Google. This page can't load Google Maps correctly. Do you own this website? For development purposes only.

Recently my sites started to show the message: Google. This page can't load Google Maps correctly. Do you own this website? For development purposes only.

Now you may be wondering why this occurs and if you're the site owner, what you can do about it.

The reason this message occurs and the map goes grey is because Google charges for map usage over a certain amount. I believe this is around 28,000 views a month. This month because of the lockdown in Victoria my 5km radius map became quite popular and thus all my map sites together exceeded the limit.

Now normally this would be great. Lots of visitors means lots of money. Not so. This site doesn't make me money. I can't put Google ads on the site and even if I did, the site is unlikely to make enough money to cover the $200 people estimate the 28,000 views would cost. I use the rough figure that Google ads earn about $5 per 1,000 views so 28,000 views would earn $140 but cost $200. That's not viable. Even worse, if I don't place a limit on the charges per month I could end up with a very hefty bill. The map does help me promote my other sites a little but not enough to warrant paying Google the money. I'm happy to pay Google as long as I'm ahead but in this case I wouldn't be. The map really just helps people to work out where their 5km radius is when we go into lockdown because of COVID19.

So if paying Google in this case isn't the answer, what could I do?

First I could simply close the site. It's not making money but it has some value to me so that's not my preferred option.

I decided to review the alternate mapping options. The obvious first choice was OpenStreetMaps but after reviewing OpenStreetMaps I felt I could easily reproduce what I was doing with Google Maps. Far too much work. There's also TomTom maps but the limit before you get charged is too low. Luckily In the end I decided to use Here Maps. 

Here Maps if I recall correctly spun off from Nokia and I was able to ascertain fairly quickly Here Maps looked like it could do what I wanted. Most importantly Here Maps allows people to have 250,000 view per month before charging and they don't require a credit card up front. That's about 10 time more traffic than Google Maps so plenty of scope for growth for my sites. Keep in mind I don't have to migrate all sites, just any site that is getting a lot of traffic as was the case this time.

Migrating is a bit of a pain. You really have to learn the new approach. This took a few hours each day over three days and I have to say I'm please with the result. Here Maps feels a little slower than Google Maps but the slight delay isn't a major issue. Initially the Here Maps look more sparse but now that I'm used to the map being sparse it actually feels cleaner. In addition I felt I was able to improve my presentation because I was force to revisit the code. For example I made the transparency greater in the circles which to me improved the result. One disadvantage is I did like that in Windows and on Android phones you could have the map to display full screen. Whilst I felt that was an advantage the disadvantage is this didn't work on iPhones and iPhone uses are far more active on the internet than Android users, so not a big loss. Moving the Here Maps around only requires a single finger on mobile devices and that's more convenient for people. So you win some and you lose some. 

So in summary, Here Maps has allowed me to keep providing my 5km radius map to the general public for free, whereas if I didn't have the option of Here Maps, I most likely would have had to close the site down. I have no angst towards to Google for charging for their maps as they too are in business to make money and am thankful for all the services they provide.

If you're a developer and your Google map faces the same situation of being marked "for development purposes only", at least you know you have a potential option in Here Maps.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.5kmRadius.com.au

GoPro Player message HEVC Decoder Missing when open a GoPro Max .360 file.

After installing GoPro Player on an old desktop computer I decided to installed the GoPro Player on a newer (about 5 years old) notebook. The notebook has an i7 processor and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 950m graphics card.

However when running GoPro Player and opening a .360 file from a GoPro Max the following message appeared.

"HEVC Decoder Missing. Your computer is missing HEVC hardware decoder to read this file. These typically are provided by your computer manufacturer, please contact them to redeem or download the HEVC decoder otherwise you can purchase it from Microsoft Store directly.

The price of the Microsoft HEVC decoder from the Microsoft Store was $1.45 and as it turns out, can be used on up to 10 computers. The real question in my mind is would it work.

You would think purchasing and installing the app would be quite straight forward but after purchasing the app, downloading it and it saying it installed, it hadn't. I needed to go back into the Microsoft Store and install the app.

The good thing is the GoPro Player can now at least open the .360 file produced by the GoPro Max, but it can't player the video. Whilst the HEVC app is close to useless in terms of playing the video, at least I was able to check each .360 file at the start and the end. Sometimes I could move to different parts of the video, but if I tried to play the video the image would stall and the sound would continue.

Whilst you can't play the video using GoPro Player, you can still use the export options which in my case is to create a 4K, mp4 file. You can also use the reframe option to export a HD video.

