AGPS FAQ for the Application

1. Will driving assistant audio playback affect the performance?
2. What is "Warning Time" in the Driving Assistant Options?
3. How to use the Driving Assistant feature (especially in the middle of no where)?
4. How to let AGPS not redraw the map by refresh rate, but only redraw when cursor is out of screen?
5. What's difference between "True heading" and "Magnetic Heading"

1. When I check the "Track Position", it redraws too often ...
2. How to export the Track Trail plots to the database?
3. Why turn on the "Trace trail" seems to slow down the AGPS on my notebook running on the power saving mode (or a slower machine) and why it is very slow to delete the trace pushpins ?
4. It takes forever to calculate a route from the AGPS current position to a destination while moving, or the route disappeared when the current position is changed caused by moving of current location. (version 0.9.26 or earlier).
5. Can AGPS support the Microsoft Streets and Trips (S&T) and/or Microsoft Auto Route (AR)?  What's difference between the MapPoint and S&T / AR?
6. I try to install AGPSFull on a Windows 2000 machine but the setup ask me to upgrade the old system files and reboot but still end up the same place after reboot and setup. 

FAQ Version 2.x and common questions

1. Will driving assistant audio playback affect the performance?

   The audio playback for Guidance Actions will not affect the AGPS performance.  Only if you try to playback a long audio file on the Guidance Types.   The Guidance Type audio plays back before the Guidance Action for indicating the type of the guidance term.  If you try to playback a long audio file, it will lock the AGPS until audio is finished.  However, the Guidance Action plays back right after the Guidance Type but will not lock the AGPS.   Therefore, we suggest you to mute the Guidance Type audio since it is not important anyway.

2. What is "Warning Time" in the Driving Assistant Options?

   The warning time is the time before the arrival of the up-coming driving maneuver point to display the driving assistant warning window.   AGPS uses the current speed to calculate the time to the maneuver point.  Therefore, your GPS must support NMEA183 RMC sentence.  We suggest that you set the time to at least 15 seconds.  In version 2.x, there are hi and lo speed warning times for freeway (super highway) and local road configuration.  Just set the longer time for the high speed.  Also set up the high/low speed boundary for your convinience.

3. How to use the "Driving Assistant" feature 2.1.x (especially in the middle of no where)?
   1. Make sure to check the "Driving Assistant" in the AGPS Options tab.
   2. In the MapPoint "Route Planner", insert all the waypoints and click [Get Direction]

      or

      Just insert a destination (or more) in the route planer, then hit [R] key when AGPS window is focused (route from here feature).

   3. Guidance Mgr will pop up and copy all the waypoints to the GM window and start to guide you to the up coming waypoint or destination.  (Why GM always remove all the waypoints from the route planner and only calculate the route from your current position to the next destination?  Because Map Point's bug provides wrong information to the AGPS if route planner contains multiple waypoints.  The early version of AGPS can only do point to point routing correctly, now it works for multiple waypoints because of the GM)
   4. GM will automatically calculate the next waypoint when you arrive the current destination waypoint.  However, you can ask GM to get you to any waypoints by press PgUp or PgDn (or press the arrows in the GM window). When you finally get to the final destination, GM will stop and move all the waypoints back to the Route Planner.  You can also press [Stop GM] to stop the GM anytime.  If you modify the waypoint during GM is activated, the GM will stop and merge the new waypoints you add with the existing waypoints in the GM.   You have to calculate the route again to activate the GM.
   5. If you are miss a turn during the guidence session, if auto re-calc is checked,  AGPS will automatically re-calculate the new route from your current position to the destination.  Or if the feature is not checked, you can hit [R]oute from here at anytime to perform the re-calculation.  Also, if you feel the auto re-calculate performs too much, just double-click [R] key to turn on or off the Auto re-calc check box.  (Note that the single [R] key is the route-from-here feature)
4. How to let AGPS not redraw the map by refresh rate, but only redraw when cursor is out of screen?

   On the Options tab, decrease the "Track Position Every..." down, till it shows "auto.  Now the map will redraw only when the cursor is about to out of screen.  Note that this feature only work for MapPoint 2002.

5. What's difference between "True Heading" and "Magnetic Heading"?

   "True Heading" will give you a heading value starting from absolute north (True North pole).  However, "Magnetic Heading" give you the value starting from the Earth's Magnetic North Pole, which is different from the "True North Pole".  Magnetic heading gives the same as the value displayed by a compass.  It also called "Compass Heading".  Magnetic heading is used by the airplane and marine (ship) navigation.   Since earth's magnetic field will change from time to time, the routine in the AGPS will calculate accurate compass heading till year of 2005.  After 2005AC, you need to update AGPS for the new routine.  If not updated after 2005AC, it will still be accurate enough for general purpose.  It should not be used for some very accurate navigation application. (AGPS should not be used for such purpose anyway).

