a time meaning if you go any great distance you would have to manually open the appropriate, user created, map. The program won't open it for you. SO in summary don't be under the impression that all you do is make a couple of clicks and import a map. The program does work and the display graphics are way superior to the Garmin Topo product.

[ssaibal]

Deuterium,

So you are using Fugawi only as a tool to view other Topo maps like National Geographic Topo. Can you please give me more details of the area that you are showing on the screen and also at what scale. I would like to compare the image with that from Mapsource US Topo.

[Mapper]

Interesting thread!
I currently own a pocket-pc but I want to buy the Ique when it is available in Europe within a few weeks. The 320x480 px resolution must be fantastic with topo-maps!
I use Ozi Explorer CE on my pocket-pc to view scanned topo-maps of European countries. In Europe digital topo-maps are very rare and expensive so I had to scan them from existing maps I own. I stitched the separate scans together with Panavue Image Assembler (excellent program!) and used Image-to-Ozi to convert these bitmaps to the Ozi-CE-format. After Calibrating them in Ozi I could use them on my pocket-pc with gps. The resulting image on the pocket-pc is very good but the resolution is much smaller than on the Ique. Unfortunately OziCE doesn't support the Palm-operating system so I have to search another program for the Ique.
I believe Fugawi does exactly the same thing but before I buy it I have some questions:

1) The stitched maps I made are very large in size and Megabytes, so I don't have to change the map so often. Is it possible to use the same technique with Fugawi?

2) Is the map auto-centered or can this easily be achieved?

3) If I buy Fugawi 3, is there a program (like OziCE) included that can be installed on the Ique?

[Deuterium]

Mapper

1. Yes. But you need some third party stitch program like you mentioned.
2. Yes. One click on the main page.
3. Yes.

I also have OZI that I use on my desktop and find it very easy to use. I definitely like OZI over the Fugawi product but with the iQue, for right now, Fugawi is the only game in town. If you are familiar with OZI you won't have any problems with the Fugawi. The biggest drawback is price. They did ship super quick. I ordered on Saturday and it was at my door on Tuesday.

[Toy Man]

This is the exact information I was looking for.

Thanks

Toy Man

[jonasolof]

One swedish gps retailer (soltek) reported that he could use a digitized raster map (from CD) in Fugawi and have City Select run in the background. It would come through with voice prompts and turn previews.

So for those who want to try everything, this could be a challenge: With Fugawi 3/Marine ENC you can overlay Tele Atlas vector road maps on top of imported raster maps or (satellite) photos. Best instructions on how to do this is on www.fugawi.de, fugawi's own info sucks as mentioned.

There is much more info on the TA* maps but Fugawi does not provide routing. Now, if City Select can run in the background as mentioned above, that would be cool. And we would have a combo of Navtech and Tele ATlas. That's fun too.

I have all the software but don't dare to steal the time to try it yet (I'm my own employer...)

Regards

Jonas

*Europe is covered by four CD's
Unfortunately, the info on fugawi.de is only in German. Go to fragen %antworten to online-hilfe (not online-support) and from there to Vektorkarten. You have two presentations: Import + Open and Overlayfunction.

There is a animated sequence on how to make the overlays work so even without knowing much german you can get an idea of how it works.

Jonas Lönnroth
Brussels