Has Anybody Tried the Onx App on Apple CarPlay for Offroad Maps?
- Thread starter Dogpilot
- Start date
I'm not sure this is accurate - I use GAIA GPS on Apple Carplay in our 2022 Subaru.
Howard
Dogpilot
Active member
Let me re-phrase that, the only one Google let me know about with the search terms I used. Since you mention GAIA, how is it in offline map products, like which ones can I download and use where there is no hope of cell service? The other big one, does it do other than USA/Canada?
pith helmet
Well-known member
I have been curious about this. I just put a new touch screen receiver in my wife's Jeep but have not had a chance to play with it. I will probably just keep using the iPad mini for OnX Hunt and Offroad anyway but would be a nice feature.
ABBB
Well-known member
I’ve tried it, it’s terribly clunky and slow. The two systems do not play well together. Hopefully they work that out with time but OnX is far better with a touch screen so I will continue to have my iPad mounted in my truck and use it that way when on trails. At best it was a beta version, and if that’s the case, they have light years to go before it’s ready to be relied on (especially considering the dangers of navigating off road and the importance of clearly presented data).
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I have been playing with Gaia in my 21 Ram 3500 with Apple Car play. It seems really limited compared to the iPhone version , either that or there is a hidden menu somewhere.
It uses whatever map layers that you have selected on the phone.
I have standalone iPhone 12 Promax without cellular that I down load maps to, so I will probably keep playing with that instead of the CarPlay , but the bigger screen would be slick.
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It uses whatever map layers that you have selected on the phone.
I have standalone iPhone 12 Promax without cellular that I down load maps to, so I will probably keep playing with that instead of the CarPlay , but the bigger screen would be slick.
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You should probably do your own research about relative merits of GAIA, ONX, etc. There are several threads here on Expedition Portal. Personally, I like GAIA better than others I've tried but I completely respect others who prefer different apps.
One thing to note about Apple Carplay - if applications are following Apple's directives the screen functions on the Carplay display are not simple mirrors of the display on your mobile device. So while the Carplay display will show you a similar display to your mobile device it will not be as interactive via touch. If you like chatting with Siri it might be functionally similar but I'm adverse to talking to my car so I use the mobile screen for touch commands and the Carplay display for a large view.
Honestly, as @ABBB mentions above, working with a tablet is more functional if you have the space.
Howard
Dogpilot
Active member
I tried to look up threads, but if you include the word overland, the search engine rejects it, too many hits. So there goes one half of Onx's name. That leaves Onx, which the search engine gives you over 13 pages of discoveries of the three letter combination Onx as it occurs as part of another word, the first 5 pages returned nothing of value. Then if you search CarPlay, you get dozens of pages of vehicles for sale or ones people bought with CarPlay installed. Again, nothing of value. So I did my research prior to asking, besides as this software updates, it usually gets better. This is part of my research is getting some current user feedback.
I already have a super large format GPS unit. It works in my aircraft. I am a geologist, I do a lot of remote sensing. I have a need to go and ground truth the data that the sensor platforms deliver to me from the aircraft. I have traditionally used the unit, which I remove from the aircraft. It is handy as it records the aircraft's entire route and provides real time weather via ADS-B signals. It also will load up most of Garmin's Topo Maps. I am just trying to get away from yet one more (super expensive) item on the dash, ergo why I speced my new vehicle with the large display, hoping something decent could be put up on it as earlier navigation displays where virtually useless. Now if I could totally trust the remote data it would be super, but as recent conflicts have pointed out, we blew up a lot of rocks and trees. Most of my gear is derived from those sensors. Why it needs boots on the ground. If I can get something decent, then even when I go to Africa or South America to do my work, I can simply spec the rental truck to have CarPlay. I can't always bring toys you normally use here in the USA, as in some countries, they're considered subversive. In some countries I can't even bring my laptop, Ethiopia for example. I can leave virtually anything in the aircraft, since it has a permit and is essentially sovereign by registration anyhow, as all the gear is part of its equipment list. Getting it on and off the airport is the challenge. Heck in UAE, they gave me grief bringing a propeller out to the aircraft. So if anybody has useful feedback on their experiences, especially the offline map loading, I would really appreciate it.
