When you are moving in free terrain with no roads or paths, heading to a distant target - a hunters cabin, a watch post, or, most likely, to a geocache - navigation is of no help. "Navigate to" feature renders a route along roads and paths and "Navigation" needs a route to navigate along. Without roads, paths, and routes, the only way how to get to a particular spot is to use guidance.

Start at the target

To launch the guidance line, showing distance and azimuth of the target, just tap the target and select Guide ON from the action menu:

All you need to know about the target is displayed in the guidance panel. In case of a geocache, you see its name, direction, distance, difficulty, terrain rating, number of waypoints, number of inserted travel bugs and size of the cache box:

If you prefer compass view, switch to it from the guidance panel menu:

Don't watch the screen all the time - put on alert

In a difficult terrain where you have to be careful about where to put your feet and not to break your ankle, some acoustic alert may help. In the guidance settings, you can choose a single alert or alert with increasing frequency as you are getting closer to the target. Of course, you can select plain beeping, your own sounds, vibration or spoken alerts, informing about the target distance and direction:

The closer to the target, the more detailed map you see

Locus Map can zoom the map automatically according to the distance from the point you are guided to - the closer the target is the bigger zoom is displayed so both your position and the target are visible on the map screen:

Low battery? Locus Map will turn the screen on just when you need it

The screen on/off control in Locus display settings offers a few options on how to turn the phone screen on automatically only when you need it. One of them is during the point guidance:

The screen lights up just in time of the point alert so you can quickly check the map. This feature is especially useful when Locus guides you along a route, switching the screen on only on turns.

Guidance along a route? What is it for?

It is useful, especially for sailing, sea-kayaking or flying. Also for cross-country hiking when there are no roads for turn-by-turn navigation - Locus guides you along a manually drawn line and notifies you of the direction changes.

Alert! You're off your route!

That's an especially useful feature when you are guided with your screen off, listening only to voice commands. Sometimes, it happens you miss a turn or you're forced to make a detour. The guidance doesn't recalculate your route but Locus Map notifies you of its leaving. When you set up text to speech, Locus Map tells you how far and in what direction your original route is running.

So, let's go off road with Locus Map!

Článek Heading to a geocache deep in the woods without roads? Locus guidance can help. se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

Using your favorite hiking navigation via a wearable device is welcome by more and more outdoor fans. There are, unfortunately, loads of wearable platforms and each needs its own add-on to communicate with Locus Map running on a mobile phone or tablet. We have already released Locus Map Watch add-on for Android Wear/Wear OS and for Samsung watches running on Tizen operating system.

Now, here comes the long-awaited result of our cooperation with guys from Wearsoft - an add-on for Garmin!

What can I do with it?

Navigate...

Select a place to go in Locus Map. Plan your own route comfortably on the smartphone big screen or import a trip from GPSies. Start navigation - the main process is running in Locus Map in your mobile, you see navigation instructions on your Garmin.

Guide to a geocache...

Hunting for a hidden treasure? Pick your geocache on the map and start guidance to it. Your Garmin will lead you to the very spot.

Plan the route in Locus, export it to Garmin...

...and leave your smartphone at home! Enjoy the freedom of being without the phone for a while and go for a ride just with your rugged Garmin on your wrist (not all Garmins, however, support import of courses).

Monitor your Locus track recording...

Do you like Locus track recording with all its options of setup and recording profiles? Then run and monitor it directly from your Garmin. When your trip is finished, export it directly to Garmin Connect. Or, if you prefer recording your activities directly by Garmin, do so. You can simultaneously be navigated by Locus.

How does it work?

So that you can enjoy all of these features you just need to install Locus Map for Garmin in your mobile phone or tablet running OS Android 4.1 and higher:

Download Locus Map for Garmin >>

When you launch the add-on it takes care of everything else you need:

• Locus Map Android outdour navigation (if not installed)
• Garmin Connect Mobile Android app
• Garmin Connect IQ application Locus Map installed on your watch

Does it run on my Garmin?

Garmin produces a vast range of devices with many levels of functionality. Locus Map for Garmin is compatible with a lot of them and many are still under consideration to be added.

Check the list of compatible Garmins >>

How much does it cost?

Download and install Locus Map for Garmin for free - you can try it in Preview mode. To unlock all its features, go to Locus Store (part of Locus Map Android app) and purchase Premium functionality for cca 4 €.

Enjoy!

Článek Navigate with Locus Map on your Garmin! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

Locus is here (besides others) so that you can fully focus on your geocache hunt - so that you don't have to haul papers with printed listings with you, so that you find the caches more quickly, so that you are aware of all downloaded caches around you at the moment... to sum it up, with Locus, geocaching is more fun. Today we're here with a few tips how to make your GC hunt even more enjoyable.

1) Be aware of all the caches around

Nobody wants to stare in the map all the time in order not to miss a geocache on his way. Therefore, Locus has the POI alert.

Firstly, set the folder with your downloaded geocaches

then set the type of alert - select among 10 kinds of beep,  your custom sound, vibration or TTS - we recommend TTS as this is the way how Locus tells you the distance and direction of nearby caches.

and, of course, the alert trigger distance. The alert can be launched only once or repeatedly, it's up to you.

And press START. Locus notifies you every time you go near a geocache you have downloaded in your folder.

2) Locus, please guide me to the cache

In the free terrain, you surely appreciate Locus guidance. Just tap the geocache on the map and select guidance from the action menu.

Or tap the geocache in the folder and select guidance from the bottom bar menu:

Locus will show you the direction and distance of the geocache.

Also in this case we recommend setting of a sound or vibration notification of a coming prey. You can find it in Settings > Guidance > Points/Notification. The setting options are the same as in the previous case but one - you can choose increasing frequency of beeping relating to the distance.

The geocache hunt resembles a mine field survey a little bit with this setting but it's very effective :)

3) Log right in the field and without internet connection

Hurray, we've got the geocache! We're logging in the logbook and so as not to forget logging in Geocaching.com, we're putting the log also directly in Locus. And we don't need internet for this, Locus offers offline logging! Choose Log visit > Store offline from the cache menu (default offline can be set before)

Select the right logging status (not always you're lucky, eh ;) and insert your comment.

TIP: if you're keen hunters and you find loads of caches daily you can set an automatic comment, containing cache order number and a time stamp in the Settings > Geocaching:

All the same, you can set a few more automatic actions after storing - removing of the found geocache from the map, its transfer to another folder or switching guidance to another nearest geocache. All can be set in Settings > Geocaching > Action after 'Found it'.

Your saved logs can be viewed in the Field notes manager (Menu > More functions > Geocaching tools). When you come home you can start batch online logging from there to Geocaching.com.

We wish you a lot of fun!

P.S. Do you have your own tips for improving geocaching workflow? Let us know!

Článek A few tips for your Locus geocaching workflow se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.