[electriccarbuyr]

Hi,

This is an open invite to help beta test the V5.0.0 update of the Open Charge Map app for Android. Many of the changes were inspired by discussions on this forum so it's only fitting that you guys should try it out before the general public! Changes include a new UI, native Google Maps and general improvements.

Jump to the following Google+ post, join the Open Charge Map community then follow the link to opt-in to testing this release:

https://plus.google.com/116106034026223919199/posts/4zEz8yBBrz7

Thanks for your help and feedback is greatly appreciated, if you do find issues please state your version of Android,

Chris
openchargemap.org

 

[Brooktop]

Don't know if I'm doing something wrong but I'm getting the 'nothing to see here' message

 

[Darren Griffin]

You need to join the community first.

 

[Brooktop]

Done. Can I just ask what settings I should be using for an Ampera? I'm selecting connection types 3pin, Mennekes and J1772 (not sure which of those I should pick so chose both) and the Ecotricity ones at Leicester Forest East don't show up when selecting Low and Medium Power. Yet if I change settings to include High power then they DO show up.

 

[Lee Howard]

I just became a tester here.

 

[Buzby]

Ecotricity are making their sites Rapid only, and are actively discouraging T2 connections until they physically can stop them.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Ecotricity are making their sites Rapid only, and are actively discouraging T2 connections until they physically can stop them.

Why do you say that? I have used Ecotricity Type 2 posts several times in the past week with my Ampera. They worked first time with out any issues.

What are they doing to "actively discourage" Type 2 charging? I have not seen anything to support that.

Certainly OCM will just represent what is actually on the ground.

 

[Buzby]

Why do I say that? Have you missed the debate that Ecotricity have ended support for T2 and the new sire locations are Rapid only triple headers. Like you, this move affects me greatly but following an email exchange it was clear they have a new policy in place and T2 will be phased out, with the bays (preferably) bring used by fast turn round rapid charging, rather then blocking the bay with an EV requiring a 2+ hours to charge.

As OCM accuracy. It shows what has been entered, it is not infallible, and in sites get updated with triple headers, T2 disappears - but if nobody tells it you may be in for a shock.

 

[MetalHead]

I've joined as a tester too.
Great to see this in active development.

 

[electriccarbuyr]

Done. Can I just ask what settings I should be using for an Ampera? I'm selecting connection types 3pin, Mennekes and J1772 (not sure which of those I should pick so chose both) and the Ecotricity ones at Leicester Forest East don't show up when selecting Low and Medium Power. Yet if I change settings to include High power then they DO show up.

Sounds like a data quality issue for that location, feel free to edit it. Regardless of the connection type if the Level is set to Unknown then searching for Level 2 don't match it.

I'd generally encourage you to search with the least amount of filtering, unless there are an unmanageable amount of results. That way if locations are marked as Unknown for fields such as Network Operator, Level etc you'll still find them (and can go on to correct them if you know the more accurate details).

I was thinking we could organise an OCM 'UK cleanup hour' sometime, whereby everyone spends an hour just improving/adding listings for locations they know?

Chris

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Why do I say that? Have you missed the debate that Ecotricity have ended support for T2 and the new sire locations are Rapid only triple headers. Like you, this move affects me greatly but following an email exchange it was clear they have a new policy in place and T2 will be phased out, with the bays (preferably) bring used by fast turn round rapid charging, rather then blocking the bay with an EV requiring a 2+ hours to charge.

As OCM accuracy. It shows what has been entered, it is not infallible, and in sites get updated with triple headers, T2 disappears - but if nobody tells it you may be in for a shock.

No I have not missed that. We all know that Ecotricity is not installing type 2 charging any more and they haven't for quite a time now. But there is no evidence that they are "actively discouraging" the use of their type 2 stations where they exist.

I know well enough what is on OCM as I am a Worldwide editor and have been editing OCM now for at least a couple of years. That is why we must all take it on ourselves to update OCM as new chargers get installed and old ones removed... don't leave it to someone else. This is "our" database... we need to maintain it.

