Forum: General Topics

Hi,

So a few times I've been cruising along with TMJ doing its thing, and suddenly I look at the map and see that TMJ shows me stationary in a location I've passed a few minutes ago. Speed shows zero and location appears fixed where tracking stops. Restarting TMJ remedies this, but I'm wondering what causes this and if there is a way to keep it from happening.

It happened yesterday on my way home, so I pulled over at the next opportunity and fiddled with my phone until I found the debug option to spit out a log. I noticed after I generated the log that TMJ was again reporting my correct location, and appeared to have resumed tracking. However, I'm not sure if I inadvertantly selected another option while generating the log.

I've made the track public under my profile as "Buggy Ride" http://www.trackmyjourney.co.uk/track/t4J8y2tnCcGRr

The log I generated doesn't show anything out of the ordinary, but here it is nonetheless:

TMJ-Mobile (0.7.5) Event Log
15-Dec-2010 16:42.35
Platform: SAMSUNG-SGH-A897/A897UCJC1
16:42.35: Import/Export: file:///Mmc/TMJ Maps/TMJ Event Log 2010-12-15 164223.txt
16:42.05: file:///Mmc/TMJ Maps/
16:42.00: file:///Mmc/
16:41.50: file:///Mmc/TMJ Maps/
15:59.17: Saving Settings
15:58.47: Started
15:58.46: GPS7 Unavailable - trying next...
15:58.46: GPS6 Unavailable - trying next...
15:58.46: GPS5 Unavailable - trying next...
15:58.46: GPS4 Unavailable - trying next...
15:58.46: GPS3 Unavailable - trying next...
15:58.46: GPS2 Unavailable - trying next...
15:58.46: GPS1 Unavailable - trying next...
15:58.45: Initialising...
15:58.45: ISO8859_1
15:58.45: Wpts:26
15:58.44: Loading Waypoints
15:58.44: Loading Route List
15:58.44: Loading Route
15:58.44: Processing Track
15:58.44: Loading Track
15:58.44: Loading Map Cache
15:58.40: Loading Preferences
15:58.40: UTF-8 encoding on

Of particular note are points 185-189. 185 I'm going along fine. 186 is the location on which TMJ hung, 187 appears to be when I started cruising the menus, 188 appears to be recorded while I am messing with the menus and again shows my true location. 189 is just the last point before I turned off TMJ to go into the store.

Any ideas?

Andre

" It sounds like the GPS is failing to provide TMJ with a location fix. I don't know the exact cause, but if it happens again check the Text Page/GENERAL/GPS Status field, which may give a clue. "

I did check that, and it was still reading "Internal GPS Active" However, since I didn't look at this until after I pulled over, I can't say if it became active after I started fiddling or if it was always active...

" had you pressed any buttons/touchscreen etc at all in the period before it stopped working? Might be something to watch for in future.
"

Good question...Can't really recall...

" Also, after saving the log file above, did you need to restart TMJ this time to get it working again, or did it start tracking again automatically?
"

No, I didn't restart. It started tracking again automatically.

Interesting development, though - yesterday I took the same route home, and it the same thing happened in the EXACT same location (verified by looking at the track files for both journeys. This time, on the fly, I disabled and re-enabled the internal GPS and it started tracking again. I'm guessing there might be something about that location.

" Finally, try ticking the GPS/GPS Options/Basic Connection box, it uses a slightly different method to connect the GPS and might possibly be more reliable. (Or might not!!) "

Hmm...for some reason the Basic Connection box is greyed out. Any idea why that would be?

Thanks for your help, as always!

No worries!

Some of the GPS Options can only be changed when the GPS is disconnected as they only take effect on reconnection. (So just use Disconnect GPS first).

It does seem a strange coincidence if the problem always occurs in the same place - is there anything different about that particular bit of road perhaps?

Or (maybe more likely), could it be that you generally reach that bit of road at the same time 'offset' since initially starting TMJ (or since the last key/screen press)? A 30 minute GPS timeout perhaps? Maybe try tapping the screen every few minutes to keep the phone awake (but eyes on the road though, of course)!!