Creates zigzag lines while not moving

Post the activities you already have used Real Time GPS Tracker for and your ideas what it could be used for.
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Optimistic
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:31 am

Creates zigzag lines while not moving

Post by Optimistic »

This is the best tracking app for android I have ever found. But so far I have found a few glitches. Most important of these is, it creates numerous zigzag lines when you are sitting idle. One morning when I woke up from night's sleep, I found that I traveled hundreds of miles east-west-south-north directions from my bedroom, though my phone was kept under my pillow for the whole night.

Second shortcoming is, it stops tracking in the second day if you do not clear the cache of the app.

The third one is, if the app is open when you are moving, then it creates straight line of your moving path. If back pressed and the app is left for background run, then it cannot create the straight line of the moving path. Instead, it creates some zigzag lines left to right (and deviates a few miles sometimes), though the moving direction remains right.

May the admin please let me know the causes of these issues?
Thank you in advance.
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 3130
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Re: Creates zigzag lines while not moving

Post by admin »

Hi,
Thank you for your feedback. When determining your location the tracker completely relies on the GPS chip in your phone. The tracker just forwards the coordinates received from your phone to the server.
So to reduce the zig zag please ensure that your phone has good GPS conditions. Usually conditions are good if the phone has clear view of the sky. When you are inside I recommend to switch off the tracker. As you have noticed the location would just jump around your home location and you are wasting battery. Alternatively you could configure a minimum distance in the app settings so the location at least is not sent to the server if the distance to the previously sent location is not big enough.

By the way, if you keep your phone under your pillow, please consider to switch off your phone or at least activate flight mode. As far as I know it is not good for your health to have mobile phone radiation permanently so close to the body.

If the app is in background it switches GPS off while it is not required to save battery. When GPS is activated again, it might need a few seconds until location is really exact. Maybe you could improve the quality if you open "Settings", "Expert settings", and set "Location fix send threshold" to "3" or "5". This will force the GPS to update the location 3 times (5 times) before the location is sent to the server.

Please note that the mentioned app settings influence how your track is presented to other users (or in the web portal map). But your track on your local app screen might still look the same.
Dr.M
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:43 am

Re: Creates zigzag lines while not moving

Post by Dr.M »

Actually, the zigzag lines you see while you are stationary are GPS errors, and they are inherent to the GPS satellites and your GPS-enabled device. You don't see it much on commercial GPS units dedicated to vehicles because their GPS receivers uses an algorithm to force the location to the street you are nearest, or have been traveling on. But cell phones, and pet tracking devices don't normally have such algorithms.

Aviation GPS, and GPS surveying equipment use differential correction to correct the inherent satellite signal errors. You generally have to subscribe to private Differential Correction services for a fee. The FAA is installing their version of differential correction all over the US, and it requires WAAS-enabled hardware on the aircraft.
poroboszcz
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue May 09, 2017 1:16 pm

Re: Creates zigzag lines while not moving

Post by poroboszcz »

I had this same issue when I was using cheap china phones with shitty GPS module. It's totally hardware based bug.
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