Android phone for tracking in romote areas

No coverage, no location data. Cell phones need access to the network. GPS devices need access to the satellites. Compasses need access to the Earth's magnetic field. Your eyeballs need access to the surroundings and the MAP. Your brain needs the training to use the data :)

"Cell phones need access to the network."

Some cell phones are now starting to include GPS chips.

True, they can receive GPS data but cell phones rely on the cellular network to transmit data.

Most also pull map data using the cellular network, although I'm sure there are some apps now that have maps saved on the device.

Spot and other PLBs use satellites for their data communication, allowing them to work anywhere with a clear view to the right part of the sky. The Droid, not so much.

I thought about this after getting my Droid, but the batteries are a big problem. The only way that people would be able to track you is if you had the phone awake all the time with the GPS tracking app running. With that arrangement, You'd be lucky to get one day of battery life. Smart phones just weren't built for this application.

Also, as others have said, you'd need the network to communicate your location to others. GPS would work for telling *you* where you are, but no one else.

You can use My Tracks (free app on android market) to follow your progess. There are plenty of settings you can tweak to optimize battery performance (min/max interval between points) but this will affect overall accuracy.

This is a better tool for day hikes as the battery may only last 5 hours. I have only used it to walk around my neighborhood, but would consider taking it on a day hike, such as a Colorado 14er, to calculate my speed and elevation change (expecting a margin of error, of course).

don't expect it to be perfect, but it does a decent job for a free tool. I wouldn't use it to delineate wetlands or survey anything, but it can give people a pretty good idea of where you have been. You can upload your Track to Google Maps or share via email when you have data coverage (turn off 3G or put in airplane mode to save battery, but leave GPS on).

PS you can buy a spare battery on eBay for ~ $4.00

I have read some of the threads on the solar chargers. I was wondering if anyone had tried the solar chargers with the new Droids and had any comments to share? I was just curious. I an a tech geek and these apps intrigue me. Sounds like a neat thing to try on a trip. Just wondering really how practical it ends up being to drag all the technology along?

The GPS data itself is a novelty if you don’t have a cell phone signal with which to communicate to your family or the authorities.

For the last few trips, I’ve brought mu smartphone along. It’s been off most of the time, but I usually turn it on and bookmark my location 2-3 times a day so that I can get a look at the speed of my hiking. I’ll also send my coordinates to my wife, but I wouldn’t rely on in a emergency situation.

On Android, I use an app called GPS Status to post links to my Facebook wall. It’s simple, but it works. Here’s an example from a trip last month.

I mostly hike on the Superior Hiking Trail, and I loose cell signal all the time. It’s better than nothing, but if your goal is to track progress for friends and family and get help in an emergency you would be better served by a SPOT or PLB.

Battery life on an iPhone or Android phone is poor, nothing you could use on a longer trip. You’d likely need to recharge completely every 2-6 hours if doing nothing with the phone but getting your GPS coordinates and updating a map online, and I doubt that you can get a reasonably sized solar panel that’ll keep your phone charged enough to pull that off on a week-long trip, even through really sunny territory.

I don’t have any of the newest solar panels, but have owned a handful for charging PDAs and phones… I’m very skeptical that they could provide reliable power for a longer trip. Modern smartphones need a lot of juice.

I do often record day hikes with my phone, especially training hikes. Gives me a good idea of speed for the kind of terrain I’ll encounter.

oruxmaps is a nifty little program. I like it more the mytracks

Trimble Outdoors ( http://portal.trimbleoutdoors.com/default.aspx?tabid=366) can cache maps for use outside of cellular coverage. I haven't used it myself, but would be curious to know how it performs.

I doubt solar charging would be very effective for the newer smart phones. They would help a little, but these new phones really eat up the juice.
I upgraded the battery in mine. It lasts 3x longer on a charge now, but weighs 2oz heavier.
For me it's worth it.

Putting the phone in airplane mode when not needed makes a huge difference in battery life, especially if you go out of cell range a lot, as most backpackers do.
I have found that being out of cell phone range really drains the battery.

I don't believe these phones are ever really off, even when they're turned off. Who knows? I turn the phone off when not in use, then remove the battery, wrap it in a sandwich baggie so I don't short it out accidentally. This way I know for sure its not using battery hunting for a signal.

They are so light, I usually carry an extra charged battery as back up. Extra batteries might turn out to be lighter than a solar charger?

I tried using Endomondo to track a trip in the Guadelupes last weekend, and it died in about an hour after I got there. I'm think that since I forgot to put it in airplane mode, the "searching for service" sucked it dry. I normally like Endomondo a lot though.

@Coin: If you hit the power button, it's still on but asleep. If you actually power it down it is off. It won't be looking for a signal, won't receive calls or texts, etc. Carrying a second battery is a good idea, but for a week of of tracking your progress 8 hours a day you'd likely need a 10-15 of them for an Android phone…

@Joe: An Android phone or iPhone in "Airplane Mode" disables the GPS. Not a good reason to, but they do… May have changed in Android 2.2, I'd have to confirm that, but it was still the case in Android 2.1.

