Widget: PositionPlus

***UPDATE*** Please note that I no longer use a Fenix 3 and no longer have the time to maintain and upgrade this app. Sorry for this and thanks to everyone who posted feedback over time, I built this app for my own needs and I was quite surprised to see that it was useful to quite a few people! At this point I'm mostly using the Gaia GPS app on my iPhone 6 (with the iPhone in a rugged battery case for better grip and extended battery life - Beetle Sport Power Pack) plus the Gaia GPS Apple Watch extension for a quick look at the map/stats on the wrist. I still have an Oregon 600 as a backup but I sold the Fenix 3 as it was just sitting in my drawer.

PositionPlus Widget

This is a widget I initially wrote for my own use on my fenix 3 but thought to make it available on the Connect IQ app store and was very positively surprised by how many people found it useful! :)

On launch, the widget will first aquire GPS signal after which it will display the current latitude and longitude (in either degrees/minutes/seconds, decimal degrees or MGRS format - pls choose the format you prefer by pressing [Menu] while the widget is active), the current altitude (in meters or feet depending on user settings), the current speed (in km/h or mph depending on user settings), the current heading (in degree and cardinal points format), the current time (hours, minutes, seconds), the timezone (offset from UTC in hours), whether Daylight Saving Time (DST) applies for the current timezone and the GPS signal strength (on a scale from 1 to 4, 1=no gps signal, 2=poor signal, 3=usable signal, 4=good signal). GPS signal strength will color red when there's no GPS reception and green while GPS is active and the watch will play a short alert sound and/or vibrate whenever GPS fix is acquired or lost (subject to alerts/vibration having been enabled in system settings).

*The GPS signal strength will show properly on the Fenix 3 but it will not show on the Epix, Forerunner and generally on square watches due to lack of screen real estate (square displays having less height compared to Fenix 3's round display). All other fields should show properly on all devices. I will look into using a different layout for square watches in upcoming versions.

***CHANGE HISTORY***

Changes made from version 2.1 to version 2.2:
- fixed issue where DST was reported incorrectly
- removed the vivoactive as a compatible device due to reports from users about erros (a red X showing) on the device. Unfortunately I do not own the vivoactive and the widget works when tested on the simulator so not really able to debug this. Therefore I decided to remove vivoactive support from the widget.

Changes made from version 2.0 to version 2.1:
- added feature where the watch will vibrate for 0.5 seconds and play a short alert sound when GPS fix is acquired or lost (if vibration/alerts are enabled on the device)

Changes made from version 1.1 to version 2.0:
- added ability to select coordinates format (degrees/minutes/seconds, decimal degrees or MGRS - pls choose the format you prefer by pressing [Menu] while the widget is active).

- added the time of day (hh:mm:ss), UTC offset (in hours) and a daylight savings time (DST) indicator.

- added dynamic coloring for the GPS signal strength indicator (green when a GPS lock has been acquired, red otherwise).

- updated widget layout to accommodate the newly added fields.

Changes made from version 1.0 to version 1.1:
- altitude is now displayed in either meters or feet depending on user settings

Former Member over 10 years ago

I'm on the latest firmware for the Fenix 3 however when selecting mgrs the app does not allow me to select it. Any idea why? I've reinstalled the app and still a no go. I have set the select button to long hold for the stopwatch. Could that be the reason why?

Edit

Yep. That's the reason why. I disabled short key and now have mgrs. Great widget man!

Former Member over 9 years ago

Hey,

first of all, great widget!
I like how i can just read off the long and lat to a friend, he looks for it on google maps and knows exactly where i am!

Just for you to know: MGRS doesn't seem to work here (Munich, Germany area). When i select mgrs i get 32 U NF 0000000000 but i'm in 32 U PU ...
The long and lat work fine though!

Locked-N-Loaded over 9 years ago

Ok... this is a nice widget, thanks.

BUT I feel like there is an issue with Altitude. So, if you manually set the altitude like I do, your widget just shows the altitude I set whether it is right or wrong. If this is testing and checking GPS signals, then why would it not pull the altitude from GPS versus just showing the altitude YOU put in manually? A benefit to pulling the altitude from GPS and NOT from the setting the user puts in also means the user can check their assumed altitude versus the real altitude your widget would show if it pulled the altitude from GPS versus just pulling altitude from the watch that someone put in - which might not even be correct.

bravndal over 9 years ago

So first of all, any widget (at least on the fenix 3) times out automatically after a time period so in it's current form this widget can't be used for multihour hiking as after a minute or so Garmin will revert back to the watch face.

OK, this was new to me (every store that I've found in my location is sold out), but that's pretty much perfect if I've understood it correctly: Start widget, get position, time out, back to watch face? So no battery drain from GPS-activity in downtime?

As I've said, haven't had a chance to test it yet, but looks promising. Thank you!

p3tros over 9 years ago

Hey thebigbadwolf_1! I love your widget and thank you for designing it! One slight issue though, I'm in Greece, UTC +3 and DST during the summer. The widget shows DST = No, although we are currently in DST in my timezone. It would be nice if you could fix that, although it's not really crucial after all. :D

mattcmgb over 9 years ago

Great widget! many thanks for making this. :D

For me this has great safety value! If I am on a trail and take a fall or otherwise, its great to be able to easily get my current exact position and relay this to the emergency services (hopefully I wont need this, but nice to know its there). Quite frankly I am shocked that Garmin didn't include such functionality by default considering the target user audience for the Fenix 3.

The_Hunnymonster over 9 years ago

Thanks Jason, I will make a change in the code which may fix the dst issue.

I have exactly the opposite issue... I'm in the UK, where DST is currently active... it says DST:no / Timezone UTC+1 (it has the current timezone correct - I am at UTC+1, but it has the DST status wrong... we are in a DST active status)

edit: Same issue as p3tros above

Ketan$ over 9 years ago

Utc +5.30

Hi,

I'm in India, UTC+5.30 is the offset.
While I use position plus, it shows me UTC+5.

I've been able to set my local time just fine using 'Auto' mode on the watch. I'd love to see Positionplus showing correct offset for my local timezone (UTC+5.30, no DST observed).

Thank you.

bravndal over 9 years ago

Suggestion

Hi again! Finally got my Fenix 3 Sapphire a couple of weeks back, and have been testing your widget. Love it! I'm using it quite a lot in a military capacity, and often find that I only need (or someone else only want me to supply) six-digit MGRS-references. So my suggestion is: If you made the first, the two first, or possibly the three first digits in the east-north reference red/the last two grey (EEEeeNNNnn), or some colour coordination that you find pleasing, this would be much easier. This would also help if you're hiking on a low resolution (1-50k+) map in civilian settings.

Do what you want with that proposal, I love the widget either way. Thank you!

Former Member over 9 years ago

Can't change from MGRS position format to ddd mm' ss".