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TrakLink

TrakLink is our last Android app for Safety Monitoring with 2 way-text message, SOS button, Check OK button, remote polling and low-battery usage standy mode thanks to our new Google Firebase integration. It also embed a new enrolment process for any users allowing super easy deployment on the field.

TrakLink is a new development and therefore new release can be often published here, you can download here the last release TrakLink_Release_0.54

This is strongly advised to directly download the app from your smartphone, once downloaded browse your download folder and click on the .apk file to install it. See below video explaining steps by steps the installation:

Right after the installation and after running the app for the first time, you will be prompted to allow the app to access device's location.

If you miss the pop-up screen that is automatically displayed after the first run of the app, you will see a red banner at the top of the app saying that location is denied and that you need to click to set those permissions in order for the app to run correctly.

This is very important to grant those permissions and allow the location to work for the app whenever it is started and/or running in the background. The app is anyway designed to display a massive red banner notification in case you haven't done it properly.

So the location access for this app has to be set on Allow all the time

The app is designed to allow free self-registration from any user without any manual steps to perform on the web platform itself. This automatic enrolment process will just prompt for a few information as follows :

  • Email: this is the unique identifier of the app user mostly in case you need to reinstall the app or install it on another phone
  • User name: this is the name under which the device will appear in the web platform asset list
  • Server address: this is the URL of our server, please enter traksat.net here
  • Group ID: this is the special name given to the group where you need the device to be assigned. You can edit this opening the Group List and open the Config window for the group you need to assign a special Group ID. You can pre-define multiple Group ID for all the groups and sub-groups under your master account in the web platform. Use the field App Group ID as shown aside:

To open the settings to proceed with the registration, you need to click the settings icon at the top right of the app, then follow the steps below:

Once properly done you will have a pop-up confirmation window stating that the app is well registered OK !

After registration, we strongly advise you to quickly go through the main app settings:

  • Registration: you should see the email entered during the registration step and above all the status Registered OK
  • Reporting / Send heartbeat: this is to allow the app to send periodically (by default every 15 minutes) data to the server
  • Reporting / Include Location with heartbeat: this is to allow the app to send a GPS report along with every heartbeat sent periodically. If not enabled, the app will only send wake-up periodic heartbeat to the server without any location data !
  • Notifications / Alert notification sound: this is to chose the sound you want to assign with the notification trigerred by the app (text message received for example)
  • Power Settings : this is to allow the app to run in background, it has to be enabled to work fine whenever the phone is idle in standby mode for example. Make sure this settings is enabled unless you have good reasons to not enabled it.

Once you've finished setting up all the settings you can simply browse back to the main screen using the back arrow at the top left of the screen.

When you are on the home screen, please push the green button I'm OK (tap and hold) to generate the first GPS report and check that everything is working as expected (meaning that web platform have correctly locate the device on the map and that asset properties are displaying accurate information (more details in the below section)

The app main screen is divided in 4 parts, the topbar were appears the logo is hosting the settings menu and the about page (the 3 vertical dots). The settings part is covered above and the about page is a simple informative pop-windows reminding also our support email address and the link to this wiki page.

The second part is the network monitoring banner that displays the status of the connectivity and also a Check Network button that is designed to force a network check whenever needed or whenever you have any doubt about the connectivity to both the server and the network ! The default normal display (i-e when no issue reported) is the following one stating Network OK. This label also shows the current status which is by default I'm OK

The connectivity can be done through cellular but also through wifi, if there's no network available then you will see the below display:

In the same manner, if the GPS is not active on the phone, you will see the following display inviting you to click to enabled the GPS location. This location enabled / disabled info is also broadcasted to the server so that you can always know remotely from the platform itself if there is any issue with the location accuracy:

Other kind of messages can be displayed here like Server Offline in case the remote Traksat server is in a maintenance time slot or upgrade for example or User Not Registered if the app user has not registered itself like described above.

Lastly, when the emergency alert is triggered, then the following status is displayed with a red banner indicating the Emergency Mode status:

This third part of the main screen is showing 2 coloured button intended to trigger a special status. The default mode is I'm OK but you can still send a message to the remote server which would be a simple Check-OK message by taping and holding the green button I'm OK (tap and hold).

To trigger the Emergency mode and send a SOS alert, you must push the red button Emergency Mode (tap and hold). Once hit the status of the app will turn into Emergency mode and start sending at regular distance when moving.

The only way to cancel the emergency mode is to push again the green button to revert to the default mode. It would still be needed obviously to handle the alert platform side.

The last part is used for the 2-way text messaging, you are able on the same screen to see the past messages sent and received and also use the bottom field to send message to the platform:

There is a colour code which is :

  • green: automatically generated I'm OK message
  • red: automatically generated SOS message
  • deep blue: free text messages sent from platform to device
  • light blue: free text messages sent from device to platform

The message size is limited to 1000 characters

There are a few things specific for this device type to know in the web platform.

When you look into the Asset Properties window in the web platform (right below the Asset List) you will see the last transmission details and status of the remote device as always.

TrakLink app is broadcasting some specific details:

Status: can be OK or Emergency depending upon the current mode of the app (whether the emergency button has been triggered or not)

Power can be Battery or Charging depending upon if the phone is currently being charged or not. Note that the battery level is also reported in percentage.

Location can be OK or Estimate depending upon if the GPS is activated or not on the phone. If not activated, then the phone might be able to use Cell ID to locate. The GPS validity in the Asset Properties window will be shown as Estimate

In the Asset Configuration window, you will find how to edit the name displayed for each status described, and also specify name of each state (high or low) and corresponding action (no message, message, alert)

You can also opt for hiding some status that you don't really need to display simply unticking the corresponding box.

In the same Asset Configuration window, you will find a field that let you specify a color code for the icon when the device is entering the Emergency mode. This is possible to make it blink the way you want also.

We do recommend the following settings in the Alert Color field that will simply make the icon blinking yellow and red FF0F00 :

Please refer to this page for more details on the icon colour scheme: Asset Config

Battery Level Remote Polling

  • hardware/android_smartphones_tablet/traklink.1632426400.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2021/09/23 19:46
  • by petropal