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TomTom - Stop auto minimize when PPC switch OFF/ON

To everyone using TomTom not just in your car !
Is it possible to stop the auto minimize of TomTom's windows when you turn OFF then back ON your PPC screen ?
I know I can revert back to TomTom from the tray icon, BUT it is very annoying and boring to do that ! When you use your PPC outside your car, you often want to check just for a few second your PPC to check that you are on the right direction ! you do NOT want to have your PPC always ON !
And you must also consider a power limitation, when you are on foot, you do not have a car battery next to you to power up your PPC, so it is essential to be able to turn ON/OFF your PPC screen to save battery life.
-> but TomTom's window always disappear in that process, how to avoid this !

Good question. I'd also like to know this. Sometimes I get on a 30 mile straight or stuck in traffic, so could do with turning the screen off to save energy

I'm afraid this isn't a solution, but a quick workaround would be to set one of your ftouchflo gestures to tomtom. Then you could maximise it with a simple sweep.

jez83uk said:
I'm afraid this isn't a solution, but a quick workaround would be to set one of your ftouchflo gestures to tomtom. Then you could maximise it with a simple sweep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, a workaround, I have tested it but surprisingly it TomTom does not come back immediately like any other program when they are minimized !
It takes about 2s to comes back.
That's annoying when you are on foot and you just want to turn on the screen to check if the direction is ok.
Maybe if I remove go to tray icon of TomTom, it will no longer minimize after every switch OFF/ON of the screen.
Does anyone know how to stop TomTom tray icon feature ?

Slightly off-topic
Any way to stop ActiveSync when TomTom is launch?! Minimize I can live with, but ActiveSync is more annoying.

Has someone an idea, what causes Tomtom to minimize every time you turn OFF/ON the screen display ?
I would like to do a skschema script to fix this. But I need to investigate what causes this minimization ?

bump
I too am trying to find out if its possible to prevent tomtom minimizing and stay running when the backlight is turned off. Other GPS programs i use stay running and dont minimise as well as other programs in general so i am assuming its some kind of power saving function of tomtom. Im assuming it changes something or monitors something to auto minimize itself when it sees the backlight go off.

Hallo, i,m new here and i hope my message will go ahead.
So far I made following observance.
Today i nstalled a new beta version of mortPlayer V3.31 b75.
After i had installed mortplayer and it is running then TomTom does not minimise. after deactivating my HTC 7500; WM6 Tomtom 7
Perhaps it will show equal behavior on other systems
Good luck

nope, still minimizes and stops using GPS when screen goes off even with this version of mort installed. Maybe share the settings so i can see if how you have it set works for me.

Tomtom minimising
even on my Dell x51v TomTom does not minimise when I turn off for a sleap,If you mean the GPS mode shouldn´t be turned off while sleaping , so am I not sure wether it is possible,and even if it is ,it would drain battery .

What i mean is, i want TOMTOM to stay running while the device has the screen turned off. This way it will save battery life as i cant look at the screen while im on the motorbike.

Same Here
I also would like TomTom to behave like other application.
Because it goes to the tray:
- you have to try to hit that small icon in the tray with your finger, or pull out the stylus
- you can not use that Alt-Tab, to switch away and back
- it does not show up in task manager
- if you assign a button to it, it take a few seccond to show up (but it's instant when you hit the tray icon)
- waste Today screen space...
So like the others, I would appreciate help on changing that behavior.
Thanks in advance

Keep GPS alive after switching to standby

I want to use my TouchPro for tracking a long route i will be travelling shortly. When I turn of my device using the button on top when using a gps tracking-tool, the gps will disconnect and need to search for satellites again after turning on the device.
Does anybody know a trick (maybe in the registry) to keep the GPS alive?

I am also curious about this.

Finally I managed to find this thread!!! I am also facing this problem and was wondering if there was anyway to prevent the GPS from closing and losing connection with satellites when the phone goes into sleep mode. Anyone with any ideas PLEASE HELP!!!
Btw I am using TomTom Navigator 7 with Australian maps...

camielkb said:
I want to use my TouchPro for tracking a long route i will be travelling shortly. When I turn of my device using the button on top when using a gps tracking-tool, the gps will disconnect and need to search for satellites again after turning on the device.
Does anybody know a trick (maybe in the registry) to keep the GPS alive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I seem to recall that TrackyPro has a function which will turn the screen off whilst still tracking the route. Is that the type of thing you're looking for?

