Sendero GPS V3.5 Changes, April 1, 2006

Sendero’s GPS version 3.5 runs on the BrailleNote’s Keysoft 6 and 7 including the Classic, mPower and PK. See the ReadMe document for known issues and important tips not covered in the manual.

This version has moved up two increments, one for software and one increment for new maps. Transparent improvements, under the hood, are not listed here. A separate document lists changes from other versions.

Please read other documents for a complete understanding of the BrailleNote GPS software including the ReadMe, the manual, the audio tutorial and the optional GPS CourseWare. Use of the word “chord” refers to Space plus a key on the Braille keyboard units and Control plus a key on the QWERTY keyboard units. Here are the notable changes in Sendero’s GPS 3.5 versus version 3.3.

** General Software Changes:

* POI category consolidation:

We have combined similar POI categories because the category list was becoming so long. The 100 plus categories have been combined into 50 categories. For example, there were different categories for junior high school, middle school and so forth. Now they are all under the School category with a sub category designation to indicate which type of school. The most commonly used categories are listed first. See the POI category list in the Documents folder for specifics.

* Faster searches of the User POI category. When you select the User POI category, either from within Look-Around mode or in the advanced Find function, searches are much faster.

* Merged data folders: To simplify data access, the maps and POI files now reside in a single default folder, maps. Do to the tremendous increase in POIs beginning in version 3.3, we find it is better to have the POI files in the matching folder with their respective state maps. We recommend folders containing state maps by region and the corresponding POI files should be in this same regional folder. For example, all California maps and POIs would be in a folder called Maps or Maps1West. If you use a name other than Maps, it is necessary to specify that folder name in the GPS Options Menu. The POI files start with the designation 35 so you can easily sort and move them in and out of the folder.

When the GPS program is first loaded, the Sendero GPS software searches your unit’s card slots for a folder called Maps. You can change the maps/POI folder in the GPS Options Menu and that folder name will be remembered unless you press a hard reset. It is recommended that you name your primary folder “Maps” and your secondary maps can be in another folder with a relevant name.

Note: You cannot have a folder with POIs only. You must put at least one map in that folder. It could be a small map, for example, Guam or Rhode Island. This might apply when traveling on the water or in a region without maps like South America or Africa.

* New Maps and POI data

Our new data is from Tele Atlas version 2005.2. This data is 2 years newer than our previous data sets. It provides updated information and more of it.

* BrailleNote map capacity has been increased

You can now load up to 75 maps, more than the entire U.S., on the mPower or PK. It is recommended for speed of loading and memory management that you use only the maps and POI files you need. However, for situations where you wish to create a route from San Francisco to New York, you can now do that. You would of course need a memory card large enough to hold the 6 GB of data for the U.S.

* Launching MySendero.com for user downloadable Maps and POIs

The user’s BrailleNote serial number and password gives access to our new site where the user can download maps and POIs by state. This will add convenience for quick access to new upgrades as well as allowing us to charge less for updates.

** New route Functionality:

* The GPS Options Menu has a new item called “Recalculate Routes.” Press A for Automatic or M for Manual. If you choose Automatic, routes can now automatically be recalculated when you stray off-route. The automatic rerouting will happen when you are around 150 feet off-route under 15 MPH and approximately 500 feet when traveling more than 15 MPH. This off-route distance is relative to the distance to the current waypoint accessed with the K command. Additionally, you should see an improvement in the manner waypoints are announced due to some new methodology. When you select Manual routing in the GPS Options Menu, you must use the RV or RP commands to recalculate a route.

If you load a previously created route, the first time you are off-route, you will be asked if you wish to create a manual, pedestrian or vehicle route.

The Classic BrailleNote will default to recalculation off and the mPower and PK will have it turned on. Automatic recalculation on the classic will be problematic for long routes but is fine for short routes of a mile or two.

The recalculation may not trigger if you are paralleling a route, particularly at high speeds. A new hot key to manually recalculate routes has been added. It is Backspace with Dot 3 on the BT keyboard and the Backslash or Slash key on the QT keyboard.

After a route is recalculated once, at the subsequent recalculation you will be instructed that your target waypoint is behind you but a recalculation will not happen automatically. If you get a message saying waypoints have been skipped, the recalculate option will be enabled again. If you find routes are recalculating prematurely, switch to manual calculation in the GPS Options menu. Use the recalculate hot key when you feel it is necessary.

