SpeedAlert: a tool with an overlay that alerts you when overspeeding.

surfer63

V1.8: Add speed limit as road sign

Download from my github. Readme is here. Full Changelog.

Changelog

Make country fallback speeds an option: Currently if the app can't get a max speed tag for the road, it will use a country fallback (city/urban, rural, divided and motorway). That sometimes gives weird max. speeds. Sometimes too high, sometimes too low. The first is of course undesirable as you might get a ticket for overspeeding. In some countries it might be better not to use them -> so make it an option.
Add option for a road sign speed limit.
When the option for road sign has been chosen, a second option appears to only show the speed sign and not the current speed.

Required permissions

Background location - The app (Android) will ask: "Allow all the time", "Allow only when using the app", "Ask every time", "Deny". You need to select "Allow all the time", as the app needs to be able to run in the background. This means it can use background location as long as the app runs (not as long as your system runs).
Overlay permission
Notification permission
Ignore Battery optimization (especially on Android 14/15/16)

Geoff_T

surfer63

Firstly, thanks very much for all of the work you are putting into this.

I have just loaded V1.8 and had a test drive. Unfortunately I can't share logs from my car device as the log file seems to be set to write to the SD card and I don't have one installed (I use USB for my music files etc etc) and I don't have an email account set up in the car.

But I think there is a a bug:

I toggled on the "Use country fallback speeds when no maxspeed tag" and have the "Use mph instead of kh/h" toggle on, but on my test drive all of the speeds shown looked like conversion from 20,30,60 km/h to mph (so 12mph, 18mph, 37mph etc) rather than the correct limits which would have been 30 & 60 mph on that drive. Then I noticed when I went back into settings that the fallback speed toggle was set to off. I double checked and turned it on again, exit settings, back into settings and it was off.

So I don't know if the fallback speed was actually working, but even if it was the speeds for me are still getting converted incorrectly.

EDIT.

From my logs on my home tablet with V1.8 it seems to be setting the fallback speed to kmh for GB (as the 30 is displayed as 18):

2026-03-01 15:01:12.898 Service: repo returned SpeedLimitResult(speedKmh=-1, limitKmh=-1, source=raw-nominatim:gb)
2026-03-01 15:01:12.902 Service: no valid speed limit — applying fallback
2026-03-01 15:01:12.920 Fallback applied: SpeedLimitResult(speedKmh=-1, limitKmh=30, source=fallback:GB)

rumot

surfer63 I downloaded it, it's GREAT!

surfer63

Geoff_T

The country fallback speeds as such are correct, see here.
And your log shows it is getting the correct fallback speed, although it mentions it as kmh (a bug, I will correct that).
But I currently can't find in my own code where it does the conversion: it should not, but obviously it does.

surfer63

Geoff_T

I found it. Please test. If correct I will release a 1.8.1 bug fix. Also fixed an ANR in the debug screen.

Provisional Changelog:

Fallback speeds GB/US on file were in mph, but considered by the code as kmh and therefore converted incorrectly to mph (which is not necessary at all). Convert GB/US to kmh in the file and do indeed convert to mph, as that's so much simpler for only 2 countries than adapting the code and giving all 27 fallbacks (currently) an identifier.
The Debug screen updates far too often. Use buffering and "once per second" gui writing to prevent ANRs (Application Not Responding)

Temporary download: REMOVED

Geoff_T

surfer63

It says in a comment at the top of that code for fallback that speeds are in km/h but the GB ones are 30,60,70,70 which is the mph ones. Is it just that the comment is wrong?

Geoff_T

That code says speed in km/h but the GB entries are in actual mph whereas eg the US ones seem to be mph converted to km/h

US" to FallbackSpeeds(
urban = 40,
rural = 70,
divided = 90,
motorway = 120

Geoff_T

Thought my first post had disappeared- weird things happening on this board.

Geoff_T

surfer63

I can only test this on my home tablet at the moment but it seems to be picking up GPS enough to get the fallback working. Logs show fallback speed 48kmh and the display shows 29mph. I guess it doesn't show 30mph because of the conversion factor from integer km/h to mph. Not sure what you can do unless the fallback km/h for GB can be entered as a decimal 48.28 etc?

The "use country fallback speeds when no maxspeed tag" toggle display button still resets to off every time you exit settings.

Also, a couple of times it did pick up a speedlimit rather than a fallback. This was in the logs as 20km/h but displayed as 12mph, so maybe there is still a rogue conversion going on?

The limit on our road is actually 30mph not 20mph anyway but that is a data issue and not your problem.

2026-03-01 18:12:57.845 Overpass: bestDistance = 21.85922913885811 m, speed = 20
2026-03-01 18:12:57.848 Service: repo returned SpeedLimitResult(speedKmh=-1, limitKmh=20, source=raw-overpass)

surfer63

I will check and might need to do some more bug fixing.

I removed the apk.

DUDU-Meng

RedCar
Yes, that issue has been resolved.

