How to get the Most Battery Life from your GPS Tracker
Battery life depends on usage, but even with heavy usage, the battery in your GPS tracker needs to last a minimum of the entire day. If you find your battery is draining before the end of the day, there are several settings you can adjust and practices to follow, in order to get the most out of your GPS tracker's battery. We have compiled the following list to assist you:
1) Configure the APN (access point name): In order to use data services, your device needs to be configured to the APN of the mobile network operator (SIM card provider) in your GPS tracker. If the APN is not set up correctly, not only will your device be unable to use data services, but it will be searching extra hard for a mobile network to match to it's settings. This will decrease your battery life significantly.
2) Tracking Frequency (also referred to as the upload interval): this is the frequency your GPS tracker sends updates of its coordinates to your smartphone. To get the most battery life, set this feature to 'manually obtain position' in your app account.
3) Sleep time: this is the amount of time a GPS watch's screen stays illuminated each time you wake it up. Adjust the 'sleep' function anywhere from 15 seconds to 30 minutes in the settings menu of your GPS watch. We recommend setting to 15 or 30 seconds for most battery life.
4) Screen Brightness: you can adjust the screen's brightness as desired in your GPS watch's settings. The brighter it is set to, the more power it will drain from your battery.
5) Adequate connection (mobile network and Wi-Fi): if your GPS device is in a location with poor network coverage, it will work extra hard to connect to the mobile network, thus depleting the battery more rapidly. If the location with poor coverage is in your home or in another location that has Wi-Fi, consider using the Wi-Fi network instead of your watch's SIM card. Conversely, if the watch is in a location with a weak Wi-Fi signal, you'll get much more out of your battery if use the SIM card's services instead of Wi-Fi.
6) Temperature: Avoid using the watch in places with extreme temperatures. Very cold or hot temperatures will decrease battery life.
7) Charging: To maintain a health battery with maximum capacity, follow our best practices for charging. If you haven't already done so, check out our blog with charging tips and best practices here.