    

FAQ Version 1.0.x and 1.1.x and common questions

1. When I check the "Track Position", it always redraws the map every time.  Can it not redraw?

   It is impossible to detect the cursor out of screen during tracking in the MapPoint 2001's internal software.    If you have MapPoint 2002, please install the version 1.3 and up, which can turn the tracking factor to "Auto".  It can minimize the MapPoint redraw.   The followings are the tips for adjusting the tracking factors:

   1. Adjust the track position factor.  Shortcut keys are shift-less +/- keys either on the key pad or the standard keyboard.  You can adjust the factor on the fly to reduce the re-draw of the map.
   2. You can either uncheck the "Track Position" check box so the map stop tracks on the latest position ( it will still plot the current position on the map). 
   3. When you need to find out the latest position.  Hit the key "C" or click on the compass so the map will zoom to the latest position (version 0.9.x and up)
   4. Adjust the window size to improve the re-draw speed

    

2. How to export the Track Trail plots to the database?
   1. In the AGPS Options tab, click on the Trace.
   2. Check the "Include trace notes" and select all the desired data elements.
   3. Select the Format "Raw (csv)" and click OK
   4. Check the "Trace Trail" on the option tab to plot the trail of pushpins.
   5. When finish the trip, select the "My Pushpins" on the MapPoint left panel (the Legand and Overview panel)
   6. Click on the File->Export to Excel (should be activated, if grey out, make sure step 5 is done)
   7. In the Excel, select the second tab "My Pushpins" spread sheet.
   8. Select the desired data area in the "Note" column and copy to clipboard.
   9. Paste it to the notepad and save it as ".CSV" or ".TXT" file.
   10. You can re-import the .CSV file to Excel, Access or SQL server (data elements are seprated by commas)

3. Why turn on the "Plot Trail" seems to slow down the AGPS on my notebook running on the power saving mode (or a slower machine) and why it is very slow to deleting the trace pushpins ?

   Your CPU processing power may cut as high as 50% in the power saving mode.  The AGPS needs very little processing power but the MapPoint does not.  When the AGPS asks the MapPoint to lay (or remove) one pushpin  on the map, the MapPoint needs at least 200MI to finish the task.  Therefore, even though your Pentium 200 notebook running on the full power mode, it takes around 1 second to complete the lay/remove pushpin task (in MapPoint2001).   At the same time, AGPS needs to processing the GPS data and refresh the screen (needs less than 15 MIPS).  Therefore, if you ask AGPS to lay the pushpin every second, the AGPS barely make it within a second on a slow Pentium 200 machine.   If at the same time you ask MapPoint to scroll or zoom-in, the app seems not-responsive at all.    Please configure the Plot Trail parameter to use the distance to plot a trail, it will greatly reduce the computing power needed. 

4. It takes forever to calculate a route from the AGPS current position to a destination while we are moving on the road, or the route disappeared when the current position is changed caused by moving of current location. (version 0.9.26 or earlier)

   Download the latest version 0.9.30 or later.  Click on the compass and select the "Calculate the route from current position" or press the short-cut "R".  DO NOT add the "current GPS position" pushpin into the route waypoint list manually.  The MapPoint takes forever to calculate a route and won't fine a route if the waypoints are the moving targets during the route calculation.   The route will also disappear if the waypoints are moved (if the current GPS position is in the list).   Only use the feature that AGPS provides will solve the issue and is convenient to use too (by simply press "R" while on the road)

    

5. What's difference between the MapPoint(MP) and Streets and Trips (S&T) and/or Auto Route (AR)? Can AGPS support the S&T and AR?  

   The difference between the MP and (S&T /AR) is that MapPoint supports the data analysis, OLE automation for the custom add-ins, and a HUGE price difference ($250USD versus $50USD, why? probably because of the map  usage license from NavTech.).  You can check the comparison sheet between MP and S&T/AR at  http://www.microsoft.com/streets/business/   
   Therefore, at this moment, the AGPS can't be added into the S&T or AR.  (Neither is there a way to write a custom add-in for AR/S&T legally ..yet)  I have confirmed from Microsoft that there is no plan to add such feature and GPS enhancement to the S&T/AR  because of the contractual limitation.   However, you can download a 60 day trial version of MapPoint from Microsoft.