Download. Simply decompress it and copy it on your Windows Mobile 6 device and run it. (Works on my Polaris.)
Details
Source code
Description
Use your PDA to acquire your GPS position and send it through an SMS.
The GPS position is update every 5 seconds (in order to conserve energy).
SMSs can be sent automatically at regular time intervals.
Do you like hiking?
What if you go out in the wilderness and have an accident? How do you direct a rescue team to your location?
You can use Astrolabe on your PDA to acquire your GPS position and send it through an SMS to your friends / parents / children / rescue team.
Privacy
SMSs are not encrypted, so anyone who tracks your phone number can tell your precise position by reading the SMSs with your GPS position.
However, it's debatable whether this is relevant because if someone tracks your phone number, they may already know the position of your phone in the communication grid.
Power saving modes explained
The following power saving modes are available: none, manual, auto.
None
In this mode there is no power saving. The application and the GPS are running even if the PDA is in standby.
GPS positions are retrieved as soon as they are available and are automatically sent through SMSs as soon as it is mandated.
Warning: In this mode, the battery is drained quickly (because keeping the GPS active requires a lot of power). Therefore, the "Auto" power saving mode is active by default.
Use this mode only when GPS position availability is critical.
Manual
In this mode the power consumption is the same as if the application (including the GPS) is not running.
However, you must keep your PDA on in order for GPS positions to be retrieved and automatically sent through SMSs.
Use this mode only when power consumption must be at minimum.
Auto
In this mode the application is running all the time, but the GPS is sleeping most of the time.
Once every 30 minutes, the GPS is awoken for maximum 5 minutes in order to get a GPS position and automatically send it through SMS. When a GPS position is available, this timer is reset.
In this mode, since the PDA sleeps most of the time, it may miss the narrowest chance it may have to get a GPS signal. In order to be sure that GPS positions are retrieved and automatically sent through SMSs, you must keep your PDA on.
Warning: Do not rely on the ability of a PDA in standby mode to automatically acquire a GPS position in (maximum) 5 minutes. Check this yourself!
Use this mode in most cases.
Tests showed that in this mode the battery (of a HTC Polaris, 1350 mAh) would be depleted in about 16 hours, if no GPS signal is available; if there is a GPS signal, the autonomy should be greatly increased (an informal test indicates more than twice the autonomy). Without power saving, the battery would be depleted in about 6 hours.
Do you like hiking?
What if you go out in the wilderness and have an accident? How do you direct a rescue team to your location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what if there isent any signal?
(joking..)
Nice app btw
If there is no signal, the program waits until it acquires a new GPS position. Then, a new SMS is sent within (generally) 5 seconds.
(Of course, if the repeat time is X, the SMS is sent only if more time than X has passed since the last sent SMS.)
Note: Keeping the GPS active drains the battery quickly.
6ITdtvFQqY said:
If there is no signal, the program waits until it acquires a new GPS position. Then, a new SMS is sent within (generally) 5 seconds.
(Of course, if the repeat time is X, the SMS is sent only if more time than X has passed since the last sent SMS.)
Note: Keeping the GPS active drains the battery quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hace seen many programs like yours, almost all drains battery when there is no GPS signal (inside buildings). Only one programs deals it better, but that has many other issues. One way to stop draining the battery is to read 'N' (say 50) number of NMEA messages from GPS and then turn off GPS for about 'M' (5 - 15) minutes. Then try again. This will save lot of battery. May be you can try implementing it.
You can download a new version which has 2 new features.
You can see the trail of GPS locations where you were. The trail is updated once per minute.
A power save mode is available. If this mode is active, the PDA's power consumption is the same as if the application is not running; however, you must have your PDA on in order for GPS locations to be retrieved and automatically sent through SMSs.
Warning: Keeping the GPS active drains the battery quickly. Therefore, the power save mode is active by default.
Download
Details.
tahdor said:
I hace seen many programs like yours, almost all drains battery when there is no GPS signal (inside buildings). Only one programs deals it better, but that has many other issues. One way to stop draining the battery is to read 'N' (say 50) number of NMEA messages from GPS and then turn off GPS for about 'M' (5 - 15) minutes. Then try again. This will save lot of battery. May be you can try implementing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you can see, I've implemented a manual power save mode.
In theory, an automated power save mode can be implemented, where the GPS is woke up every 30 minutes to get a location and then sent back to sleep. However, I have no idea what that would do to the device, that is, waking it up every half hour and then shutting it down.
But most importantly, if a GPS location can't be retrieved, what would the device do? The user could be sleeping in a motel for the night (or move through caves or canyons) and the walls could block the GPS signal. Should the device keep trying and thusly consume energy (for how long?), or go back to sleep and miss even the smallest chance of getting a GPS location in those 30 minutes?
An automated power save mode is in conflict with the criticality of having a GPS location any time it is available. Of course, if the device has no power this becomes irrelevant, so a power save mode is necessary. But it's important for the user to understand what's going on.
