THE HAPPY PROSPECTOR

First topic message reminder :

Hi Guys,

Has anybody tried The Happy Prospector App for Android. I've just got a Samsung tablet with GPS but it won't take Geomap so I need to try another option.

Phil

Moneybox wrote:Thanks BLueApps for clarifying that. We'll be heading off soon so hopefully we'll have your app up and running. We have a small Samsung Tablet "A" with GPS, as long as that is suitable.

Phil

Hi Phil,

I haven't seen it running on a Tab A  but my stats show that two of my users are running TAB-As.

I know a guy that has one so I'll see if I can get it installed on that for a test however it wont be for a couple of weeks tho as I'm tflat out in my day job at the moment, so very little spare time and I'm still trying to get the IOS version of the App released.

Kurk
BlueApps

BlueApps/ Kirk,

We would be interested in the IOS version as we run IPad ...
Will be / have been following this thread.....

Cheers Nanjim
Jim

just got this app for a tablet, looks good nice and simple to use, even I can use it

This is a great app as it saves taking the laptop out bush.I have used it several times now with no problems.

On-Line Vs Off-Line Maps:

Just a heads up, we had a couple of reports from users who experience problems with their devices not displaying the map when they were out of mobile range, but it works fine when in town.

In one case we found that putting the device into flight mode forced it into offline mode and it works ok. A bit of fiddling around and we suspect that the although they were out of mobile range they may have been on the fringe and as the app simply checks for mobile coverage or not to determine which map to use, so it was staying in on-line mode.

They know they were on the edge/fringe of the mobile reception so we think that the app was still seeing a mobile signal, but it was not good enough to download a map so no map was being displayed and the App couldn't go to offline mode as it was thinking it had coverage.

We will address this issue in the next release (hopefully) with an option to choose online or offline maps.

Regards

Kurk

Moneybox wrote:Thanks BLueApps for clarifying that. We'll be heading off soon so hopefully we'll have your app up and running. We have a small Samsung Tablet "A" with GPS, as long as that is suitable.

Phil

Hi Phil,

I've installed it tonight on a Galaxy TAB A and it runs ok with Android 6.01 installed.
There is a slight distortion of the scale with the text being too large but the tenements display ok and the zoom and GPS work.

I've also had it running on a Galaxy S4 phone with Android 4.3 and that also works but you don't get the menu buttons displayed and have to use the left hand side menu button for the phone to invoke the menu. The download was reasonably quick but the little S4 took about 5 minutes to process the data file, so you just have to wait and be patient.

Good Luck when your out there, and hopefully you find it useful.



Kurk

Thanks Kurk just installed it myself and works fine, Galaxy 10.1 Great work.
would be nice down the track if you could drop a pin to mark and show waypoints (food for thought)
Cheers
Rob

HI, can anyone tell me... does Geomap Updater work on a windows laptop?
Also a way of contacting the BlueApp developer? Cant find a contact link or phone number for him on his website. Tried to download the trial program but that did not happen.
Thanks, Brian

Hi Brian.

The GeoMap updater program is windows based to update the tenements data files from the DMP BUT the files must be in the correct directory structure, namely C:\GeomapData\Tenments as this is part of the structure we use and teach.

You can contact me via PM.

Regards Kurk

mada wrote:Thanks Kurk just installed it myself and works fine, Galaxy 10.1 Great work.
would be nice down the track if you could drop a pin to mark and show waypoints (food for thought)
Cheers
Rob

Hi Rob,

Would appreciate a couple of screen shots if you could as I haven't got any of a 10 tablet yet.

Yes the mark and show waypoints is already on the wish list but have a few other projects to get completed first.

Feel free to leave some feedback on the Google site as well if your so inclined.

Good Luck and I hope you find it useful.

Regards
Kurk

Hi Kurk sure no problem I will do that when I get back to Perth, away on buisness at the minute. And yes happy to leave feedback

Hey Kurk here are some random screenshots with a 6 year old Galaxy 10.1


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

mada wrote:Hey Kurk here are some random screenshots with a 6 year old Galaxy 10.1

Hi Mada,

Thanks for that. Yes some of the older devices don't draw the scale correctly but otherwise it should work.  Thanks for the feedback.

