Database Develop

cellGPS for Windows Mobile? Upload GSM cell-id on periodic basis to HTTP server?

I'm looking for a simple application that will run in the background, and send the current GSM/UTMS cell-id to a web server on a periodic basis (via HTTP GET).
Basically a program like cellGPS (http://www.vikinggames.hu/product.php?id=11) but for Windows Mobile. I don't really care about GPS info, since that just sucks power (and doesn't work indoors).
What I'm trying to do here is enable my home automation system to know where I am, without sucking my phone's battery to death (especially since GPS won't work indoors). GSM/UTMS cell-id is 'close enough' for me.
The application would just hit a webserver on my home machine with the current cell-id (http://webserver.com/receiver.php?cellid=4233-23) on a definable period. My own app on my webserver would record that data into a database. I can then go back and use that data to let my home auto system know "hey, Justin's almost home, turn on the HVAC, lights, etc".
It needs to be able to run in the background, no annoying icons on the screen, and start up on phone reset.
I figure since it's just sending the cell-id (which is always available), it would be rather efficient and not use much battery power (especially since I usually leave Activesync on "instant" so the data connection is usually up anyway).
Other extensions to this would let my server update twitter/facebook/etc with "Justin's at ... home/work/etc now.".
Any ideas?

wow this would be a great aplication

Two programs come to mind.... Comm Mgr Pro and rk-Location Switch.
I have not really played with these two programs much, but they do Cell tower based switching and might include some of the other features you require (but I do have to admit that they do not have all the features you want).

Dale Lane posted some c# code to programmatically get the cellID of the current tower.
The rest is pretty simple - a place to enter the url and then periodically issue HTTP GET requests.
I guess I could try to cook up something when I have some time.

Well I went and coded a sample app anyway. It just reads the current tower info at the specified interval. Is this the information that you require?
Just extract the zip to the device and run the .exe.
Note: It requires .NET Compact Framework 2.0

this sounds pretty cool. remember that cellid information is good for triangulating to about 1000 meters. you can get "justin's on his way home, turn on the AC" but probably not "justin's in the shower, begin youtube upload"

newb5000 said:
Well I went and coded a sample app anyway. It just reads the current tower info at the specified interval. Is this the information that you require?
Just extract the zip to the device and run the .exe.
Note: It requires .NET Compact Framework 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works great! even though this topic was supposed to be on logging it to a web database, I am not too keen on that since data charges are expensive. I would be more interested in an internal database where I can simply attach a "friendly name", say the location of the site (ie. corner of main and first st.) to some cell sites (or a group of sites) in the internal database. Similar to what nicetrack used to do on previous WM versions. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=320055

newb5000 said:
Well I went and coded a sample app anyway. It just reads the current tower info at the specified interval. Is this the information that you require?
Just extract the zip to the device and run the .exe.
Note: It requires .NET Compact Framework 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will check as soon as I get my Kaiser back -- I managed to shatter the screen over the weekend. doh. This sounds EXACTLY like what I'm looking for.
Someone else mentioned data charges, which I don't care about, since I'm on unlimited data (AT&T won't even sell the things without the unlimited data plan now).
Actually, I still have my older TyTN somewhere. Let me dig it up and give this a try.

jasonchan said:
Works great! even though this topic was supposed to be on logging it to a web database, I am not too keen on that since data charges are expensive. I would be more interested in an internal database where I can simply attach a "friendly name", say the location of the site (ie. corner of main and first st.) to some cell sites (or a group of sites) in the internal database. Similar to what nicetrack used to do on previous WM versions. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=320055
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a program that sort of does this now, called Trackme -- but it only does GPS as far as I know. Adding DB code would probably add a whole lot of complexity (and CPU power).
I'm sure it's doable, though, but I would hope it wouldn't be in this app. I have enough crap running in the background eating precious CPU cycles.
I wish I had a Windows machine to do development on. I'm Mac/Linux only, and don't have access to Visual Studio anymore.. I wrote an app to do this for the iPhone, but it can't run in the background due to SDK limitations. It's annoying that Microsoft hasn't made the WinMo SDK work on other platforms (although I guess Apple is doing that with the iPhone, so I don't have much room to talk).
The "goal" of this desired application is to be as lightweight as possible and offload all processing to a real computer. My phone doesn't need to do all of the work.
I can't imagine this would use much bandwidth, anyway. Even if you updated every five minutes, that's far less than 50kb per day, assuming a 64 byte URL + all HTTP and TCP headers. It'd add up to around 1.5 megabytes a month. I'd bet it'd be closer to 800-900kb/month. That's nothing compared to email/etc traffic. I would hope EU/etc carriers aren't so bad that 1.5mb a month would put you over a limit...