The current manual mode allows the user to understand that and allows the settings (especially the trail) to remain active all the time. For the moment I consider this to be the best solution.
Accelerometer
Hi,
Your program i very interesting, it will be great to manage the accelerometer
and send a SMS when the phone do not move or when it goes from vertical to
horizontal position.
What do you think of that?
Regards
doco76 said:
send a SMS when the phone do not move or when it goes from vertical to horizontal position.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In what context would someone use such a feature? I mean, what does an accelerometer provide that the GPS's altitude does not?
I guess an SMS could be sent as soon as a significant change in altitude occurs (because this could indicate a fall).
Very good idea, thank you
I know you're still developing this program,
Can you add customizable SMS feature? I might need to send an sms in my native language.
And
The program will send SMS automaticaly to Predefined Numbers feature would be great
May it be easy
I know you're still developing this program
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The development is actually frozen. I am just implementing critical stuff, like power saving, and doing bug fixing.
Can you add customizable SMS feature? I might need to send an sms in my native language.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can simply send a normal SMS. I'll add a "copy GPS position to clipboard" feature to go with that.
The program will send SMS automaticaly to Predefined Numbers feature would be great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SMSs are sent to a predefined agenda contact. Someone who wants to send SMSs with his GPS location should normally do so to a regular agenda contact, so he'll already have an agenda contact or can setup one anytime. What particular usage would there be for an SMS sent to a phone number instead of an agenda contact?
I'll have a new version by tomorrow (if tests are okay) with multiple power saving modes: none, manual (as is now), automatic (where the GPS is automatically woken up to get a location - 5 every 30 minutes). I'll include the "copy GPS position to clipboard" in there.
In automatic power saving mode, tests showed that the battery (of my Polaris, 1350 mAh) would be depleted in about 16 hours (if no GPS signal is available; if it is and reception is good, the autonomy should be greatly increased). Without power saving, the battery would be depleted in about 6 hours.
Although the new version is already up, I'll make a small change later today.
Version 1.3.1 is up. See the first post.
I am going for a hike up the cobbler and Ben Ime in the Arrochar Alps on friday so i will take my polaris and see how things go.
Well that hike went well and i have taken my polaris on a few other hikes.
To be honest you have almost developed a GPS application for your phone. The sms ability is great, but what i really liked was the trail plotting ability.
A standalone GPS will provide you with a line route against gradient maps. I don't expect there to be gradient maps but just a route line sampled at regular intervals would be great. It would be a good aid to plotting your route with a paper map.
Can i ask if the trail samples can be increased?
The current default power saving mode is "Auto", which means that Astrolabe can only take a GPS location once every 30 minutes. As such, the trail can't be updated more often. Moreover, if the 5 minutes window when Astrolabe attempts to get a GPS location is missed (because the GPS reception is poor), the next one is 30 minutes later, which mean that the trail accuracy is getting worse.
You can change the power saving mode is "None", in which case the trail is updated once per minute... but the battery dies out fast.
Instead of changing the power saving mode, you could manually start your PDA every time you think it's necessary to get a GPS location (and trail location). (Just look in Astrolabe to make sure that the time of the last GPS location is the current time.)
(As I said, the power saving modes will cause confusion.)
I added the trail feature after a bunch of us got lost in the woods. After some 2 hours of being off course we were debating whether to return or go further. Fortunately someone went 200 meters further and saw the road (from where we started). With this feature I could have seen that we were going in the right direction.
Hi all,
I have an AT&T Samsung Note 3 SM-N900A running Android 4.3 (baseband version N900AUCUBMJ5, kernel v3.4.0-1625098). I rooted it using Kingo, installed Tasker (with Secure Settings plugin), and created 2 profiles: one with a 'Home' location context, and one with a 'Work' location context. In the 'Location Edit' map screen for each, I set a pinned location w/ a radius of 200m. I also de-select 'GPS' (leaving only 'NET'), since I don't want GPS enabled all the time (to extend battery life). I confirm that these work when I'm actively using the phone.. the profile becomes active when I'm at the specified location (as expected). I know it's active because it's displayed in the Notification Panel (and it's also shown in green in the Tasker profiles list).
The issue I'm having is that after ~10 minutes of idle time (i.e. when the display is off and I'm not using the phone), I find that the profile is no longer active when I turn the display back on and start using the phone again. I confirmed that this *doesn't* happen after 1 minute, 2 minutes, nor 5 minutes… only > 10. I also confirmed that it happens for both profiles consistently. However, as soon as I start Tasker again from the Apps Drawer (or from Recent Apps screen), the profile is immediately activated again, and my Enter task is re-run.
I enabled the run log in Tasker prefs, but it basically shows a clean activation of the profile (with no warnings or anything that looks weird to me).
I know there's a 10-minute timeout in the Display Off Monitoring prefs, but that doesn't seem to be related to my issue. I tried reducing the All Checks Seconds from 600 to 90, rebooted the phone, and it still took ~10 minutes before the profile would become inactive after the phone being idle.
