[App] Marathon - GPS measure / tracking software

Ooije · Aug 9, 2009

Latest version: 1.3.1.5.
Changelog

Information
Marathon is a Windows Mobile application which keeps track of your movement with the help of a GPS-receiver. It’s the perfect companion for sporting activates such as running and bicycling. You can configure Marathon to announce various statistics in the headset or speaker while you’re recording. This gives you the advantage of always knowing your performance and is a great morale boost to reach your goals. You can compete with yourself by setting the goal time comparison settings to one of your previous results. This will allow the announcements to tell you exactly how many seconds ahead or behind you are. You may also use the generic time goal in case you haven’t recorded anything to compete against. The application records and displays data such as time, distance, speed and your altitude change. You can also choose to display your speed and altitude as bar or line charts, as well as showing a map of your recording. As a complement to the application, Marathon is compatible with a free online service, which allows you to see more detailed information about your performance. You can view your result on a map as well as see various rankings against other users of the service.

Features
• Announce various statistics in the headset or speaker while running.
• Compete with yourself by using a previous recording or a generic time based goal.
• Records data such as time, distance, speed, altitude change.
• Can show a graph over your speed/altitude as well as a map of the track.
• Upload the result to www.marathon-mobile.net to see more detailed info and compare your results with others. The webpage is still a work in progress, so don’t expect too much yet.

Requirements
• Windows Mobile 5.0+ Professional device.
• GPS receiver with support for Microsoft’s GPS Intermediate Driver.
• Screen resolution of at least 240x240 pixels.

Download
http://www.marathon-mobile.net/Download/DownloadLatestVersion

bugsykoosh · Aug 10, 2009

neat app- hope this helps to get you more coverage since I think the app deserves it: http://www.fuzemobility.com/marathon-gps-trainer-released/

biohazardousguy · Aug 10, 2009

Is it possible to also make it save the track as kml so it can be viewed in google earth?

anderl78 · Aug 10, 2009

biohazardousguy said:
Is it possible to also make it save the track as kml so it can be viewed in google earth?

Hello!

would this run on my diamond (640 x 480)?

+1 for google earth - support!

drjim · Aug 10, 2009

A few questions:

1. Will this work on a VGA, e.g., a Fuze?
2. Does it track in miles or just kms?
3. Will it work for cycling, e.g., mph, not just mins/mile?

I currently use GPSCycleComputer because it works for both running and cycling, but this app has some nice new features.

chalid · Aug 10, 2009

seriously guys, are you even reading the first post?

I’ve tested it on my HTC Touch Pro

Touch Pro = VGA

bugsykoosh · Aug 10, 2009

It works on the Fuze/Diamond at VGA: http://www.fuzemobility.com/marathon-gps-trainer-released/
I'll let the author respond to changes to mph instead of km.

Ooije · Aug 10, 2009

bugsykoosh said:
neat app- hope this helps to get you more coverage since I think the app deserves it: http://www.fuzemobility.com/marathon-gps-trainer-released/

Thank you!

biohazardousguy said:
Is it possible to also make it save the track as kml so it can be viewed in google earth?

Im considering to implement some kind of map integration, so i'll look into it.

drjim said:
A few questions:

1. Will this work on a VGA, e.g., a Fuze?
2. Does it track in miles or just kms?
3. Will it work for cycling, e.g., mph, not just mins/mile?

I currently use GPSCycleComputer because it works for both running and cycling, but this app has some nice new features.

bugsykoosh said:
It works on the Fuze/Diamond at VGA: http://www.fuzemobility.com/marathon-gps-trainer-released/
I'll let the author respond to changes to mph instead of km.

I haven’t tried it on a bike, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work since it works with walking, running and cars. You can also select different methods, such as “Run”, “Bike” and “Ski” when you save your result to keep track of your travel method.

I've implemented the following units, you can change between them using "Menu->Settings->Unit":
km/h
m/s
mph
min/km

I'll add more if someone find it usefull. Would min / mile be of any use?

drjim · Aug 10, 2009

I would love you to add minutes per mile as that is the standard measure for running speed, so it would be useful for running.

Thanks.

Matzix · Aug 10, 2009

Very well done!

