Tracking Modes
Our Portable GPS trackers come pre-configured with smart defaults to prioritise tracking performance. By default, these trackers log a GPS point every 2 minutes and send updates every 3 minutes.
These updates are triggered during active trips, which are detected using Jostle mode—this uses the accelerometer to detect movement and then confirms significant movement via GPS before logging a trip.
You can learn more about these modes and how they work below. Adjusting these settings can significantly extend battery life, making them ideal for longer deployments or less frequent usage.
GPS Movement
In this mode, the tracker starts/ends trips based only on GPS movement. There is filtering in place so that small movements do not start trips. E.g. if you move your car from one side of the street to the other, a trip will not start. But if you drive a block away, it will.
This mode is ideal for most applications where we are looking to record trips/activity where some distance is covered (typically assets that are driven or towed)
Detail:
- The device waits in a low power sleep state for accelerometer activity.
- Once woken by accelerometer movement, it checks the GPS for movement periodically
- If the device is being repeatedly woken up by accelerometer movement, but there is no GPS movement, it wakes up on a timer every few minutes instead (to save battery)
- If the GPS shows movement over the start threshold (250m by default), a trip is started.
- Once in trip, the accelerometer is turned off
- It wakes up every few minutes and gets a fix
- It checks the trip is still in progress by looking at the fix
- When the fixes suggest movement has stopped, it ends the trip
- If GPS signal is lost for some time the trip ends also
Jostle
Trips can be started based purely on accelerometer movement (vibration). Applications include:
- Tracking run hours on a stationary piece of equipment. When it is turned on there will be accelerometer activity and run hours can be accumulated
- Tracking very small trips (i.e. a piece of equipment in a yard)
- Instant alerts on movement for theft prevention (GPS tracking mode will take a bit of time to start a trip and upload)
Detail:
- Accelerometer wakes the unit
- Unit immediately determines it is moving – this is the same as entering a trip.
- Once moving, the accelerometer no longer wakes the unit
- It wakes every two minutes on a timer, and does two things:
- Once the accelerometer claims there has been no movement for a while, (default is 5 mins - Movement End Time parameter), the device declares movement has stopped.
- The device will also wait until the speed reported by the GPS has dropped to 0, to prevent movement ending when the movement is very steady and constant – e.g. a train where acceleration is minimal
Periodic
Periodic tracking mode is used to get position update on an interval (i.e. once daily) for greater battery life. When the device is set to "periodic only", it disables trip tracking and can give updates on an interval. There are two types of 'interval':
- By default, if we set the Heartbeat Interval to 12hrs, the device will simply heartbeat initially when powered on, then every 12hrs after this
- We can configure 'Scheduled Uploads' to have the heartbeats occur at specific times (i.e. 9am and 3pm)
Scheduled Uploads
Scheduled uploads allow heartbeats to be sent at up to 6 specific times during the day.
Without scheduled uploads enabled, heartbeats are just sent on a periodic basis - with the heartbeat interval being the time after the last upload. Trips and other uploads occurring will shift the specific time of day that heartbeats happen. The heartbeat interval is the maximum time between upload attempts.
This can be more useful than the standard heartbeat, particularly if it is important to know where assets are at specific times of the day (i.e. shift changes, events happening etc.).
Note - When enabled, the scheduled uploads replace the periodic heartbeat. All other uploads will continue as normal (such as tip detection, impact detection etc).
So, if we want uploads ONLY on the schedule, i.e. 6am, 12pm, 6pm, 12am as above - we need to set the device to Periodic Updates only.
- The allowable times are in 15-minute intervals throughout the day.
- The scheduled uploads will be the same every day (i.e. you can’t choose different times for different days)
- The scheduled uploads will have an element of randomness - so there isn't a situation where there are many devices all trying to upload data at the same time, causing strain on the network. They will all update within a 10-minute window - 5 minutes on either side of the scheduled period.