GPS-Tracker

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Conyous
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GPS-Tracker

Post by Conyous »

Today I've tried to track a dive, but I recognized that the app only saved 2 Points in at least 30 minutes.
My question is, in which time-period the app saves the position as a point?

Thanks for your help!
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nick
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Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by nick »

It saves at certain points to conserve battery, it does not track constantly. The exact number shouldn't matter (and is subject to change), but this sounds reasonable. It's roughly 10 minutes right now.

If you need a specific location recorded then you should create a site manually and use your current location. This lets you pick the exact time/place. The tracker is intended more for when you are out on the boat for 8 hours doing multiple dives, so you can throw it in your bag and forget about it. And in that case, you really don't want the GPS tracking you constantly, it will drain your battery.

It won't necessarily pick one specific point that was tracked either, other logic is also applied. You can still create a site from it and manually adjust the location. On further dives in the same area, it's more about getting a rough location to find an existing site within a close radius, in which case the actual coordinate is not used - the existing site is, which saves you from having to navigate and pick the site.
Conyous
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 3:08 am
Dive Computer: Vyper Air

Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by Conyous »

So that means, that the GPS-Tracker isn't intended for a single dive-trip with a boat for about 1.5 hours?
I've thought that you just start the tracker when you leave and when you return and connect your dive computer
via DCbuddy MacDive automatically finds the appropriate location where you entered the water (based on the time) and
saves these coordinates to the right (new) site. So, if I understood right, this could be a really helpful tool, because you don't want to mess around with your iPhone on a busy (small) boat to find the menu and all further "clicks" to save your position to your diving place (imagine the sunlight ... etc.) even if it was for only 1 dive with a boat distance of 10 minutes?!?
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nick
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Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by nick »

You understand correctly.

My apologies, but I don't understand what the problem is. Perhaps you could email your MacDive data and locations file to support@mac-dive.com with a detailed explanation of your problem so that it can be investigated.

Thanks.
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orangesarebetter
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Joined: Tue May 05, 2015 7:59 am

Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by orangesarebetter »

Hi,

I am not sure what the algorithm is behind when a "point" is created during a dive trip. For example, I recently went to Palau where on a typical dive day the boat travels 1 hour from the resort to dive spot 1, followed by a trip to a lunch break at a beach, followed by a trip to dive spot 2, followed by a 1 hour trip back to the resort.

I ran the tracker for the day, and the resulting map is difficult for me to interpret as there are so many points on the map. I have attached examples (note, they could be the result of 1 or 2 days of diving, I am not sure given the way the data is stored)
If GPS points are taken in set time intervals, I could somewhat (although as you can see not clearly) extrapolate that dense clusters of points are locations where the boat spent more time: i.e. dive spots, or the beach where we had lunch. If there is a different algorithm I am at a loss of how to interpret the map.

I think the GPS tracking results could be made more easily interpreted through the following:
1) have time/date data associated with each GPS tracking point, so that I can cross-reference with my dive-computer data and determine when i was indeed diving and correctly select a tracking point to create a dive-site.
2) have an algorithm that automatically notices that several tracking points refer to the same location, thus automatically suggests that this must have been a point where the boat was anchored (although I admit, during drift dives - which most of the sites in Palau are - such an algorithm could not determine a stop in itinerary)
3) or have Mac-Dive automatically associate coordinates from GPS tracking with a dive downloaded from a computer by cross-referencing time/date stamp

Thank you!
Attachments
GPS tracking results over the course of one? dive day
GPS tracking results over the course of one? dive day
GPS tracking results over the course of two? dive days
GPS tracking results over the course of two? dive days
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nick
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Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by nick »

Hi,

I think perhaps a read of the User Guide would help. Specifically the section on Tracking Locations: http://mac-dive.com/help/ios_01_07_track.php

Your suggestion #3 below is the whole purpose of the feature. You don't need to interpret the map, it's just a basic visual representation of the data. While it does let you create sites from the points, this isn't what the workflow is intended to be.

See "Automatically create a site on a dive" and "Tracking And Existing Sites" in the Tracking Locations section of the User Guide. These explain how the data is automatically used for you.

See also New Dive (http://mac-dive.com/help/ios_01_12_newdive.php). The New Dive screen can make use of location data to let you create new sites or assign existing ones also.

Thanks
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orangesarebetter
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Joined: Tue May 05, 2015 7:59 am

Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by orangesarebetter »

Hello again,

I apologize, I hadn't read the instructions before, which I now thoroughly did. However, the automatic tagging is not working:

1) I just downloaded my dives onto Mac-Dive for Mac, and went into a dive profile, and looked at "Site" and "Map" tabs, but none of the locations tracked on the iPhone are associated. Now, I figured perhaps the GPS tracking data does not sync from the iPhone over to Mac-Dive on MAC, and I need to do the assigning GPS locations on the phone. So I synced the dives and opened up the Mac-Dive app on the iPhone...

2) When I click on the profile for any of the new dives, the time and date are all there, but when I click on the Map tab, it just says "Unknown Site" instead of "Tracked Location". Not a single one of my dives got associated with a Tracked Location. I looked on the GPS Tracker page, and there are plenty of tracked locations. What am I doing wrong please? Could it be that there is some issue with the time-zones for GPS tracked location data? Both my iPhone and Dive computers were set to Palau Time. I didn't download the dives until back in California, and the dives correctly show the dates/times according to when I dove in Palau. But did changing the iPhone's timezone back to PST perhaps mess with the GPS Tracker data?

Thank you.
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nick
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Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by nick »

Hello,

Correct, this functionality is exclusive to the iPhone version.

If you are having issues with the data, then as the User Guide suggests, please email support. Include your MacDive.sqlite and locations.plist data files from the iPhone. You can copy them via iTunes File Sharing.

The User Guide Also covers how to do this: http://mac-dive.com/help/ios_03_07_fileshare.php

Sincerely
MacDive Support
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nick
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Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by nick »

Actually I may know what the problem here is.

Delete "Unknown Site". You can do this either on the Mac and then sync, or delete it directly from the iPhone. Do that, and then the tracked locations should appear when you view the other dives.

Please try this and let us know if it resolves your issue.

Thank You
MacDive Support
orangesarebetter
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Joined: Tue May 05, 2015 7:59 am

Re: GPS-Tracker

Post by orangesarebetter »

Why yes! Deleting "Unknown Site" and syncing did now automatically assign Tracked Locations to my dives! Thank you!
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