Problems with getting AutoLocation to work

[Sergey Voytov]

Hey, joaomgcd.

I've bought and installed all your Tasker related apps. They are all great!!! Have been using them for a while and have never had any problems with them. Now I don't seem to understand how the new AutoLocation plugin works. I have no problem with the first two sections (Activities and Geofences) but I can't figure out how the Location Monitor works. What I'm trying to do is the following:

1. Send a Autoremote message to my son's phone.

2. When the phone gets it, the message triggers the location service (Location Monitor in AutoLocation).

3. When the phone gets its location from the Monitor, the notification (with the location data in it) is sent to my phone.

I send the message, the Location Monitor starts... and then I don't know how to get the location data from it... I tried using the AutoLocation variables in Tasker but they are all appear as text, as the names of the variables (%altime, %alaccuracy, %alocation, etc) instead of the actual information (seconds, meters, etc).

What am I doing wrong? How to make it all work?

P.S. Before buying and installing Autolocation, I was using the "Get Location" command in Tasker and it worked just fine. Now I would like to use AutoLocation for the same task (as it is said to be way better at that) but can't make it work. Please help.

[João Dias]

Hi.

Thanks so much for your support for starters. :)

You may have noticed that there's also a "AutoLocation Location" condition besides of the action you triggered. This is where you get the reports of your current location.

So you have the first step right, use the "AutoLocation Location" action to start listening for location updates.

Then setup a new profile with an  "AutoLocation Location" condition and on the corresponding task you can use the variables you mention, and send them via autoremote.

Hope this helps.

Let me know if you need any more help with this!

João

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "joaomgcd" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to joaomgcd+u...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
 
 

[Sergey Voytov]

Hi, João.

You really helped. I got the idea and it worked just fine. But now I have another question. How do I go about the following: I need my son's phone to respond to me when my phone asks for it via Autoremote message; and I need my son's phone to answer to my wife's phone when that phone asks for it. Step one is easy again - either message (from my phone or from my wife's phone) will start Location Monitor. But then, since respond actions are in a different profile, how do I make my son's phone send the location data ONLY to the phone which have asked for them at that moment? The Location Monitor can be started by a number of different situation in Tasker (by Autoremote message, by time, by an app loading, etc), so how do I separate the reactions from one another (send location data only to those asking for it at the moment) if it seems to be just one condition: AutoLocation Location.

Thank you.

четверг, 20 июня 2013 г., 2:29:23 UTC+4 пользователь joaomgcd написал:

[João Dias]

Hi again.

To easily do this, you can use the "Last Sender" option in the AutoRemote Send Message screen.

This way, the message will be sent to the last device that sent a message to the recipient device. :)

Hope this helps.

João

[Sergey Voytov]

Thanks again. I did what you said and it works perfectly. Thank you very much.

There is one more question though. I've been playing with the apps all day today - walking around, driving, bicycling. The location itself works very well but I've noticed that %alspeed and %albearing always return as zeros. Always. No matter it I'm walking, bicycling or driving at 60 mph. They are always empty. I do not think that it's the way those things are supposed to be. So what is the problem? Why are those two variables always empty?
 
четверг, 20 июня 2013 г., 18:51:16 UTC+4 пользователь joaomgcd написал:

[João Dias]

Hi

I'm afraid the speed and bearing only seem to work when you have a GPS lock, and that seems to be only used when using the High Precision location tracking.

I have to update my documentation.

Thanks for the input!

João

[Sergey Voytov]

Hello

The thing is I always use the High Precision location tracking.

My settings are:

Location Monitor: Start

Update Type: High Accuracy

Expiration Time: 70

Interval: empty field 

Number of Updates: 1

Smallest Displacement: empty field

Is there something wrong with these settings?

пятница, 21 июня 2013 г., 12:57:58 UTC+4 пользователь joaomgcd написал:

[João Dias]

hmmm... not that I know of...

Why are you updating it only once, may I ask?

You could set Number of updates to a larger value if you want to track your position for longer.

I suspect that the first update, because it's almost instant, doesn't report the GPS location. If you ask for more updates, it has time to lock your GPS and report speed and such.

Makes sense?

João

[Tony B.]

What would be a sufficient amount of updates/intervals/expiration?

I found that leaving my home geofence didn't update until I was well more than 2 miles from my house, but coming back it was perfect.

[Sergey Voytov]

Hi

I tried increasing the number of updates. Didn't work for me. Maybe I misunderstand the concept (if so, correct me, please).

What happens in my case is: after the phone gets the Autoremote message, it starts the Location Monitor. When the location is determined, it's immediately sent to the requesting device. If I set the number of updates to, say, seven, the phone sends seven notifications to the requesting device (it sends a notification after every location update). This is not what I want. What I want is that the phone tries to determine it's location as precisely as possible (using the GPS until it's fixed or until the time's out) and only after that sends a notification. Now the phone seems to be trying to get the location and respond as quickly as possble (usually takes a couple of seconds to get the location and send the response (the GPS icon usually appears just for about a second or so) and even though the location itself is pretty close to the actual location, there is no data on speed and bearing. Looks like the phone thinks to itself: "Well, the location is good enough already, why try to get the GPS fix? I think I'll send the location data the way it is!"

P.S. Or maybe I got it all wrong? Maybe, for the precise location I should use the old "Get Location" Tasker command and leave AutoLocation for the quick and energy efficient location? But what are %alspeed and %albearing for then?

P.P.S. Later I'll try to make a short video showing how all that stuff works on my phones. Hope it'll help.

пятница, 21 июня 2013 г., 15:37:24 UTC+4 пользователь joaomgcd написал:

[João Dias]

Yeah, maybe in your case, the "Get Location" might work better, although it doesn't have the updated location algorithms Google uses.

I think the problem you are having with the AutoLocation one is that it sends the first update almost right away with the last location and only then it starts looking for a more precise location. 

If I were you, I'd try the "Get Location" action in this case and see if it fits your needs of getting speed, etc. The only problem is that it won't report the location if there's no current way to get a GPS lock (like if you're inside a building).

[Sergey Voytov]

Hi, João.

There seems to be a bug in AutoLocation app (or, again, I might misunderstand how to use it). In the recent update notice it was stated that AutoLocation now supports as big GeoFences as you want. I can't make it work. I indeed can drag a GeoFence as big as I wish but when I save it, close the app and then open it again, that GeoFence is back to it's original (small) size. I tried creating a new GeoFence (rather than editing an existing one) - the same problem: you can increase the size of a GeoFence on the screen but you can't save the settings. I tested this on two different phones (Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4) and they both had this problem.

Is this a bug?

суббота, 22 июня 2013 г., 3:32:17 UTC+4 пользователь joaomgcd написал:

[João Dias]

Yeah, the bug is that when you edit the geofence, the progress bar goes back to its old max value, and so the Geofence goes back to being small... But don't worry, the Geofence is saved really big. It's just when you try to edit it that it goes back to the old max value. You can still use the big Geofence. :)

[phanmo]

Hi,

Quick question: if it sends seven notifications, are they identical or does the accuracy increase with each one?

If the accuracy gets progressively better, you could count the number of times the variables are set and then send the Autoremote message back to your phone when the count reaches seven with only the most recent details(and clear the count after the message is sent). I'm not sure if you can trigger a Variable Set event with a lowercase variable so you might have to set uppercase variables. You'd have a delay before getting the location details though.