I also found that you can view the .360 file using Windows Media Player and whilst it isn't displayed correctly, you can at least see the video.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

GoPro Player message Driver Missing

Installed the GoPro Player on an older computer. My idea was to use the old computer to process GoPro Max 360 files. Time then wouldn't matter and I could let the computer run overnight if required. Turns out my plan failed.

When running the GoPro Player I received the message: "Drive Missing. Your computer can't enable required hardware capabilities, make sure you have your drivers up to date."

This message is a bit of a furphy. The real reason is the graphics card isn't capable enough. It's not worth getting a new graphics card as they can be quite expensive.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Toyota Avensis - Malfunction light, contact Toyota dealer. Code PO793/P0793 (later P0717)

Recently, immediately after starting my Toyota Avensis I noticed an orange light appear on the dashboard. I headed straight home as I didn't know what the warning light meant and thus whether or not the car may stop.

Upon arriving home I checked the service book and the light was listed as a Malfunction indicator lamp. The action to be taken was "Take vehicle to Toyota dealer".

I haven't used a Toyota dealer for servicing my car for quite a few years so I contacted my motor mechanic. He suggested I bring it in. He did a test and the test returned a code of PO793 (or P0793) which indicated a speed sensor issue.

What was weird is the issue was intermittent and took some time to track down. In the end my motor mechanic swapped the two speed sensors around and the problem was resolved. It is quite possible that sensor is on its way out and will eventually fail, but swapping the two sensors fixed the issue for the moment (about a month).

The symptom that indicated there was a problem is when I drove the car home, a distance of around 20km, the only thing I noticed, and it only occurred once, is the automatic gear change seemed to be sluggish and lacking power. Other than that I had no problem.

When the motor mechanic had the car he reset the malfunction warning light and took the car for a test drive. The car again had an issue changing gears. However his test equipment indicated the speed sensor was not faulty. Further testing by an auto electrician was on the cards but before that swapping the speed sensors was tried and the problem was resolved, at least for the moment.

My next step is to find out what the signs are for the second speed sensor if it malfunctions. At least I know the speed sensor is a future potential problem.

I hope this helps others who find themselves in the same situation. I couldn't find any others having this particular issue when searching the internet so hopefully someone finds this post useful. At least you know you can swap the speed sensors.

I don't know if taking the car to Toyota would have been cheaper as they may have suitable spare parts they could swap in to test. The total cost of repair in this case was $260. I suspect this was largely the time involved due to the problem being intermittent.

For the future and for my own reference, the following are the symptoms I'll be watching for.

Cruise control does not work

Malfunction light comes on

Delayed shifts

Hard shifts

Limited gear operation

Erratic speedometer

No speedometer reading

Keep in mind I have no real skill with cars so rely on others to fix car issues for me.

Kelvin

Update: 8 Aug 2021

The malfunction light came on again recently, so I combined a visit to the mechanic with a timely service. I was interested in finding out the test code as the two speed sensors had been swapped. This time the code was P0717, a different code, which to me confirms that particular speed sensor was the problem and no need yet to be concerned about the second speed sensor. I was told speed sensors cost around $180 so replacing both when nothing might be wrong with the second speed sensor to me wouldn't be warranted.

Update: 19 Feb 2022
The malfunction light had been coming on and offer over the past few weeks. This time I decided to take the car to a Toyota dealer as they would have better access to spares. The error code was P0717/37 which again was a speed sensor code. However, as explained to me with further investigation the ECU was found to be faulty and was replaced with a second-hand ECU as a new ECU was if I recall correctly going to cost around $2,300 for a new unit alone.

The cost to replace the ECU was $1,136.00

Update: 24 Feb 2022
The second day after having the ECU replaced the malfunction light again came on. I took it back to the Toyota dealer but unfortunately the light didn't come on for them and no error code was present. I collected the car and again the next day the light came on so I returned to the Toyota dealer with the engine running and the malfunction light on. After some investigation the issue and error code appeared to indicate the O2 sensor was faulty.

When I returned to pick up the car today the issue wasn't the O2 sensor but a sensor with an error code of P0737. The  sensor was replaced and the malfunction light is currently off. I'll see what happens next.

The cost to replace the transmission speed sensor was $144.80. No labour was charged.

Update: 13 July 2022

I'm not a motor mechanic and can't tell one sensor from another. I just have an uncomfortable feeling there was no need to replace the ECU since the problem wasn't fixed after the ECU was replaced. There's always the chance there were two problems with one masking the other. Since I don't know enough it's just best to move on. My car's now working and that's what's importnat.