GPSLogger use with 8830 (running 4.5.0.135)
Hi emacf1,
When I try to run GPSLogger, it errors with: "GPS is not supported on this platform, exiting...".
I use BBmaps with the GPS (GPS Navigation ON) all the time. Is there a way to get GPSLogger to recognize the device GPS?
Thanks,
/Scott
PS: Forgive me if this question is redundant...
Thanks, your welcome, and a feature idea
Originally Posted by
emacf1 update 0.4.14 is available (bugfix):
What's new? - Export will not crash when some points does not have an altitute [Uncaught exception: string index out of range: -1] (thanks to jastop for the report and the sample files)
- the Mapsource compatible GPX export will include the named Waypoints
Get the latest version from
GPSLogger Downloadpage
Matthias
That was fast, and your very welcome, and thanks for writing the app.
My thought was to use it for photo geotagging. What I would do is turn it on and let it record the track. Then use one of the geotagging applications to read the file and apply the location information to the pictures from my SLRs.
The only problem with this is that the GPS on the storm can't really run for a whole day without killing the battery. That's OK if you go out and take pictures for a couple of hours, but not for the case when you are going for extended period of time. Have you given any thought to implementing a "frequency" feature that would wake up every x minutes/seconds turn on their GPS, get a lock, save the location, and then shut off the GPS? It would probably extend the battery life. But it is also somewhat counter to what others have asked for with regards to higher frequency recording.
The other feature that could be useful for an intermittent need to get a geofix would be to be able to assign a hot key to gpslogger. Clicking the hot key would turn on gpslogger for a fixed period of time, record the position, then turn off gpslogger. That would also work for a photographer who was periodically taking pictures.
GPS Battery Consumption Testing
Originally Posted by
emacf1 so what you can try first of all is to set the sample frequency to 600 (this would mean to have every 10min a point recorded)... would be interesting to know, if this saves the battery...
As you suggested I did a little testing. I could not test an interval longer than 99 seconds in GPSlogger because the input field is limited to two digits. I tested on a BB Storm 9530 that was �idle�. By idle I mean that it was left sitting on the table for at least half an hour. All the tests were done with the battery charge over 50%, I didn�t want the battery charge level to have a great impact on the results. I have noticed that the battery can discharge a little faster at lower levels. No emails or phone calls were received during any of the tests. The discharge percent per hour is taken directly from the MeterBerry application. In addition to GPSlogger I also tested GPSed. I thought it would give another point of comparison. After changing the sample rate in GPSlogger I closed and restarted the application. The baseline discharge rate of the Storm measured at 2% per hour.
- GPSed Interval ,sample interval 5 seconds, 13.0% discharge per hour
- GPSlogger, sample interval 99 seconds, 6.4% discharge per hour
- GPSlogger, sample interval 5 seconds, 13.9% discharge per hour
The results above are consistent with my prior experience of being able to go three to four hours with GPSlogger or GPSed running before the battery is fully discharged
My experience with the blackberry storm GPS is that it works well for �episodic� GPS usage because of the impact on the battery. So, if I am walking to a location and I need directions I can use it to find where I am and give me a route. Maybe even leave it on for a few minutes to confirm I am on the correct route. Leaving it on for an extended period is not practical because of the rapid battery consumption driven by the current GPS software products. For the Storm to be useful for extended periods during a geotagging, geocaching or trekking application a more power efficient method of operation seems to be necessary. By its very nature, I think that a GPS logging application needs to operate over extended periods of time. So the episodic usage of a navigation application isn�t the model to emulate.
Manually setting the interval longer appears to be a step in the right direction. It might be worth confirming that the results above extend proportionally to intervals longer than 99 seconds, at least into the hundreds and maybe into thousands of seconds. I do not know if it is practical to make the application �smarter� so it can sense a need for more frequent updates. This could work based on the distance difference between the last two samples. A difference above a threshold would cause a decrease in the sample rate, a difference below a threshold would cause a decrease in the sample rate? It could also be tied to the velocity, a slow moving unit would automatically drop to a lower sample rate, a fast mover to a higher rate.
This exercise seems to identify an interesting technical issue that some other folks will have to solve also. Think about Google Latitude, for it to be useful to find friends it needs to stay running for a long period. If Latitude uses the battery locating the person, and then uses the battery to update the person�s location on the internet, how long will the phone stay powered? If phones start going dead, who would use the application?
Originally Posted by
emacf1 The other suggestion sounds reasonable - but I hope that you can understand, that there will be really few users with this requirement... so that can be a personal/private software development?
I definately understand, it's your app you can code whatever you are interested in coding. I'm sure were all grateful that you shared it with us.
Thanks again for the great application.