Hi Ooije,

I did a first test of your app and I'm very impressed about it's features and how well it works for the very first beta! On my Touch Pro, it did find my current position very fast and the distance measured is exactly what www.gpsies.com tells me about it. Uploading to your homepage also worked well and is such easy to do. Congratulations and thank you very much!

Of course although it is already very functional, there are some feature requests:
- I did not dare to switch off the device at my first test, because I did not want the GPS receiver being stopped and used S2U2 as screen lock. Having an option to switch off the display and locking the device (as in GPSCycleComputer) would be a great thing.
- Having an option for specifying the GPS settings would be fine. On the Touch Pro it connects to the intermediate driver directly and works well, but actually I'd like to have it connected to GPSGate on another Port.
- For the running pace (min/km), it shows seconds as percent of minutes. Having it as mm:ss (that is 7:54 instead of 7,9) would be appreciated. BTW:

drjim said:
(...) minutes per mile as that is the standard measure for running speed (...)

Here in Europe it is min/km, which is already implemented... ;-)
- I didn't try that audio feature yet (BTW: Do you use earphones?), but I'm thinking that it could also be useful if you're on an unknown route to have some very basic navigation features. That is, importing a route (on www.gpsies.com there are a lot of it) and at least being told if you're leaving that route. For more information you can have a look on your display then, which might show the planned vs. the actual route.
- I'm interested in having a plot "pace over time". I'm not quite sure whether GPS data are such accurate (especially these qualcomm receivers), but maybe there can be done some filtering in order to have good results.
- and of course exporting the track as GPX, KML or whatever (hey, there is GPSBabel to translate it ;-) ) would be great

Last but not least, there is a small flaw having +infity as speed after loading or saving a track - maybe it's currently there for debugging purposes (see screenshot attached)

Cheers
Matzix

PS: If you want/need a german translation, please let me know!

Ooije · Aug 11, 2009

drjim said:
I would love you to add minutes per mile as that is the standard measure for running speed, so it would be useful for running.

Thanks.

Alright, if that’s what you use in US I’ll put it on top of my TODO-list. Thanks for the feedback.

Matzix said:
Hi Ooije,

I did a first test of your app and I'm very impressed about it's features and how well it works for the very first beta! On my Touch Pro, it did find my current position very fast and the distance measured is exactly what www.gpsies.com tells me about it. Uploading to your homepage also worked well and is such easy to do. Congratulations and thank you very much!

Of course although it is already very functional, there are some feature requests:
- I did not dare to switch off the device at my first test, because I did not want the GPS receiver being stopped and used S2U2 as screen lock. Having an option to switch off the display and locking the device (as in GPSCycleComputer) would be a great thing.
- Having an option for specifying the GPS settings would be fine. On the Touch Pro it connects to the intermediate driver directly and works well, but actually I'd like to have it connected to GPSGate on another Port.
- For the running pace (min/km), it shows seconds as percent of minutes. Having it as mm:ss (that is 7:54 instead of 7,9) would be appreciated. BTW:

Here in Europe it is min/km, which is already implemented... ;-)
- I didn't try that audio feature yet (BTW: Do you use earphones?), but I'm thinking that it could also be useful if you're on an unknown route to have some very basic navigation features. That is, importing a route (on www.gpsies.com there are a lot of it) and at least being told if you're leaving that route. For more information you can have a look on your display then, which might show the planned vs. the actual route.
- I'm interested in having a plot "pace over time". I'm not quite sure whether GPS data are such accurate (especially these qualcomm receivers), but maybe there can be done some filtering in order to have good results.
- and of course exporting the track as GPX, KML or whatever (hey, there is GPSBabel to translate it ;-) ) would be great

Last but not least, there is a small flaw having +infity as speed after loading or saving a track - maybe it's currently there for debugging purposes (see screenshot attached)

Cheers
Matzix

PS: If you want/need a german translation, please let me know!

You should be able to switch of the device since it keeps the GPS receiver and sound devices running (unless you mixed with the power options). But I guess that could be useful in combination with the ability to read from a NMEA-data directly from a COM port. Unfortunately this is not my highest priority right now, but I might look into it.

Showing pace as m:ss instead of a decimal number might be handy. If that’s what people expect when using the min/km unit I’ll definitely change. What would the expected audio announcement be for such a metric? “three point forty five” could mean either 3.45 (as a decimal number) or 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

The audio feature works with both speaker and headset, but if you’re listening to music at the same time you probably don’t want 100% volume in your music player.