jasonchan said:
Works great! even though this topic was supposed to be on logging it to a web database, I am not too keen on that since data charges are expensive. I would be more interested in an internal database where I can simply attach a "friendly name", say the location of the site (ie. corner of main and first st.) to some cell sites (or a group of sites) in the internal database. Similar to what nicetrack used to do on previous WM versions. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=320055
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested it yesterday when driving home from work. Tower changes were very frequent during my drive home. But lets say that a HTTP GET request (depending on the length of the URL) is on average 100 bytes. Lets say in a day you switch towers 200 times. That would result in just under 20 kilobytes of data usage in a day. I actually calculated this for myself because I also initially thought that one would get a large bill at the end of the month for data usage, but it would seem that this isn't the case.
One could also limit the web requests to only "bookmarked" Cell IDs.
I like the idea of the original poster even though I cannot see how I could use it personally, since I do not have a home automation system.
Regarding more friendly names - I remember that I had set it up on one of my first phones to receive cell broadcast messages from the towers which included the tower friendly name. Haven't tried since, though.
The data that is made available in Windows Mobile is the following:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa921533.aspx
Don't see any friendly names of towers though
I thought of adding a "bookmark" button so that one can bookmark the current Cell ID (and possibly assign a friendly name) but this would be very awkward while driving (and the frequent tower changes).
Google has a database with Cell IDs and uses them in Google Maps but good luck getting a copy of their database

norelidd said:
this sounds pretty cool. remember that cellid information is good for triangulating to about 1000 meters. you can get "justin's on his way home, turn on the AC" but probably not "justin's in the shower, begin youtube upload"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hah!
I only need 1000 meter resolution. GPS is definitely more accurate, but it would kill the battery in 6 hours flat.
Maybe when the third generation of GPS sats start going up in a few years, GPS receivers will use less power (since the sats will be much more powerful and supposedly will reach inside most buildings).. but that's 2015 at the earliest. Who knows what HTC/etc will come out with by then.

jmat said:
I will check as soon as I get my Kaiser back -- I managed to shatter the screen over the weekend. doh. This sounds EXACTLY like what I'm looking for.
Someone else mentioned data charges, which I don't care about, since I'm on unlimited data (AT&T won't even sell the things without the unlimited data plan now).
Actually, I still have my older TyTN somewhere. Let me dig it up and give this a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only saw your post after I posted mine.
There aren't any web requests yet though, I just wanted to confirm that I was on the right track (through you testing it ). I'm willing to give it a bash because I'll learn something through the process.
Some questions arise:
Should the app dial a connection automatically, or just not send out requests if there is no active connection?
Still need to figure out how to get it to run in the background properly
I'm wondering how it should function if the phone is in standby

