[Closed] Realtime GPS tracking; Endomondo or????????

Key point - you may well struggle with 15 hours on a phone - most last say 4-8 hours max with GPS tracking on (and posting your location will use power too).

You could of course use spare batteries or a battery pack but I don't know if you want to be stopping for that.

This thread might be of interest though:

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/home-made-gps-with-mapping-and-tracking

I picked up a second hand HTC Hero for £50 to use purely for a GPS.

I use MMTracker for navigating, but I don't use it connected to a network to keep power consumption down, so I don't upload position

You're best bet is probably something old and basic like that (waterproof Motorola Defy has its advantages) and a big fat external battery.

Or, even better, get a dynamo-hub front wheel with a Kemo USB charger. I use one on my road bike and it keeps the phone 100% charged at all time, only running on the battery when I need the lights on. SP dyno-hubs are about £80, and I think the're bringing out a 15mm bolt-thru version soon.

I'd go for multple batteries on whatever you decide on... The 4-8hr guide is on the money in my experience.

MapMyTracks is good but battery will be the issue...why not just text every hour?

Cheers guys

I brought a AA batt pack for the Garmin 4 years ago and will aim to use that again. I'm not 100% the Garmin will actually last the time but I can ponce another from a mate if needs be.

In theory I should be able to do the ride in 11 hours but want to build in contingency for navigational faux pas, mechanicals etc.

ir_ A dynamo wheel is out of the equation but I like your thinking on the Defy. Wasn't that only released last year? - That's not old in my book!

[edit]

Dick B

I hate texting and as this is going to be a night ride and I'm farked if I'm going to stop every hour and ponce about trying to master opposable thumbs! 😀

external battery pack connected to the phone via USB.

IMO.

And if you use Endomondo then enable power save and auto-stop. This will increase battery runtime but degrade GPS accuracy. As you're using a Garmin for nav then this shouldn't be an issue.

If you don't want Endomondo then Google Latitude does what you want although I had problems using it (but that was some time ago).

lol...ok...if using a phone you wont get 15 hours with live tracking...if using a gps im unaware of any that does.data and therefore update a website...

Does endomondo leave a track of your route, so internet viewers can see where you have been? I use google latitude but it dosnt have that feature.

Ta,
Rich
(doing London to Newcastle charity ride at weekend and this sort of thing would be pretty handy/cool).

The new garmins will connect to your mobile via bluetooth to (IIRC) allow real time tracking via a website. You would be looking at a big expense though to get a new garmin!

years ago I bought a separate gps unit (£50) for my nokia. It connects via bluetooth and uses its own power, which used to give me hours of usage out of both. Might be worth investigating?

Touch wood, my 705 is still ticking along so I don't need to change that.

STATO

That's my understanding though the run time sounds like this might not be a goer

Double Capacity battery pack?

[url]

I like the way it makes a slim modern phone a more reassuringly brick like device...

Endomondo does live tracking, if you want maximum battery life I'd probably try and get hold of an older Nokia 5800 (+ extra battery), seem to last longer than newer smartphones.

A 'Spot' tracker would be your best bet. They can be picked up fairly cheaply if you order one from abroad (try euro ebay sites). I'm not sure what the yearly subscription charge is though.

EDIT: Ah, just saw that the basic subscription is 99 euros a year.

years ago I bought a separate gps unit (£50) for my nokia. It connects via bluetooth and uses its own power, which used to give me hours of usage out of both. Might be worth investigating?

I've got one sitting in the car, unused for a coupel of years now. Email in profile if you want it...

STATO - Member
Does endomondo leave a track of your route, so internet viewers can see where you have been? I use google latitude but it dosnt have that feature.

Ta,
Rich
(doing London to Newcastle charity ride at weekend and this sort of thing would be pretty handy/cool).

It does, and people can give you 'pep talks' which your phone will read out in a robot voice over the headphones/speaker 😀

Someone ought to (surely someone must?) make an app with a 'sporadic tracking' mode for exactly this - ie. that rather than tracking multiple times a second and doing an accurate trace of the ride, ala endomondo etc., just turned the gps on for a single position once every 15 minutes or so. With modern phones, GPS lock is super fast, especially if you've recently got a fix, I bet if you did it once per 15 minutes, rather than logging a full track, it could run for absolutely ages.

Yes 'someone' should.

The they should set up a secure website to allow tracking on a map

Then people could complain that it's not free/too expensive for such a simple app 🙂

I think oruxmaps can be set 10 minute checks.you can check the integration options and select a site that does live tracking that it will update.
the data part will also use battery though...

Someone ought to (surely someone must?) make an app with a 'sporadic tracking' mode for exactly this - ie. that rather than tracking multiple times a second and doing an accurate trace of the ride, ala endomondo etc.

Thats a pretty accurate description of Google Latitude. GL only updates if you have moved location so if your in same place for 8 hrs (work?) it wont update and states your position as unchagned for 8hrs.

Has anyone tried the 18650 external battery packs on dx.com that you can use to power a mobile?

Viewranger buddy beacon, can set updates from anything between 30 secs and once an hour to save battery life...