Startup Bus Tracker

Tracking software for startup bus. If you don't know what this is, you don't need this app.

How it works!

First off, if you have trouble, email me at kevin@touchlab.co. Will help fix.

There are 2 pieces. One is the gps tracker for the map online. This is the one you need to do. The other captures a time lapse video. I had a big plan about getting this all set up and tested, but its a bit of a rush job, and may run down your battery, but it would be pretty cool to have some of these.

Anyway.

First of all, check settings and make sure location and gps is enabled. Kind of useless without.

To set up the app, go to menu > settings. Click "Bus Code" and enter the code somebody gave to you. If that didn't happen, ask for it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, again, you probably have no use for this app.

Leave the URL alone. The only thing you need to decide now is High/low Precision.

High will send updates every 1/4 mile, and has a wake lock to keep the phone on. The phone will need to be plugged in as the wake lock will run down the battery. You should *probably* use High precision.

If you don't have a reliable network connection, or are worried about your battery, use Low Precision (that's selected by default, and if this was a real app, that would be a problem). Low Precision sends one update every 10 miles, and wakes up every 15 minutes to "do stuff". I don't know if all devices will reliably wake up and engage the gps, so only use this if you need to.

Time lapse. This will grab still frames on a regular schedule to build a time lapse video of the trip. We can apply location and milage overlays on the finished video, which should be cool. Also, you can take the outside video, but I think it would also be cool to get time lapse of everybody hacking. It would be set up to "look in" on the bus.

Thoughts? OK. You need to have the phone in landscape. When you start it you'll see a preview. Make sure it looks correct, not inverted.

The screen needs to stay on for time lapse. Its a security thing (can't take secret pics). If the app leaves the screen, the time lapse will stop. Is bad. To help with battery life, set the brightness to the lowest possible setting.

Tape the phone to the front window (or wherever you're recording). Click "Start Pics", and make sure the preview shows up. You'll need to check it periodically to make sure nothing shut the app down. Yeah, sucks, but it'll be worth it.

The network connection you have is probably bad, so the images don't actually upload right away. When you get a wifi at a hotel (or whatever), click the "Image count" button. It'll upload images and reduce the count.