• SPOT Personal Tracker
• Google Latitude
• APRS Device
• Generic Device with GPX Support

SPOT Personal Tracker

The SPOT Personal Tracker is a satellite-based personal tracking device that is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and provide coverage across most of the globe. The best place to learn more about what SPOT is, its coverage areas, costs involved and everything else SPOT-related is straight from SPOT Inc. Additionally, you can check out the FAQ page at My Live Tracks.

A SPOT device sends five types of messages:

1. OK
2. Help
3. Custom
4. Tracking
5. 911/SOS

Ok, Help and Custom messages are sent manually by pushing the appropriate button. Tracking messages are sent automatically in 10-minute intervals. SpotWalla can import all of these messages and store them forever.

Note: SpotWalla does not receive or process in any way, shape or form 911/SOS messages from SPOT, Inc. Additionally, while SpotWalla does receive Help messages from SPOT, Inc., SpotWalla does not provide value-added services associated with Help messages. For instance, SPOT, Inc. provides Road Side Service assistance for an additional monthly fee.

Jodie Tice Lawrosky has created an excellent document of clear, concise instructions about how to use SPOT. You may download Jodie's document by clicking this link: Jodie's SPOT Instructions.

Google Latitude

A Google Latitude device refers to any phone or other device that's supported by Google Latitude. For more information check out the Google Latitude home page.

APRS Device

The Automatic Position/Packet Reporting System (APRS) is a digital communication network built upon the amateur radio network. APRS is used primarily for transmitting position reports and weather data. SpotWalla will use the APRS network to periodically poll APRS devices for position updates.

Generic Device with GPX Support

If you have a personal location device that stores location data in the GPX format, the location data can be imported into SpotWalla. This type of device cannot be used to join location pages, but it can be used for everything else in SpotWalla.

Top

The following information is required:

• Device Type - Choose the type of device from the listbox. This will determine the type of messaging interface required for importing messages into SpotWalla.
• Description - Provide a short description of the device (e.g. My SPOT 1 or My Motorola Droid).
• Serial Number - Uniquely identifies the device in the system. No two devices can have the same serial number and the device's serial number is not displayed publicly. Here are some guidelines for setting the device's serial number...

  SPOT Device - This should be the device's ESN which can be found in the battery compartment of the device or in your SPOT account. An ESN looks like 0-7334932. Please type it in exactly as it's shown.

  Google Latitude - If you're setting up a Google Latitude supported phone, consider using its assigned phone number.

  APRS Device - Set the serial number to your device's APRS call sign.

  Generic Device with GPX Support - Try to find and use the serial number assigned to your device.

• Region/Timezone - This value defaults to the region/timezone of your account, but can be overridden here at the device level. This is useful if you have multiple devices being used in multiple timezones. For instance, a daughter who's away at school or a son who's at summer camp.
• Default Device? - If you have multiple devices and this device isn't the default, you can check the box to make this device the default device when creating new trips.

When finished, click the Create or Update button.

Before SpotWalla can acquire messages for your device, you must configure its message interface. See this section for more information: Message Interfaces.

For more information on securing your device, see this section: Secure Zones.

Top

SPOT XML Interface

1. Login to your SPOT account.
2. Click on the Share tab.
3. Under the SPOT Shared Pages section, click the Create Shared Page link.
4. Name the page something like SPOT XML Interface.
5. Select the messenger (i.e. SPOT device) for the shared page. If you only have one, it will be selected automatically. If you have more than one device, you must select the device for which you're creating a feed to SpotWalla. Do not select multiple devices! If you have more than one device in SpotWalla, you will need to create a separate shared page for each device.
6. Check all message types to share on this page.
7. In the Share GPS locations from the last drop down list, select an appropriate number of days. Personally, I wouldn't select anything over 2 days, but it's totally up to you.
8. This is important... For the Share message detail setting, please select Yes. This allows SpotWalla to pull the custom message text that you've setup for Ok, Help and Custom messages.
9. Password protection is not currently supported. Ensure the page is public and has no password.
10. Ensure the Notify family... checkbox is unchecked.
11. Click the Create button.
12. A popup window will appear. In it is the URL/link to this shared page. Copy the link to the clipboard or otherwise save it somewhere. Double-clicking the URL should highlight it. You can then right-click the URL and choose Copy from the menu. You're going to need this URL in step 17 below.
13. Click the Ok button to dismiss the popup window.
14. Now login to SpotWalla.
15. Click the Devices link in the upper-right of the screen.
16. Click the Interface link for the device you're configuring.
17. Paste the shared page URL from step 12 into the SPOT shared page field.
18. Click the Save button.