* A new function has been added to tell you to turn around immediately when starting a route if you are headed the wrong direction. It will trigger after 30 feet or so at pedestrian speeds or 100 feet at vehicular speeds. A triple beep will alert you of this command. You can hear it in the sounds menu.

* A slight change has been made in the way the distance to end of route is calculated with R then E. It used to be the distance from the nearest waypoint to the end of the route. Now R E gives you the distance from your current GPS position to the end of the route.

* The turn announcement advances to the destination announcement after last turn. For those of us who use M then T to automatically repeat the heading and distance to the next turn, it has been annoying after reaching the last turn not to have any announcements. Now, after the last turning waypoint has triggered, the T command will announce the heading and distance to the last waypoint, your destination.

* The Route destination now indicates which side of the street the destination is on. This is done by obtaining the address from the commercial Point of Interest, from which you select your destination. Its status as an odd or even address number is then compared with the Chord C details to determine the side of the street. Once you are past your last turn and a couple waypoints from the destination, the side of the street is indicated. For example, “895 feet to Starbucks, Destination Left Side.” The address data is not 100% accurate so this side of street indication could be incorrect.

* The Chord C details have been improved to better indicate the odd/even address sequence based upon your direction of travel.

* Following a route in Virtual Mode has been simplified.

Once you load or automatically create a route in Explore mode, pressing the Explore Forward command moves you from waypoint to waypoint including through turning points. Your explore position moves with you but you cannot turn right or left while the route is open. You can only follow the route forward or backward. Unlike Exploring a map, in a route you can move backward as many times as you wish.

You have two choices for exploring a route in Virtual mode. By default, virtual routes are set for you to move from waypoint to waypoint with the Forward arrow keys in what is called Detailed mode. Each waypoint intersection will be announced as you reach it. You can toggle to Turns-only mode with R M. Then each press of the Forward command will move you to the next turn, skipping the interim waypoints. You will first hear the waypoint intersection you have reached and then the instruction which way to turn. The turn by turn mode allows you to focus on the overview of the route. The same thing will happen when you back up.

Once you close the route, all Explore functions such as left and right are again active and your Explore position is at the location of the last waypoint in your route. You can use the list navigation functions to move to the top or bottom of the route.

* Waypoint Numbering On/Off

Press R then N to turn Waypoint numbering on or off. It defaults on. The Turning Points will still be announced, just not the interim waypoints.

* Percentage of route traveled. Use dots 1-4-6 on the BT or the percentage key on the QT to find out what percentage of the route has been traveled. This information is also listed in the R I Route Information command. The ETA is announced after the percentage of the route traveled.

In Multiple Command mode, press M then E to automatically repeat percentage and ETA.

** New Estimated Time of Arrival, ETA

We now do a very rough calculation of the estimated time of arrival by comparing your current speed of travel with the distance to a turn or end of route. We do not average the speed. It is up to the user to interpret the ETA. It is recommended that you request the ETA information when you are traveling at what you believe to be the average speed for your trip.

If you are not moving, we use an average speed of 2 miles per hour for a pedestrian route. An average of 25 MPH applies to vehicle routes when moving less than 10 MPH. Once you approach a turning point or end of route, the ETA will say less than a minute. Remember that this is a very rough estimate.

To obtain an ETA, you must have a route active. Press R followed by E to hear the ETA and distance from your current position to the end of the route. Press T to hear the distance to the next turning point followed by the ETA.

** New customizable Multiple command and stationary functions

The Repeat Interval in the GPS Options Menu has been replaced with an expanded item called Multiple Commands. Press O for Options and A for Multiple Announcements. Like before, enter the number of seconds you wish to have between repeat announcements or, enter 0 to activate the new Stationary mode.

You can now activate several multiple repeat commands at the same time. For example, Press MX for Intersection and MD for Destination. They will repeat one after the other, every 12 seconds by default. Press MM to turn all repeat items off. Press the item once to turn it on and a second time to turn it off. For example, MD turns Destination repeat on and MD a second time turns it off. If you get confused as to what is turned on or off, just press MM to turn all items off.

If you have set the Multiple Command to Stationary Mode with 0 in the GPS Options, the multiple command items you pick will only trigger when you are stationary and you will hear them just once. For example, if you have a route loaded, you may wish to turn on the next turn announcement with MT as well as the destination announcement with MD.

When you come to an intersection and stop moving, the announcements you have selected will automatically trigger. If you need to immediately hear the announcement again, use the L key for Last announcement. If you need to hear the Stationary items and they have already triggered or you are moving, there is a hot key to do that. Use Backspace with dot 1 on the BT keyboard and Read with S on the QT keyboard.