newb5000 said:
I tested it yesterday when driving home from work. Tower changes were very frequent during my drive home. But lets say that a HTTP GET request (depending on the length of the URL) is on average 100 bytes. Lets say in a day you switch towers 200 times. That would result in just under 20 kilobytes of data usage in a day. I actually calculated this for myself because I also initially thought that one would get a large bill at the end of the month for data usage, but it would seem that this isn't the case.
One could also limit the web requests to only "bookmarked" Cell IDs.
I like the idea of the original poster even though I cannot see how I could use it personally, since I do not have a home automation system.
Regarding more friendly names - I remember that I had set it up on one of my first phones to receive cell broadcast messages from the towers which included the tower friendly name. Haven't tried since, though.
The data that is made available in Windows Mobile is the following:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa921533.aspx
Don't see any friendly names of towers though
I thought of adding a "bookmark" button so that one can bookmark the current Cell ID (and possibly assign a friendly name) but this would be very awkward while driving (and the frequent tower changes).
Google has a database with Cell IDs and uses them in Google Maps but good luck getting a copy of their database
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tower switching will happen quite fast in big populated areas. That's why I was just going for every few minutes and not "as the tower changes".
It's too bad the towers don't "advertise" their GPS coordinates along with the other tower data. It seems like that would have been really easy to stick in the UMTS standard.
I'm surprised Google hasn't open sourced that database, or at least made an API library for it. Afterall, their users are the ones who discovered it all, not them -- Google Maps just records GPS coordinates + cell IDs and uploads them when you run the Google Maps location. I've seen that app upload several hundred kb during some runs.
Going back to the 'post on switch' thing. That might be a neat option -- to send a GET on every tower switch.. I'm going back and forth in my head on if that's a good idea or not. It'd be interesting to see how that hits battery life, though. (Since I have ActiveSync with "always push" enabled, I bet it doesn't make much of a difference).

First beta
Hi guys,
Apologies for the delay - I've been terribly busy.
I managed to create the app so it's ready for testing.
Attached is the cab file. The app consists of two components - the configuration utility and the service. The service is responsible for making the web requests and is launched at startup. You can use the configuration utility to adjust the settings as well as monitor what the service is doing.
The service will automatically dial your data connection when a web update is necessary, but it can also work via WiFi - although I don't see why you would use it via WiFi. It also supports websites that require Windows Authentication (Kerberos or NTLM should work, but do test it).
I think the app should be pretty self explanatory, but please do post if you have any questions or experience any problems.
FIY - the last error (if there is one) is stored in a log file located in:
Program Files\CellID Updater\cidlog.txt
Hope you like it!
EDIT: An update is available on the next page. I'm leaving this attachment as is just for reference purposes, but you should download the one on the next page.

CommMgrPro is creating a very big database automatically with operatorID-Cell/LAC-GPS coords sent (automatically) by the users (they can track their movements in realtime with googlemaps). Obviously GPS coords are only sent by GPS enabled devices. You can change the URL where the data is posted (HTTP GET) to point your site and I can give you a free license. Currently 3000 cells registed with gps coords and growing as the users moves....
Dani

newb5000 said:
Hi guys,
Apologies for the delay - I've been terribly busy.
I managed to create the app so it's ready for testing.
Attached is the cab file. The app consists of two components - the configuration utility and the service. The service is responsible for making the web requests and is launched at startup. You can use the configuration utility to adjust the settings as well as monitor what the service is doing.
The service will automatically dial your data connection when a web update is necessary, but it can also work via WiFi - although I don't see why you would use it via WiFi. It also supports websites that require Windows Authentication (Kerberos or NTLM should work, but do test it).
I think the app should be pretty self explanatory, but please do post if you have any questions or experience any problems.
FIY - the last error (if there is one) is stored in a log file located in:
Program Files\CellID Updater\cidlog.txt
Hope you like it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey all - my first post.
I must say, it's outstandingly honorable that you share your skills with us. So good.. (haven't installed the tool yet, hope it's no virus or tv-on/off-switcher)
One question @jmat: How do you process the cellid once it is http'd to your server? Is there a webservice that maps cell-ids to gps?
Frouk

frouk said:
I must say, it's outstandingly honorable that you share your skills with us. So good.. (haven't installed the tool yet, hope it's no virus or tv-on/off-switcher)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks and no, it's not a virus / trojan / <insert something bad here>
One thing I forgot to mention is that if the device goes into standby, the service will be "paused". Then, when the device comes out of standby, the service will resume where it left off. I'm not sure whether this is acceptable behaviour for the app, but I considered the alternative - preventing the device from going into standby will drain the battery very quickly. So you would choose when the service should send out updates by taking your device out of standby.
Another thing: you can configure how often the service checks for a new tower and whether it should send out an update if the tower is different or the same since the last check.
I'm still wondering how I can put this app to good use, personally. I don't have a home automation system and I don't need to be tracked by anyone at home. Any ideas on what other uses this app could have?

