Chevron Houston Marathon - Amateur Radio Team
traccar app setup

Please READ this entire instruction prior to downloading anything.

There are THREE PARTS.

Traccar is a free to install & use app that when configured correctly, will ‘beacon’ your location to Peter’s mapping system (called ERTRAK – Event Resource TRAcKing) using the GPS on your smart phone and your data service. The amount of data sent over the course of a day is small compared to your visiting a typical website that has images on it. The Traccar app is one of multiple sources of location data that ERTRAK is able to use. Settings in the Traccar app control how often it beacons your location. There are multiple steps to getting the Traccar app set up and ready, but when done and working, your location will be visible on our event map, along with others, which includes Motor Marshals, SAGs, First Responders, and other officials. Being able to see all event support resources on the map is a huge advantage for us. After the event is completed, you can totally remove the Traccar app without fear that it leaves anything behind.

Part 1: INSTALLING & CONFIGURING the TRACCAR smartphone app:

IF you have a 'mobile' assignment (eg: Shadow, Lead Pack, Escorts, Turtles), we really need to know your location throughout the day, so, please, install the TRACCAR app using the following instructions. Your marker on the map will be indicative of your assignment.

IF you have a 'fixed-location' assignment, you are welcome to install the TRACCAR app, as it may be of help when confirming your location vs the planned location. Your marker on the map will show your FCC Amateur Radio callsign.

A. Install the Traccar App (approx. 60 second process) (setting up the app will come later)

Go to the App Store (Android or iPhone) and search for and download the “Traccar Client” app by Anton Tananev – it will be a Green App, not the Manager App, which is Blue.

B. Set Up the App – (approx. 3 to 5 minute process)
Do NOT turn on the ‘service’ until the Traccar app is properly configured. Use the appropriate PDF (see links below) specific to your smartphone being an Android or iPhone for additional information on how to configure the Traccar app.

You will have already shared your name and phone number as part of registering to help with the event.

The details needed to configure the Traccar app include:

Device Identifier: the phone number you provided when you registered as volunteer. Must be numbers & dashes like this: 123-456-7890

Server URL – http://traccar.ertrak.uk

Location Accuracy – High

Frequency – 300 - in seconds (5 minutes) - how often Traccar beacons your location while you are stationary. You may beacon more often if you wish. Just keep in mind, beaconing more frequently, the faster your cell phone battery will diminish.

Distance – 800 measured in meters – 800 meters is about .5 miles – While you are moving, Traccar will beacon every time this distance is travelled since the last beacon.

Angle – Zero…0 is the correct setting - This means Traccar will *not* report your location due to a change in direction of travel, only time, and/or distance when moving.

Depending on whether you’re using IOS or Android, you may have these to configure:

Offline Buffering – set it to *not be enabled*.

Wake Lock – set it to be *enabled*.

Here are some more detailed instructions per type of phone, which you may find helpful:

Additional information (PDF) specific to Apple smartphones

Additional information (PDF) specific to Android smartphones

Having set the configuration details on the traccar app, close the Traccar app. Reopen Traccar, and verify the settings are good. If you find something did not 'stick', make any changes needed and repeat the close, open & verify until those settings are confirmed.

Before the day of the event, I suggest you do some long term use testing of how traccar does on your phone, so that you'll understand what sort of battery drain results from it's use. For most, it should not be a huge drain, particularly if the settings are set as mentioned above.

Note also: depending on your role in the event, you may be asked to alter the settings of the traccar app to provide a more suitable balance between updates when stationary vs moving.

See 'HOW TO USE THE ERTRAK MAP' section (below) for information on how to verify that your smartphone is showing up on the map for the event. You'll need to get the link to the map from the per-event instructions, and also any needed login name & password details, but otherwise, the information below is pretty generic and applies to all ERTRAK-supported events.

I can not stress enough how important it is that the traccar app be set up and tested *days ahead of the event* instead of the morning of the event.

On the day of the event, and, during testing, it's important to make sure that you understand that your phone needs to have a good view of the sky, to get a good GPS location signal, and, to make sure it has a good data connection available too!

Before you enable the traccar app 'service' (reporting of your location), I recommend you *disable WI-FI* if that's possible.

You might also have some permissions that need to be adjusted to:

always allow access to your location details
always allow data access
always allow running in the background

If you find that your phone does not consistently provide location updates, there is a good probability that some of the permissions mentioned above have not been allowed. Please check your settings.

Generally speaking, it's fine to not have the app visible all the time, but, leave it open. Do *not* 'swipe it away', as this will close the app, and may cause it to stop reporting your location.

You are now done with installing and setting up the Traccar app. You can turn the 'service' on, or leave it off. But, remember, do test for an extended period of time to make sure there are no issues with the app being shut down unexpectedly.

Part 2: HOW TO USE THE ERTRAK MAP

This is for anyone that wants to use the map. The map shows locations of various fixed-location resources & information, plus, the location of various *mobile resources*.