I already have a super large format GPS unit. It works in my aircraft. I am a geologist, I do a lot of remote sensing. I have a need to go and ground truth the data that the sensor platforms deliver to me from the aircraft. I have traditionally used the unit, which I remove from the aircraft. It is handy as it records the aircraft's entire route and provides real time weather via ADS-B signals. It also will load up most of Garmin's Topo Maps. I am just trying to get away from yet one more (super expensive) item on the dash, ergo why I speced my new vehicle with the large display, hoping something decent could be put up on it as earlier navigation displays where virtually useless. Now if I could totally trust the remote data it would be super, but as recent conflicts have pointed out, we blew up a lot of rocks and trees. Most of my gear is derived from those sensors. Why it needs boots on the ground. If I can get something decent, then even when I go to Africa or South America to do my work, I can simply spec the rental truck to have CarPlay. I can't always bring toys you normally use here in the USA, as in some countries, they're considered subversive. In some countries I can't even bring my laptop, Ethiopia for example. I can leave virtually anything in the aircraft, since it has a permit and is essentially sovereign by registration anyhow, as all the gear is part of its equipment list. Getting it on and off the airport is the challenge. Heck in UAE, they gave me grief bringing a propeller out to the aircraft. So if anybody has useful feedback on their experiences, especially the offline map loading, I would really appreciate it.
ABBB
Well-known member
I would guess, based on your needs, that CarPlay won’t be an option for at least several years. CarPlay doesn’t allow for the interactivity of a tablet or phone, which OnX and GAIA require. It may not ever be usable that way. You’d need a display/infotainment center that is more of a true tablet than what most vehicles have, and even then I don’t think CarPlay will allow for the kind of complex navigational activity you’re describing.
OnX is quite comprehensive here in the western US. I’ve used it locally here in southern Oregon quite a bit and as well as I’ve traversed coast to coast, in and out of the backcountry. It is imperative that you downloads maps in advance if there’s any chance you won’t have high speed data available. Even then it’s still better to download in advance over wifi. To get the highest quality resolution and most detailed maps downloaded, you have to pick a small thumbnail of area, five miles wide. Ten miles wide gets you medium res, 150 miles gets you low. I have found that high resolution is best, but this is a painstaking process of downloading one small area at a time in the app. Necessary, but painstaking. I’d suggest playing around on a tablet, downloading maps of differing resolution, in an area local to you so you can determine what is adequate for your needs. You could get away with a large phone, but a tablet, like the iPad mini or something similar with a 7-8” screen is best for utility and compactness. Make sure it has lots of GBs available for local storage. Most of the storage on my tablet is used up with maps.
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Hello Dogpilot:
I apologize for coming across as critical when I said "You should probably do your own research..." Reading that post again I realize it sounded that way. What I meant to convey was that discussions about GAIA versus Onx can get pretty impassioned and some who have written fairly informative posts about the topic might be reluctant to write all that over again, thus additional replies about the issue might be less informative.
Here is one link might be helpful:
http://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/gaia-vs-onx.214043/
If you'd like to read others, I'd just go to the mapping-navigation-gis-software subforum and skim the titles.
Personally, I prefer GAIA because I like the relatively fast download of a wide variety of map layers useful in my outdoor activities (scrambling peaks, backpacking, packrafting, bikepacking, hiking and enough off highway driving to get me to remote places for those activities). In my experience GAIA works best on the iOS platform with maximum amounts of resident memory in the mobile device. I have 512 MB in my iPhone 11pro and 1 TB in my iPad Pro 12.9. The iPhone is stretched currently, but that's because I like full resolution versions of my photos constantly available.
In terms of international maps I'd say it's pretty hit or miss. I doubt you'll find one application that will provide the best maps available for every country. For quite awhile I used AlpineQuest on an Android device and was surprised at the detailed coverage available in many countries. I shifted to GAIA because I wanted a single app that would coordinate across my various mobile devices, laptop and desktop computers.
