HAZ Tracks - GPS Hiking App

[joebartels]

Aug 2015 >>>>> Route Scout <<<<< replaces this app
Aug 2015 >>>>> Route Scout <<<<< replaces this app
Aug 2015 >>>>> Route Scout <<<<< replaces this app
Aug 2015 >>>>> Route Scout <<<<< replaces this app
Aug 2015 >>>>> Route Scout <<<<< replaces this app



HAZ Tracks - GPS Hiking App
● record hikes
● import & export
● offline topo & satellite maps

Android
1.8.22


iPhone
1.8.23


Quirks ( not a HAZ Tracks issue )
- Nexus w/Jellybean off line maps do not work, consider upgrading to 4.4 or higher
- Moto X not working? try "Device only" rather than "High accuracy"
- Android 4.1.1 map freezes, upgrade your device to 4.1.2 or higher

Windows Mobile - Current status viewtopic.php?f=84&t=8120&p=103519#p103519

[JasonCleghorn]

Is there any way to have the app not pause and have to reload when toggling to camera and back to app?
Galaxy S5 Lollipop.

[joebartels]

It's on the todo list to resolve.

As current for android, it's less likely to get bumped from memory based on...
- the less time you leave it out of the foreground
- the less apps you have running in the background

[CannondaleKid]

Is there any way to have the app not pause and have to reload when toggling to camera and back to app? Galaxy S5 Lollipop.

I'm not sure if it's the same with Lollipop (is that 5.x?) but with 4.4, before opening HAZ Tracks I do this:
- Open Camera app
- Tap the Back button
- Go to Apps
- Open HAZ tracks
- To take a photo or video tap the Recent Apps button
- Select Camera and take your photo/video
- Tap the Recent Apps button and you're back in HAZ Tracks

I shot a 1 minute video this morning using the steps above and HAZ Tracks didn't miss a beat. But, I had no other apps running.

[chumley]

@neilends @joebartels @anybodyelsewithaniphone

I am ultimately perplexed by the iPhone GPS in airplane mode functioning. Because I am 100% certain that my phone utilized the GPS radio to determine my location on my last trip ... which was absolutely guaranteed in the middle of nowhere. No cell reception. No Wifi. No anything. Except satellites. And yet, when I looked at topo maps on my phone (via Avenza's PDF Maps app) a dot showed my location. And perfectly accurately. In airplane mode. Similarly, ALL my photos were geocoded correctly. In fact, my photos were geocoded more accurately than locations on my handheld Garmin GPS!

So what gives? Short answer? I have no idea.

The only time I've been able to do this is on my trip last weekend. It is the first time I have been on a hike with absolutely no service and in airplane mode since iOS 8.3 was installed. So perhaps it's a feature of iOS 8.3? I have an iPhone 6. There may also be a hardware issue involved.

What I do know is that I have found ZERO information online that explains this or indicates that it SHOULD do this. In fact everything is contrary.

All information I have found is that the GPS is located on the same chip as one of the the cellular radios (GSM/CDMA/LTE), not a separate chip. Therefore, there is no physical way that the GPS could be activated while the phone is in airplane mode. Either there is power to the cellular chip (and GPS) or there is not. This is what I have read, and all the photos of the "innards" of the iphones seem to corroborate that. I've never seen a tear-down that identifies a separate GPS chip.

There was a "glitch" reportedly for iPhone 4 or 4S that would activate the GPS if you opened the Compass app first and then opened a map app. But that was fixed in an iOS update. (Which of course makes no sense if in fact the GPS function is physically attached to a cellular chip).

So I will research this further next time I'm definitely out of a service area somewhere. I'd like to see if I can get it to geocode photos as it did in the LCR. I have looked at the map of photos and they are correct across many miles of photos on the river. This can't be the result of "getcurrentPosition" cache. It has to have actually received the current position.

If I can get it to work again, I will try to record a continuous track to see if the "watchPosition" is working as well.

In the meantime, I'd be interested if others can get geocoded photos (must give camera app permission to use location services) while in airplane mode. It doesn't help to try this if you're in town since it also uses wifi and cell tower data to geo-locate. But if you're in the woods somewhere, I'd be interested if others can duplicate this.

More to come...

[joebartels]

There are two functions.
- getcurrentPosition, gets a single location
- watchPosition, continuously loops

I have googled and can not confirm that either is suppose to work in airplane mode on iPhone. Just tested on iPhone 4, getcurrentPosition works in airplane mode. You can test yourself on HAZ Tracks.
- getcurrentPosition - file folder > select file > hit green location icon in upper right
- watchPosition - begin activity
Gaia is probably just putting getcurrentPosition in a loop. I might be able to work on this soon. I need to know if the green location works moving.

[chumley]

In airplane mode you have to make sure wifi and Bluetooth are turned off otherwise it will give a position without using GPS or cellular. I'll try it some today as I'll be in some service dead zones.

[chumley]

The results are in, and without a doubt ... I can confirm that under iOS 8.3, my iPhone 6 has ALL the Location Services available to it in airplane mode. In short - iPhone GPS now works in airplane mode! That means both getcurrentPosition and watchPosition work perfectly as they previously did only when airplane mode was not activated.

