Extended dataset when setting a new location point.
Hi,
I am often outdoors, retreiving new location points or validating existing ones. The problem I had recently was adding additional sensor data (compass, azimuth, declination, elevation, brightness u.a.) to the new generated location point. Typing that data into the comment section is rather difficult under weather conditions like cold, rain, storm, snow or steep/unsecure terrain, biting insects or stingy bushes. It would be helpfull if there could be a possibility to configure additional sensor data that is then automatically added to a new points comment section.
Another very helpfull way would be to allow a short audio notice to be recorded and stored along with a new points data. That would allow for later editing of important additional information.
It would be nice to see these function beeing added to a future version of this app.
Thanks and greetings.
I like this idea 
Good day Martin,
I've changed your ticket to public post as almost all new ideas are usually added
a) in case, we find it very useful for most of users
b) users convince us with number of votes that they have another opinion then we
I understand your idea, but from my personal point of view, I do not consider it as useful for common situations. Is there a reason to write such values to a single point? You may use basic track recording, where many of mentioned parameters will be included automatically (like azimuth, elevation, speed, ...).
Good day Martin,
I've changed your ticket to public post as almost all new ideas are usually added
a) in case, we find it very useful for most of users
b) users convince us with number of votes that they have another opinion then we
I understand your idea, but from my personal point of view, I do not consider it as useful for common situations. Is there a reason to write such values to a single point? You may use basic track recording, where many of mentioned parameters will be included automatically (like azimuth, elevation, speed, ...).
add voice memo is already possible...
add voice memo is already possible...
Hello Menion,
thanks for your help.
Here is an example what I am trying to achive:
I am in an alpine environment for detecting and marking certain carstic
phenomenon or other stone formations. Weather conditions are nice to severe, hot
or icy cold or wind and heavy rain. Terrain may be steep to almost vertical.
Some phenomenon may be close together, others may be hours apart. No permanent
tracking is done because of limited battery life. GPS is good, sensors are
calibrated. I need to get the GPS coordinates, altitude and inclination and
azimuth for a generalized plane representing the phenomenon. So I align my phone
along the generalized plane at that point and touch the button. I'd probably
need my other hand to attach myself to the terrain. It would be nice if all
necessary data would be part of the new point by now.
Currently I have to change views, open menus and memorize data for later or do
extensive typing. When you're out there under these conditions, you prefer to
avoid any aditional touch, swipe or click.
>
Hello Menion,
thanks for your help.
Here is an example what I am trying to achive:
I am in an alpine environment for detecting and marking certain carstic
phenomenon or other stone formations. Weather conditions are nice to severe, hot
or icy cold or wind and heavy rain. Terrain may be steep to almost vertical.
Some phenomenon may be close together, others may be hours apart. No permanent
tracking is done because of limited battery life. GPS is good, sensors are
calibrated. I need to get the GPS coordinates, altitude and inclination and
azimuth for a generalized plane representing the phenomenon. So I align my phone
along the generalized plane at that point and touch the button. I'd probably
need my other hand to attach myself to the terrain. It would be nice if all
necessary data would be part of the new point by now.
Currently I have to change views, open menus and memorize data for later or do
extensive typing. When you're out there under these conditions, you prefer to
avoid any aditional touch, swipe or click.
>
Good day,
thank you for a precise description. It was very useful to enlight me precisely what you need.
What you need is quite specific application, that may record current state of all sensors at certain time. This is anyway far of common requirement of Locus user that use Locus for hike & bike activities.
I'm sorry, but request is declined.
Good day,
thank you for a precise description. It was very useful to enlight me precisely what you need.
What you need is quite specific application, that may record current state of all sensors at certain time. This is anyway far of common requirement of Locus user that use Locus for hike & bike activities.
I'm sorry, but request is declined.
Sorry to bother again,
perhaps I should note, that all the management of possible target areas, tracks to access these areas and additional information like car access, parking places and all other POIs that are necessary to reach and identify the target areas are done with Locus - these are all 'hike and bike' activities that are exactly what Locus is indented for and perfectly fits the desired needs.
So you are telling me that after I have navigated to my target with the help of Locus, I should switch to another app, just to record the desired location, hence unloading Locus from the smartphone memory. Then restart Locus (and reload data) again afterwards, not to talk about organizing to get the otherwise stored datapoints back into my Locus database.
I simply do not understand why Locus is able to record all sensor data while recording a track, but it is a problem to do the same when recording a single point.
Sorry to bother again,
perhaps I should note, that all the management of possible target areas, tracks to access these areas and additional information like car access, parking places and all other POIs that are necessary to reach and identify the target areas are done with Locus - these are all 'hike and bike' activities that are exactly what Locus is indented for and perfectly fits the desired needs.
So you are telling me that after I have navigated to my target with the help of Locus, I should switch to another app, just to record the desired location, hence unloading Locus from the smartphone memory. Then restart Locus (and reload data) again afterwards, not to talk about organizing to get the otherwise stored datapoints back into my Locus database.
I simply do not understand why Locus is able to record all sensor data while recording a track, but it is a problem to do the same when recording a single point.
Hello Martin,
1) I didn't say you have to do some unload/reload procedure, if you want to switch between applications. Long click on home hardware button or special switch button on your device, do it's job, anyway ...
2) as You wrote, Locus is able to do it "while recording a track". Because only during track record make sense to have sensor values stored in common situations. That's how it also works in Locus for last five years.
What you need is really special use case that require extending database of points to store these data directly, extending UI to be able to handle such values attached to points and more and more. And sorry, such huge change for task that is really not useful for most of please is something I won't do. Thanks for understanding.
