Asset Tracker only one _track.q0 in 23 mins?

Troubleshooting
1

Hi,

Hardware: NOTE-NBGL-500 and Notecard AA.
Notecard Firmware: 8.1.3.17044

I have set up the Notecard to function as asset tracker using these commands.
{“req”:“hub.set”, “product”:“com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”, “mode”: “periodic”, “outbound”: 5}
{“req”: “card.wireless”, “apn”: “http.globe.com.ph”}
{“req”: “card.location.mode”, “mode”: “periodic”, “seconds”: 60}
{“req”: “card.location.track”, “start”: true}

It does connect to Notehub. I power the Notecard and Notecarrier using 3 x AA batteries. Then I placed it in a box. I walked around my place for 23 minutes. I came back to my place and checked Notehub. There is only 1 _track.q0 in 23 mins of walking. I am walking so the Notecard should detect movement.

image
image1920×1080 442 KB

I am following this youtube video by TJ.

According to the video guide there should be _track.q0 every 1 minute at Notehub.

How do I make this work?

I did place the Notecard and Notecarrier in a small cardboard box, then I walked around my area for 23 mins.

Regards,
Markel

2

Hi @mtrobregado,

It’s actually the same issue as you reported in this thread:

{“req”:“hub.set”, “product”:“com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”, “mode”: “periodic”, “outbound”: 5}

and

{“req”: “card.location.mode”, “mode”: “periodic”, “seconds”: 60}

You’re asking the Notecard to ascertain its location AND connect to a cell network at virtually the same time (which it’s not able to do). You must increase the values on these considerably to use both cell and GPS together.

Thanks,
Rob

3

Hi Rob,

I followed TJ youtube video. How to Build a Fully Functional GPS Asset Tracker in Ten Minutes

I set the commands same as TJ youtube video.
{“req”:“hub.set”, “product”:“com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”, “mode”: “periodic”, “outbound”: 5}
{“req”: “card.location.mode”, “mode”: “periodic”, “seconds”: 60}

I don’t understand why I am not getting similar results with same commands. Also, if you watch the video the outbound is set to 5 minutes, but there is _track.q0 file every less than 5 minutes.

I tested again with these parameters below.
{“req”:“hub.set”, “product”:“com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”, “mode”: “periodic”, “outbound”: 10}
{“req”: “card.wireless”, “apn”: “http.globe.com.ph”}
{“req”: “card.location.mode”, “mode”: “periodic”, “seconds”: 120}
{“req”: “card.location.track”, “start”: true}

I doubled the outbound and seconds from previous testing. I tested for 32 minutes from 6:42 AM to 7:14 AM. I received 3 _track.q0 at Notehub.

image
image1920×1080 432 KB

Here are all three _track.q0 GPS coordinates.

first _track.q0:
“best_location_type”: “gps”,
“best_location_when”: 1740956303,
“best_lat”: 14.406422500000001,
“best_lon”: 120.96319140625,
“best_location”: “Imus”,
“best_country”: “PH”,

second _track.q0:
“best_location_type”: “gps”,
“best_location_when”: 1740956313,
“best_lat”: 14.406522500000001,
“best_lon”: 120.96337890625,
“best_location”: “Imus”,
“best_country”: “PH”,

third _track.q0:
“best_location_type”: “gps”,
“best_location_when”: 1740956319,
“best_lat”: 14.406547499999999,
“best_lon”: 120.96345703125,
“best_location”: “Imus”,
“best_country”: “PH”,

Regards,
Markel

4

Hi Rob,

I entered the three GPS coordinates at Google Map. Here is link.

I walked for 32 minutes and I got three GPS coordinates. The distance from first to third GPS coordinates is about 25 meters. It assume walking it took me about 40 seconds to walk 25 meters. If the outbound is set to 10 minutes, why do I get three _track.qo files in less than 10 minutes? Is it triggered by movement?

Regards,
Markel

5

Hey @mtrobregado,

When viewing your _track.qo events in Notehub it’s usually more helpful to switch the “Uploaded” column to “Captured”. Captured is the time the Note was created on the Notecard, and Uploaded is the time that Note was uploaded to Notehub. In your screenshot the three _track.qo events have nearly identical timestamps because they were uploaded in the same sync.

As for why you only have three events—you are using a narrowband Notecard which can take a long time to make a cellular connection, especially its initial one. (I was using a wideband Notecard in my video.) Plus, getting an initial GPS/GNSS fix can also take a non-trivial amount of time. My guess is that for a large portion of your walk you were waiting for both the initial cellular connection and initial GPS fix.

Can you check the when field of your three _track.qo events, and let us know if they’re towards the start or end of your walk?

Thanks,
TJ

6

Hi TJ,

Here are all three _track.qo JSON. I am about 42% to my walk.

