[Xastir] Pi 3 as tile server?

[Freddie]

I have read your various posts on balloons and rockets. I understand your usage and I get the whole reason for detail. I need detail for some of the things I am involved with as well. 

Using the scanned USGS maps (topo), only gets you the equivalent of 7.5' maps. There is no new data, just a closer view as you increase the zoom. Since there are often no tiles beyond a particular level, increasing the zoom will only expand the original pixel to 4 pixels and then to 16 pixels and beyond assuming the application will allow that. 

According to the link, Alabama would need a bunch of tiles. And of course 2 or 3 extra states only increase the need. 
http://tools.geofabrik.de/calc/#type=geofabrik_standard&bbox=-88.812524,29.966778,-84.494652,35.105569 

One possibility is to split the states onto their own SD card with maybe a little overlap. 

I believe the biggest problem with using tiles is not the storage space required. It will be the acquisition of the tiles. If using OSM, the group is very much against bulk downloads (find the tile usage rules - they will cut you off). The best method to get large areas of OSM is to build your own renderer/server. Lynn, APRSIS32 fame, built his own and his Android app pulls from it. 

I assume there is a method to add contours since Thunderforest uses contours on some styles. ( http://www.thunderforest.com/maps/ ) 

As far as the typical USGS topo or aerial type tiles, downloading is possibly the only answer. I wrote a downloader that would meter out its requests which, in theory, kept the bandwidth low enough to not cause getting cutoff. It would take a very long time to gather your states of interest! For several large areas I was interested in it would take days to weeks. I would probably run it faster today though since most apps are pulling 10 x15 tiles areas now rather the the 5x8 areas from a few years ago. I have hit download limits which have always reset eventually, hence the timer. 

Regarding storage, I have a Western Digital 120GB Passport USB hard drive. It is about 8 years old now I think. It has been nothing short of amazing. It has spent over a year in my vehicle with temperature swings from 0F (parked car in the winter) to 120F (parked car in the summer). It was my repository for music and tiles during my 2 hour+ commute. It traveled many a year in my lunch bag for use at home and work. It has even been on hiking trips. It has outlasted many (at least a dozen) USB sticks and SD cards. Like I said it has been nothing short of amazing. Best ~$100 I have ever spent on storage space. It is still in use but it is stationary now next to a PC powered around the clock. 

Maybe this will help. 

Best regards, 
Fred N7FMH 


----- Original Message -----

From: "Jason KG4WSV" <kg4wsv at gmail.com> 
To: "Xastir - APRS client software discussion" <xastir at lists.xastir.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 1:19:28 PM 
Subject: Re: [Xastir] Pi 3 as tile server? 

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 12:13 PM, Freddie <fmhillhouse at comcast.net> wrote: 

> I guess that what you are doing is significantly different than my usage. 


Yep. 

I track stuff - balloon and rockets. 

With balloons, I do not know exactly where they will land, and I will need 
fairly detailed data about the random area where they do land. This means 
that I really need a significant chunk of 3 states at _all_ zoom levels. 

I'd like to be able to use this as a mapping navigation device. i don't 
expect directions, but if i could get arbitrary maps that were readable, 
then i'd permanently mount it in my vehicle. in this case i'd also need 
detailed tiles of an arbitrarily large area (e.g. anywhere i'm likely to 
wander). If I don't have detail it isn't any good to me. 


I strongly suspect what I'm trying to do isn't really feasible, but the 
cool kids are all using tiles and I thought I'd check it out. 

I'll probably end up getting the new TIGER files and updating the dbfawks, 
if necessary. maybe not as pretty as a Mapnik tile, but it works for me. 

-Jason 
kg4wsv 
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