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mendhak / gpslogger

:satellite: Lightweight GPS Logging Application For Android.
https://gpslogger.app
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"Don't log if I'm not moving" without Google Play Services #807

Open puddly opened 4 years ago

puddly commented 4 years ago

Thanks for your awesome app. I've been using it to geotag pictures but have on occasion forgotten to start it, so I've been leaving it running nonstop with a relatively low logging frequency. I'm running LineageOS 15.1 without Google Play Services and thus without the magical Google activity recognition API, which as I've found out makes "Don't log if I'm not moving" option a no-op and drains my battery pretty quickly.

The only other simple but reliable sensor I could find for detecting movement is the step detection sensor. Before I try implementing this, would you accept a pull request adding "Movement detection methods" checkboxes for "Google Activity Recognition" and "Step sensor"?

mendhak commented 4 years ago

Hey thanks for asking I appreciate it.

It'll depend on the complexity of the implementation; if it's a lot of work to do it via step sensor then I'd not want it, because ultimately I have to maintain it going forward and its impact on other parts of the app. Some things to keep in mind are doze mode has some kind of effect on the sensors, I don't know what.

If the implementation isn't so bad, so... if it's actually quite basic/simple to follow and understand, then yes that would be a good pull request.

mendhak commented 4 years ago

Oh and worth mentioning, its effect on battery life is important, so lots of testing required.

The current implementation is basically checking if the user is doing anything but being idle, so it sounds like you're looking for the significant motion sensor?

puddly commented 4 years ago

I wasn't able to get my significant motion sensor to trigger at all on my Nexus 6P running LineageOS 15.1, only the step counter and step detector sensors.

From what I can tell, the step counter sensor doesn't always notify you of steps, it just gives you a way to periodically compute how many steps have been taken since the phone has booted. This Pedometer application occasionally doesn't count steps for 10 seconds at a time, even with the UI open.

I'll have to test a bit more but I believe the step detector should fire an event when it runs, though some manufacturers seem to disable it. Using both sensors might be safer.

In either case, I don't think it will negatively impact battery life any more than GPSLogger logging points nonstop.