Thanks chuq, some good information there.
Can you share anything about the (early) results of this testing? Are you feeling confident that you can find a formula that works, or do you think you’ll still have to pursue an alternative to Google Maps?
Google maps API usage for the first half of November fell within the free tier. Starting November 13 I passed that threshold and am now seeing some high usage peeks (holiday planning in the US I guess). I placed a strict quota on the API usage and the map will now stop working after about $20 used in a single day.
Converting to open street map is a lot of work. Was able to spend a couple hours this evening, and, well, I have the markers showing up:
That is something…
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It will definitely take a while to get all supercharge.info features working on openstreetmap. And even then, there is the question of cost. The above map was generated using mapbox as the “tile provider”. Their pricing (https://www.mapbox.com/pricing/) is significantly less than googles (maybe 10% or so) at my current usage level. But if supercharge.info becomes more popular (which we want) I could eventually grow to where the mapbox costs approach current costs at google. Maybe there are still cheaper options out there with the necessary features. I’ll keep looking as time permits.
In the mean time I think I need to try this patreon idea, to keep the site running. Really stepping out of my comfort zone, but here it is. I’ll post it just for the limited audience in this forum first and see if anyone has thoughts to share:
I guess that link would go in a banner at the top of supercharge.info, visible to each user one time only.
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I’ve signed up!
Maybe want to change the “You are now a Patron of Keith” to “Patron of supercharge.info” or something similar!
Also just spotted a typo in the URL in the description:
Hi Keith - got your own Tesla yet? I think posting your referral code will give you some benefit back for all the hard work and the great effort you have made for electric mobility by creating supercharge.info.
Or make it even more tempting to be a patreon by randomly selecting one of the patreons every day and displaying that persons referral code that day?
Signed up too! And posted about supporting supercharge.info on the national Tesla forums on Facebook in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
André, I finally converted my day 1 model 3 reservation into an order on October 18th: mid range, deep blue metallic, 19" sport wheels, and white interior. Expecting delivery in the next few weeks. Last time we talked (last year) one of the things I said was “hopefully” the model 3 out sells Chevy bolt in 2018. Looks like it will be about 130,000 models 3 vs about 17,000 Bolts. With Tesla delivering to North America only so far. Why was I even concerned. 
I like the referral code ideas, will definitely consider those. I already see three other patreon joins due to your Facebook post (based on the last names).
Charles, thanks for the suggestion and correction. I have fixed the typo and will see if I can change the sign up message before I put the patreon link on supercharge.info later this evening.
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Until you get enough supporters to maintain operations with some cushion or to re-expand back some of the limited functionality if that’s a goal, I think a higher rate of display is warranted. Or at least an initial period of time where it is always displayed.
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96 patreons so far! When you wrote 200 needed you mush have guesstimated what level of support each was willing to give. Has the amounts pledged by each so far been according to your guess?
With 98 patrons at the moment: There is $204/month pledged. So very close to $2/person. Good progress I think.
$204 becomes $184 after patreon.com fee (10% ouch) and about $140 after US taxes.
Google maps bills me on 18th:
- Oct 18th to Nov 18th: $200.52
- Nov 18th to Today: already at $180.00
Overall it looks like patreon will help balance the budget while I spend time converting to another map provider. If you include donations from gofundme campains, overall finances for the site are still approximately $2,500 positive, including all costs for the past 4 years.
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open street map implementation:
https://supercharge.info/static/2018-12-27-osm-wip
Routing is not working 100% yet, but soon. Progress.
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I’m not able to view the image MrPlugShare. Is it showing a construction icon not aligned correctly with the pop up over it? Aware of that, but wondering if what you found is something else.
It looks good. The only issue that I noticed is that there is no time estimate shown on the legs of a multi-leg route, which I use all the time for route planning.
Best wishes for 2019!
You probably already know this, but two issues with the new map:
- clicking on a site name from the changes list is very hit and miss as to where it takes you on the map
- clicking on the ‘Nearby’ link from the map pop-up goes into limbo - actually a url like this: https://supercharge.info/map#1155
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Thanks for the feedback JSergeant, very helpful.
- Durations are now shown for individual route legs.
- I improved change list to map navigation a bit. Thought it was fixed, but now that I’m working from a slower computer I see that the first navigation (first time map is displayed) still does not consistently show the correct location. More work to do.
- Nearby links are still a work in progress.
Expected to have more time to program over the Holidays but with two kids…did not have much at all.
If interested here is the change list for converting from google map to openstreetmap:
Red lines represent code deleted, green code added. About ten hours of work over two sessions.
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Thanks for sharing some good alternatives. I have been searching for some lately. It seems that the best one is Mabox though. Here is an interesting comparison.
Happy to have stumbled upon this thread. I’m working on my location-aware app and every piece of content regarding this topic is extremely useful. You can also check this article, it’s about how to create such apps and what technologies to use.
I also believe Mapbox is quite a good alternative:
-its SDK is open source,
-it works offline,
-it is esay to customize.
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