[Closed] Battery life when running tracker apps

Should do. I run Cardiotrainer with a 1 second GPS polling interval (standard is 10 seconds I think) and that lasts fine over a ride.

I use My Tracks on an Android phone - it'll easily do a 3.5 hour ride. If you want it to go all day, put the phone into airplane mode and then run it.

Just slightly jumping in...

Using any of the above apps doesn't it just use google maps, and therefore you cant actually see where you are if your off road ie just on a big green bit?

Flaperon - on aircraft mode doesnt it turn off the 3G network, therefore it wont update google maps?

FunkyDunc - Yeah, I think they all use google maps.

And yeah, if you turn off 3G, then you can't track where you are as it won't update the map, but I think it will add it in later when you return to a 3G area or turn it back on.

Shouldn't be a problem. I've run all sorts of tracker apps for 3-4 hours and have at leat 50% battery left. Have also run them on 2-3 hour runs with MP3 player - still have loads of battery left.

I used my nokia X6 to track a ride i did on sunday useing viewrainger and it lasted about 10hr to 11hr before it went flat. it was a cheep koriean batter and not the original taiwan one...

Using any of the above apps doesn't it just use google maps, and therefore you cant actually see where you are if your off road ie just on a big green bit?

Yes, except viewranger, which has OS maps (but costs money).

Joe

downloaded mytracks yesterday & tried it on my lunchtime walk to Sainbury's.

I'll be trying it round Thetford this evening.

With airplane mode on it's still recording the route as a series of waypoints, but the map isn't updated. Route is still recorded though.

OS Map and rMaps will both show you your position on an OS Map but definitely need an internet connection to do it.

Joe - there is a basic road type of map on there that is free i think and this gives you just as good as google. and the 1:50000 maps are only £150 for the whole country. but i have been getting the 1:25000 maps but i just down load the ones i need as tokens.

Viewranger is great for what i need 🙂 also it is avalble on the Android and Iphone 🙂

happy days 🙂

Joe - there is a basic road type of map on there that is free i think and this gives you just as good as google. and the 1:50000 maps are only £150 for the whole country. but i have been getting the 1:25000 maps but i just down load the ones i need as tokens.

Viewranger is great for what i need also it is avalble on the Android and Iphone

Yep, I only got a new phone this month because I was waiting for Viewranger Android to come out and making do with my N95 with broken earpiece speaker. The only application that I absolutely have to have on any phone I get.

Joe

You might wnat to take a look at [url= http://alpinequest.psyberia.net/english/index ]AlpineQuest[/url]

It allows you to create maps and load them onto your phone so that you don't have to rely on a signal to dowload the maps on the fly.

Maps can be created from a number of sources, including the OS maps on Multi-map.

Took a bit of fiddling around to get the map in the right scale but it works really well, showing your exact location on the OS map (down to 1:25,000 scale should you need that much detail.)

Viewranger Symbian is only about a fiver on the Nokia Ovi store. OS Maps are free.

Alipnequest is free (well, there is a paid version but you cam do all of the above for free)

I guess it depends on what you want it to do - I use [url= http://www.mapmytracks.com ]MapMyTracks[/url] - on my LG KC910 Renoir - seems to work well for what I want to use it for - but then I don't want to see myself on a map whilst riding. It does do real-time updating but that requires a signal on the phone so it can update it's site every 60 seconds (I think). If you don't track online in realtime then it just stores your ride and once you stop tracking asks if you want to synch it online - in which case it adds it to your profile.

So if you want a GPS tracker for just noting where you went then that works, but if you want one that will give you maps and stuff of where you are at you need something a bit fancier (the iPhone version of MapMyTracks - OutFront - does mapping and stuff in realtime (but relies on a phone signal as well)) but this will also have a drain on the battery.

I'm still experimenting with my phone location on me whilst riding - if there are no trees it seems to work well in my knee pocket - with trees I think the phone needs to be up near my head and on my back i.e. pocket of backpack.