[fixed] alpinequest reboots phone when creating track

[ketzie]

I was testing my alpinequest full version to do tracks, (nexus 1, android 2.3.3, don't know how to get the alpinequest version, but it was purchased this month), and after 25 - 45 minutes, the phone suddenly reboots. The settings use the default values.

Any advice?

Regards,

Ketzie

[Psyberia-Support]

Hi and thank you for posting here.
That's a bad crash... Even if some users have problems recording long tracks/detailled tracks, I never heard about a phone that completely rebooted...
Most problems with track recording can be avoided by using a smaller location update rate in the geolocation settings. You should try to set 1 location/5 seconds or less while recording tracks.
I will also work on it to fix this problem.
Sorry for that.
Best regards

[MarC]

I don't think it's alpine quest on its own making the phone reboot. I think there is a fundamental problem with android when simultaneously reading & writing to the storage card. I think putting a high load on the storage card can make the device reboot unexpectedly .

Since my last post (about Alpine Quest quitting and not recording the entire route) I changed roms on my phone to CyanogenMod 7.02 (for the Wildfire / Buzz) and AQ now seems to be recording the whole route and is not quitting when its not supposed to.

However, attempting to scroll the map and with PowerAmp playing music and with journey tracking turned on (one fix every 10 seconds) at the same time caused the one and only reboot I encountered. When the device booted back up, I had lost about 15 minutes of tracked route.

This also happened (but not so much) on the previous rom I had installed - Openfire 2.3

One idea I had came from using OpenGPSTracker. This program records the fixes to an internal database that is located on the devices internal storage, rather than the storage card. This could reduce the amount of read/writes performed on the storage card and potentially reduce of tipping over the storage card driver, or whatever it is making it reboot.

Additionally, it takes a good 2-4 minutes for the "preparing storage card" message to going away while the device is booting up. Writing journey data to an internal storage database could eliminate the need to wait for the card to become "ready" (and I would just have to go without music for this time).

Only one route needs to be recorded at a time, so as soon as its stopped it could be saved to the storage card in the normal manor and the route stored internally is cleared once saved (or discarded). Adding an option to continue or start a new route in internal memory would be useful to [So Record route (as normal) -> check for existing route in internal storage -> If one exists, Message to user - Do you want to append or clear current route -> Start recording -> some time later user stops recording -> prompt for file name -> save GPX -> clear route from internal storage]

[MarC]

Okay, slight update:

I had Alpine quest quit on the Cyangenmod as well... I tried a 10 second and 5 second interval, both resulting in AQ quitting about 15-20 minutes later

However, I also tried with a 2 second interval and AQ didn't quit. So maybe reducing the frequency of each fix does help.

[Psyberia-Support]

What is sure is that AlpineQuest writes the recording track on the SD card every 100 waypoints which can be heavy for the card and avoided as marc said (even this is not the or the only source of the issue).
Your suggestion is very interesting marc I think I will do something like that.

Note that with version 1.2.0 you can change AlpineQuest main folder (containing landmarks, maps and cached online maps), and set it on the internal memory ("/data/data/psyberia.alpinequest.[online/full/free depending on your version]/", need to restart app). You can try this before recording a track so that the SD card is not used at all. It could help to determine how much do the writes on the SD card affect the reboot...

[MarC]

I could try changing the folder to internal memory - however, this means that Alpine Quest wouldn't be able to use my detailed OS maps (approx 300mb - generated from the Atlas map creation tool) - and I do kind of depend on the OS maps to locate various by-ways and footpaths, otherwise I'd just get a bit lost!

[ketzie]

Two days ago, I did another hike, and although I reduced the frequency of waypoints, the phone still crashed. After the crash, I find myself looking at the screen on which I'm asked to enter my pin.

Regarding the suggestion that a card can't keep up with the frequency of writes, well, I guess anything is possible, however I would remain skeptical that this would cause a reboot. Managing I/O is probably the most basic thing that an operating system can do. I find it difficult to believe that Android can't cope with this. 90% of the other apps would be crashing as well.

Regards,

Ketzie

[Psyberia-Support]

Hi,
The new GPS tracker seems to have fixed this issue.
Can anyone confirm that?
Best regards

[ketzie]

As of 1.2.6, the problem was not fixed. I downloaded 1.2.7 today, but it's raining too hard to test just now.

BTW, I noticed that if the gps isn't turned on, the program behaves strangely. Why not have a message that says "Turn gps on and restart AlpineQuest"?

Regards,

Ketzie

[Psyberia-Support]

Hi,
Thanks for your report.
I recently talked with a friend of mine which one's HTC Desire reboots every time he uses Google Navigation for a long time (like a hour non-stop - I use Google Navigation for hours on my HTC Desire without any problem). His phone becomes very hot and then finally reboots. Have you try to use another GPS application like Google Navigation for long times?
Concerning the GPS you're right that a message should warn the user if the GPS is supported but deactivated... I'll try to add this soon.
Best regards

[ketzie]

Hi, and thanks for your response.

I guess it's possible that there is a problem with my phone, especially if lots of other people aren't complaining about the same rebooting problem. Nevertheless, I successfully use the phone with other gps applications, including Google Navigation, and it works fine.

Regarding you're friend's problem, I think I have the answer. The HTC desire and my Nexis One are essentially the same phone, and both have a design fault. The phone, when used with _most_ in-car chargers including the expensive in-car charger that was briefly sold by Google, seriously overheat the phone as you said. In addition, the phone gradually discharges. The internet is full of people complaining about this problem. The solution is to use the Motorola in-car charger:

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Vehicle- ... B000S5Q9CA

I bought this charger and now I can use Google Navigation for hours without any overheating. You can get the same charger from Amazon.fr. Six heurs de navigation entre la Drôme et l’Ariège sans problèmes.

Is there any debugging info I can get from Alpinequest that might help identify the problem?

Regards,

Ketzie

[Martin333]

I'm still getting reboots when creating a track, strangely is does not happen if i record a track with google 'mytracks' at the same time. I am using the highest update rate.