my 1st trail run with oziexplorer

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Today my 16yr old son had a 1/2 of school so we went to the white tanks west of phx and spent some time getting our first trail run of ozi down.

1st trail run of 2nd gen gps setup.
Equip:
Panasonic Toughbook CF-50 sitting on my lap in pass. seat.
Globalsat usb gps puck
Oziexlporer
USGS 7.5 topo and DOQ ariel photos
Google Earth saving waypoints as .kml file and importing into ozi.

So the goal is to use downtime at work/home to look for fun places to play or input gps coord's from books/websites onto google earth. With google earth I can mark waypoint very quickly, look around in 3D and fly like a birdie on my route.
Once I have it figured with GE then I save it as a .kml file and import that into ozi using the approp. map. Nice thing about ozi is the ability to turn those waypoints into routes and then switch between topo and sat image to see elev. and image.

The reality....
Wow this was a blast!
Of course there are some issues as nothing is perfect but compared to my 1st gen setup this rocks.
Nice Features:
Ozi will switch back & forth between topo and sat image with the route intact so that you can compare and read feature names.
You can add different waypt sets other than your route like a cool mine database Whitethaiger gave me or geocaches. You can also quickly and easily add waypts for the future. Good looking places for picnics, interesting ruins or structures and other cool features along the way.
Ozi will alarm as you reach each waypt so you can look for direction or info and if you are bouncing around too much the message box will go away by itself.
The globalsat gps puck is faster to get a fix than my globalsat bluetooth gps and holds a fix without issue.

Wish it was better...
I do wish ozi would switch from miles to feet as you get closer to a waypt so you can keep track better.
I wish the heading would stay in the last known direction when you are stationary, right now it jumps around to different directions until you are rolling.
I wish I had bought the smaller toughbook with maybe a 12 or 13in screen instead of the 15in I have. I could have used an external dvd drive since the only reason I went with the 15in was the DVD drive. I also wish I had a larger HD for all the maps...no real big deal and I can carry DVD's with me and load as needed but still wishing wishing :)


Still to do...
I still have to build a laptop mount for the BlueJ, something that won't crowd the passenger, allows the laptop to fold up out of the way for getting in & out and can handle the rough trails.

I still have my 1st gen setup as backup (treo 700wx with bluetooth gps running Iguidance for streets & beeline for geocaching) and as my mp3 player, cell phone through radio and handheld geocaching tool.

All thougths welcome and more to follow as I learn.
Please chime in with any tips or tricks you know with ozi.
enjoy
1leglance
 

pismo62

Adventurer
1leglance, Sounds like your having a great time testing out your new set-up. Thanks for the response on my other page, plus the tip. I'm also enjoying trying out my new set-up. I've also got a 15 inch screen, but I'm thinking of trying out a 7 or 8" touchscreen pluged into the laptop, to avoid the cluter and space requirments. Either, I would mount it with a RAM mount, or put it in the second Din space, below the radio. That's a little further down the road, so for now I'm just going to learn the Ozi program and have some fun. Enjoy
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Hey Scott,
Thanks for the tip on the ram, I have looked at them and they seem very think from the bottom of the laptop to the arms. My FJC has little leg room so I will either go with another mount I saw that has a 90 deg pipe arm or building my own since I want it to tilt up out of the pass.'s way.
psimo,
I will live with the 15in for movie watching on drives & camp but I wish I it was 12in for more comfort.
I am digging ozi and google earth...now to see if I can find maps for peru for july.
enjoy
1leglance
 

whitethaiger

Adventurer
1leglance said:
....
I am digging ozi and google earth...now to see if I can find maps for peru for july.

Looks like you got things worked out quite well already. You got a lot of stuff done on your first trip:victory:

For your Peru maps. Worst case try to get some paper maps and scan them to use in Ozi.
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
I would have given up without your maps!
plain and simple and tech heavy as this program is there is no way to really enjoy it is you give up just trying to get maps setup.
Now that I have yours as a baseline as to what they should look like I will feel better about trying to load my own.
any tips on scanning if I do get my own maps? Is it something I could do there or is it very involved and should be done way ahead of time.
What about saving images from google earth and using those?
Can you see the floodgates opening?
thanks again for the amazing dvd's and I will be after you for more soon.
enjoy
1leglance
 

whitethaiger

Adventurer
1leglance said:
I would have given up without your maps!
plain and simple and tech heavy as this program is there is no way to really enjoy it is you give up just trying to get maps setup.
...

That's why I started the DVD's. A number of people told me they gave up because of the lack of maps and the process involved in getting maps.
 

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