The tracker details page allows you to change the settings.
Browse to Tive Platform > Trackers > List and (select your tracker) > Details tab
- Description: press Edit on the far right of the page to give your tracker a description
- Estimated Battery Duration calculates battery life based on Tracker settings
- Transmission Interval: how frequently the cellular radio transmits - Default: 6 hours
- Measurement Interval: measures sensors, GPS/WiFi position, and reads bluetooth beacons
- WiFi positioning: location when near populated areas with WiFi - Default: Enabled
- GPS: location when outdoors away from cities - Default: Disabled (strongly recommended)
Best Practice
How do you configure for achieving good Estimated Battery Duration for your Shipment:
Transmission Interval is how often the cellular radio is activated to transmit data to, and receive configuration updates from, the Tive Platform. Transmitting data is the biggest drain on battery life, and so the more frequent your ping rate, the lower your battery life will be. The ping rate should be set according to the requirements of your shipment: for a longer shipment, you may want to set the tracker to ping less frequently, while for a shorter shipment, you may want more frequent pings. Make sure that the Estimated Battery Duration is long enough to last your entire trip, plus unexpected delays and poor cellular connections drain more power than normally estimated. If you are not seeing your tracker, it may have missed one or more scheduled check-ins - try our troubleshooting section. If you’re not sure what ping rate makes sense for your shipment, contact us and we’ll help you figure it out.
Measurement Interval records the environmental sensors, GPS/WiFi position, reads Bluetooth Beacons, and then awaits the next Transmission Interval to send them. By default, this is set to the same rate as the Transmission Interval but can be more frequent, especially when GPS and Bluetooth Beacons are not used.
We enable Bluetooth on Trackers when Beacons are used; if you cannot see your beacons then contact us.
WiFi Position should always be enabled; at only 15% additional drain for 5-meter accuracy in populated areas, you should select this checkbox unless your trip is not by ground or near populated areas.
GPS should normally be disabled for good reason. GPS provides the best reception outdoors and in special circumstances within packages and containers. You may have noticed your TomTom GPS Navigator gets very warm and does not work near tall buildings, indoors, or even in clouds. This is because any GPS device relies on a clear view of the sky outdoors to acquire a position fix of at least 4 of 8 GPS satellites; and like with any radio signal, glass, metal, and water attenuate the signal and cause the GPS device to increase its own power to try to get a signal - it will not work in a sealed metal container, or underneath boxes with other matter. In summary, GPS drains the battery 60% faster, so only enable it when you control your shipment and can place the tracker on the top & outermost box (where it can sense the sky).