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Mark your location
This screen is selected by touching the Mark (or Find) button in the lower left corner.
IPark doesn't work by a signal sent from your vehicle. It uses the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system to store your vehicle's location in space. To do this, you must tell IPark when to mark your location. You can do this while sitting in your vehicle if the signal is good enough, otherwise you should wait until you are standing outside.
The rectangle in the middle of the screen is a button, which will have a default "cartoon" vehicle image if you have not taken a photo (the example to the left shows a photo of the Lexus that is currently selected).
The white rectangle above the button is an area to store a short optional note. Simply touch it to pull up the keyboard, enter your note, then press Done on the keyboard. If you choose to store a note you must do it before marking your position.
GPS satellite signals are very weak because the satellites are many thousands of miles away in space and the iPhone only has space for a small antenna. Also, at least 3 and preferably more satellites must be visible and being received to calculate your position in space.
The upper right hand corner of the screen shows the current GPS accuracy. The color of the button is red if this accuracy is too poor to record your vehicle's position; it would not be much good to lead you back to a spot a mile away. A yellow color indicates that the accuracy is only fair; it may be some distance away from your vehicle, but perhaps close enough to be useful. If you are in a hurry, you can press the button at this point. If not, it is better to wait until the button turns green. If you have the Automark on Good Fix preference selected (see Preferences below), IPark will then store your position; otherwise simply press the button when it's green.
After marking, you can close IPark if you wish, then proceed to your destination. |
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Find your way back
If you are actively tracking a marked vehicle position (see prior screen above), you will see the finder screen. This contains a variety of information designed to get you back to your vehicle.
It's as easy as following the compass. A vertical compass point straight up means that you are walking directly towards your car. Otherwise the compass points to your car in relation to the direction you're currently walking. In the example at left, you should change direction and start walking more towards the left.
IPark updates the compass needle to direct you to your marked spot, as long as you are steadily walking. As you get closer to your vehicle, the compass circle turns from grey to yellow. You will also see exact distance as well as an indicator bar when under 1000 feet away. Continue to follow the compass needle until the entire circle turns green. If you saved an image of your currently selected vehicle in the database, the image will appear on the green circle when you are close. The vibrate iPhone feature is activated when the compass turns green if you set your IPark Preferences.
Tire tracks appear on the compass circle if the GPS accuracy gets low. A red spot with a black bar appears if the GPS signal is unavailable to point the needle in the right direction.
Email your location
Email your vehicle location and description by pressing the envelope icon. Your link to Google maps, and vehicle description, can be sent to any iPhone or email-capable electronic device. This is useful if your car is broken down or if you simply want to let a friend know how to find you.
Map your location
You can send the vehicle location to your phone's Google Maps application by pressing the map icon, though that is not very useful in a large parking lot. The Maps application will be pre-set with your car's destination and a routing plan to it.
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Return to a previously saved spot
Individual location entries are kept for each vehicle in your database. When in Marking mode, simply press the "History (all)" button to select from the location history sorted by time, or "History (by city)" to sort by city name/time, and you'll see a pop-up dialog such as the example at left. If you entered a custom note, it will be displayed in blue. Otherwise, the date, time, location in words, and latitude/longitude location are always shown. If this list is long enough, you can scroll the window up to see older entries.
To start tracking back to a particular location, simply select the desired entry and the given location will be set as the current destination for the Finder window (see above). You can then follow the virtual compass to that location, email it to others, or display it on Google maps.
To delete any given entry, simply drag your finger across an entry and a Delete button will be displayed; pressing it will delete the entry.
To selectively delete a number of entries, press the Edit button and you can easily select the ones to be deleted.
To clear all entries, simply press the Clear button then either confirm or cancel. If you confirm, all entries will be deleted and the dialog will disappear. |
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Parking Garage
Press Garage at the bottom of your screen, the second entry from the left.
To enter brief custom note, select the white rectangle above and a keyboard will pop up. When done, press the Done button on the keyboard.
The parking level, section, and up to a 4-digit numbered spot, are all selected by selecting a particular "wheel" and moving up or down.
If in a specific vehicle database, such as Lexus, selecting History displays the garage parking history for that vehicle. Select Start Parking Timer to track your time. The total time is noted in the database entry once you stop the timer. Press Leaving Garage to stop the timer. |
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Parking Meter
Press Meter at the bottom of your screen, the third entry from the left.
The meter permits easy tracking of parking meter time. To add easily add minutes to the meter, corresponding to coin drops, click on the appropriate add time button. The time can also be easily set by directly moving the time wheel up or down. Press the Done button when ready to leave. The expiration date and time will then appear at the top of the screen.
The timer will keep track of time remaining on the meter, and alert you by color when time is short, and making a honking sound when the time is expired. It will then track the total expired time. Due to current Apple restrictions the app cannot alert you when it isn't running, although it will continue to track meter time.
When ready to stop the meter, simply press the Stop button, or press the Add Time button to add additional time to the meter. |
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Search for Parking
Find nearby parking facilities by pressing the Search button at the far right bottom of your screen.
This will automatically use your current position to find parking facilities in your vicinity, identified by red pins. You can select a pin to get additional information on the facility.
Beneath the map is a readable, scrollable list of the marked facilities with their current distance from you. Selecting a pin or a list entry will display the facility address and phone number, replacing the "Select a destination box" to the left.
To route from your current location to the selected facility, simply press the Route button for directions. |
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Set your preferences
Simply open your iPhone settings then select preferences for IPark. There you can choose to automatically mark your position on a good GPS fix, vibrate your phone on a good fix, vibrate when back at your vehicle, select English or Metric units, and enter your AAA # if you have one. |
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Select and add vehicles
Press Vehicle at the bottom, third from the left, to see available vehicles in the IPark database. Initially, there is only the Default vehicle. It is possible to edit the default vehicle but the best practice is to create a new customized vehicle, since the Default cannot be deleted.
Pressing the Vehicle button in the upper left corner will take you back to the currently selected vehicle.
Selecting a vehicle from the table, which will scroll if they are more vehicles than can be displayed in one screen, will select it as the current vehicle for all other IPark functions.
Select the Edit button to select vehicles for delection (except Default). Dragging your finger across a row will also permit it to be selected for deletion. Important: deleting a vehicle automatically deletes all of its Mark and Garage history, so be careful.
Press the + button in the upper right hand corner to add a new vehicle (see screen below). |
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Displaying the current vehicle
This screen displays information on the current vehicle. Currently, IPark can store a vehicle description, the Make, the Model, and the Plate number. All of these fields exception Description are optional. If given, they will be included as part of location emails so that your vehicle can be more easily identified, for example by a towing company.
To edit the information, included re-taking the vehicle photo, press the Edit button in the upper left corner.
To go back to the list of available vehicles, press the List button in the upper right corner.
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Adding a vehicle
This is the screen displayed after pressing the + button in the vehicle list screen (see above). Here, you can add a new vehicle. To enter information for any of the four fields, select it with your finger and enter the information with the pop-up keyboard, pressing Done when finished.
Press the Photo button to take a photo of your vehicle. This only needs to be done once, not every time you park; the photo is stored in the IPark database.
When done, you must press the Save button in the upper right corner, or else you will lose the entered information once you exit IPark. |
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Editing a vehicle
This is the screen displayed after pressing the Edit button in the current vehicle screen (see above). Here, you can edit the current vehicle's information. To enter information for any of the four fields, select it with your finger and enter the information with the pop-up keyboard. Pressing Redo Photo permits the photo to be re-taken.
If satisfied with the results, press the Done button, otherwise press Cancel to lose changes. |
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