In the Android market there's a free app called "Advanced Setting". Within that you click "Phone Information", scroll down and push the button that says "turn off radio".

Now you're nominally not in airplane mode, but the cell phone isn't trying to connect to towers.

I'm not sure which "must not be in airplane mode" apps this will enable, but I think some — the friggin' FM radio app on my Droid X requires that I not be in airplane mode! I've not yet tested various GPS-related apps with this, and note that part of the issue there is sorting out the difference between "slow to lock on without aGPS connection to cell towers" vs. "just won't lock on at all".

Thanks. I'll have to give that a shot!

I used an Android phone on the Pacific Northwest Trail last summer and the GPS worked fine in airplane mode, which I was in most of the time.

You can use Mobile Atlas Creator on your computer to produce topo map files that you can put on your phone. Then the Android app OruxMaps can use the GPS chip in your Android phone and the stored map files to give you position on topo map just like a dedicated GPS unit will. It doesn't require any cell coverage.

@ James E Newman (jimmy.newman)said
"You can use Mobile Atlas Creator on your computer to produce topo map files that you can put on your phone. Then the Android app OruxMaps can use the GPS chip in your Android phone and the stored map files to give you position on topo map just like a dedicated GPS unit will. It doesn't require any cell coverage."

Re: Mobile Atlas Creator I've just started using this app myself and would appreciate any tips or issues you've had with it.

Aaron Reichow (areichow) said:

"An Android phone or iPhone in "Airplane Mode" disables the GPS. Not a good reason to, but they do… May have changed in Android 2.2, I'd have to confirm that, but it was still the case in Android 2.1."

This is only true of SOME Android phones. It may just be Motorola. It is most certainly NOT true of my HTC Incredible and I here many others.

@Aaron Reichow (areichow) said:

"On Android, I use an app called GPS Status to post links to my Facebook wall. It's simple, but it works"

Thanks dude! This is exactly what I've been looking for. It's important to note that it is NOT an emergency app since it'll only send out the status when you get back on the network, but for non-emergency SPOT type tracking it is perfect. A whole days worth of status updates may suddenly pop up on my blog or in my families email bin all at once when I roll into a small town or coverage zone, but that's not to much different from the SPOT anyway for purely tracking purposes. I hope they continue to develop on this idea. A tracking program could technically be better then SPOT for showing a semi-live updating route.

Overall I wanted to add two points

1) battery life: I purchased an aftermarket battery on Amazon for my android incredible. $50, adds a few ounces and a little bit of bulk, but effectively triples battery life. I think it'd be realistic to use my phone for at least 3 or 4 straight days as a navigational device without recharge in airplane mode.

2) airplane mode: on many Android phones you can completely turn off the cellular network separate from the GPS. This saves tremendous battery juice.

3) BC Navigator App (Backcountry Navigator, $10)… there are several GPS applications for Android phones that cache user specified topo GPS map data for free including USGS topo info, myTopo information, and USGS aerial photography among others. It's completely realistic to cache a huge area like Smokie Mountains National Park on your phone. This means your phone functions for all intensive purposes just like a Garmin and you need no cellular access, just GPS access.

4) Additionally BC Navigator can use another free and open source desktop application called Mobile Atlas Creator to create map packs including map data, waypoints, tracks and more and upload them to your phone.

5) MyTracks & tracking routes. Tracking on any device is a huge battery killer. However the excellent google app "MyTracks" on Android can be easily tweaked to conserve batteries. When I first got my HTC Incredible and used MyTracks in default mode it killed my fully charged phone battery in 4.5 hours. After I replaced my battery with a third party one (see point #1 above) I got 10 hours. Then after making a few settings tweaks in google's MyTacks application I triple that still to 30 straight hours! That's a minumum of three days tracking at 10 hours a day! What's more I haven't even tried it in "airplane mode" yet, which is to say I haven't tried it since I turned off cellular network access (see point #2 above). I suspect this will increas longevity to at least 35 hours and maybe over 40 hours.

6) Using your Android as you would a GPS or map… actually using your GPS as a navigational aid as you would a garmin or a map does not use up much battery life. Especially if you have it in airplane mode. If your not using it for tracking which keeps the GPS always on then the sleep mode is very effective.

I think that just about covers it.

I've got a big trip coming up in a few days and am trying to really perfect my GPS skills with Android. Am planning on using it for tracking and as my primary navigational aid, though I will be carrying a paper map backup.

That mobile atlas creator looks very promising.

I sometimes use mytracks when running a trail for the first time. Any tips you can pass along for extending the battery life when tracking?

Please post your experiences after the trip!

Also, as an fyi for all… android users interested in gps use may dig androgeoid.com. It covers some interesting apps, including a series of posts on using Oruxmaps.

http://www.oruxmaps.com sounds like just what I need.

So I have a 3x battery in my "Incredible" I went without charging for three days in airplane mode with the GPS enabled the whole time. I only used it to play around with "mytracks" on a bunch of day hikes.

From what I've read the GPS function only draws juice when a GPS application hits it up for the current location. If you set your GPS app to only query it every 15 minutes or so, you should be able to go a long time on one battery, as long as you keep the cell phone function turned off when out of range.