Is OruxMaps right for me?

I just recently got an Android phone and I am interested in tracking driving trips, hiking, walking, etc. I'm really new to this area, so I don't exactly know how everything works - forgive me if I say something stupid. I've looked into a number of GPS trackers (not sure if I can name the competition here). I really like OruxMaps but I have questions about whether it is good for what I want to do.

Mostly, I want to track my location to a log file, without automatically uploading it. I'd like to be able to set the interval that it records a track point. I would then have a log file that I could either upload to GPSies or preferably to Dropbox so that I can access from my PC.

One other GPS tracker sends data over the network once every minute. I want to avoid that to save battery. I just want a log file generated with no uploads or downloads during the tracking.

In the description of the Android app, it says "If you want to work offline, you need to calibrate your own maps. It is neccesary:". Do I need to do this just to create a track log? I noticed in a test run that my elevation was -14m, which is wrong for the area I am. So I wonder if I indeed need to calibrate something. Incidentally, I did have a 4G connection at that point, but I'm hoping OruxMaps doesn't need it to simply log my data.

Is there any way to change the interval at which OruxMaps records points? It looks to be every 5 seconds. But I can't find anywhere to change that.

OruxMaps looks to be a great tool and I would use many of the features sometimes, but if I just want to track my hikes or drives, I would rather not have all that extra functionality draining my battery, etc.

I believe it's excellent for your use. I've been using it for about 2 weeks (new to Android also) and love it. It's not the most intuitive but it is powerful.

Although you can upload to 3 different websites (during or after) you don't have to. They are off by default. I don't use this feature but it's neat to know I can. You can set the minimum time and distance to record each track point (0 sec to 2 min and 0 meters to 80 meters). It appears that it has to meet both criteria before it sets a point.

No maps are required at all. It comes with a world map. In the settings there is an Auto Load Maps where you can set it to never. (If you do decide you want an offline map you can create it from within the app while at home using wifi, or use Mobile Atlas Creator on your computer. I've done it both ways.)

There is altitude correction if it's important to you. It's not the app's deficiency but rather a disparity in the earth's shape and the wgs84 ellipsoid. For more info: http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0703/geoid1of3.html

Hope this answers your questions. When I was looking for track logging software I did see an app in the store that just logs tracks, that's it. It might be easier if that's all you want to do. It's called GPS Logger.

Thanks!

5 minutes after I posted, I found the settings which allows me to set time and distance minimums. That's very helpful.

I've checked out GPS Logger and Offline Logger - they do just the basics. But I have to test if they are as accurate as OruxMaps. I do like the additional features of Orux. Seems like I can use it as a basic tracker, but also get the extra features when I want.

Now to get my track file to automatically upload to Dropbox. Trying to get Tasker to do that.

mojave wrote:Now to get my track file to automatically upload to Dropbox. Trying to get Tasker to do that.

That's a cool idea! I assume you turned on automatic gpx or kml creation? Otherwise the track is hidden in the Orux DB...