Snevl Latitude Version 2 Discussion

[stevea]

Up and running on Backitude with the direct to HS2 reporting - thank you!

A few observations:
1) Battery level reporting 0 (VZW Galaxy S3)

Yeah, the battery level stuff is reported by Btraced, but not by Backitude. I mentioned it once to the Backitude developer while we were working together, but he never put it in. My guess is that it would be easy, but slipped through the cracks.

2) Altitude is showing meters though miles is selected in the settings. Any chance for a conversion if 'miles' is selected?

I never even thought about that. I just figured meters was good for anyone. It would be easy enough to add the conversion, if no one else cares.

3) I have to manually add the devices with MS Access to the MDB file for the new Backitude devices. You might have mentioned the bug earlier.

Uh oh. I may have "fixed" more than I meant to when Gogs found the error in the original v2.5. Let me go look at it.

So - do you have a Paypal account under your email address for donation ware?

Nope, no donations. I'm pretty strict about my stuff being free. Thanks for the thought though.

[Bill Brower]

Up and running on Backitude with the direct to HS2 reporting - thank you!

A few observations:
1) Battery level reporting 0 (VZW Galaxy S3)
2) Altitude is showing meters though miles is selected in the settings. Any chance for a conversion if 'miles' is selected?
3) I have to manually add the devices with MS Access to the MDB file for the new Backitude devices. You might have mentioned the bug earlier.

So - do you have a Paypal account under your email address for donation ware?

Cheers- Bill

[stevea]

Steve,

WIll Snevl_bb LED Sign be converted into Hs3 any time soon?

Thank you

Greg Mack

Greg,

Probably not. I'm not sure I will ever upgrade to HS3, but if I do it will be quite a while down the road. I bought HS2 when it first came out, and it wasn't "ready for prime time" for about a year. If I use that as a guide, it may be a year or more before I consider it.

The good news is that Snevl_bb doesn't use devices, and that seems to be what Homeseer Tech has messed up the most in HS3. It may be that there isn't much that needs to change.

Steve

[BIGMACK48]

Snevl_bb LED Sign Convert to Hs3

Steve,

WIll Snevl_bb LED Sign be converted into Hs3 any time soon?

Thank you

Greg Mack

[stevea]

v2.5.1 Replaced ASPX

All,

Gogs discovered an error in the main web page, SnevlLatitude.aspx. I had left some experimental stuff in there (for when I was messing with using Tasker to update location) and it blows up when attempting to update the Btraced/Backitude table.

I posted a ZIP that only contains the fixed ASPX page here. I'll re-post the full package as well, but if you already installed v2.5, just replace the one file with the one at the link.

Steve

[stevea]

Hi Steva,
after the addition of follow me this plugin is one of the best and most stabile I have.
I have only one wish: could you remove the warning in the log added when the devices are not all on the same Location than defined in the setupuppage.
Ie. I change the location many of the devices - and every 2 min. I get +60 warnings in the log due to this... really builds up over time :-)

Jakob,

I sent you a version that should fix this. It still will do the warnings, but only on the first time through all the devices.

I think the warning needs to be there, in case someone is attempting to use device codes that are already used for something else. But you are right, there is no reason to beat you over the head with it.

Steve

[Jakob.Sand]

Hi Steva,
after the addition of follow me this plugin is one of the best and most stabile I have.
I have only one wish: could you remove the warning in the log added when the devices are not all on the same Location than defined in the setupuppage.
Ie. I change the location many of the devices - and every 2 min. I get +60 warnings in the log due to this... really builds up over time :-)

[stevea]

v2.5

The first message of the Snevl Latitude library thread (here) has been updated with the ZIP file for Snevl Latitude v2.5. The changes to version 2.5 include:

• Added support for Backitude, an Android app that the author has modified to work directly applications like Snevl Latitude.
• Changed the "source" field of the track history to two letters: BA (Backitude), BT (Btraced), or FM (FollowMee)
• Don't updated devices if the current observation isn't the most recent.
• Check for malformed data from FollowMee.

Post any issues or questions here.

Steve

[stevea]

I see that Brian has loaded up the latest Backitude beta on google play now. Looking forward to the next release of Snevl Latitude that supports it. Sing out if you want any volunteers to help test it =)

cheers,

Mike

Mike,

Send me an email at snevl at msn dot com. I'm cleaning up the instructions now. Unfortunately, in documenting how to set stuff up in the App to work with Snevl Latitude I seemed to have messed up the updates. Anyway, I probably would like someone to take a quick look at it before I post it.

Steve

[ShimmerNZ]

The author of Backitude has been working with me, and the latest Beta version does everything required to report directly to Snevl Latitude. I need to make the changes when I get back home, but it shouldn't take long. It will be a little time, but it should be ready in a v2.5 about the time the Backitude app is available in the Google Play store.

Aside from that, I need to take the time to pour back through this thread and see what all has been suggested (new features) or pointed out (bugs). Anything in particular you want to lobby for?

