Category Archives: Features

New features in major upgrade

Tourdivide and CTR were really motivating opportunities to update BlueDot.  The updates are many…but the biggest is the inclusion of all currently active events from http://trackleaders.com.

Read on for details or get it from http://app.bluedot.mobi/

The new features include

  • Full integration with active events at http://trackleaders.com
  • Race clock (or countdown clock prior to event)
  • Filter riders by status (active, scratched, finished)
  • Filter riders by position on course
  • Filter riders by category
  • Improvements to “leaderboard” stats on rider list.

Key concept:  BlueDot will store data for one event (aka the “primary” event), but can access all events when online.  If you are racing and will want to view BlueDot stored data while offline in your bivy, be sure to have your event set as the primary event.  This is done either on the splash page or via the “setup” link on the main page.

Splash page if there is no current primary event:

Splash page if you have a primary event set:

New main page with “Setup” button.

The setup page. Tapping “change” takes you to one of the splash pages where you can reset your primary event.

The map can get quite crowded in large events, and BlueDot slows to a crawl trying to render 80+ rider points on a phone.  It works best keeping the displayed riders to 20 or less.  To this end rider filtering is much improved.

  • Filter by status (active, scratched, finished)
  • Filter by categories, if any.  These are event specific and defined by Trackleaders.
  • Filter by position on route.

Or, filter by any combination of the above.  Filters apply to riders listed in the rider list and riders rendered on the map.  Keep in mind that if a rider you are interested in seems to have disappeared they are probably filtered out!

The status and category filters are self-explanetory, but the “position” filter needs an intro.  Essentially the riders are sorted according to position on route, and choosing a range such as 10-20 will show riders in 10th-20th positions on route according to SPOT data.  IOW, if a rider has gone stealth (or batteries died) they may fallen out of that range and disappear.

There is one final filter – good old fashioned text.  In the riderlist, simply type a rider’s name in the search box and others will be filtered out of the list.  Note this doesn’t change the map filter, and it only will apply to riders visible according to the status/category/position filters.  The filter will apply to any text in the rider entry so you could get creative with it.

Note the icon in the right of the rider entry.  Tap it to go directly to a rider’s location on the map.

The current build also includes some offline map tile basemaps for TNGA.  They will become available once the event is activated on Trackleaders.

As always, I welcome any feedback!

Happy BlueDotting,

Dave

CTR build online

Bluedot is up for CTR.  New in this build is the ability to sort by categories. On the rider page touch the filter button and select what categories you want to see.

Filtering riders affects both the rider list and the map.  This should help keep the map uncluttered.

Also new is rider stats shown in the rider list.  Everyone is ranked according to their current position, and those positions are not changed by filtering.  For example, when the above snapshot was taken Eszter was 5th overall (!). 2 ladies in the top 10!  You can also see accumulated vert and what route mile the riders are at.

There are a few issues I haven’t yet addressed with this build.  One issue I’ve seen is the filtering isn’t working on Android.  Also, it is not setup for offline use yet.  I hope to get to those things tomorrow, but wanted to get this up since I promised a couple riders I’d have it up before they got to BV and they are hauling the mail!

Feel free to post a comment about any issues you encounter and I’ll address them as I can.

Head here for the CTR BlueDot

Happy BlueDotting!

Optimization

One of the things keeping me up at night lately is wondering how well the BlueDot map will render when there are 80ish riders + 30ish waypoints. I won’t really know until Tour Divide starts, and by then its a bit late to push out any updates to the app. It needs to be locked down before the start since downloading the ~5 MB of files and map tiles is not reasonable in most locations of the Great Divide ;)

So what to do? I put the control in the users hands. You can control exactly what is displayed, and tailor it so it is relevant to YOU. 100 map points on a handheld device don’t really make sense, so here’s how it is setup:

From the “Riders” page, you can control what riders are displayed on the map with button on the far right of each rider. Touch the “check mark” to toggle a rider’s display state.

From bluedot

You can also show/hide all with a single click:

From bluedot

Other optimizations in the latest build include changing some default settings:

  • Snowpack overlays disabled by default.  Enable them on the Options page, and toggle them via the layers button on the map.
  • Mobile devices only – waypoint layers for Trackleaders events are loaded but not rendered.  Toggle them on via the layers button on the map.

For racing I suggest disabling the “Use Network Resources” in Options.  This should get the best performance.  You can even use it in airplane mode, although to get SPOT updates you’ll need the data turned on.

Minimize the number of waypoints and rider points on the map to what is relevant to you.  These are the items that slow the map down the most.

OK, that should do it!  I can’t rule out a bugfix release before TD go-time, but the features are locked down until you guys are done.

Good luck!

BlueDot change log

version 0.78
5/30/11 – initial bluedot release for tour divide.
5/30/11 – release of No Idle Tour build http://bluedot.mobi/nit
5/31/11 – bug fix to “add route to map” feature.
version 0.79
added changelog link
improved update notifications
added toggle for snow layers
added toggle for google maps
improved facebook login/logout process
added control over display of individual riders
changed default settings for mobile devices
- snow layers disabled (they are turned on via the options page)
- route waypoint layer disabled (it is turned on via the layers button/page)
added “show all/hide all” buttons for rider display on the map

Tour Divide app now live

BlueDot is ready for Tour Divide!  Read on for a glimpse of what it is, or install it now from this link:

BlueDot app for Tour Divide

Note: last year’s event roster is currently displayed. This year’s roster will load automatically once it is ready.

BlueDot is a smart phone app made for the ultra racer or back country enthusiast.  It works with Trackleaders to bring location information of SPOT based racers to handheld devices.  It’s got several ways to stay in touch with current route conditions.  It even works in a completely disconnected state, saving previously retrieved SPOT information.

BlueDot is a web app and is installed from the link above.

With BlueDot for Tour Divide you can

  • Keep track of the current state of the race from your smartphone
  • View share messages via SPOT Connect
  • Current radar overlay on route map
  • See the most recent snow depth model on route
  • Add custom routes, cuesheets, and even riders
  • Interact with Facebook
  • Use Google maps when connected
  • Use stored map tiles when offline (or to just save battery power)

Some screenshots:

Map with route, Google road map, Matt Lee’s SPOT point, and popup with link to his rider page.

BlueDot Map

Matthew’s rider page.

Matthew Lee's rider page in BlueDot

Something on everyone’s mind, snow overlay maps!

Snow overlay on TD route

The scale is in the help system…

Map snow scale

MyTopo base maps.

My Topo base maps

Take control over BlueDot’s network access.

Settings page

Have fun with it, and fire away with any questions/comments.