Import/Export seems to be a requested feature, so I’ll look in to a few formats and see which fits best. Announcing when you’re too far away from the expected route is a great idea. I’ll put that on my TODO-list.
There are bar charts (5, 10, 15 or 25 bars) as well as a linear diagram built-in to plot the speed. Just select “Menu->View->Speed” and “Menu->Settings->Diagram Type->…” to view them. The diagram is not inverted when min/km is the selected unit, but that shouldn’t take so long to implement.

Since your speed is 0 m/s it will take you infinitive time to move 1 km, so it’s kind of correct

. But I guess I’ll replace it with a ∞ (infinitive symbol) to make it look better and less confusing.

Thank you for all your feedback; it’ll definitely help me improve the application. A translation would be nice, but I think it’s best to wait until I have a more stable set of localized strings in the application. It’s hard to keep the English / Swedish translations in sync even when im translating between them myself. So I’ll keep in touch.

cyberholic · Aug 13, 2009

Looks great and though i do now own a pocket pc anymore it would be
awesome if you could contact me. I am the head of the urban sports
guerrilla at www.endorphinum.de
Maybe we can work out a system that allows your users to upload their
activity right to endorphin !?

greetings,
Carlos

sergutel · Aug 18, 2009

Not working at all

Hello, this is my feedback:

though the program starts ok (I can see the main interface Window) the GPS is always in "starting..." but never starts...

I tried to start first Tomtom navigator, gps starts, close tomtom and start Marathon but... no way.... "starting gps..."

I see no options to configure it...
My phone is a Windows Mobile 6.0, QVGA resolution, HTC clone (amsam M810)

Thanks.

Bibifrine · Aug 18, 2009

Test with a Touch HD

First start I got no GPS conection. After softreset, I got the GPS lock after a couple of secods. Then I started for a test run which was fine on the fiorst Minutes with havin a short voice anouncement every Minute. after 5 Minutes the system stopped talking to me and after 25 Minutes the SW stopped completly. So I will wait for the next version to give it a next test. so far the SW is already on a good way, but also not very reliable.

Ooije · Aug 18, 2009

I released a minor update today. Here are the news in beta 1.0.0.2:

Fixed a bug with the start button when the GPS-device was started before the application.
Added support for minutes / mile.
A few other small fixes.

I've also updated the website with Google maps integration, some rankings based on distance and the ability to filter by transport method.

Bibifrine said:
First start I got no GPS conection. After softreset, I got the GPS lock after a couple of secods. Then I started for a test run which was fine on the fiorst Minutes with havin a short voice anouncement every Minute. after 5 Minutes the system stopped talking to me and after 25 Minutes the SW stopped completly. So I will wait for the next version to give it a next test. so far the SW is already on a good way, but also not very reliable.

That's strange, I've had the application running over a night without any problems (indoors, so no GPS signal in that test). Did you turn the display of or kept it on all the time?

sergutel said:
Hello, this is my feedback:

though the program starts ok (I can see the main interface Window) the GPS is always in "starting..." but never starts...

I tried to start first Tomtom navigator, gps starts, close tomtom and start Marathon but... no way.... "starting gps..."

I see no options to configure it...
My phone is a Windows Mobile 6.0, QVGA resolution, HTC clone (amsam M810)

Thanks.

The latest release fixes a bug when the GPS was started before the application starts, but I don't think this is the issue in your case. Is your GPS set to be managed by WinMo automatically (Settings->System->External GPS->Access->Manage gps automatically )?. Marathon uses Microsoft GPS intermediate driver, so the OS has to manage the GPS.
I've bought a Bluetooth GPS to play around with, so hopefully it will help me increase the compability with different kind of hardware. By the way, how is your GPS set up in TomTom?

Thanks for the feedback (both of you). It's very valuable since it's kinda hard to fix problems without knowing of there existence

.

GLOC · Aug 18, 2009

Cool, just downloading it now.

