GPS doesn't work properly [edited]

[Oliver]

One known case where even if everything is working correctly, but GPS data is still not be written to the Photos is this:
When the meter is off (ie camera is on, but hasn't been used in a while), and you manage to take a photo within about 150 milliseconds of the meter turning on. For this you'd have to have the camera in Manual focus mode (pretty much any AF operation takes 150ms to complete), and fully press the trigger, without pausing at the halfpress position.

That's how long it takes for a complete set of GPS data to be sent from Unleashed to camera, and we've already optimized the Unleashed to deliver this complete set at the perfect time to keep the above time to an absolute minimum. You can test this with any other GPS device out there - even Nikon's own - they usually take more than one second to provide GPS data in this case.


Can you check if this might have been the case? You can check the time that your "Auto meter off delay" or "Standby Timer" is set to in your camera. Default is 6s, if i'm not mistaken. are your photos without GPS taken more than 6s after the previous photo?

and just to clarify, was your app open with the screen on, when you took the photos with the camera's shutterbutton, or was the phone's screen off?

Thanks!

[Tourinature]

Dear Oliver,

on my try out today I figured out the following possibilities to get some pictures without GPS information:

1. The very first one without establishing before a connection is very constantly without GPS signal, this could be due to the 150ms for the reconnection of the camera.
2. When I do a fast steady shot up to 2-3 pictures could occur until the GPS signal is written on the pictures.
3. In some cases I experienced also a series of pictures where the first had a GPS signature, but the second one was without GPS, all the rest of the series was constantly with GPS.
4. In one case the GPS was missing on the first and the third picture of a fast series. All the rest of the series was constantly with GPS information.

All pictures were taken with the built in trigger on the camera. Hope that helps for further investigation.

Best regards,

[Oliver]

Just a quick followup before I answer:

All pictures were taken with the built in trigger on the camera. Hope that helps for further investigation.

Was the app open and in the foreground during these tests?

[Tourinature]

Dear Oliver,

thanks again for your detailed reply! The app was all the time open, I did not even change between any other app and the Unleashed app during the shooting. The only goal was to understand a little more when the GPS signal was taken and when not. The only difference which was changing was the screen of my phone, sometimes it was locked (that means black, but still with the opened app) due to the fact that the phone was in my pocket for a couple of minutes.

According to my experience there was no change if the screen was ON or locked (black). The common phenomenon was that only the first three pictures could have the problem with the missing data if I did a steady shot. After the three first shots the camera slowed also down the frequency of shots, that might be also an factor for constant submission of the GPS signal.

The whole shooting was on quite bright sunlight, so the shutter speed was pretty quick. And I did not recognize any sleep mode on my camera. This does also not correlate with the fact that only within the first three quick shots I had the problem.

Best regards,

[Andy]

Hi Christian,

Have you seen this info before? Some of the issues you describe are actually expected behavior.

• When the app is open (in the foreground, being actively used), GPS data is only transmitted to the camera when triggering from the app. This is because when the app is being used the Unleashed prioritizes keeping all settings up-to-date, rather than sending GPS data to the camera.

• In Nikon cameras, GPS and settings are adjusted through the same port (the round or square one). However, if you plug in the USB cable, the Unleashed can keep settings up-to-date via USB, while GPS data is being sent all the time through the other port. This is why GPS with USB is more reliable.

• When the app is in the background (not open, but still running), the Unleashed does not have to update settings and therefore can send GPS data all the time. Nevertheless, it stops sending GPS data after a while to save power. GPS transmission starts again as soon as the meter goes on again.

[Tourinature]

Hi Andy,

I did not read that, thank you very much for the hints!

=> For optimizing the GPS data is it enough to lock the screen of my iOS (black) or should I change to another app while the Unleashed app is still open in the background?

[Andy]

The app is considered to be in the background whenever it isn't open. That includes your phone locked in your pocket and anything you do in your phone that isn't the Unleashed app. When you're using the app, you can simply press the home button to go in background mode. Whether you open another app or not doesn't affect the functionality of the Unleashed, i.e. you can continue to use your phone normally when using the Unleashed :)

[clumsy]

Hi

I experience a similar issue on my Canon 7D. GPS Tagging only works after having the app runnin g in foreground at least once. Then it works until turning of and on the DSLR. Even though it quikcly reconnects to the phone (Andorid) and the bluetooth connection is up, GPS data is not transferred until foregrounding the app on the phone briefly. after that everything works fine again! Messages on the phone always say "GPS connected" and "sending geotagging data".

Any help appreciated!

regards

[Tourinature]

Dear Andy,
I have still the problem with the interrupted connection. When does the uptade for iOS come?
In the last couple of days I made some thousands of shots. The connection problem occured even under constant conditions, when the camera was the whole day circa 50 centimeter away from the iOS phone. More often occurs the connection problem when the distance between the iOS and the camera was too big and the BT connection has to be reestablished. In most cases it helped to reactivate the app by briging it back to the front. Sometimes I had to restart the app for a problem fix.

Best regards,

[Tourinature]

One more thing: The iOS app was in any cases open, but in the background of my phone, I have still the version 1.0.0 because no update occurred so far.

Best regards,