RaceTracker QuickStart Guide

Here is a (not so) brief brief set of instructions & snapshots detailing how to build your individual track with MotionX, send it to us for assembly into the race, and finally how to view the race within Google Earth.  Here is a link to the raceTrack for the 2014 EYC Double Angle (4 boats).

Build your boats track with MotionX
MotionX  is a great navigation app for iPhones and it's built locally!  Great general all purpose navigation app.  We've used it for years to track our hiking, sailing, flying and other adventures.  MotionX will generate a very detailed and accurate GPS track of the trip, which can then be emailed to us to assemble into a file that has all of the boats joined together.  The resulting file (.KMZ) will then be made available to people for viewing on Google Earth (or Google Maps) as described below.  Here's how we do it;

Typical Track

Menu Screen

Start Stop Save 

1. Open up MotionX, and navigate to the map or menu via the orange buttons at the bottom of the screen
2. The arrow will center the map view on your location.  Basic navigation is via button or finger pinch/swipes.
3. Goto the Menu screen and Press Record Track button in upper right side
4. The Record Track screen gives you the ability to Start, Pause, Resume, Reset and Save the track as you like.  Because the GPS chip is a power hog you show probably start the track just before the race start.
5. The Track Recorder also scrolls down to display speed, distance and other nice parameters
6. When the Race is finished Press the Pause button and the Press Save to share the track
7. The next screen asks if you would like to share the track.  Press Share this Track
8. Fill out the Boat name and comment fields and send to my email - CPLamb@Pacbell.net
9. We will then assemble all the boats together and resend you all a joined file (.KMZ) for the whole race.  This file can be viewed in Google Earth as described below.

Share to Others

Send to CPLamb

Viewing the race within Google Earth
The attached file is a zip file (.KMZ) with all the files required to view the race.  It is a collection of all of the individual boat tracks and some other stuff.  The file can be opened up directly by Google Earth.  Here's a quickstart;

1. Open the attached DoubleAngle0901.KMZ file in Google Earth 
   
2. Go to the bottom of the directory window on the upper left side of the program
3. And select the filename (SCYC11152013RaceTracker) and open the folder to see all the related files
4. Click on the small folder button on the lower right of the Places screen to open the playback tool
5. The playback tool is in the lower left corner of the view screen.  It has forward and fast forward  controls that you can use to view the track.
6.  

Loading the Race Track into MotionX
<DANGER - This track is for fun ONLY do not depend on it for actual navigation>
The DAR marks & race legs have been assembled into a file that can be preloaded into your MotionX app.  The file name is DoubleAngle2014Course.GPX. Here's how to load it into MotionX;

1. email the file to yourself.
2. Open the file on your iPhone by pressing the file icon
3. Select the Open in MotionX-GPS
4. Select the green Import button at the top of the screen
5. Goto the Map & the buoy marks and race legs should be displayed

If there any questions feel free to contact me;

Chris Lamb

831-234-9927

CPLamb@Pacbell.net

iOS Constraints and view layouts

iOS 5 has a nicely implemented auto layout feature called constraints. This posting provides a quickstart tutorial plus tips & hints. As usual Ray Wenderlich has a great intro tutorial that I used.

It seems the big secret is this button at the bottom of the storyboard. This button will allow Xcode to resolve most of your layout issues.  If you still have problems check out the video tutorial - Beginning Auto Layout by Ray Wenderlich

  The Auto Resolve Layout button displays the following selections;

  Use - Reset to Suggested Constraints in ......... , to allow Xcode to resolve the constraints.

Small blue lines indicate that this view is properly laid out.

Orange lines & text indicate conflicting contraints that need fixing

This screenshot shows both the good (blue) & bad (orange) layouts described above.

I fixed the Map cell layout by;

1. selecting Clear all restraints in tableview cell
2. manually dragging the label & image around for a basic layout
3. selecting Reset to suggested restraints in .........

And you get this;

Easy - Peasey !