That's it. You're ready to rock. Your shared page and the XML interface will not start accumulating locations until you get up off your duff and send some messages. I encourage you to test all message types - OK, Help, Custom (SPOT 2 Only) and, if you have the tracking service, tracking messages. Currently, SpotWalla pulls locations from SPOT at 20-minute intervals. So it could take 20 to 40 minutes before your first locations appear. Once you've verified the XML interface is fully operational, there's no need to ever remove or change the shared page.

Note: Historically, the most common issue is an ESN MISMATCH error. This ocurrs when the serial number of the device configured in SpotWalla doesn't match the serial number of the device present in the XML interface.

Google Latitude

Follow these steps to configure the interface for a Google Latitude device:

1. If you haven't created a Google Latitude account, then you'll need to do that first. Click this link to Google Latitude Home Page.
2. After you've created a GL account and are logged into GL, visit the Google Public Location Badge page.
3. Toward the bottom of the page you'll see a link to Developer Information. Click it and a popup window will appear. Copy the KML or JSON or ATOM feed URL to the clipboard.
4. Now login to SpotWalla and click the Devices link.
5. Now click the Interface link for the device you're configuring.
6. Paste the URL you copied in step 3 into the feed url field.
7. Click the Save button.

That's it. This interface polls GL every 10 minutes. Since GL doesn't assign message types to each location, all messages from this interface enter SpotWalla as an OK message.

APRS Device

Generic Device with GPX Support

Top

To browse a device's messages ensure you're logged into SpotWalla and click the Devices link in the upper right menu. Now click the Browse link of the device you want to browse. The table will displays the following information for each location:

• Number - Messages are displayed in descending order. This value is the sequential number assigned to the location. Clicking this number will allow you to associate a picture with this location. If this location has an assigned picture, a small camera icon will appear. For more information on locations and pictures see: Adding Pictures to Locations.
• Date - This is the date and time the message was captured by its source system. Hovering the mouse over the field will display the location's assigned timezone.
• Type - This is the type of message sent from the location. All locations entering SpotWalla are either Ok, Help, Custom or Track message type.
• Source - The interface over which the message entered SpotWalla. SPOT indicates the message is from the SPOT XML Interface and GOOGLE LATITUDE indicates the message is from the Google Latitude interface.
• Latitude - This location's latitude.
• Longitude - This location's longitude.
• Bearing - The bearing in degrees from true north between this location and the previous location. The intent of this value is to show your direction of travel at the time this location was acquired. It may not be representative of the entire route over time. The value consists of a number between 0 and 359 degrees and a direction indicator (e.g. N, S, E, W, NW, SE, etc).
• Elevation - This location's elevation in meters.
• MPH - Your calculated speed in Miles Per Hour.
• KPH - Your calculated speed in Kilometers Per Hour.
• KNOTS - Your calculated speed in KNOTS.
• Location - This location's reverse GeoCode.
• Message - The message sent along with this message.
• Secure? - If the device is secured, this field will contain either YES or NO. YES indicates this location falls within the secured perimeter and NO indicates this location is outside of the secured perimeter.
• Distance - If the device is secured, this field shows the location's distance from the center of the closest secure zone.

You can also download your device's messages while browsing. Just above the table there's a listbox and a Go button. Choose the type of file you want to download and click the Go button. The following download types are supported:

• GPX - A GPS eXchange file is compatible with mosting software and contains both tracks and waypoints. All track messages are downloaded as part of the "track" and all Ok, Help and Custom messages are represented as waypoints.
• KML - A Keyhole Markup Language file is compatible with Google Earth and a lot of popular mapping related software.
• CSV - A Comma-Separated Value file is compatible with practically every spreadsheet application ever written. The two most popular being Microsoft Excel and Open Office which can be downloaded for free from OpenOffice.org.