I don't know if this is true for other phone models, but I know it has not worked on iOS versions prior to 8.3.

HAZTracks worked flawlessly all day today, in airplane mode the entire time. I recorded an entire 13.5 mile track over nearly 6 hours.

This is clearly an iOS thing. Not only did HAZTracks work exactly as it should, other apps that utilize Location Services worked just as they should. I checked several map apps, and the Photos app also correctly geocoded photos based on my current location.

I do hope this is an intentional feature of v8.3 and not something that will go away. But the lack of documentation available online -- either from Apple directly, or other sources -- makes me a bit leery.

My battery lasted quite a bit longer than it would have if it had been searching for service that entire time, though not nearly as long as if it had NOT been using the GPS for tracking. I noticed much more battery usage when in a narrow canyon with lots of tree cover. Out on an open road, the battery performance was excellent. So it apparently takes much more power to keep a GPS "lock" when in more challenging terrain.

But as of today, it works, and it works flawlessly. Finally!

[joebartels]

I do hope this is an intentional feature of v8.3 and not something that will go away. But the lack of documentation available online -- either from Apple directly, or other sources -- makes me a bit leery.

let the praying begin!

[rayhuston]

@chumley It seems to work on the 5 model, too. I haven't been out of cellular range to test, but I've never been able to use it in airplane mode period. Rhonda and I both used it for a walk on Saturday; her identical phone was in normal mode, mine was in airplane mode. The distances were slightly different over two miles (I reached the mile interval faster).

[chumley]

I made a few posts on various Apple blogs and forums hoping to get an official response somewhere. I'll let you know if I learn anything. Apple's own page on the subject was updated on 4/15 -- one week after iOS 8.3 was released -- and officially says nothing that would support this being normal.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204234

[imike]

Have a new Fire HD 7... with an operating system supposedly derived from Android... but... HAZ Tracks do not appear to load?

Is it me???

[chumley]

@imike
Fire tablets run their own operating system (Fire OS). While it is based on Android, it's full of all kinds of other Amazon crap and some Android apps work on it while others don't. I don't know why they couldn't just leave it as is?

On the other hand, you don't really carry a tablet with you when you hike, do you? :wlift:

[joebartels]

If it doesn't load it's probably incompatible. Unfortunate for their huge member base some of Amazon's proprietary witchcraft holds back compatibility.

On a positive note Windows last week announced they will soon be better suited for developers to port apps from Android & iOS.

[chumley]

On a positive note Windows

First time in recorded history those words have appeared side-by-side.

[cdeperro]

Joe...is there a possibility of having a really simple waypoint functionality that works something like this: press an icon, box opens to enter text. It marks exactly where you are...NOT the center of the map.

Right now if you hit the waypoint icon, and you're not centered where you actually are, it puts it in the center of the map...and you can move it around, even by accident. I don't want to move the point, I would like it to essentially tell me where I am and let me add text like "saddle", "crossing", "peak", "view", "snake" etc. I don't need to pickany icons either...just a label. I know, so demanding. But I like to keep my face out of my phone as much as possible while hiking Thanks!

Chris

[joebartels]

If it's not centered to location it could ask/verify preference, which should clear it up.
Moving waypoints is already disabled in a future release.

Might see it as early as June for Android. The next iPhone update is a couple months out...

[Dave1]

Anyone have any issues with the voice speed being too fast? I have it set to zero but it's still really fast. I'm using an iPhone 5, 8.3 iOS.

[chumley]

@Dave1
I've had mine on speed 2 and haven't changed it in a while. Seems to be fine.

Try a force quit (double-tap home button --> swipe to HAZ Tracks --> Swipe Up to force quit) and then relaunch. Might also want to do a power-down, restart of the whole phone if the force quit doesn't reset it.

I think the voice speed is exclusive to HAZ Tracks, but the voice volume can be inadvertently adjusted by changing the volume in other apps. For instance, changing the volume when playing a video in Instagram or Facebook will also result in the volume changing in HAZ Tracks. This is perfectly normal and how iOS handles things. It is not the case for music/phone/facetime apps, which control volume separately.

[joebartels]

The speed control in HAZ Tracks was added for Android to accommodate the independent versioning. Most notably when KitKat hit the market, some flaunted an excruciatingly slow voice.

It wasn't necessary for iPhone but added to keep the app similar across devices. I'm not looking at the code right now. I think the zero setting is the standard ( equiv to no change ). There wasn't an option to decrease so 1-9 just increase. Zero on iOS 8.3 seems normal to me. If there is an option to decrease I'll change the "standard" setting to the middle of the scale. The next iPhone update is a couple months out...

[CannondaleKid]

The speed control in HAZ Tracks was added for Android to accommodate the independent versioning. Most notably when KitKat hit the market, some flaunted an excruciatingly slow voice.

Since my forced update to 5.0 the voice changed to be more clipped... for instance, when it says four it sounds like fir. It's actually so short sometimes I don't hear the whole word.

After some digging I found an option to change from the default Samsung text-to-speech voice to Google's. It pronounces the words much better but is a higher-pitched voice that can be a little irritating... but then 5.0 is causing so many ongoing problems with HAZ Tracks (I had no issues with 4.4) I'm back to my using unloved Garmin 62ST.