I'm not sure whether this is the correct place to ask this question, perhaps there is an appropriate Stackexchange site for this, but here is my question anyway.
I recently developed a GPS tracking App for my Android Smart Phone so that my wife could track myself and our 10 year old son on a cycling/camping trip. The app recorded our GPS location (or Network location depending on availability) and uploaded the latitude and longitude coordinates to my server which were stored in a database. My wife was then able to view these coordinates on a web page using Google Maps Api.
The app worked great except that it relied on the battery life of my smart phone. I had to rely on a USB battery charger to keep my phone charged on the trip. Is there an Android based device that I could install my Tracking APK onto that has GPS and Mobile Networking so that you may add a sim. The device would need to be quite small and compact, have a good battery life and would not really need a screen so does not need to necessarily be a phone or tablet.
Edit
Thanks to @apmartin1991 for his answer. I haven't used DDMS to check battery performance, but my phone reports that the GPS usage is low. I will take a look at DDMS though. My code is listed below. Basically it pings GPS every 10 minutes and network 12 minutes. If it finds that the last known time when it found GPS is newer than when it found network location it will use GPS otherwise it will find network. When a location is retrieved it is posted to my server via an asynchronous task and stored in a db. As well as streamlining code, I would still like to find a dedicated device that will not only give enhanced battery life, but also separate my phone from the tracker. I know there are commercial products out there. I have used such devices at work such as the Garmin Pet Tracker, but these tend to be around £165 plus change.
Code:
Timer timer;
LocationManager locationManager;
// Ping GPS every 10 minutes
private static final int GPS_INTERVAL = 1000 * 60 * 10;
// Ping network every 12 minutes
private static final int NET_INTERVAL = 1000 * 60 * 12;
private ProgressDialog dialog;
TextView latText, lngText, locText;
String lat = "";
String lng = "";
String loc_service = "";
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
latText = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.latText);
lngText = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.lngText);
locText = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.locText);
locationManager = (LocationManager)this.getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
// Register the listener with the Location Manager to receive location updates
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, GPS_INTERVAL, 0, locationListener);
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER, NET_INTERVAL, 0, locationListener);
timer = new Timer();
timer.schedule(new GetGPSStatus(), GPS_INTERVAL);
}
// Define a listener that responds to location updates
LocationListener locationListener = new LocationListener() {
public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
// Called when a new location is found by the network location provider.
timer.cancel();
Log.d("Coords",lat+" "+lng+" "+loc_service);
latText.setText(lat);
lngText.setText(lng);
locText.setText(loc_service);
if(lat != "" && lat != "") {
String data[] = {lat, lng, loc_service};
new SaveCoordsToDb(AmLocation.this).execute(data);
}
timer = new Timer();
timer.schedule(new GetGPSStatus(), 1000);
}
public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {}
public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {}
public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {}
};
class GetGPSStatus extends TimerTask {
@Override
public void run() {
Location gps_loc = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER);
Location net_loc = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER);
// If the last GPS location is newer than the network time, use the gps
// otherwise use the network location
if(gps_loc.getTime() > net_loc.getTime()) {
lat = String.valueOf(gps_loc.getLatitude());
lng = String.valueOf(gps_loc.getLongitude());
loc_service = LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER;
}
else {
lat = String.valueOf(net_loc.getLatitude());
lng = String.valueOf(net_loc.getLongitude());
loc_service = LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER;
}
}
}
// Save GPS data to the remote server db
public class SaveCoordsToDb extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {
InputStream is = null;
String result = "";
private ProgressDialog dialog;
private Context context;
public SaveCoordsToDb(Context baseContext) {
context = baseContext;
}
@Override
protected void onPreExecute(){
super.onPreExecute();
dialog = new ProgressDialog(context);
try {
dialog.setMessage("Updating GPS Location ...");
dialog.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false);
dialog.setCancelable(false);
dialog.setProgressStyle(ProgressDialog.STYLE_SPINNER);
dialog.setButton(DialogInterface.BUTTON_NEGATIVE, "Cancel", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
dialog.dismiss();
}
});
dialog.show();
}
catch(Exception e) {
Log.e("Dialog",e.toString());
}
}
@Override
protected String doInBackground(String... urls) {
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("lng", urls[0]));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("lat", urls[1]));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("source", urls[2]));
HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost post = new HttpPost("http://myserveraddy.co.uk/index/save");
try {
post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(post);
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
is = entity.getContent();
Log.d("POST","200");
}
catch (Exception e) {
Log.e("POST", e.toString());
}
return null;
}
@Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
dialog.dismiss();
try {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "iso-8859-1"), 8);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String line = null;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
sb.append(line + "\n");
}
is.close();
result = sb.toString();`
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.e("log_tag", "Error converting result " + e.toString());
}
}
}