Any thoughts as to what the culprit might be? Are there any system logs I can look at that might shed some light here? I'm new to Android, and this seemed like the place to ask..
Thanks.
Ok, not solved..
Alright, bumping this, as the problem is back again after some time.
Has anyone ever seen Tasker exhibit the behavior I described? Again, I start the phone and Tasker profile is active, let the phone go idle for >10 minutes, the profile is no longer active and I need to restart Tasker manually to make it active again.
Still trying to figure out what logs are best to look at..
I finally decided that I was missing out by not having Tasker automate my life for me, so bought it as well as the full version of Secure Settings.
I've managed a couple of simple Profiles, but I'm having trouble with other stuff I want to do - most likely because I just don't understand.
A. Aim: When Maps is launched, turn on "WiFi" and "Location Mode High Accuracy"
Profile: Near Work
State: Cell Near (work)
Tasks: (1) WiFi On (2) Secure Settings, Location Mode/High Accuracy
This almost works - opening Maps carries out the expected tasks, and when I exit maps WiFi turns off (desired behaviour). However, Location does not switch off again, it stays on switched on, and I don't understand why.
I'd like Location to switch off again when I exit Maps.
B. Aim: Switch on WiFi and Location Mode/Battery Saving and Location Reporting and Location History once an hour, for one minute, and allow (force?) Google to poll my location for a short period so that if I ever lose my phone and it is switched off, there will be a trail of sorts (without having to leave all these services switched on all the time,which canes my battery).
Profile: Manage Location Services
State: Time - I don't know how I can make the profile active for one minute, every hour
Tasks: (1) WiFi On
Then I get lost - I can't see how to enable Location Reporting which is in Location Services in my phone settings. Also I don't know if doing that would immediately prompt the phone to contact Google and report its location (I assume it would).
C: Aim: Between 10pm-9am, if at home, then silence phone and switch off notification light
State: Cell near (home)
This is as far as I've got. I don't understand how to use time as a defining factor. Nor do I know how to switch off the notification light.
If anyone could help then I'd be very grateful!
Also, after reading a lot of Tasker walkthroughs/userguides (and not understanding a lot of them) I am none the wiser as to how to set up an 'exit task'?
There are a lot of issues regarding Secure Settings, I don't recommend it. The only way to turn on/off gps (and the way I'd do it personally) is use root shell to navigate through the settings or better yet set Status Bar-Open and using a Shell-"input tap x y" Use Root: Yes to tap on the GPS quick setting widget.
To add an exit task simply long press on the action part of your profile (on the main screen) and the options will appear. You can also add additional State, Time or Action matchings to your one profile, by long-pressing on the left part!
<<< Please say thanks if I was of help.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
My wifi and data connection disconnects when screen goes off on my huawei ascend mate 2. For samsung phones it can be solved with secret codes like ##0011# but for huawei phones the secret codes are not working. or do you know a working secret code on hardware level for this? my power save mode is off. wifi is set on always on mode. auto synchronisation is on. my apps can all run in background. So I have set off all possible energy saving option for all apps. besides I have downloaded apps to keep wifi always on. but when I put it on always on mode on this app. It mentions that the wifi set on always on mode. but after 2 seconds I open the app (wifi always on app) it says that the wifi is on saving mode and not in always on mode. So there is another more dominant program (probably the huawei custom ROM) who has more privileges than a normal app so that it avoids that wifi is on always on mode.
Sometimes even when the screen is on, viber whatsapp does not receive calls or messages you should launch the app to receive calls and messages. you would say that it is a synchronisation problem. No. No. sync is on for all accounts. all accounts have full access on all my data and on the battery. All settings about battery saving options are set off.
I have sort of the same issue. I use KIK to talk to a lot of friends and on other phones I've had (LG G3 previously), I could load up the task manager and clear away all apps and it had no effect on getting messages. Now, with the HAM, if I clear away running programs, including KIK, even though I have KIK set as a protected app, I will not get any messages and people who send me messages say it stays on S (sent) as opposed to D (delivered). If I clear out all running apps and then load KIK up again before turning off the screen, the messages get delivered and I get notification. It's a little annoying, but keeping the program I want to receive notifications, running, seems to solve the issue for me.
How is going, guys?
I am developing indoor navigational Java app. It scan GPS, bluetooth and movement sensors one time a second, calculate the position and send it to server. App run in foreground mode. Calculation and data transmission made in foreground service. As the app drain battery like wife your wallet after salary, Oreo kill service as fast as you swipe app out of screen. Another worse thing: app stop sending the data as the screen goes black, even if app stay on the screen. I carefully read developer.android.com/about/versions/oreo. Especially Background Locations Limit part. As I understand, the app go to background mode since the screen goes off.
I try to use wake_lock permission. If screen remain switched on, app send data all the day, but the battery not enough for full working day, and this make solution unacceptable..
BTW, On Android 7.1 all works fine. You can swipe out the app or switch off the screen. Despite this, data send correctly all the day.
Looking for any possible tweaks or some special tune, that make this app run on Android 8.1.
Best regards,
Dmitry.