Note, the multiple repeat items will trigger in a set order, not the order in which you turn them on.

The status as to which items are turned on and off will be saved when you leave the GPS application. When you return to the program, the multiple repeat or stationary items will continue right where you left off.

Remember that multiple repeat is disabled in GPS mode when you do not have a fix. It also does not trigger in Virtual mode.

** Braille Display Delay:

Another new item in the GPS Options Menu provides the user the ability to adjust the time delay the Braille display keeps the information before another command replaces the information with new information. For example, in multiple repeat mode with two or more items turned on, the second piece of information will quickly replace the first. To ensure that you can read the information on the Braille display, you might want to increase the delay from the default 1 second to 4 or 5 seconds depending upon your Braille reading speed and whether or not you also use speech. This delay factor impacts other timers like the 12-second Look-Around timer. If The Display delay is set to 5 seconds, Look-Around will occur every 17 seconds.

* The last item in the GPS Options Menu allows you to disable the Space Bar as a means of reissuing a command. By default, the Space Bar repeats whichever command was last pressed. It can be accidentally bumped, which might be confusing for beginners. The new option allows the user to disable the Space Bar for this purpose.

* Manual GPS Waypoint triggering has been adjusted . The default waypoint trigger distance is 50 feet as defined in the Arrival Distance in the GPS Options Menu. This is fine in a vehicle or in automatic routes because you are dealing with intersections. In the case of manually recorded waypoints, the precise location can be very accurate if you have good satellite tracking and are careful with the recording. Taking this into account, the GPS program will now cut the arrival distance in half so by default, your manual waypoints will trigger within 25 feet. If you wish to reduce this bubble even further, lower the 50-foot Arrival Distance under options keeping in mind that manual waypoints will trigger at one half the distance you choose.

* The Look-Around POI arrival trigger timer and distances have been adjusted as follows:

Look-Around only triggers on the first POI within its radius, not all POIs in range. Also, Look-Around is switched off for 15 seconds if you do a POI search with F or Chord F and at Turns so you have time to deal with the current information without being interrupted by a Look-Around POI.

Look-Around scans for new POIs every 12 seconds. If it finds and announces a POI, it will then wait 12 seconds before scanning again. However, if it scans for 12 seconds and doesn’t find any POIs, it will look around again after 5 more seconds. In this way, you won’t be inundated with POI announcements in a city and you will still hear some points in less dense rural areas.

At speeds of 5 miles per hour or less, the Look-Around POI arrival distance is the distance set in the GPS Options Menu. The default is 50 feet.

At speeds from 5 to 39 miles per hour, the Look-Around POI trigger distance is 20 times the distance set in the GPS Options Menu, 1000 feet.

At speeds from 40 to 199 miles per hour, the Look-Around POI trigger distance is 100 times the distance set in the GPS Options Menu, default about one mile.

At speeds 200 miles per hour and up, the Look-Around POI trigger distance is 1000 times the Arrival distance, around 9.4 miles.

Note: The trigger distances for Intersections and destinations are different.

0-5 MPH equals default Arrival distance, 50 feet.

5-15 MPH equals 2 times arrival distance, 100 feet.

15-40 MPH equals 5 times arrival distance, 250 feet.

40 MPH and faster equals 10 times arrival distance, 500 feet.

* The Look-Around Menu has been adjusted

Press Chord M for the Look-Around Menu. You have 3 first level items, Look-Around on or off, Look-Around Settings and Review current Look-around settings. If you choose Look-Around Settings, You have 4 items: Commercial POIs on or off, Commercial POI Categories, Intersections On or Off and User POIs On or Off. When you make a selection, the new status is saved. Use an exit command to leave the Look-Around Menu.

** Virtual Mode

* When you set your Virtual position as the GPS position, the GPS heading will now appear in Virtual Mode. So when you switch to virtual mode you shouldn't have to turn left/right first to begin exploring.

* Your Virtual position relative to your GPS position accessed with the I key, has been changed slightly so the announcement has the same format as the D for Destination announcement.

* Use your Virtual Position like a second destination. You could always press the letter I to hear where your virtual position was relative to your GPS position. Now, in addition to this feature, when you arrive near that Virtual Position, an announcement will trigger, just like it does for a destination, to let you know you are near the Virtual Position.