Note: use the latest versions of Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox or Apple’s Safari. Older browsers such as Internet Explorer are too old to host the map.

Visit the 'assignments' page to get the link to the map. Open the map.

IF you were provided login name & password, this can be supplied in the '??' dialog, and if you click the 'Auth' button, and wait for a green 'tick' indicator, this confirms that you have authenticated, and you should not need to repeat this when reopening the same browser for the map in future.

If you do not see the green tick, it means something has not been supplied correctly, most likely, so go back and try entering the information again. Note: the information is *case sensitive*. If your device automatically changes the case of text entered, you might need to attend to that.

Suggestion: Bookmark and/or create a shortcut to the map so it’s easy to get to when you need it.

Now comes the familiarization with the map: This can take up to 10-15 minutes because there are several options as to how much you can choose to view or not view.

As soon as you open the map the first time, you’ll see a map, often with some default selections regarding display of course overlays.

Arrows on the course routes show the direction of competitor travel to get to the finish line.

Icons near the top left of the map:

+ Zoom In

- Zoom Out

LS LAYER SELECT

SS STATION SEARCH

{magnifying glass icon} Street Search

?? Extra options

Click on each of the buttons to familiarize yourself with them.

Setting up the map to show information is your personal preference. There is No right or wrong way. Most of the display option settings will be saved across re-opening of the map.

LS – Layers Select – This has options that control the appearance of the map (base layer), and which event-specific details (eg: routes, distance markers, rest stops), and tracked resources are shown on the map. Many may find Bing Road their favorite, but the ‘Bing Gray’ option is also great for making the event-specific details stand out from the base map.

SS – Station Search - Looking for or Following a Particular Person…such as yourself or all the Motor Marshals, or all the SAGs or all those moving. Supply a partial match to see a list. Click on the item in the list, and the map will reposition to center that resource to help you find it.

Search for a particular address or location…such as an accident scene, intersection, or

identfy the location of a disabled bicylist. Ideal for Net Control and First Responders. Note: the search radius is restricted to the area shown on the map. Zoom out to expand the search radius if needed.

?? – Rotate map, text, follow yourself. For those with a login name & password, that is entered here.

How to see yourself and control which other tracked resources are visible on the map:

Open the LS (Layer Select) pane. Enable the ‘trackers’ checkbox (without this enabled, no tracked resources will be shown).

Under ‘Tracker Groups’ you’ll find a list of various types of resources. If you leave all of them un-checked, you will see *all* resources. If you only want to see a particular group or groups, check only those groups of interest, and this will limit the shown tracked resources to those within the groups you have checked. This filtering applies also to the resources that will show up in the Station Search (SS) results.

NEXRAD – Shows Weather on the MAP…zoom out to see if inclement weather is hours away, minutes away, or nothing but blue sky.

Icons or labels too big or small? Adjust them using the ‘Tkr icon’, ‘Tkr label’, and ‘Fixed size’ sliders. ‘Fixed size’ adjusts the size of the markers like rest stops (ie: fixed-location markers).

If you follow our suggestions and you’re using a smartphone, you’ll have TWO new items on your phone…the Traccar app, which will run in the background, still allowing you full use of your phone and other apps, and the MAP icon.

Some layers, such as the 'markers' layer will show more detail when zoomed in, and less detail when you are zoomed out, to avoid clutering the map. Try enabling layers with this kind of information and then change the zoom level to see which layers dynamically add/remove detail.

If the icons for fixed location vs mobile resources are not to your liking, the 'LS' pane has sliders for tracked resource icon & label (Tkr), and fixed location icons (Fixed). Adjust them to your liking.

Part 3: AT THE START OF EVENT DAY(s):

For those that are using the TACCAR smartphone app:

- turn OFF WI-FI (unless you are using a hotspot for data) to minimize the possibility of approximate location details being obtained via WI-FI SSID sniffing.

- open the Traccar app, and ensure the ‘service’ is enabled. Leave Traccar open and enabled the entire time, unless instructed otherwise.

At the end of each day, you are welcome to disable the Traccar ‘service’ and close the app, and of course, enable WI-FI if needed.

Ensure your phone has granted permissions to the app to use the GPS/location service & use the phone’s data, and allows Traccar always run in the background. If you have these settings incorrect, Traccar may initially seem to work fine, but over time, stop beaconing your location. Check your phone’s permissions settings and then stop the service, close the Traccar app, reopen the Traccar app, and re-enable the ‘service’ to re-start it. If you are given options on how long to allow the permissions, always choose the ‘always’ option!

The Traccar app: this needs to always be running. The Traccar app, by itself, does not use a lot of power. It’s only using your device’s GPS and small amounts of data.

For those using the map:

The map: this consumes a much larger amount of data and battery power vs the TRACCAR app. Reason: It retrieves imagery for the map base layer as well as icons, and, the stream of data describing movement of tracked resources. I recommend only using the map when it’s needed unless you have an external power source available.