Below is a screenshot from a Galaxy S5 phone taken while finding the edge of a lease, showing the users position in the centre of the screen and the lease boundaries either side.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hope you get some good use out of it.

Regards
Kurk

No worries Kurk I plan to put it use this coming weekend. Yes I noticed when I turn on the GPS function it located me super fast.

Thanks again.

Hi Mada,

Yes you need to make sure you have the GPS settings set to use GPS and not just Wifi / Network or else when your out there it won't find your position as it won't be able to find a Wifi / Network to help.

Regards

Kurk

Hi Kurk

Re your comment above about ensuring GPS settings are to use GPS and not Wifi Network is this just a matter of ticking the GPS box in the Displayed Map (adjacent to the tenements/GPS/Contact/Help/About boxes) or is there another setting to check elsewhere.

Regards

Woteva

Hi Whatever
If you are using a tablet go into settings and turn off wifi when you are in the bush

red

Now why didn't I think of that, I see where you are coming from , Thanks Red.

well what a handy little app this is, driving down a track the ground looked ok, checked the app VCL, went to have a bip around 3 steps from the ute bang a .7 gr bit (thats the app paid for)
so easy to use, accurate and did i mention easy

I agree with you Selfy so easy to use, never new about this app until I read about it on this forum, using it on a Samsung S7, very quick in locating it self air plane mod on or off. Have since show a few other blokes and they where impressed. win win

Hi Selfy & Chiv,

Thanks for the feedback it is much appreciated.

We have now started a facebook page for people also to leave feedback or post photo's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and any feedback you want to leave on the GooglePlay store is also most welcome.

I haven't have much time to do more with it for the last few weeks but hopefully will get back into in in June and finally get the IOS version released as well as some more improvements for the Android version.

The only problem I'm aware of at the moment from users is a blank/black screen when they try to go to "Display Map" which is caused by the device thinking it has an internet connection, when it doesn't.  I'll address this in the next release by making the offline map the default map that way it will load the offline map automatically.  

In the meantime if you know anyone who has a problem with the map loading tell them to put it in flight mode, and that should solve the problem.  Also more than happy for people to contact me thru this forum or directly from our website [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Regards
BlueApps

Ok, I did read about the switch to flight mode and forgot about it. Once you are out of internet range the memory has to kick in and mine failed so I ran into some problems.

It would load the base map ok and then load the tenements but when I hit GPS it would just sit on a coloured screen and search, not always, sometimes it worked ok.

Overall I found the app pretty useless in it's current form. We applied for three 40e permits before we went away. Now on a 40e I don't care where the tenement boundary is I need to know where the graticule boundary is and the app doesn't display that. It would also be nice to see it leave a tracking line but I guess this and the display of mines may be there in the future. For now it's not suitable for use in any of the tenements where we are restrained by the graticule boundaries and that would be the case for just about anybody operating on a 40e permit.

Hi Phil,

Thanks or that. It wasn't aimed at 40E's more at know what ground was available so live / pending so that people could know they were detecting legally..  That said, I may be able to add in the Graticules in a future version as an option, the issue will be the processing power of devices as there's a lot of  data to process  but I'll have a look at it. As the graticules for using with 40E's that is a good idea.

I've had the tracking function working in beta versions so hopefully I'll be able to release that in the next couple of months. The issue with the tracking line is constant use of the App in tracking mode with the GPS really chews up battery power so a battery on a Galaxy S5 for example  goes from full to flat in about 2 1/2 - 3 hrs.  

For 40E work using GeoMap is a good solution.

Thanks Again
BlueApps

Keep it simple Kurk, the more info crammed into a screen the harder it will be to read and as you say loading, battery time etc etc. KISS principle works everytime. Personally the only thing this app needs is to show you your Lat and Lon. As this will also help with marking out ground etc.

I have The Happy Prospector on my Samsung TabA and my S5 phone.
Seems to work well... its basic and you can see where you are in relation to Tenements.
Its a hell of a lot faster than buggering around with Tengraph for hours.