Steve

I see that Brian has loaded up the latest Backitude beta on google play now. Looking forward to the next release of Snevl Latitude that supports it. Sing out if you want any volunteers to help test it =)

cheers,

Mike

[sooty]

I'm no Android or iOS developer but I haven't ruled out creating my own device>HS app just yet. I've had a play with the Android SDK and I don't think it is beyond my capabilities to create such an app but for now I will stick with the options already available.

Thanks Steve for the offering your help. I have started making changes to the plug-in to allow it to work with different location services and Simon (simonog) has been helping me with some extensive testing.

Here's where I'm at with the plug-in so far:
Users (devices) are added via the PI interface and become an HS device showing current location. Min dist to move, ignore speed > x, ignore accuracy > x, polling frequency, reverse geocode and record to database parameters are all configurable on a per user basis. A user can also be marked as active / inactive so you don't have to delete an entry if the device is temporarily out of action.

Known places / user combinations are added in the same way with the lat, lon and max distance options configurable per place.

As yet I have not made provision for "near tweaking" as you call it because I haven't needed it but I will add this over the next few days.

Position changes can be recorded to a database on a per device basis but I still have to finish the web page for displaying the historical data.

I still need to add the code for Btraced and then the plug-in should be ready for some wider testing.

I hope to have something available this weekend.

Paul..

Paul,

The "trip" concept that is fundamental to Btraced is clearly in conflict with how Snevl Latitude (or any other system based on the CURRENT location), but they keep claiming they are coming up with a way to work around the idea of the trip. We'll see.

Backitude (for those lucky enough to be on Android - he doesn't seem interested in moving to the iOS platform) is very much based on reporting the current location. He's got lots of tuning parameters and keeps the battery usage low. In general, I think a app-to-HS approach is WAY better, like I said. Maybe someone can persuade the Backitude developer to go to iPhone? I don't know...

Like I said, I am willing to help. You already have my code, and you will soon have the code for the Backitude version. Let me know if there is anything I can do.

Steve

[travisdh]

For what it is worth I did email the developers of BTraced to see how progress was going with the next version, at that stage ( a month ago) I believe they were looking into the way the app should work, and agreement on the objectives of the app, and if they could get some agreement they would work fast to get the app developed.

I think i threw the suggestion to them, that there should be a fair number of people who would be interested in this, and it may be worth rather than getting confused around a version which is trip-centric becoming trip-optional it may be better just to look at another app, that is to make a non-trip version of the app which is basically for home automation systems / custom systems.

Doing it that way I would think would be far quicker than the other options. I am still not sure how far away it will be and have no estimates (that have been given to me).

For now am making use of Followmee, but would much prefer the direct-to-home system since it auto-updates as needed etc, does not rely on external servers and so on.

[stevea]

Steve,

I'm with you on the "keep it all in house" thing. I have played around with other services including Btraced and personally I don't need trip recording just regular position updates which can then be compared with known places and of course something that doesn't kill my phone battery in a few hours.

I was considering creating my own Android app, but FollowMee fits the bill for what I currently need so I saw no point in re-inventing the wheel unless I have to.

I will do some testing with Backitude and Btraced but in theory I have no problem incorporating these services and then releasing it as a free plug-in.

Paul..

Paul,

The "trip" concept that is fundamental to Btraced is clearly in conflict with how Snevl Latitude (or any other system based on the CURRENT location), but they keep claiming they are coming up with a way to work around the idea of the trip. We'll see.

Backitude (for those lucky enough to be on Android - he doesn't seem interested in moving to the iOS platform) is very much based on reporting the current location. He's got lots of tuning parameters and keeps the battery usage low. In general, I think a app-to-HS approach is WAY better, like I said. Maybe someone can persuade the Backitude developer to go to iPhone? I don't know...

Like I said, I am willing to help. You already have my code, and you will soon have the code for the Backitude version. Let me know if there is anything I can do.

Steve

[stevea]

Gordon / Simon / Jay,

Thanks for the kind comments. I really do appreciate it (the only "fee" I've ever gotten for any of my stuff).

I'm frustrated with where things are going with HS3, but I'm probably not allowed to voice the specifics. I'm not one of the "official" developers (I don't have a pay-to-play plug-in that returns revenue to HS Tech) so I am not aware of where things are going at this moment. From the outside, it has appeared that they are deciding where to go on a day-to-day basis. As a former manager of >100 developers on a critical product, I can't believe the lack of planning, scheduling, and long-term planning. Oh well. I'm simply not willing to go through what I went through with HS2, waiting for about a year before it was actually usable.

I'll still be here on the board (maybe not as frequently) and will still strive to support all my posts.

On a happier note: The backitude developer has sent me his most recent beta (with my requested customization) and it working flawlessly with my internal v2.6. Looks good!

Steve

[jayman13]

Steve, I agree with all the comments made here. Your plugin has been the most useful plugin in HS. It is so intrinsic and important to my system that I can't believe Homeseer hasn't included location data as part of its "new" home automation platform. Your plugin/scripts are the future of home automation in my opinion as so many events depend on one's location not just for convenience but for energy conservation as well. There have been a few trees and the ozone is just a tiny bit thicker than it would be without your staunch support of location gathering. My great thanks and I will continue using the app/scripts as is as long as the future will allow...