First _track.qo
{
“event”: “ad70917b-099c-8e8a-864c-c575d6f24cf9”,
“when”: 1740956303,
“file”: “_track.qo”,
“body”: {
“dop”: 13.703125,
“jcount”: 1,
“journey”: 1740955767,
“motion”: 16,
“seconds”: 505,
“time”: 1740956303,
“voltage”: 4.1835938
},
“session”: “f27d7383-9b48-4355-8228-127241f2d9e3”,
“transport”: “cell:gsm”,
“best_id”: “dev:864475046543285”,
“device”: “dev:864475046543285”,
“product”: “product:com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”,
“app”: “app:ac0580b1-f242-4f36-8db4-fe922bc491f7”,
“received”: 1740956641.113729,
“req”: “note.add”,
“best_location_type”: “gps”,
“best_location_when”: 1740956303,
“best_lat”: 14.406422500000001,
“best_lon”: 120.96319140625,
“best_location”: “Imus”,
“best_country”: “PH”,
“best_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“where_olc”: “7Q62CX47+H78R”,
“where_when”: 1740956303,
“where_lat”: 14.406422500000001,
“where_lon”: 120.96319140625,
“where_location”: “Imus”,
“where_country”: “PH”,
“where_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“tower_when”: 1740956641,
“tower_lat”: 14.406247,
“tower_lon”: 120.960754,
“tower_country”: “PH”,
“tower_location”: “Bacoor Cavite”,
“tower_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“tower_id”: “515,2,24605,42086”,
“status”: “success”,
“fleets”: [
“fleet:3bf998e9-1176-4696-a1c7-966c660b7a5e”
]
}

Second _track.qo
{
“event”: “ac4bac5a-35bd-8a8a-8cc2-1a8a7382a711”,
“when”: 1740956313,
“file”: “_track.qo”,
“body”: {
“bearing”: 60.504456,
“distance”: 22.396072,
“dop”: 1.9003906,
“jcount”: 2,
“journey”: 1740955767,
“motion”: 1,
“seconds”: 10,
“time”: 1740956313,
“velocity”: 2.2396073,
“voltage”: 4.1796875
},
“session”: “f27d7383-9b48-4355-8228-127241f2d9e3”,
“transport”: “cell:gsm”,
“best_id”: “dev:864475046543285”,
“device”: “dev:864475046543285”,
“product”: “product:com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”,
“app”: “app:ac0580b1-f242-4f36-8db4-fe922bc491f7”,
“received”: 1740956641.117503,
“req”: “note.add”,
“best_location_type”: “gps”,
“best_location_when”: 1740956313,
“best_lat”: 14.406522500000001,
“best_lon”: 120.96337890625,
“best_location”: “Imus”,
“best_country”: “PH”,
“best_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“where_olc”: “7Q62CX47+J92R”,
“where_when”: 1740956313,
“where_lat”: 14.406522500000001,
“where_lon”: 120.96337890625,
“where_location”: “Imus”,
“where_country”: “PH”,
“where_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“tower_when”: 1740956641,
“tower_lat”: 14.406247,
“tower_lon”: 120.960754,
“tower_country”: “PH”,
“tower_location”: “Bacoor Cavite”,
“tower_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“tower_id”: “515,2,24605,42086”,
“status”: “success”,
“fleets”: [
“fleet:3bf998e9-1176-4696-a1c7-966c660b7a5e”
]
}

Third _track.qo
{
“event”: “8974ddc8-406a-811c-968e-17294947c45b”,
“when”: 1740956319,
“file”: “_track.qo”,
“body”: {
“bearing”: 71.265785,
“distance”: 9.116842,
“dop”: 1.9003906,
“jcount”: 3,
“journey”: 1740955767,
“seconds”: 6,
“time”: 1740956319,
“velocity”: 1.5194737,
“voltage”: 4.1835938
},
“session”: “f27d7383-9b48-4355-8228-127241f2d9e3”,
“transport”: “cell:gsm”,
“best_id”: “dev:864475046543285”,
“device”: “dev:864475046543285”,
“product”: “product:com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”,
“app”: “app:ac0580b1-f242-4f36-8db4-fe922bc491f7”,
“received”: 1740956641.120374,
“req”: “note.add”,
“best_location_type”: “gps”,
“best_location_when”: 1740956319,
“best_lat”: 14.406547499999999,
“best_lon”: 120.96345703125,
“best_location”: “Imus”,
“best_country”: “PH”,
“best_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“where_olc”: “7Q62CX47+J98W”,
“where_when”: 1740956319,
“where_lat”: 14.406547499999999,
“where_lon”: 120.96345703125,
“where_location”: “Imus”,
“where_country”: “PH”,
“where_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“tower_when”: 1740956641,
“tower_lat”: 14.406247,
“tower_lon”: 120.960754,
“tower_country”: “PH”,
“tower_location”: “Bacoor Cavite”,
“tower_timezone”: “Asia/Manila”,
“tower_id”: “515,2,24605,42086”,
“status”: “success”,
“fleets”: [
“fleet:3bf998e9-1176-4696-a1c7-966c660b7a5e”
]
}

Here is from the summary captured and uploaded
First _track.qo

Captured
Mon 06:58:23 AM
Uploaded
Mon 07:04:01 AM

Second _track.qo

Captured
Mon 06:58:33 AM
Uploaded
Mon 07:04:01 AM

Third _track.qo
Captured
Mon 06:58:39 AM
Uploaded
Mon 07:04:02 AM

Regards,
Markel

7

If location data is more important than the cadence of syncing the data with the cloud, I would encourage you to use the extensive flash memory available on the Notecard and store as many Notes as possible before syncing. For example:

Change your outbound to once/hour:

{“req”:“hub.set”, “product”:“com.gmail.robregadomarkel:cellular_legacy”, “mode”: “periodic”, “outbound”: 60}

Change your GPS mode to continuous (because seconds < 300 is effectively the same as continuous mode anyway):

{“req”: “card.location.mode”, “mode”: “continuous”}
8

If you’re not working with other data, I’d still set a seconds as it determines how often the Notecard will create _track.qo Notes.

{"req":"card.location.mode","mode":"periodic","seconds":300}

Before you try this again, I’d also make sure your Notecard is outside with a clear view of the sky for several minutes before you start your walk. This will help make sure the Notecard can make an initial GPS fix that should get you more reliable readings.

TJ