Samsung Active tab 2

[Eric Molimard]

Hi all, I'm planning to buy a Samsung Active tab 2 or 3 depending on budget to use my MRA navigation.
Do you need the SIM to run the Nav app?
Can I have all the maps I need stored on the Tablet and just use it that way? Thank you,

[Con Hennekens]

@Eric-Molimard, That has already been answered in the other thread. But no, you do not NEED a sim. You can configure Navigation to work offline, plus you can tether your internet connection from an other device. I CAN come in handy to have a data sim, so it has an independant internet connection of course, but it can also work without that. I at least buy a tablet that has the possibility. Then you can decide later of you want a sim.

[Eric Molimard]

Thanks Con, yes I saw a thread but it was in dutch so i want to make sure I didnt miss anything.
Thank you,

[PAD 0]

@Eric-Molimard As @Con-Hennekens says, you can get away without a SIM by tethering to another device. Running the Navigation app in offline mode works fine for following an active route, but you do need internet to open a route (from the MRA Route Planner servers). Once done, you are free of the need for an internet connection to navigate. The only other thing to bear in mind is that offline mode requires installation of the appropriate maps on your device. This is best done well in advance and preferably by wifi in my experience. So a bit of preparation pays dividends in this.

As an example of what’s possible, I sometimes run the Navigation app on a wifi only iPad. This has no gps chip even, but I connect it via bluetooth to a Garmin Glo2 Glonass/GPS ‘dongle’. I generally try to do all that needs internet using wifi, but have used my phones hotspot to access mobile signal and data on occasion too. Any issues I’ve experienced have been common to phone and tablet and stemmed from Navigation app bugs, not device/connection issue. In fact, the Garmin dongle is streets ahead of the phone in terms of location.

[Con Hennekens]

@pad-0 said in Samsung Active tab 2:

... Running the Navigation app in offline mode works fine for following an active route, but you do need internet to open a route (from the MRA Route Planner servers). Once done, you are free of the need for an internet connection to navigate.

Yes first time opening a new route planned in MRA you need an internet connection of course. Once it is opened once, next time it is still available without a connection.

[Con Hennekens]

@eric-molimard said in Samsung Active tab 2:

Thanks Con, yes I saw a thread but it was in dutch so i want to make sure I didnt miss anything.
Thank you,

Hmm, sometimes I do not remember having written things in Dutch or English

[PAD 0]

@con-hennekens Now there’s a thing… I haven’t found that to be the case. On both iPhone and iPad, if I am offline, I am unable to load any route, regardless of having used it previously. Could this be an iOS/Android disparity perhaps?

[Steve Lynch]

Putting my Samsung S10 into Flight mode and MRA Navigation into Offline mode I cannot use any routes, so it seems Android also requires an internet connection to download a route into MRA Navigation.
And yes I do have the maps downloaded on my Samsung.

[PAD 0]

@steve-lynch I think that’s the key thing to ensure is done - to have the regional map(s) you need for a trip or tour installed. These days, it’s relatively rare that neither a suitable phone signal nor a wifi hot spot can be accessed for the few moments required to open a route in Navigation. Not an infallible system, but I have managed just fine so far.

I don’t know about the technicalities of it, but I wonder whether, at some point, it might be possible to introduce an option to install routes onto a device in a manner similar to installing offline maps? Then the need for internet ‘in the field’ could be largely negated. This could be a really helpful addition to the Route Planner / Navigation combination, particularly following a flat battery or device issue that meant navigation was interrupted en route.

[Con Hennekens]

@pad-0, that is strange. To illustrate that, I just opened two routes in my Navigation (did not even start routing). Then I closed the Navigatin App, put the device in flightmode and re-opened Navigation to find the two routes I viewed earlier can be opened without issues.

[Steve Lynch]

@con-hennekens

Maybe you put Navigation in the Background rather than closing it?

[PAD 0]

@steve-lynch @Con-Hennekens Yes, I think it’s something along those lines. If the Navigation app is closed without exiting the route and flight mode is switched on, reopening the app sees the route still running. Likewise if wifi and cellular data are turned off. So maybe crossed wires over your meaning, Con? I thought you meant once a route had been opened, it remained accessible in Navigation for future use even when navigation had been exited.

