The support forum is temporarily read-only. For urgent requests, please email contact[at]psyberia.net

[fixed] Apline quest 1.2.0 did not record all my route

Something wrong? Report it here
Post Reply
MarC

[fixed] Apline quest 1.2.0 did not record all my route

Post by MarC »

Hi (again)

I set of on a walk, which I knew would take about 1 hour to complete. I set AlpineQuest to record the route just before I set off. I think I pressed the back button when I got a pop-up saying that AlpineQuest is recording a route, do I wish to close... and I pressed 'no' in response to this.

I also loaded up PowerAmp to listen to some of my music while on my walk. During my walk PowerAmp (music player) didn't stop once, so I know that the phone itself did not crash or reboot for the entire duration of my walk.

However, when I got back home I turned the screen on, AlpineQuest was stuck on the black initialisation screen (the one with the grey mountain in the middle of the screen with the scrolling text) for about 20 seconds. It is as if AlpineQuest had restarted itself, but had not resumed recording the route/track properly.

I hunted around the menus looking for the 'stop tracking' button, but couldn't find it. The Android notification bar still had the AlpineQuest icon displayed - saying that a route was still being recorded. It wasn't until I clicked the flag button to create a new route and then pressed the 'X' button to stop recording that the notification icon disappeared.

I then browsed to the GPX file that I started recording an hour ago, and found that AlpineQuest had only recorded 38 minutes of it.

I could not find a log file to give you - the only one I can find is zero bytes in size. Presumably when AlpineQuest restarted, it deleted the old log.
MarC

Re: Apline quest 1.2.0 did not record all my route

Post by MarC »

I've had this happen every time I use the tracking feature of Alpine Quest. Unfortunately, I've had no luck in getting any logs (the alpinequest.log file stays at zero bytes).

It may have something to do with putting AQ into the background and using another app while AQ is recording my track (pressing HOME to get to the home screen, and then running PowerAmp to skip a track in my case). This may be an avenue to investigate.

I have an HTC Wildfire, so not the most powerful phone around - but it does have approx 132mb of memory free when nothing is running (i.e: after a reboot). My canvas size in AQ is small and using 'original' image quality mode. I always use OS maps that are stored on my sdcard from the Mobile Atlas map creator. The map file I currently use for my area is approx 400mb.

If you need any more info, then please let me know.
Psyberia-Support
Site Admin
Posts: 6406
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:41 pm

Re: Apline quest 1.2.0 did not record all my route

Post by Psyberia-Support »

Hi MarC.
When you returned to AlpineQuest after your walk while listening music, you saw the starting screen so it means that AlpineQuest was stopped (or crashed). You seem to have done everything right for recording the track in background so it might have crashed.

Maybe you can try to reduce the frequency of the recorded locations (something like a location every 5 seconds is good, you can open the Geolocation window from the Geolocation submenu and select the settings panel) but even with more locations that's weird that it crashed after only 38 minutes.
I often record tracks (usually in background) and never had the same issue, but don't use the phone while the track is being recorded. I will try to listen to music or something like that and let you know.

Concerning the starting screen displayed for a while this means that a big map while loaded or a big GPX file (a track), the current task is written under the mountain logo.

Note also that 132MB of free memory are managed by the system, but the available memory for each application if much more less, often 16MB or 32MB per app. That's all the complexity of the task: displaying hundreds of MB maps, recording thousands of location with a very limited memory...

I'm sure we will find a fix soon,
Best regards
Do you like AlpineQuest ? Leave a small comment on Google Play !
MarC

Re: Apline quest 1.2.0 did not record all my route

Post by MarC »

As mentioned in the other thread, I tried various intervals for the recorded locations - I tried yesterday with 5 and 10 seconds for the interval, with AlpineQuest still randomly quitting.

I tried a 2 second interval this afternoon - and it almost worked. My journey (approx 2.5 hours in total) was cut short by about 15 minutes as AQ had quit as before (approx 15 minutes before my journey end).

All interval tests were carried out with PowerAmp playing music in the background. I may try without this, but it does get a bit boring for me walking for 2 hours and no music! If I get my bike back repaired from the shop then I can try this, as I don't listen to music while biking on roads - too dangerous!

---------------
A few months ago, I had problems with another program called Mercury MSN. This program also used to just randomly quit when it was put into the background. I notified the author and there was some setting or configuration for the program to make it always stay resident. He modified the program and gave me a version to test (and it worked). Perhaps this also applies to AlpineQuest ?
Psyberia-Support
Site Admin
Posts: 6406
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:41 pm

Re: Apline quest 1.2.0 did not record all my route

Post by Psyberia-Support »

Ok thanks to you Marc I think I understand what's happening. When the Android system runs in low memory, it kills apps beginning by closed ones (but still loaded in memory so that they could be re-started faster), and then if still not sufficient, it will kill background apps.
It think that's what happening here.
Since I never use another app while recording tracks I never encountered this problem. But music playback requires a lot of memory thats why its happening with it.
Now I can search for a fix.
Thanks again
Do you like AlpineQuest ? Leave a small comment on Google Play !
Psyberia-Support
Site Admin
Posts: 6406
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:41 pm

Re: Apline quest 1.2.0 did not record all my route

Post by Psyberia-Support »

Hi,

I have uploaded a final beta version of AlpineQuest 1.2.2 with a new tracker.
It now runs in its own process, so stopping AlpineQuest won't stop tracking. Moreover, it is able to record long hours of precise tracking.

If you are using the Online Edition downloaded from our website you can update the application right now, if you are using a standard version from the Market, the new version will be released in few days.

More information in this page.

Best regards and thanks for all.
Do you like AlpineQuest ? Leave a small comment on Google Play !
Post Reply