Top

Each device in your account can be configured to have zero or more secure zones. You can create a zone around your home, around your place of work, around Grandma's house or anywhere else you may travel and desire a bit of privacy. Each zone has the following attributes:

• Active - SpotWalla will apply an active secure zone and disregard an inactive secure zone.
• Description - A brief description of the zone.
• Message - A short message that will be displayed by the Last Known Location widget when the last location falls within this secure zone. This field is optional.
• Latitude - The zone's latitude coordinate.
• Longitude - The zone's longitude coordinate.
• Radius - The zone's radius measured in kilometers and in the range of 1 to 99.

Follow these steps to manage a device's secure zones:

1. Log into SpotWalla and click the Devices link in the upper right menu.
2. Click the Zones link for the device you wish to manage.
3. A grid is displayed with all of the zones. To update an existing zone, simply make the update in place. To add a zone, use the empty row at the bottom of the grid. To delete a zone, check its Delete Zone? checkbox.
4. When you're finished with the updates and/or additions, click the Update button. Or click the Cancel button to abandon any changes and return to the devices page.

Note: An easy way to find the coordinates for a new zone is by browsing the device's messages and clicking either the latitude or longitude coordinate.

A quick way to review the affect of these changes on your location data is to browse the device's messages. Two additional columns will be present indicating if the location falls within a secured perimeter and the distance in kilometers from the closest secure zone center.

For any device with one or more secure zones... All location pages you join using the device as well as the device's last location widget will not display any locations within an active secure zone. Trips, however, are slightly different. Each trip can be configured to apply the device's secure zones or not. If the trip is configured to apply the device's zones, then the trip will not display any location that falls within an active secure zone. If the trip is configured to not apply the device's secure zones, then it will display all locations regardless if they fall within a secure zone or not.

Top

By default widget is disabled. To enable and configure the widget, follow these steps:

1. Log into SpotWalla and click the Devices link in the upper right menu.
2. Click the Widget link for the device you want to manage.
3. To enable the widget, check the first checkbox. To disable the widget uncheck the first checkbox.
4. Choose whether or not the widget will display your calculated speed. This can be a good indicator of movement and may be useful to those watching.
5. You can control the type of locations that appear on the widget. By default all location types are selected. This can be useful if you're sharing your location publicly, but use certain message types to communicate with close friends and family only. For instance, if you use an OK message to indicate where you're spending the night, you may not want to display that information on the widget.
6. Click the Update button.

To copy the widget's link, click inside the field containing the link. This will highlight the link. You can now copy it to the clipboard and paste it wherever you choose.

The widget can be customized to suit your needs by setting one or more parameters that modify the size, look and feel of the displayed map. The following parameters are accepted:

When setting parameters in the URL take care not to modify the id parameter. This is the unique identifier assigned to this device.

Security Note: If you feel that the widget's link has been compromised or for any other reason you want to generate a new one, click the Generate New URL button. This will invalidate the current link rendering it useless to anyone who has it and generate a new URL that you can use wherever you choose.

Generating a new link may come in handy under certain circumstances. For instance, you added the widget to your blog while on a trip. While you're gone, the widget's link can be found and stored by industrious and potentially nefarious people. When you get back from the trip, you remove the widget from your blog, but you don't disable the widget. The person who has your widget's link can still see where you are as long as the location falls outside an active secure zone. To quickly and easily safeguard your location, simply generate a new link and invalidate the old one.

Top

You can upload GPX data to any device in SpotWalla. If you're uploading data to a SPOT device, the GPX file must originate from SPOT, Inc. This allows SpotWalla to ensure all location data is uploaded correctly to your device. If you're uploading data to any other device, SpotWalla performs a generic import. All waypoints are stored as OK locations and all track segments are stored as tracking locations.

To upload GPX data to a device, follow these steps:

1. Log into SpotWalla.
2. Click the Devices link in the upper right portion of the screen.
3. Now click the Upload GPX Data link.
4. On the next screen you'll need to first select the device you want to own the uploaded location data.
5. Click the Browse button and find the GPX file you want to upload.
6. Click the Upload button.
7. If any errors were encountered, you'll see the error on the next screen. If the error persists, please contact SpotWalla support. If the file was uploaded without error, the next screen will tell you how many locations were found in the file, how many were created for the device, the type of locations created...

Top