Ultra rugged Kyocera phones,GPS smartphones ..my guide

Ok all... i'm leaving in 2 days to ride the Continental Divide... i picked up a DF Pro off ebay... i've been reading as much as i can in this thread and over on the Locus thread. downloaded maps and locus and playing around with it at the house.

My latest issue is "no internet connection found" when i try to navigate using Locus. The maps come up and i can select my destination but it will not navigate.

Yes I'm positive the answer has already been posted in the 159 pages above but I just dont have the time to re-read them due to time constraints. Can someone point to a page in this thread or PDF manual or some other source that will help me set up the DF Pro to use offline as a navigation device?

You need an offline router. Brouter or graphopper

I used the DF Pro for a ride from West Yellowstone to La Quinta, CA. Riding through the desert, my ST1300 thermometer showed 111*. The DF Pro was shielded from the wind in full sun behind the windscreed and blacked out. Wouldn't come back until in an air conditioned house. I had the charging cord attached - when it's fully charged, does leaving it plugged in add heat? My GPS units (the "G" word) continued in the past to work under similar conditions.

Brouter installed now and downloaded the sections. Seems to be working in my office test with wifi turned off... thank you for the input! now to test outside

My XD has occasionally dimmed under such circumstances but it always came back fairly soon. I haven't ever tried hard to ensure it was getting cooled or staying out of the sun.

are you planning to follow tracks ?i really hope you are.

Yes we have tracks to follow... i'm just working on learning the hardware first. This is my first time using a phone as the gps without cell service. So thats what i've been doing this past week.

I'm much more adept at using the Garmin Montana and older devices for my off-road adventures... just follow the lines

I'll just be the backup in case the ride leader's gps goes down. or in case i get lost... lol whichever comes first. So that's why i've been trying to get the DF Pro to work.

cool. it sounded like you were going to try and plot routes the whole way. that would suck. it's so much better to follow known good tracks.

The route-plotting has been much improved recently - Still not great - but MUCH better.

Or an alternative

Honestly..... my experience with this scenario goes like this:

1. Group ride leader emails me (usually a .gpx route) that I import or re-create in Mappite.org and save back out as a track file.
2. Save track file in Guru.
3. While out and about, group ride leader has to pull over and occasionally fvck with his Garmin because it has re-routed the group (usually in town traffic), all the while - I will volunteer the correct route as shown by the track on my smartphone app. Group ride leader gives me funny look in disbelief. After going in a circle, group ride leader accepts the fact that I was right. :)
4. At the dinner table later that evening, I get to listen to group ride leader complain about the Garmin's recalcution snafus, yet continuously refusing to consider giving the smartphone a try even after witnessing it really works.

I kid you not - this happens over and over. On one ride a few years ago, we literally circled the same block three times before the leader caved in and let me take over. :)

is mappite.org easy to use? do you use Guru as your offline nav app?

Super easy - not just for Guru maps, though I use Guru maps and it is also very easy to use. Here is a thread about using it (old name was Galileo Pro)

https://advrider.com/f/threads/galileo-pro-quick-start-guide.1166708/

Mappitte.org has been the absolute easiest to use route creation program I have used. Note that it is for "on road" only, as far as I can tell. I primarily use Guru for "on road". This combo is dead-nuts reliable. For just get me from A to B routing, I really like the TomTom GO app, and the CoPilot app isn't bad either. If you have a Data plan, just stick with Google Maps for that.

youch that sucks !

first time I've heard of one over heating.

i bet if it were in the wind i would have been OK.

i looked for operating temp specs on the pro but only found the pro2... it says 140f, but I'm skeptical of that.

I have a DF Pro and the primary reason I can’t give up my Montana is screen dimming on the DF pro. My experience has been that the primary causes of overheating are sun load on a black screen and searching for cell service. Even if I turn off cell service the screen will sometimes dim slightly to the point it’s difficult to see. I have found no way to prevent that from happening. Leaving the screen on with a lighter color back ground mostly stops a complete over heat shutdown but not the slight dimming which still makes the phone almost useless. I have 2 DF pros both do the same thing. The Montana has occasionally shut down in high heat, I think it’s only happened once and it was so hot I was about ready to shut down. I really, really like Locus. I wish I could find a phone for a daily driver and GPS that maintained a bright screen. I’ll probably never completely give up Garmin products because I like Basecamp and Garmin topo maps have a slightly better detail than the Locus maps but the John Thorn topos also have great detail ,just different from the Garmin topos. So looking at both can provide some additional information about old county roads, forest service roads, etc.

Mine has shut off twice from the heat.



But the heat here is pretty intense. 113 degrees today. It doesn't take all that long while stopped to make things go above 140F.

Leaving the cord in will assuredly not help with keeping the phone cooler. As will staying put. You should always consider a location where you'll get dome air flowing to the phone if you're going to be out in hot weather.

Just a brain fart here, but for you folks that are having issues with extraordinary heat, could you not either drop the phone in a creek or squirt some water from a bottle on it to cool it off? I'm assuming you either carry a water bottle or a camelback bladder when you ride in that kind of heat?

I thought about giving it a squirt but I was so miserable and already knew where I was going so just left it alone

What creek? Lol. I'm not wasting my water on cooling down the phone when I'm in the desert.

But it's a good point. If you can do those things then by all means. I think there are lots of things that can be done to avoid overheating. Keep the phone out of direct sunlight. Place it in a spot where it will get airflow while moving. Charge it only on an as-needed basis. keep it in airplane mode. Don't run any unnecessary background apps.

My 2 experiences with it shutting off was that I left it on the bike in direct sunlight as I was taking a break. While riding, even in this sort of heat, it has never happened but I take those extra steps to make sure that it's running as cool as it can be.