Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Tiloscope.
What is Tiloscope?
Tiloscope is a Garmin Connect IQ datafield and widget that displays a tile map centred on your GPS position during a run, ride, or any outdoor activity. It shows which map tiles you have already visited in this activity or any time before that — synced from StatsHunters — in real time on your watch screen, with no manual preparation before heading out.
A free Tiloscope account is required because Garmin devices have strict memory limits and cannot load your full tile history at once. The Tiloscope backend stores your tile data in the cloud and delivers it to your device in small chunks it can handle, keeping the map up to date throughout your activity.
Tiloscope is not affiliated with Strava, StatsHunters, VeloViewer or Squadrats.
How do I get started with the datafield?
1. Create an account and enter your StatsHunters API key.
2. Hit Refresh tiles in the dashboard to pull your tile history from StatsHunters.
3. Install the Tiloscope datafield on your Garmin from the Connect IQ Store and set it a full screen datafield inside your activity
4. Start an activity on your watch and scroll to the datafield — it will show a paring key. Register that key in the Tiloscope dashboard
5. When the device has a GPS fix and a data connection, press Start to fetch the tiles around you and begin exploring.
What do the tile colors mean?
What is a StatsHunters API key, and where do I find it?
StatsHunters is a platform that tracks which z14 tiles you have visited based on your Strava activity uploads. Your API key is a personal token that lets Tiloscope fetch your tile data on your behalf, same as the various route planning tools out there. You can find it in your StatsHunters profile settings under API access. The key is stored in our database and is only ever sent to the StatsHunters API.
How does the Squadrats KML import work
When logged in at Squadrats you can hit that download button and Squadrats will provide a kml file of your tiles. You can upload that in Tiloscope to import your tile history. Obviously this means its outdated as soon as you go out hunting tiles and you would have to reupload. Enable the temporary tiles setting for in between refreshes. Squadrats KML import is also the only supported method for importing z17 tiles (squadratinhos). You can use it in parallel to the automatic z14 tile refreshes from StatsHunters.
How does the Veloviewer KML import work
On Veloviewer there is different kml files to download. The right one is labeled "Explorer tile export" and you can find it on the Activities Tab in the Map Settings. You can upload that in Tiloscope to import your tile history. Obviously this means its outdated as soon as you go out hunting tiles and you would have to reupload. Enable the temporary tiles setting for in between refreshes.
What does the Garmin datafield show?
The datafield renders the zoom 14 tile map centred on your current position. Tiles are blue if previously visited and turn green, if you have visited them in the current activity. Unvisited tiles in the visible area are shown red. The central dot marks your current position as reported by the GPS. If the dot is outline only, the gps fix is unreliable. The bottom info shows the nearest tile edge. You can also set a top info to show count of new tiles or distance to the next unvisited tile.
What does the z14 and z17 mean?
The regular app version use the more widely used zoom 14 tile size (approximately 1,5km), whereas the z17 version uses a smaller tile size (also called squadratinhos, approximately 200m), all depending on the position on earth. To hunt z17 tiles, you need to use the z17 version of the app and upload your tile history via the Squadrats KML import.
What does the Garmin widget show?
The widget renders the OSM tile map centred on your current position. Tiles are marked with an icon regarding their status. If accessed from a running activity, it also shows breadcrumb trails and route if one is loaded. If you also use the datafield and have temporary tiles enabled (in the dashboard) you can also see current activity tiles in the widget.
When are tiles cached locally?
Tiles are cached locally on your Garmin device when you press the Start button during an activity (only with smarthpone bluetooth and data connection). Tile Cache will be refetched automatically during an activity when you are about to leave the prefetched area. Caching can only be initiated from the device.
When are tiles refreshed on the Tiloscope server?
If you have provided your Statshunters API key, tiles are refreshed automatically at regular intervals for active users (normally 6hrs after last device fetch, but maximum once per day). You can manually refresh your tiles from the dashboard at any time.
What are temporary tiles?
Temporary tiles are meant to help track your tile exploring progress mid activity for use on mobile (PWA) and the widget. They are visited tiles that your garmin devices has reported to Tiloscope server during the activity (adjustable frequency). When enabled, temporary tiles are also distinctly displayed in the widget and map on the smartphone as visited or new tiles. They will be deleted whenever the tile set is refreshed (from Statshunters or KML Upload). Temporary tiles will never alter the main tile set. Garmin restricts any widget from directly accessing data from any datafield, temporary tiles circumvent this limitation. They are especially helpful if you make multiple activities per day, use the widget/PWA during running activities or if you use the KML uploads options. The setting applies to z14 and z17 tiles.
What is the Tiloscope progressive web app (PWA)?
Tiloscope PWA is basically just the tiloscope.de website with a little helper file, so it can be added to your homescreen on your smarthpone. This has some benefits regarding caching compared to a just a basic link, so it has basic offline capabilities. The main use case is to view the temporary tiles on the smartphone, where the bigger screen allows easier orientation and the navigation mode. You can also load a gpx into the PWA to view your tile exploration progress along the planned route. You can use the phone as bike head unit, while tracking with the garmin watch. To install the PWA, simply add the website to your homescreen from your smartphone's browser and select "Install" (named a little differently depending on your browser).
How does the navigation mode work?
In Navigation mode, Tiloscope PWA shows the map in heading up orientation and follows your movement. It will also auto sync temp tiles from your account. Recommended to set your datafield setting Temp Tiles Update to "new unvisited tiles".
Whats cross-device sync?
You can plan routes on your desktop and save them to your account. The current route is then fetched when opening the PWA on the smarthphone. From the phone you can easily export gpx and transfer to the Garmin device or use in the PWA navigation mode.
Whats the glide area?
The glide area toggles a reachability analysis based on the 90m Copernicus elevation model. You can set your expected glide ratio and check reachable landing spots.
Why can't the garmin datafield directly fetch from statshunters.com? Why does Tiloscope want to store my tiles?
Garmin Devices normally dont have the storage and performance capabilities to fetch and cache large amounts of tile data in real-time. Tiloscope caches the statshunters data locally and only provides a small subset of your tiles at activity start. The amount can be adjusted in the datafield settings from insde the Garmin IQ Smartphone App.
My Devices is very slow when I use Tiloscope datafield.
Try reducing the mapzoom, breadcrumb trail and tile buffer in the datafield settings from insde the Garmin IQ Smartphone App. The limits seem very device specific.
What are good values for the datafield settings?
Garmin Devices are very different in terms of storage and performance capabilities. It's recommended to start with the default values and adjust them based on your device's performance. After a change in data handling, tile cache size has been signifcantly improved starting from version v0.15.
The datafield keeps crashing.
Try reducing the mapzoom, breadcrumb trail and tile cache size in the datafield settings from insde the Garmin IQ Smartphone App. The limits seem very device specific. You might need to uninstall and reinstall it. If you keep experiencing issues, please reach out to me.
How do I delete my account?
Go to the dashboard, scroll to the Danger Zone section, and click Delete my account. You will be asked to confirm by typing your email address. Deletion is immediate and permanent — all your data (email, tile list, API key) is removed from our systems.
What data does Tiloscope store about me?
We store your email address, a hashed password, your StatsHunters API key, your tile list (OSM tile coordinates only — never any GPS coordinates or traces), and timestamped refresh and device-request logs. We do not use 3rd party analytics, cookies, or advertising trackers. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
Who is behind Tiloscope?
I am a solo developer passionate about outdoor activities and technology and created Tiloscope as a fun project to learn about garmin programming (Monkey C).