Tracking Mode & Location Publishing
- Matt Calhoun
- Jul 16
- 1 min read
A new location publishing feature has just been added to the latest version of Blackout Comms firmware.
[for experimental use]
Note that location data shared with this feature should not be considered private. That is why this is currently an experimental feature. Better security will be added to this feature shortly. Any time, you can disable this feature and delete any stored data quite easily.
Tracking Mode is a new location feature, which causes a device to broadcast its encrypted location 2-3 times per minute, for more up-to-the-minute location sharing. Tracking mode is disabled by default, since it decreases battery life and can take up some of your cluster's bandwidth.
It's recommended to only have tracking mode enabled on one or two devices, as it can interfere with your cluster's communication if enabled on many devices.
Location Publishing is a new and experimental feature that allows your devices' locations to be visible on a website. This enables anyone in your cluster (or not) to view live and/or delayed locations of devices in your cluster. With location publishing enabled and functioning, all you need to view locations is a browser and internet.
Published locations are not currently private! If the new service becomes popular, I will add privacy to the service.
It can be useful for positioning devices or mapping out your cluster's coverage map
The following demo shows an example of using location and the publishing service.