Gwinambele

It's working OK but I have 3 things that would be nice:
-Ability to completely disable overspeed warning (sound and red speed value on sign)
-remove this black square under speed sign so the icon is just round sign
-ability to resize icon. Not text inside. Whole thing. (in my case I would like to have it bigger a little bit)

surfer63

Gwinambele

point 1: You can shift the volume to 0. I am thinking about tapping the speed limit sign or speed limit text, to mute/unmute. I will not change the red speed warning. It is especially made to warn when overspeeding. The name of the tool is "SpeedAlert" for a good reason.
point 2: Agreed. I will have a look at that.
point 3: On my ToDo list.

I am currently very busy in my private life, next to my normal working life.
I will release a bug fix soon for the mph/kmh conversion (regression bug), fix "dead" switch in Settings for "Use country fallback speed when no maxspeed tag", and ANR in debug screen.
Then it might take "some time" before a next release.

rumot

surfer63 THERE IS A PROBLEM with SpeedAlert!
SpeedAlert version 1.7 without the speed sign icon has no problem with sound notifications when listening to FM radio or playing music from a local file or USB drive.
In the new version 1.8 with the speed sign icon, the speed alert sound does not work when listening to FM radio.
It only works when playing music from local files and USB drives.

Gwinambele

Sounds good.

RedCar

Gwinambele
...and works good.

surfer63

rumot

That's strange. The sound has absolutely nothing to do with the overlay. That is separated.
If you drive too fast, a beep will sound.
If you have selected an overlay, it will be displayed. If you dont want to see an overlay, it will (of course) not be displayed.
And that function checks whether you want to see a textual overlay or a road sign overlay.

The beep will always sound before any overlay (or not) will be displayed.
There is really something strange with your system.

Can you uninstall 1.8 and then reinstall 1.7 and test again?

robisto

rumot U mnie również brak alertu przy słuchaniu FM.

rumot

surfer63 I will do that

surfer63

DUDU-Meng This is actually an issue with FYT. After manufacturing the 7870, the mixing logic for all navigation channels on FYT platforms was changed. Only apps on the designated list are recognized as navigation apps; otherwise, mixing cannot be achieved.

I still don't understand. On the 7862 and models before that, I changed a lot in the mixing logic. The mixing logic applies to the following media (audio) channels:

| Channel        | Stream constant         | Used for                              |
|---------------|------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| Media         | STREAM_MUSIC           | music, video, games, podcasts          |
| Ring          | STREAM_RING            | incoming call ringtone                 |
| Notification  | STREAM_NOTIFICATION    | alerts, messages                       |
| Alarm         | STREAM_ALARM           | alarms & timers                        |
| Voice call    | STREAM_VOICE_CALL      | phone calls & VoIP                     |
| System        | STREAM_SYSTEM          | UI sounds (clicks, locks)              |
| DTMF          | STREAM_DTMF            | dial pad tones                         |
| Accessibility | STREAM_ACCESSIBILITY   | screen reader & accessibility audio    |

As you can see SoundPool, what I use, is not part of that. And as explained earlier: that is exactly how Google designed it.
It should always output its sound, no matter what Android does (unless you have muted all output).

As user @rumot now experiences issues, then why is that?
I really don't understand.

rumot

surfer63 I'll install versions 1.7 (but everything works fine in this version) and v1.8, v1.8.1 and test them. I'll let you know how it works. Tomorrow, I'll reinstall the system to the latest version, restoring factory settings. I'll let you know, as I might have messed something up.
Regards, surfer63

surfer63

V1.8.1: BugFix: Fix mph/kmh and fallback speeds GB/US; stop Debug ANR

Download from my github. Readme is here. Full Changelog.

Changelog

Fix regression bug in kmh/mph.
Fallback speeds GB/US on file are in mph, but considered by the code as kmh and therefore converted incorrectly to mph (which is not necessary). Convert GB/US to kmh and make file "kmh only" and do indeed convert to mph, as that's so much simpler for only 2 countries than adapting the code and giving all 27 fallbacks (currently) an identifier.
Fix "dead" switch for "Use country fallback speed when no maxspeed tag". Switch listener was missing.
Debug screen updates far too often. Use buffering and "once per second" gui writing to prevent ANRs (Application Not Responding)

Required permissions

Background location - The app (Android) will ask: "Allow all the time", "Allow only when using the app", "Ask every time", "Deny". You need to select "Allow all the time", as the app needs to be able to run in the background. This means it can use background location as long as the app runs (not as long as your system runs).
Overlay permission
Notification permission
Ignore Battery optimization (especially on Android 14/15/16)

Geoff_T

surfer63

Again just a quick test on my home tablet.

"use country fallback speeds when no maxspeed tag" toggle now working correctly

Sadly the speeds I'm getting are always 1mph out (IE 30mph limit shows 29mph, 20mph shows 19mph) presumably due to the "double conversion"

Obviously you have WAY more idea about all of this than me, but wouldn't it be easier to have all fallback speeds set to that countries local unit, so in mph for US/UK and in km/h for the rest. As I understand it, the overpass call always returns the speed limit in local units anyway, so there would be no need for any conversions at all just change the text on the display from km/h to mph? Or is that too simplistic and I'm missing something obvious?

« Previous Page Next Page »