newb5000 said:
Thanks and no, it's not a virus / trojan / <insert something bad here>
One thing I forgot to mention is that if the device goes into standby, the service will be "paused". Then, when the device comes out of standby, the service will resume where it left off. I'm not sure whether this is acceptable behaviour for the app, but I considered the alternative - preventing the device from going into standby will drain the battery very quickly. So you would choose when the service should send out updates by taking your device out of standby.
Another thing: you can configure how often the service checks for a new tower and whether it should send out an update if the tower is different or the same since the last check.
I'm still wondering how I can put this app to good use, personally. I don't have a home automation system and I don't need to be tracked by anyone at home. Any ideas on what other uses this app could have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The configuration is just perfect - that way one can decide when to update just by letting the device go to sleep or not. Another thing: am I right that this app will never be as accurate as Google maps "my location"? It uses triangular approximation with more than one cell-id, right? I experienced it to be very accurate, even being on the train it exactly locates my position, amazing.
I personally intend to use such kind of app for reality/virtuality games where website visitors can track something or someone on the web and then go outside into the real world and do something or meet someone.
But jmats' idea is also amazing.

Cell name
Years ago I had Ericsson R320 (BTW great phone). It showed cell name e.g. "city centre" on the screen besides op name. I dug up my eric from the closet and this option still works. It would be great to have this as a today plugin Do you know something like that?

Handy Use of App
newb5000 said:
I'm still wondering how I can put this app to good use, personally. I don't have a home automation system and I don't need to be tracked by anyone at home. Any ideas on what other uses this app could have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you could mount a web server in your home pc (pretty simple) and track your device if it gets lost or stolen... It would be nice to recover your $700dlls phone right.

AndNav or something similar?

I downloaded the AndNav 0.6 app a couple weeks before I got my phone and I was very excited to have a decent application for GPS navigation. I loved having TomTom on my Windows Mobile phone w/ internal GPS.
But the author of AndNav is stalled in his development because his app violates the TOS for the GPS mapping so no navigation for Android that isn't lousy Google Maps which is a joke if you're trying to use it for "real" navigation.
Is there any way to get AndNav's APK loaded on the G1? It seems as though there is no way to install it from the web or locally. That seems to be the problem with most of the non-Market apps. I hope that this is a temporary issue where developers need to recompile their apps for the version of Android released with the phone. It would really suck that "open" Android with its tickbox for "install from other sources" is just a red herring.
Or alternatively is there a commercial GPS navigation app like TomTom, iGo, Garmin, whatever, being developed that stores the maps locally?

The TOS violation is for Google maps not the hardware. So if an alternative map source can be found then it's good to go. Besides, since Google maps is web based if you went out of a coverage area, or lost service, the navigation would die off too.
Even if you get the APK loaded the maps api checks for a key before releasing data, so it wouldn't work.
Android itself is open, Google maps is not... at least not entirely.
What I don't get is why they object, are there any lawyers out there that can explain that one to me? Perhaps it has something to do with the web based issue.

From what I understand google is only having a problem because they. Use multiple sources for map data and can't sublicense them for navigation. Navteq and Teleatlis don't want to undercut their relationships with TomTom, Garmin, etc.
It's a pity since AndNav looks like it's 70% done.

jcostantino said:
From what I understand google is only having a problem because they. Use multiple sources for map data and can't sublicense them for navigation. Navteq and Teleatlis don't want to undercut their relationships with TomTom, Garmin, etc.
It's a pity since AndNav looks like it's 70% done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*Hint* Get the dev to release the source for andnav, you can put in your own hash from google. And you can do it again and again... They really don't check up on individuals.

