Motion X for ipad mini. Explain it to me like I'm a 5 year old.

Sempertoy

Explorer
Ok, so I have had motion x on my ipad for over a year. I have played with it a little from the comfort of my arm chair, but I have never used it in my rig. I have a couple questions for all you savvy people out there.

1. I need a definitive answer. Do I need LTE service if I bought the wifi/LTE capable ipad mini? I have heard this version has a gps chip and does not need service. Can someone please confirm or deny this.

2. Every time I put in an address and tell it to route me, it gives me a straight line from current pos to desired destination. I understand that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but I am not flying my land cruiser, I am driving it. So how to I get it to give me a rout that I can drive (on roads)

3. Can I have turn by turn like on google maps or apple maps?

4. Is there a way I can have it track my location and send it to people? I know I can send them my position, but if they wanted to see the whole trip, is there a way to do that?

5. I am sure I will have more questions so I will come back and edit this later.

On a side note, if you didn't get the reference from the title, it's from the office. I have used it before, and it works great, especially when people don't get it and actually explain it to me like I'm 5.

Also, if you are rob red and tell me to read your FAQ, I will respond with, I have read it before, but seriously, explain it to me barney style. I am not techo-tarded, I just am missing something with this whole concept.

Jon
 

jeremyk

Adventurer
Subscribed. Have read over Rob's FAQ a few times and don't have the hardware/software yet, but am going to pull the trigger this week.
 

robgendreau

Explorer
1. Not exactly sure what you've got, but if you've got an iPad mini that does cellular it has a GPS chip in it. The GPS works even if you have NO cell or wifi reception.

2. I get the impression you're not familiar with navigation. Motion X is a traditional GPS device in that it is designed to guide you to a waypoint (which might be an address, or in the middle of the ocean, or any other place on earth). It can also record your path as a series of waypoints (like breadcrumbs in the popular analogy). But it only knows how to send you to a mathematical point on a grid on the earth. It is like traditional latitude/longitude navigation on a featureless ocean expanse. It just sees coordinates; it doesn't see what YOU see on the map unless YOU have marked that feature as a waypoint, which to Motion X means it's a lat/long (or UTM) coordinate.

This is different from Motion X Drive. THAT app know where the roads are; it's as if it has breadcrumbs for every inch of road already entered into it as coordinates. So it always plots a course over it's known roads to get you there. Ditto with Google and Apple maps. Or Tom Tom. But not so good when you're not on roads and are hiking, climbing, sailing, etc. Those are the activities Motion X GPS is designed for.

3. No. Buy Motion X Drive. But first make sure it has the roads you intend to drive. Some obscure 4x4 path isn't gonna be known to it.

4. Yes. It can record a track, and has a share button to send that to people via email. Or posting it to some social media sites. The easiest is their Facebook app; see http://support.motionx.com/motionx-gps/do-you-have-a-website-for-all-my-tracks-and-my-waypoints/. But remember unless you give the info by recording a track and sending the data it won't automatically track you like a SPOT or the NSA.

You should also know that Motion X can follow a track you create, which essentially means going from one waypoint to the next in a chain. A track is just a sequential set of waypoints. You might need many, if there are lots of twists and turns, or maybe just two, if you're driving straight for 8 miles to one point on the other side of a dry lake. But Motion X sucks at creating, as opposed to recording, tracks. GaiaGPS does a much better job of that. You just tap and hold to create the first waypoint on the map, and then the second, and so on. Then save it as a track and tell GaiaGPS to guide you from one to the other, which it does in sort of like turn by turn directions (instead of "turn left at Main St" you'd get "go 365' at 235 degrees." The cool thing is that it would update as you wander around, since unlike Drive it doesn't assume you're driving straight down a road to a known intersection).

HTH,
Rob
 

Sempertoy

Explorer
1. Not exactly sure what you've got, but if you've got an iPad mini that does cellular it has a GPS chip in it. The GPS works even if you have NO cell or wifi reception.

2. I get the impression you're not familiar with navigation. Motion X is a traditional GPS device in that it is designed to guide you to a waypoint (which might be an address, or in the middle of the ocean, or any other place on earth). It can also record your path as a series of waypoints (like breadcrumbs in the popular analogy). But it only knows how to send you to a mathematical point on a grid on the earth. It is like traditional latitude/longitude navigation on a featureless ocean expanse. It just sees coordinates; it doesn't see what YOU see on the map unless YOU have marked that feature as a waypoint, which to Motion X means it's a lat/long (or UTM) coordinate.

This is different from Motion X Drive. THAT app know where the roads are; it's as if it has breadcrumbs for every inch of road already entered into it as coordinates. So it always plots a course over it's known roads to get you there. Ditto with Google and Apple maps. Or Tom Tom. But not so good when you're not on roads and are hiking, climbing, sailing, etc. Those are the activities Motion X GPS is designed for.

3. No. Buy Motion X Drive. But first make sure it has the roads you intend to drive. Some obscure 4x4 path isn't gonna be known to it.

4. Yes. It can record a track, and has a share button to send that to people via email. Or posting it to some social media sites. The easiest is their Facebook app; see http://support.motionx.com/motionx-gps/do-you-have-a-website-for-all-my-tracks-and-my-waypoints/. But remember unless you give the info by recording a track and sending the data it won't automatically track you like a SPOT or the NSA.

You should also know that Motion X can follow a track you create, which essentially means going from one waypoint to the next in a chain. A track is just a sequential set of waypoints. You might need many, if there are lots of twists and turns, or maybe just two, if you're driving straight for 8 miles to one point on the other side of a dry lake. But Motion X sucks at creating, as opposed to recording, tracks. GaiaGPS does a much better job of that. You just tap and hold to create the first waypoint on the map, and then the second, and so on. Then save it as a track and tell GaiaGPS to guide you from one to the other, which it does in sort of like turn by turn directions (instead of "turn left at Main St" you'd get "go 365' at 235 degrees." The cool thing is that it would update as you wander around, since unlike Drive it doesn't assume you're driving straight down a road to a known intersection).

HTH,
Rob

Thanks for the info. It's not that I am unfamiliar with navigation, I was just wondering if I was able to map a route with the app. Now that I understand how this app works along with the companion app motion x drive I have a better idea of how I want to do this.
 

Jr_Explorer

Explorer
I had to laugh. To explain it to someone like they are 5 takes 2 seconds. Give it to a 5 year old and they have it up and running in a jiffy! Damn kids these days are practically chipped straight from the womb! LOL!
 

robgendreau

Explorer
So true. And 5 year olds definitely don't navigate on a turn-by-turn basis, sticking to know vectors; they're strictly straight-line to next point of interest....
 

TheDave

New member
Robgendreau got it right. I have 2 things to add.

1. I used it to record a track this weekend and it worked great. It will be really useful to find your way back, and to get to a spot in the future. Also you can share tracks once they are recorded.

2. There is a feature to download offline maps so you will be able to view a map when you have no service.
 

RobRed

Explorer
Sempertoy - Have you read my FAQ?

Just kidding. :)

I think most of the info you wanted to confirm has been given. If you see a place where I can improve that FAQ to simplify it I'm all ears.

I consider motion X GPS HD to bethe most useable of the available apps but consider trying several to find the one you like best... I have about 25 nav apps and find Mx is still the go to but occasionally I'll use a feature from another app. Sometimes running 2-3 GPS apps at a time.
 

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