Hello Martin,
1) I didn't say you have to do some unload/reload procedure, if you want to switch between applications. Long click on home hardware button or special switch button on your device, do it's job, anyway ...
2) as You wrote, Locus is able to do it "while recording a track". Because only during track record make sense to have sensor values stored in common situations. That's how it also works in Locus for last five years.
What you need is really special use case that require extending database of points to store these data directly, extending UI to be able to handle such values attached to points and more and more. And sorry, such huge change for task that is really not useful for most of please is something I won't do. Thanks for understanding.
Hi Martin,
extending the data model of an app like Locus seems the real culprit here. So I understand Menion cannot do that with reasonable effort.
HOWEVER, looking at your use case, there may be a way to at least HANDLE things more easily in pot. life threatening conditions. If you have an App that simply does a dump of all those sensors to a file, then simply put that app into the Locus side bar.
One click launches that App, it then does its job, puts the data into another file or DB, closes (or you hit return button). You can associate the location to Locus GPX track later via time stamp, later, if need should be. But the sensor dump should have all you need anyway.
Now re. your latest concern: I just tried above approach with Jota+. There is no unloading of Locus. It entered Jota+, I put in some crap leters in, saved, exit, and was back to Locus. Split second.
Leaves to find this "Sensor Data Dump App" ...
Hi Martin,
extending the data model of an app like Locus seems the real culprit here. So I understand Menion cannot do that with reasonable effort.
HOWEVER, looking at your use case, there may be a way to at least HANDLE things more easily in pot. life threatening conditions. If you have an App that simply does a dump of all those sensors to a file, then simply put that app into the Locus side bar.
One click launches that App, it then does its job, puts the data into another file or DB, closes (or you hit return button). You can associate the location to Locus GPX track later via time stamp, later, if need should be. But the sensor dump should have all you need anyway.
Now re. your latest concern: I just tried above approach with Jota+. There is no unloading of Locus. It entered Jota+, I put in some crap leters in, saved, exit, and was back to Locus. Split second.
Leaves to find this "Sensor Data Dump App" ...
You made me curious ... so I dug a bit in a break:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fivasim.androsensor&hl=de
1) put the link to this app in the top bar and keep it visible before you start the trip
2) in a location you need the document the sensors, hit the button (click #1)
3) hit screen, then swipe from left to open AndroSensor action bar ("click" #2)
4) hit the camera symbol to produce a snapshot (click #3)
5) the back button gets you back to Locus immediately (click #4)
None of those clicks requires any written input.
Each snapshot is written to a text file on your SD
Enjoy.
You made me curious ... so I dug a bit in a break:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fivasim.androsensor&hl=de
1) put the link to this app in the top bar and keep it visible before you start the trip
2) in a location you need the document the sensors, hit the button (click #1)
3) hit screen, then swipe from left to open AndroSensor action bar ("click" #2)
4) hit the camera symbol to produce a snapshot (click #3)
5) the back button gets you back to Locus immediately (click #4)
None of those clicks requires any written input.
Each snapshot is written to a text file on your SD
Enjoy.
Hello Menion,
ok, I see how your development thoughts are, and yes that would be quite a lot of work.
What I meant by the idea was: just grab the raw sensor data from some of the existing interfaces, convert them to plain text and put them into the existing description/remarks field of the newly created point - in the same way as you do with date/time and the name field. That would totally cover the basic needs for having instant sensor data available. Converting and polishing could easily be done somewhere and sometime else, inside some warm and comfy environment.
That would (hopefully) not extend to more than a handful lines of code and several minutes of work (except for testing probably).
The unloading problem is most probably due to the limited amount of main memory my device has. So the most times I switch apps, the 'old' app is unloaded because its running out of available memory for keeping both apps.
greetings.
Hello Menion,
ok, I see how your development thoughts are, and yes that would be quite a lot of work.
What I meant by the idea was: just grab the raw sensor data from some of the existing interfaces, convert them to plain text and put them into the existing description/remarks field of the newly created point - in the same way as you do with date/time and the name field. That would totally cover the basic needs for having instant sensor data available. Converting and polishing could easily be done somewhere and sometime else, inside some warm and comfy environment.
That would (hopefully) not extend to more than a handful lines of code and several minutes of work (except for testing probably).
The unloading problem is most probably due to the limited amount of main memory my device has. So the most times I switch apps, the 'old' app is unloaded because its running out of available memory for keeping both apps.
greetings.
Hi Michael,
thanks for your help. I'm quite a bit cautious about leaving the locus app,
because it happened often enough that the app is unloaded by the device due to
low memory situations. And it could take up to two minutes (lots of points,
tracks and maps) until it then reinitialized all its stuff and is ready
available again.
I even have regular problems about the gps signal after putting the device away
for some minutes. It then says 'no satellites' when there where plenty of them
one minute ago. And it's not until you completely switch gps off and on again
until it re-syncs again. But that might be a device-dependent problem.
I will definitely give your advice a try and, well, hopefully that may work fine
under various conditions and solve a lot of my problems.
Thanks.
>
Hi Michael,
thanks for your help. I'm quite a bit cautious about leaving the locus app,
because it happened often enough that the app is unloaded by the device due to
low memory situations. And it could take up to two minutes (lots of points,
tracks and maps) until it then reinitialized all its stuff and is ready
available again.
I even have regular problems about the gps signal after putting the device away
for some minutes. It then says 'no satellites' when there where plenty of them
one minute ago. And it's not until you completely switch gps off and on again
until it re-syncs again. But that might be a device-dependent problem.
I will definitely give your advice a try and, well, hopefully that may work fine
under various conditions and solve a lot of my problems.
Thanks.
>
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