So at least that's halfway there. Unfortunately it does mean that if navigation is lost and no data signal or wifi is available, users are stuffed. It would be great to be able to install a route onto a device for use in Navigation though. In fact, it would be a great leap in terms of competing with dedicated sat navs which, of course, do very much that as a matter of course.

[Con Hennekens]

@steve-lynch said in Samsung Active tab 2:

Maybe you put Navigation in the Background rather than closing it?

@pad-0 said in Samsung Active tab 2:

So maybe crossed wires over your meaning, Con?

No, definitely not! I just checked again, turning on flightmode first, and the routes are still usable. I also rebooted my P30 Pro in flightmode, and the routes I had been using before are still accessible, and routable. Except those to Bussang, like the ones in the picture above. That is because I do not have the map of France off-line anymore. The route loads and shows, but can't be calculated. Routes I do have the maps off-line for have no problem loading AND calculating without internet connection. There might be some kind of maximum period that routes are kept locally though, since routes I have been using months ago are not accessible anymore. They show up in the list, but are greyed out.

[Steve Lynch]

@con-hennekens

Not sure what I did wrong above, probably the order that I did it was messed up.
But on trying again you are correct, routes previously used are still available even with flight mode on.
However after powering down my phone I can see the routes but I cannot navigate them.

[PAD 0]

@steve-lynch @Con-Hennekens Same here to a limited extent. The two routes I opened while testing all this recently are available, no others. It would seem there is a small cache. Something that seems strange is that if I open either of those two routes for navigation in offline mode, with no wifi or data on, and with no cellular signal available, if I exit them (via three dots icon and red ‘exit’ tile), I cannot re-open the routes for navigation. Nor can I do so by quitting the app and re opening it. That is as far as I went the other day.

Yet I discovered just now that if I quit the Navigation app, then completely stop it from running in the background (i.e. double tap the iPad/iPhone home button, then swipe up on the app ‘tile’), then re-open it, re-open either route from the routes list and set it running for navigation, it works - all in offline mode. I can’t get my head around why, when doing less to disturb the whole process doesn’t??? It seems completely counter intuitive, but somehow it does!

So another step in the right direction, but still hit and miss. And compared to being able to download routes onto a device and having it there with certainty, it still falls short.

[Con Hennekens]

@pad-0 said in Samsung Active tab 2:

Something that seems strange is that if I open either of those two routes for navigation in offline mode, with no wifi or data on, and with no cellular signal available, if I exit them (via three dots icon and red ‘exit’ tile), I cannot re-open the routes for navigation. Nor can I do so by quitting the app and re opening it. That is as far as I went the other day.

Yet I discovered just now that if I quit the Navigation app, then completely stop it from running in the background (i.e. double tap the iPad/iPhone home button, then swipe up on the app ‘tile’), then re-open it, re-open either route from the routes list and set it running for navigation, it works - all in offline mode.

That is strange indeed. I tried to do the same on my Android, but can't seem to find any "three dots menu" that allows me to quit Navigation the way is considered the right one. Therefore I ALWAYS quit Navigation by hard-stopping the program.

So another step in the right direction, but still hit and miss. And compared to being able to download routes onto a device and having it there with certainty, it still falls short.

It works for me, but I agree that this is an omission, and could be improved and documented much better.

[PAD 0]

@con-hennekens Very odd that the Android version of the app seems not to have an exit button.

For reference, here’s how my iOS looks:

[PAD 0]

Curiouser and curiouser!

[Con Hennekens]

@pad-0 said in Samsung Active tab 2:

@con-hennekens Very odd that the Android version of the app seems not to have an exit button.

Yes, like @Matt-Flaming shows, the Android version DOES have a "3-dot menu" ONLY while navigating. If one presses the EXIT button there, it quits navigating, but not the entire program. It takes you back to the route overview from where you can start navigating the route again (the screen with the arrow).

[Con Hennekens]

@matt-flaming said in Samsung Active tab 2:

But to exit out of the application, you just use the back button (or gesture if you are on a newer version of Android). You don't have to kill the app in recents menu.

Yes, but then the program stays active in the background, it does not close that way. The theory here was that after a program-exit the routes would not be usable without internet connection. Keeping it live in the background does not simulate that.