** New and augmented commands

* The F command has been changed slightly. If no points are found when pressing F or Dot 4, you will no longer be asked if you want to expand the search distance beyond the initial one quarter mile. If points are found, you will still be asked if you wish to expand once you reach the end of the list. If you want longer search distances, use the Chord F command options.

* The G Key has been enhanced: Approximate distance in feet or meters has been added to the GPS accuracy status message. Now you know approximately how accurate in feet/meters your position is.

82 feet, 3 satellites. 38 feet, 5 satellites. 11 feet, 5 satellites. WAAS will be announced in the G message but the former quality ratings will not.

* New O command: The GPS Options Menu is now available from within the active GPS application. Press O to access the GPS Options and escape or Space E to exit back to the GPS program. You can now change the active Map/POI folder very quickly without having to go to the GPS Menu and then Options. Just press O from the GPS or Virtual modes and then M for Maps.

* The new Q Key: This command gives the previous GPS quality ratings such as Poor through Very Good as well as details about the satellite signals such as HDOP and VDOP. These are the components which go into the formula to give the estimate of accuracy in feet or meters. Note that this distance is only an estimate and is primarily useful as a relative indicator. Actual signals cannot be distinguished from reflected satellite signals and therefore accuracy in feet or meters is approximate.

* We have a new append to clipboard command. Use Control C on the QT and Backspace K on the BT keyboard to append the last GPS message to the clipboard. The first time you use the command, you will hear, “data copied to clipboard.” Subsequent times, you will hear, “data appended to clipboard.”

Then, use the normal BrailleNote Block commands to paste from the clipboard into other files. The data will be in computer Braille format.

Let’s say you have a route open and wish to print or emboss all the turns in the route. Simply press the command to advance to each turn in the route followed by the Append to Clipboard command for each turn. Then switch to a Keyword document and copy the clipboard into that file for any additional editing before printing. The beauty of this approach is it enables you to place some or all of the waypoints or points of interest into a file so you don’t have to do a lot of rearranging afterwards. You cannot append from within the GPS edit functions like recording a POI or editting a route.

Note: The previous command for location details which was on Control C has been moved to Read with C on the QT keyboard.

* As described above, dots 1-4-6 on the BT and the percent key on the QT give the percentage of the route traveled. This command is also available as an M (Multiple) command, M then E.

* New L command for Last announcement spoken.

* Enhanced R then I: This Route Information command provides even more detail about your route.

* The X Intersection Key: Compass direction and intersecting street orientation has been added to the X key announcement.

* New Duplicate Braille Command Keys

In situations where you are prompted Y for Yes or N for No, you can press the Space Bar to equal Yes.

For example, when expanding a POI search you are asked “Expand search to xxx miles?” Press Space for Yes or Back Space for No. The Space accesses the first choice in any command situation including creating a manual Waypoint where you are prompted for Straight, Left or Right. Pressing Space will select the first item in the list, Straight.

Dots 5-6 Enter = D to announce Destination
Dots 2-3 Back Space = T for next Turn
Dots 1-2-3 Back Space = Space T, jump to next turn
Dot 3 with Back Space = Recalculate Route on the BT keyboard, (use the Backslash or Slash key on the QT keyboard to recalculate the route)

* House Keeping:

Long POI searches have been made more robust.

When you press the intersection command at a No-Name street, that no-name street will now be skipped and the nearest named street will be announced. You may here the word “connecting” used at ramps or other streets.

Route calculation has been enhanced to better consider your direction of travel.

When Sounds are turned off in the GPS Options menu, you will no longer here the Off Route or Continue Straight messages verbally. The messages do appear on the Braille display.

The announcement of turns has been improved. The previous waypoint announcements will no longer step on the turning announcement.

The word Personal has been added with reference to User POIs to distinguish your private user POIs from those in the collective Public User file.

** Changes in GPS running under Keysoft 7

*The GPS application in the main menu is now called "Navigation" and the hot key is N instead of G.

*The compact flash slot is now accessed by pressing the letter C. It used to be called the storage card slot on the PK. The Storage slot is now called the PC Card slot.

Pairing and activating Bluetooth is slightly different under KS7 versus previous KS versions. It is no longer necessary on the mPower to perform a Reset after Activating the GPS Bluetooth receiver. See the Bluetooth Getting Started document for details. It is still necessary after resetting to activate Activesync for both the PK and mPower.

For technical support, contact the dealer from whom you purchased your GPS. Direct US Sendero customers call 1-888-757-6810.

HumanWare customers call 1-925-680-7100.

Copyright, Sendero Group, 2006, all rights reserved.