Howard
Dogpilot
Active member
That pretty much puts a pin in this. CarPlay, in its current form, I gather, is not very useful for mapping software. I am not too terribly interactive with the gizmos while navigating to a prospective point. As for International maps, the selection is fairly skimpy for most countries in Africa. In some cases, lets take Ivory Coast for example, your lucky if major roads are depicted. Topo maps are ancient or non-existent. It is a bit ironic that things like Google or Apple Maps have better coverage in the 3rd world than most map products. Same goes in aviation, the subscription for the USA and Canada is about the same and same size as everywhere else in the world. Main problem I tend to have with the Apple/Google is the limited offline download.
I do get the Ford Chevy, affirm my purchase of many impassioned threads. Big problem is I use seldom used features of many of these programs. The developers are fairly light on their explanations, so it comes down to anybody tried it. I have a drawer full of failed map programs. You don't know how bad they fail till you buy the whole package and try it. Big problem I have with Garmin's offerings is it removal of dirt roads if you scale out to try to plan out something that goes over 10-20 miles, so you are trying to piece together the route in your mind as you scroll in and out, and around the screens. There is the same problem with the presentation on high end aviation displays costing many, many times more. So I guess it comes down to keep using paper in some locations. I still keep a paper copy of paper IFR charts in the aircraft.
I suppose I will have to try and see if I can do a month on each and poke around. The free trails limit what they do so much as to be fairly useless. Things like take my tracks, run them in another offline program and import them are track routes and see what I get. So much tech and so little of it talks to anything else, at least on a useful basis.
I do get the Ford Chevy, affirm my purchase of many impassioned threads. Big problem is I use seldom used features of many of these programs. The developers are fairly light on their explanations, so it comes down to anybody tried it. I have a drawer full of failed map programs. You don't know how bad they fail till you buy the whole package and try it. Big problem I have with Garmin's offerings is it removal of dirt roads if you scale out to try to plan out something that goes over 10-20 miles, so you are trying to piece together the route in your mind as you scroll in and out, and around the screens. There is the same problem with the presentation on high end aviation displays costing many, many times more. So I guess it comes down to keep using paper in some locations. I still keep a paper copy of paper IFR charts in the aircraft.
I suppose I will have to try and see if I can do a month on each and poke around. The free trails limit what they do so much as to be fairly useless. Things like take my tracks, run them in another offline program and import them are track routes and see what I get. So much tech and so little of it talks to anything else, at least on a useful basis.
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I don't know if it still true, but GAIA used to be very liberal about refunding the cost of a Premium membership if a user was not satisfied.
Within GAIA premium the ESRI World Imagery layer seems to represent various regions fairly well. While it's simply raster imagery I've found it useful in finding wander tracks. If you try GAIA you might try there.
I forgot to mention that I also download large regions of Google Maps for use outside of cell phone coverage. That can work well if the information you seek is within the limited data contained within the downloads.
Howard
nwoods
Expedition Leader
I think you might be missing a point @ABBB tried making. The CarPlay portion of either program, OnX or Gaia, is just the display. I have my iPhone mounted to my dash next to my CarPlay screen, and I use the phone for data entry in Gaia, such as way pointing, turning on/off tracking, etc.... I just use the CarPlay screen for routing info, and the combination of the two devices works really well. Its similar to Google maps in a way. If you use Google Maps for street navigation on CarPlay, you get the graphic view of where your going, and on your phone, it displays the turn by turn text only info. These things don't replace each other, they supplement each other.
TheGetLostTaco
We go places
Hate to be the ************ but on x is not that great. I see a future in the space for the app but they have a long way to go. Gaia is still pretty much the gold standard for mapping capabilities. I wish someone would come out with a live satellite update version of maps. Maybe thinking to futuristic but with technology expanding on a daily basis someone could do better at on x. I still use a sexton.
We’ve used OnX some on car play. It works fine for seeing where you are in relation to the road/trail. It is far more interactive on a phone or tablet though. It is just easier to zoom in or scroll around the map to see the details on these devices. For navigating along the trail, it works fine on CarPlay.