 

[MetalHead]

The map defaults to satellite terrain mode rather than road maps.
Is there some way to change this?
It's a ton faster than the 4.x version so that's good.
Also can you change the "back" from the search list to return to the map.
It tries to exit the app at the moment - bit fiddly and not obvious that you have to hit the icon top right to get back to the map.
Add location still uses open street map and map display appears to be broken (update, oh no, just slow). Hmm it shows completely the wrong location when I use the "lookup" button. Should be my current GPS location shouldn't it?
Can you make it so we can tweak the location by dragging/clicking on the mini map?
If you can make the menu button pop the menu as well as top right, it'd be more consistent with other android apps.
Promising update - thanks

 

[flipper]

You need to join the community first.

I must be being an idiot too - what's the name of the community I need to join?

 

[MetalHead]

This link work for you?
https://plus.google.com/communities/112113799071360649945

 

[electriccarbuyr]

I must be being an idiot too - what's the name of the community I need to join?

Sorry, maybe I skipped on too quick, yes you need to join the Open Charge Map community linked above, then once Googles systems and the planets align the testing link will work and you will have the option to join the testing.

 

[flipper]

Sorry, maybe I skipped on too quick, yes you need to join the Open Charge Map community linked above, then once Googles systems and the planets align the testing link will work and you will have the option to join the testing.

OK, got it now! I've pretty much avoided Google+ as I really don't need another distraction but it was inevitable I'd have to join eventually.
I've downloaded the app now.

 

[dpeilow]

First impression is it's a huge improvement.

However I seem to be stuck with satellite imagery and can't change to a normal map.

 

[electriccarbuyr]

First impression is it's a huge improvement.

However I seem to be stuck with satellite imagery and can't change to a normal map.

Yes, it's using the Hybrid map which has satellite and street names, full version will have a dropdown of map types in Filters/settings screen.

Just noticed that the progress indicator scrolls off the screen when adding comments/photos, causing me to submit a photo twice. Will eventually need a way to adjust submitted photo rotation as well.

@MetalHead thanks for the comments, keep them coming. Editor map may or may not switch back to Google, not sure yet. geocoding is via Open Street Map Nominatim because Google's terms prevent using their addresses/reverse geocoding and storing it in our database. OSM has mixed results, bear in mind the address is secondary to the map position but I totally agree it's not that accurate. The lookup button is currently only to lookup the lat/long of the address not your GPS position. It should definitely have that feature - the main OCM website add/edit does have it (openchargemap.org/site/poi/add). In the future add/edit may just open the website version as the editor in the app is quite high maintenance.

Thanks for having a look folks please continue to try it out and report back, I'm off on holiday for a week tomorrow, will address things which are fixable then and move onto a full release. After that it's iOS.

 

[Buzby]

Could I also suggest the app looks for any GPS data contained within uploaded photos? This can often help to fine tune pins where sloppy and uncorrected placement is not noticed!

 

[electriccarbuyr]

Could I also suggest the app looks for any GPS data contained within uploaded photos? This can often help to fine tune pins where sloppy and uncorrected placement is not noticed!

Yep, I have a list I keep for myself of many concepts (randomly) and this is one of them. The data could then be used to plot around the point to perhaps suggest potential locations to check if the main marker is wrong. Can't completely trust the actual position in the jpeg though as it may have been a coarse rather than fine position, on the other hand this example I did yesterday is spot on (note the handy website to read exif data, I see we might be able to do something with the embedded orientation hint as well..):

http://regex.info/exif.cgi?imgurl=h.../OCM16300/OCM-16300.orig.2014071011282431.jpg

The issue here is that I plan to at some point resize the image on the client, so we'd potentially lose that info before the upload unless we can figure that out, parsing EXIF on the client side (javascript) should be possible. Complaints of the upload not handling >30MB images (which eventually will be more common) have already started.

The other thing I want to do is a "Quick Correct Position" button which grabs and previews the users location allowing them to adjust the marker, then they can submit it as an edit. So if you're at a site you should be able to Search (Nearby), tap the matching result and hit the Quick Correct button.

The other idea here was to optionally capture position when submitting comments/check-ins, so that there's eventually a bunch of points to correlate from, not sure if that has value or not.