The optimal frequency of measurement and transmission depends largely on your use case. Certain factors such as shipment duration, modes of transportation involved, GPS usage, and special configuration (such as immediate alerts sent outside of the scheduled transmission time, etc.) play an important role when trying to determine the ideal sensor reports for you. These can be changed under Tracker Details.
Transmission Interval is how often the cellular radio is activated to transmit data to, and receive configuration updates from, the Tive Platform. Transmitting data is the biggest drain on battery life, and so the more frequent your ping rate, the lower your battery life will be. The ping rate should be set according to the requirements of your shipment: for a longer shipment, you may want to set the tracker to ping less frequently, while for a shorter shipment, you may want more frequent pings. Make sure that the Estimated Battery Duration is long enough to last your entire trip, plus unexpected delays and poor cellular connectivity which drains more power than normally estimated. If you are not seeing your tracker, it may have missed one or more scheduled check-ins - If you’re not sure what ping rate makes sense for your shipment, contact us and we’ll help you figure it out.
Measurement Interval records the environmental sensors, GPS/WiFi position, reads Bluetooth Beacons, and then awaits the next Transmission Interval to send them. By default, this is set to the same rate as the Transmission Interval but can be more frequent, especially when GPS and Bluetooth are not used. We enable Bluetooth on Trackers when Temperature Beacons are used.
WiFi Position should always be enabled; at only 15% additional drain for 5-meter accuracy in populated areas, you should select this checkbox unless your trip is not by ground or near populated areas.
GPS should normally be disabled. GPS provides the best reception outdoors and in special circumstances within packages and containers. You may have noticed your TomTom GPS Navigator gets very warm and does not work near tall buildings, indoors, or even in clouds. This is because any GPS device relies on a clear view of the sky outdoors to acquire a position fix of at least 4 of 8 GPS satellites; and like with any radio signal, glass, metal, and water attenuate the signal and cause the GPS device to increase its own power to try to get a signal - it will not work in a sealed metal container, or underneath boxes with other matter. In summary, GPS drains the battery 40-60% faster, so only enable it when you control your shipment and can place the tracker on the top & outermost box (where it can sense the sky).
To read some of our recommended best practices please refer to Tive - Best Practices.