Tracking questions

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parkerdave
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Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:04 pm

Tracking questions

Post by parkerdave »

I am interested in using this app to track bike races. There are a couple of requirements. First can it display more than 1 user at a time? We could have 30 riders in a race. If that is not possible, could we have a list of participants and allow the viewer to be able to select one and see their map? Or, could they pick 2-3 to compare?
If the app can do these things, how long does the cell battery last while tracking? Some of our races last 24hours and most are more than 8 hours.
admin
Site Admin
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by admin »

Hi,
Thanks for your message.
First can it display more than 1 user at a time? We could have 30 riders in a race. If that is not possible, could we have a list of participants and allow the viewer to be able to select one and see their map? Or, could they pick 2-3 to compare?
Yes it is possible to track more than 1 user on the same map. The free version allows up to 5 friends (= different users). More friends are only supported for business users.
If the app can do these things, how long does the cell battery last while tracking? Some of our races last 24hours and most are more than 8 hours.
Depends on your settings. Both 3G and GPS need a lot of battery. There is nothing you can do with 3G because you just need it. But you can save a lot of power by configuring a lower update frequency (i.e. a higher send interval) in the settings. Another issue is your screen. If you display is switched off your battery will last much longer. If display, 3G and GPS is permanently enabled, your battery will be empty within a few hours. So just try to optimize your settings and screen and test how long the battery will last.
parkerdave
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:04 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by parkerdave »

What does the business plan cost?

Since there are so many cell phones on the market, you can't get a dedicated handlebar mount for most phones. Although many riders have phones they normally carry them in the back jersey pocket. So, although they are generally outdoors with a view of the sky, the phone is probably sitting sideways in the bottom of the pocket. How important is the position of the phone to reception?

Thanks - Dave Parker
admin
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by admin »

Hi,
costs are 2 Euros per additional friend and per month.

The position of the phone is quite important. Again, I recommend to run a test. My personal experience is if I'm outside my phone works even if my phone is in my trouser pocket (I always take care that no additional things are covering my phone). But of course I cannot guarentee that the racers' phones will work too.
parkerdave
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:04 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by parkerdave »

I will see how the android GPS does on the ride home tonight, in most cases, I think that our riders will have the phone in a pretty good position.

If I am understand this right the first 5 users are free, and additional users on the same map are about $2 each per month. Here's the problem. I only produce 3 races the longest being 24 hours. I have no need for an ongoing monthly subscription. Could there be a fee structure for a 24 usage for X number of riders? If this app works well enough there is a possibility that it could be used by other ultramarathon races, some of which have 200-300 riders...

Thanks
admin
Site Admin
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by admin »

Hi,
How was your ride? Did the app work?

I understand that you don't want subscribe for a whole month and I think it is possible to provide 24 hour usage too (by the way, currency is not USD but Euro because the system is hosted in the European Union). For price calculation there is one rule of thumb. The higher the server load the higher the costs. So I need to know how many users will send their location data and how many viewers will use this page for tracking the riders. I think my portal will be able to display 20 users or maybe even more on the same map if there are not too many viewers at the same time.

If you want to display 300 riders on the same map - well this could be a challenge. This would result in higher prices for sure because I would have to rent a stronger server for that case . But I like new challenges
parkerdave
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:04 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by parkerdave »

I have been carrying an htc eris - an old droid, in a cell holder enclosed with a velcroed flap on the strap of a messenger bag. It is basically a canvas pouch, but the tracking seems to be working fine.

Questions: I can see where there would be a problem with a lot of riders on one site.
1. Could they just 'check in''? There are check points where riders must stop to confirm that they are not shortcutting. Could they transmit their position at that time and not have to be tracking constantly?
2. How do you determine the speed, time at a given point on a route?
3. When I start the tracking from one day to the next the tracks are not separated by day?
admin
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Re: Tracking questions

Post by admin »

1.) So far I thought you want to use the app as some kind of attraction for riders and spectators. But obviously you would like to use the app to prevent riders from cheating. Basically it could work but there are two major problems
a) The app was not designed for that (actually it was designed for entertainment (outdoor and travel activites). This means there is no security built in which prevents user from forging their location data. So if one of your riders or your riders' friends is computer expert s/he could forge the location data sent by his/her mobile phone. So you cannot really rely on the location data sent from your rider's phone.
b) Check might be possible. But what if at some checkin point the GPS does not work (because bad reception, internet connection problem, or whatever). Some riders would be quite angry I guess.

2.) I don't have to determine speed, etc. because the Android system on the phone does it itself. Every time the phone receives a new GPS position it determines speed, time, etc. and passes the data to my app.

3.) There are no separated tracks at all. There is one large pool of trackpoints stored on the server. When loading the page the server extracts the latest trackpoints for displaying the so-called "auto-track". Paying users can additionally load "manual tracks", i.e. they can specify the exact time range they want to see.
parkerdave
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:04 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by parkerdave »

I dont intend to use the tool to enforce rules. I was just thinking that if the riders could periodically send a location it would extend their battery life. I have to have timekeepers at the check in locations, I dont think that relying on a cell phone would be acceptable Besides, there would be a lot of pushback if we required a droid to race!
admin
Site Admin
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Re: Tracking questions

Post by admin »

Maybe you should produce a droid race, I'm sure Google will be your biggest fan

Of course you can send periodically a location. The interval is freely configurable and the larger the interval the more battery you will save. Just try it.
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