It's certainly worth a try to get him to release the source but I doubt he would do it. He could get in trouble from the map license holders and he's working on getting OpenStreetMap data to integrate to presumable make a product he can sell that is free of license issues.
On a side note, how useful IS OSM anyhow? So you get a bunch of GPS logs made by a bunch of people and it constitutes some street information. Who arranges the data? How useful could extremely incomplete street data be? How do the street names and numbers get entered so you actually know if you're on the interstate or an alley? The website (last time I checked) was lacking in information. I know they have a serious purpose but it seems laughable that they could possibly put something useful together.

I hadn't heard of OSM before you mentioned it, but after taking a look, it looks pretty complete. There's no "street view" or "sattelite imagery" but that stuff would be superfluous and distracting in a navigation system. The fact that it is user updateable is awsome. If AndNav can be configured to pass data back to OSM for detailing the maps then it stands the potential to be even more accurate.

I looked again and it SEEMS pretty complete but apparently they are using TIGER data for the US and it is... lacking.
Stirling Road, a large street in my area has huge gaps in it. It has existed for at least 60 years in the same spot and it's pretty inconsistent on the map.

Another concern is that apps that use tiger data (roadnav for Linux comes to mind) can't tell if a street is one-way or not.

Android Maps has different data to regular Google Maps?

I live in Israel.
If I click 'find me' in the Android Maps application, it shows me pretty much in the middle of nowhere with only the major roads shown on the map.
If I copy and paste my current location into regular Google Maps, it shows my current street and all the surrounding streets, i.e. it goes into a lot more detail.
Am I missing something here? For now the app is pretty useless for me

Anyone ?

As far as I can tell, the data available for android and web google maps as well as google earth is all the same.
Are the roads at least correct (despite being less detailed/less of them)? Google maps responds to the level of ZOOM by selectively adding or removing detail. The idea is that if you are zoomed far, that to display the full detail will give you an unreadable mess, so it cuts out the less significant roads. Have you tried zooming in (or out)?

lbcoder said:
As far as I can tell, the data available for android and web google maps as well as google earth is all the same.
Are the roads at least correct (despite being less detailed/less of them)? Google maps responds to the level of ZOOM by selectively adding or removing detail. The idea is that if you are zoomed far, that to display the full detail will give you an unreadable mess, so it cuts out the less significant roads. Have you tried zooming in (or out)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lbcoder - thanks for the response
This is not an issue of zoom, i've tried zooming in to the maximum, there are even no city names.
Can you look up Jerusalem on your android and web Google maps and see if there is a difference ?

The OP is right, I just pulled up Jerusalem on my PC and I see the surrounding cities. Pulled it up on my G1, and it simply shows Jerusalem with nothing around.

Can it be that the map application on G1 does some sort of weird optimization ?? I've seen reports of same problems by users from South Africa. Any ideas how to fix it ?

partyzan0 said:
Can it be that the map application on G1 does some sort of weird optimization ?? I've seen reports of same problems by users from South Africa. Any ideas how to fix it ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be, but I just did a search on where I was born (Lima, Peru) and both the web version and Android match exactly.

There are some differences between the Android and desktop version. I can't select busstops etc to show more info about it. On desktop, it shows busnr info. Also it's not possible to select walking to a destination when asking for directions on Android, only by car. Or am I missing something?

there has always bee na disconnect between google maps and google maps mobile. I ran into the same thing on my Touch a while back. Google is constantly rolling out new and improved maps to their main web maps (new countries, street name changes, better directions) but it seems they take a timely rollout approach for mobile maps.
I'm not sure why though.

hey partyzan0, i'm originally from Israel as well.
I'm almost positive nickmgray is right, because I don't remember any map info for streets in israel even in the desktop version for more then a couple of months ago. So they might've just added that to the desktop and we'll just have to wait for it to show up on the mobile. It's great seeing my old neighborhood, brings up memories. I think the aerial photos for mobile and desktop are better too now.
Peace.

