GEOTERRESTRIAL GPSTODAY

I am an airline pilot, and I do a mentoring program with a local 5th grade class. I was looking for a way for them to be able to follow me around during my travels, and perhaps take pictures and such also along the way for various locations. The Geogroups seems like the perfect way to achieve this, but I am having a little trouble configuring it to do what I want.

How do I setup the program to:

1. update my location every time I turn my phone on? Do I have to manually tell it that this is "my location" every time?

2. Is there a way to get the tracking to do a little slideshow on the PC like it does on the phone app? All I can see on the PC is the green line, with no way to follow the sequence.

There isn't a whole lot of information around about how to use the geogroups. Am I missing it?

Thanks for the help. Feel free to suggest any other way to use GPSToday for my application/use.

Hi,

1.) GPSToday can be configured in various ways depending upon your need for accuracy versus battery life.
a) As a general setting, first make sure that the "Daily Auto Fix" start/stop times match the duration of the day you are out and about.
b) Set the auto-fix interval setting as per your needs(via the timer icon). Typically 10 mins is good.
c) In Settings->GPS/Location settings, enable "Wake up device at fix intervals", and also enable "Keep screen off".

d) Also make sure to turn on location sharing via Menu->GeoLocation. Select the appropriate groups and tap "enable".

This way GPSToday will always keep your location updated throughout the day(both on the phone and on the website), and the battery should be make it through the day.

Whenever you need to increase the frequency of updates, just change the auto-fix interval, or start the GPS in persistent mode instead. Also, always remember to start a new geolog before starting a new trip.

In your scenario it might be good to create a new group iwith a nice name in which you post your location and pictures, and to which you also give the schoolkids access. You could create a new user account for the schookids and give it access to this new group. You could even make this group public if approriate, for all to see. If you have your own website you could even put your group's live map there itself.

2) We are working on the slideshow option, there are multiple things. One is to follow the green line, another is also to simply slideshow across the picture posts found in the group.

If you have GPSToday(set at a 1min interval) with you while flying, and if it has a cellphone signal (only if FAA allows this), then folks with access to your group will be able to see you moving live on the map. You could change the icon of your mylocation post to an airplane for better effect.
If you are the passenger any picture geoposts you create from the phone will appear instantly on the map to whoever is viewing it.

Basically, to explore additional uses, remember that it is a real-time platform, that you can embed the entire map and functionality onto 3rd party websites if needed, that you can create multiple groups with different kinds of data for different audiences, that you can do a bulk upload of data points if you have a database file etc. For example, if you have a file containing all local airstrips in the US (with lat/lng), you could create a new public group called airstrips and upload the file to it(eg similar existing groups are campgroups, rv sites, truck stops etc). Interested users will join it make use of it, and leave comments etc on various airstrips which could help other users. Users can even upload their flight geologs to the same group, so the geolog lines will automatically show a clear path from one airstrip to another, and other users can examine these for suggestions. If you fly a lot, you could even create a repository of all your flight patterns etc. Note that the GPS on most phones will continue to work even if the phone is in "flight-mode", as it is a receiver only. Hence the geologger will always function as desired even if there is no cellphone signal, or if the phone is in flight mode.

Also, soon GeoGroups will also be available to iphone users, at which point your audience will only increase.

Thanks for the info. I have setup another "kid friendly" group that the kids can login to and view my info with. I have a couple of questions:

1) In order to get the green line for my path, do I HAVE to upload my geolog ever time? I guess I was hoping that since it knew of "My Location" when I turned on my phone, it would simply connect the dots on the web page. I can't seem to get it to do that without uploading the geolog. It does this on the phone. Can I get it to follow me and make a green line on the web site?

2) When I upload a geolog, and click on the green box to "show on map," is there a way to get that to stay on the map? If I logoff and login again, the green line has disappeared. I have to "show on map" again to see it. Trying to make this as simple as possible for 5th graders (and their teacher).

Thanks for a great product!

1) There are 2 ways to get a "line" on the map from your movements.

The first is by turning on geologging on the phone. The benefit is that it captures your data on the device and does not need a data connection to work. To get this log plotted on the website the geolog file needs to be uploaded.

The second way is by making use of your My Location history. For this you need to make sure that "Keep History" is enabled in the GeoLocation screen in GPSToday. Now, assuming you have a few days history, when you (and only you) login on the website, your post in the list on the left should have a "History" link. Clicking this shud open a box asking for a date range, submitting which should show the history line on the map in red color. If so desired, this line can be saved as a geolog so it will appear in your My-GeoLogs list.

2) To share a geolog with others, it first needs to be published as a post. Next to the geolog click the "Publish To Group" link, and choose the desired group and submit. Now this log will appear as a post in the list on the left whenever this group is viewed.

Additionally, you can then set this post as the "default post" for that group, so that whenever someone views this group, this post will be automatically shown on the map, and any attached geolog also automatically plotted.
To set this new post as the default post, click "More->Set As Default Post" for the post in the list on the left. then refresh the page to confirm it works.

Hopefully this answers all your questions. But the fact remains that there is currently no way to have a dynamically growing history line as you move. You will have to publish a snapshot from time to time, either by uploading a geolog from your phone, or by exporting a history range as a geolog file.

The benefit of the geolog uploading approach is that once you set the default post for the group, you can then update it whenever needed from the phone itself. Upload the latest log, edit the post and attach the new log to it. No need to go to the website.

How do I edit the post and attach the new log to it without going to the website? I created the last post from the website, via the procedure that you outlined above... I viewed the My Location History, saved that as a geolog, I published it to my group, and set it as the default post for that group. All of that was done on the website, though. I don't see that third post on my phone.

This whole thing would be quite feasible if I could simply upload the latest log from my phone, and that would update the line on the website automatically. I'm not sure I know how to complete the task, though. I think I'm close though. Or maybe it's already working...

FYI, the group in question is CaptDennis

I may have it figured out. See if I got it right...

1) Turn on GeoLogger. Take note of the filename and location of the file.
2) Ensure that this geolog is the default post for the Group in question.
3) Go to the post (More > Find > GeoPost POI/User)
4) Select the post you used for the default post, click the pencil icon
4) Select the GeoLog.. button, and select the file you used. Select Update

This doesn't seem to be quite right to me, but I'm not sure what I'm missing. Can anyone fill in the holes?

addition to the previous post of mine. I thought that it wasn't working, but I was doing one part wrong in this step:

4) Select the GeoLog.. button, and select the file you used. Select Update

Make sure to actually click on the GeoLog button, and select the latest GeoLog. I think it defaults to the previous GeoLog, so you have to select the latest one. Then you go back to the previous screen and select "Update." NOW, all of the latest points are on the map, and you can do all of this from your phone without using a desktop computer.

Am I missing anything? Is there anybody from GeoTerrestrial out there.....?

Hey ibrubeer,

Yep, you got it right, thanks for persisting.
We will attempt to make it easier to share a continuous history page for uses such as yours.

Thanks

Thanks for the work. It is a little difficult to use, but has great potential!