Any chance you can integrate ApptoDate so that updates are added automatically? Thanks

Regards

Bibifrine · Aug 18, 2009

"That's strange, I've had the application running over a night without any problems (indoors, so no GPS signal in that test). Did you turn the display of or kept it on all the time? "

I tested the system first with switching to standby (and it does not talk to me) after that I just shut of the screen and then it was talking to me for a couple of Minutes and after 25 Minutes it failed completly. I will download the new version and give it a try on my next run tomorrow.
I will post the result.

megapinky · Aug 18, 2009

quick test on Verizon Omnia WQVGA

I need to start gps before lauch program

nice idea

sergutel · Aug 19, 2009

Hello,
I just downloaded and installed.
Also tested outdoors and jogging

I started Marathon but no way. (waited 10 mins, enough right?) GPS status was always "starting..."
Then I started GPS device from 2 other apps. It did.
Both apps worked and located me in the World....

then closed and opened Marathon
Does not work.

Answering your questions:
yes, GPS is managed by the OS. Option is checked in Settings->System->External GPS->Access
GPS config is: COM1 Baud 9600

ps: what is missed in your software (I think) is the GPS config.
Other software have it.

Thanks a lot.

----------------------

The latest release fixes a bug when the GPS was started before the application starts, but I don't think this is the issue in your case. Is your GPS set to be managed by WinMo automatically (Settings->System->External GPS->Access->Manage gps automatically )?. Marathon uses Microsoft GPS intermediate driver, so the OS has to manage the GPS.
I've bought a Bluetooth GPS to play around with, so hopefully it will help me increase the compability with different kind of hardware. By the way, how is your GPS set up in TomTom?

Ooije · Aug 19, 2009

GLOC said:
Cool, just downloading it now.

Any chance you can integrate ApptoDate so that updates are added automatically? Thanks

Regards

Well, I could at least append it to my TODO-list ^^.

Bibifrine said:
"That's strange, I've had the application running over a night without any problems (indoors, so no GPS signal in that test). Did you turn the display of or kept it on all the time? "

I tested the system first with switching to standby (and it does not talk to me) after that I just shut of the screen and then it was talking to me for a couple of Minutes and after 25 Minutes it failed completly. I will download the new version and give it a try on my next run tomorrow.
I will post the result.

I assume you haven't changed the settings in "Menu->Settings->Power Management" (at least the first two checkboxes should be checked) and installed the application on your device and not on a memory card? I would really appreciate if you could change the logging level to verbose ( Menu->Settings->Diagnostic Logging), record for a minute or two and then send me the log file in /Program Files/Marathon/Logs so I could investigate further.

megapinky said:
quick test on Verizon Omnia WQVGA

I need to start gps before lauch program

nice idea

Thanks for the screenshots. The wrong skin is loaded since your bottom bar is 10 pixels higher than the one built into WM. I'll improve the skin loading algorithm a bit so the correct skin will be loaded. Where can I get hold of the bottom bar you're using so I can make sure it works correctly before releasing an update?

sergutel said:
Hello,
I just downloaded and installed.
Also tested outdoors and jogging

I started Marathon but no way. (waited 10 mins, enough right?) GPS status was always "starting..."
Then I started GPS device from 2 other apps. It did.
Both apps worked and located me in the World.... then closed and opened Marathon
Does not work.

Answering your questions:
yes, GPS is managed by the OS. Option is checked in Settings->System->External GPS->Access
GPS config is: COM1 Baud 9600

ps: what is missed in your software (I think) is the GPS config.
Other software have it.

Thanks a lot.

----------------------

The latest release fixes a bug when the GPS was started before the application starts, but I don't think this is the issue in your case. Is your GPS set to be managed by WinMo automatically (Settings->System->External GPS->Access->Manage gps automatically )?. Marathon uses Microsoft GPS intermediate driver, so the OS has to manage the GPS.
I've bought a Bluetooth GPS to play around with, so hopefully it will help me increase the compability with different kind of hardware. By the way, how is your GPS set up in TomTom?

The "Starting GPS Device..." should take less than a second, it says "No Signal" when there is no GPS fix. So the problem is that the GPS device isn't detected at all. Do you usually have to configure applications before using your device or do other software detect your GPS automatically? Currently Marathon uses the GPS intermediate driver which is supposed to increase the abstraction level so I don't have to parse the NMEA strings from the COM-port, but I guess I have to take a look at other alternatives.

Thanks for all the info!

[App] Marathon - GPS measure / tracking software

Senior Member

Attachments

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

New member

Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Attachments

Member

Senior Member

Similar threads