maps offline

rightio well obviously this phone has built in GPS and i would love to utalize this feature on the road or when generally finding places.
Thing is however the GPS works the maps do not load. i have tried google maps, and they do not load without wifi, same as the google map editor, andnav and also nav4all. None of them show the maps unless they have been pre-loaded via wifi which isnt possible most of the time. I would love for some help with this, if i could save the WHOLE map for the UK that would be great! and be able to access it offline and use it with the GPS.
Any ideas?
Also sorry if its been covered before i did do a search and couldn't find anything
Thanks

Look for "BigPlanet" on Android Market.

there are no results so im guessing its a paid app? i dont really want to spend any cash...

welshboy09 said:
there are no results so im guessing its a paid app? i dont really want to spend any cash...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know of any other offline apps for the G1. It works mostly ok, but could have a couple of more features.
PS only costs $3
PPS http://bigplanetmaps.wordpress.com/
Although the engine for bigplanet seems to be available to be licensed for other apps now, so maybe someone will release a freebe.

well i tried downloading it, and i keep getting an error saying my credit card is invalid... i live in the UK and it comes up as $2.99 in the store... plus i know for a fact it is valid, i used it with paypal almost every day, also ATM's and chip and pin in store...

Try emailing the author to see if he has allowed it for all countries...

well i don't understand why it wouldn't be, i haven't used the program to unlock the market... i simply signed up for google checkout so all the apps that aren't allowed for my country shouldn't even show up, should they? well ill e-mail him anyway

AndNav2 can download maps in advance. Zoom the region you would like to download, Menu->Precache (or whatever it was called) and select zoom level. Beware that on the highest two zoom levels you would be downloading hundreds megabytes if you are viewing large area.

i cant find andnav2 in the market though..

So get it from their website!

waze.co.il is working on (a paid) version of FreeMap
They re-written FreeMap to native android .
it should be released soon to the US market. not free, I know but they will eventually release it as free since it is open source.
Their true advantage over most android GPS programs is they offer true offline navigation program (like iGo for WindowsMobile). you download the country file into your device.
Once you did that you can navigate freely. Route calculations are done inside the device and not on some remote server.
users can upload their history routes at home , to fix map errors so it is integrated to public map.
if you have a data plan and agree to expose your location it will ping your location every few minutes and (with more people doing that) they can provide you online traffic jams info.

save2 said:
if you have a data plan and agree to expose your location it will ping your location every few minutes and (with more people doing that) they can provide you online traffic jams info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think AndNav2 does the same thing, you can download map packs ahead of time and it will upload your GPS traces if you allow it to to improve maps, and probably traffic etc.

You can find interesting things about andnav2 and Bigplanet on droidappz.com

Record location (waypoint) while offline

If this is the wrong place for this question please move it.
I had My Maps Editor for Android on my old phone and used it to record locations that were of interest to me (work stuff like job location or substations and local offices.) Now I see that it no longer exists. I still need to edit My Maps when I'm on the go. T-Mobile doesn't have the best coverage in MS or even have good roaming. Sending My Location to Evernote I'm able to work around not having My Maps Editor by editing when I get back home. Not having a signal it makes the My Location greyed out. Is there a program that allows saving a Location even offline?

I'll look around and see if I can find an app that does this but I'm not aware of one. Also, you posted in the right section

I have My Tracks but it looks a little bulky for what I want. It can send to My Maps and can edit it. I just don't need a route.

After doing a little test, using My Tracks is going to be the solution I go with. Too bad though because using My Location from Google Maps, a program I use all the time, would have been perfect. It only takes a little editing on the PC to make it like I want it to read.

Well the test was skewed. I couldn't reproduce the results lol. I downloaded Inserty and it allowed me to post to my Evernote my location (with some acuracy.) Still can't edit the maps. Not even going to maps.google.com which should. It won't allow real web browsing on that site for some reason.