Well basically I just want the GPS to still have the lock on the satellites EVEN when the device goes into standby. It's frustrating when after 3 minutes (my settings for power management) the device goes into standby and you realise that the GPS is closed when you turn it back on. So yup, as you said correctly, I want the GPS to still function even when the screen is off. Please guide me to wherever I can get the solution as I use alot of GPS!!!

All good GPS software should have option to keep device on all the time while GPS fixed.
I dont think it's possible to keep GPS on while device is on standby mode. Anyway, GPS should stay on even if screen light is turned off for power save.

Well I am using TomTom Navigator 7 with Australian maps, and I have tried looking at the options in TomTom and I couldn't find any setting to keep the screen turned on while GPS is working. And you are correct in that applications such as GPS and Bluetooth are impossible to stay running when the device goes into standby, as this feature is an OEM feature in all Windows Mobile devices to save power. The only way out I see, is to go to Settings>System>Power>Advanced and untick 'Turn off device if not used for...' This way the backlight can be turned off (which saves power) but the device itself is not totally off. This method will still consume power since the device is technically not in standby, but it's probably the best we can get since there is just no way to have GPS to function with the screen totally off ie in standby.

avantgarde84 said:
Well I am using TomTom Navigator 7 with Australian maps, and I have tried looking at the options in TomTom and I couldn't find any setting to keep the screen turned on while GPS is working. And you are correct in that applications such as GPS and Bluetooth are impossible to stay running when the device goes into standby, as this feature is an OEM feature in all Windows Mobile devices to save power. The only way out I see, is to go to Settings>System>Power>Advanced and untick 'Turn off device if not used for...' This way the backlight can be turned off (which saves power) but the device itself is not totally off. This method will still consume power since the device is technically not in standby, but it's probably the best we can get since there is just no way to have GPS to function with the screen totally off ie in standby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that TT has the option you need - it takes its power options from the device (including screen brightness). That is probably because TT probably thought most people would have their device plugged in whilst navigating given the power required for navigating with the screen on.
I find that another side effect of this is that if I am driving on a bright day, I need to turn off the auto light level feature of the Raph to make sure the screen is as bright as possible.

avantgarde84 said:
Well basically I just want the GPS to still have the lock on the satellites EVEN when the device goes into standby. It's frustrating when after 3 minutes (my settings for power management) the device goes into standby and you realise that the GPS is closed when you turn it back on. So yup, as you said correctly, I want the GPS to still function even when the screen is off. Please guide me to wherever I can get the solution as I use alot of GPS!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's a matter of semantics, but it may help you find a solution faster:
What you need is a tool / solution / procedure that turns only the screen off WITHOUT putting the phone in standby mode. Try searching for that; if you include the whole GPS tracking wish then you might not find what you're looking for so quickly.
Good luck and let us know if you found something that works for you!

Just curious as to what tracking software is used?
Our free PocketReperion tool does keep the device from entering standby mode.
It's free software.
We just lauched a special version for the Raphael, v.1.53
Coolest thing is that you canupload audio / video / photo's and people who are trascking you (live) will see all the content you upload, on the spot that you uploaded it.
get the free client here :
http://www.reperion.com/newclient
be sure to register for a free account first, read the readme in the directory above
EDIT : SUPPOERTED MAPS :
Google Earth
Google Maps
Google Maps Mobile
Virtual Earth
Virtual Earth Mobile
Mappoint 2009
Yahoo! Maps
MapQuest
checkout the example at http://tracker3.reperion.com/wrldmap.aspx?name=d-8498
BETA : http://www.reperion.com/beta

Coromoto said:
I think it's a matter of semantics, but it may help you find a solution faster:
What you need is a tool / solution / procedure that turns only the screen off WITHOUT putting the phone in standby mode. Try searching for that; if you include the whole GPS tracking wish then you might not find what you're looking for so quickly.
Good luck and let us know if you found something that works for you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I always remembered, the only time the screen can be turned off is when the phone goes into standby. In other words screen off=standby and vice versa and no other way to breakup this association. The option I have considered is what I have mentioned above, ie just letting the backlight turn off, but NOT turning the device off. But this will be a problem if you need to look at the screen constantly for navigation and cannot survive with just voice navigation. If you really do need the backlight to be turned on all the time, then go to Settings as well and untick the TUrn off backlight option too. Power will be gone in no time, then you probably will need to consider a in-car charger then...

lucid said:
Just curious as to what tracking software is used?
Our free PocketReperion tool does keep the device from entering standby mode.
It's free software.
We just lauched a special version for the Raphael, v.1.53
Coolest thing is that you canupload audio / video / photo's and people who are trascking you (live) will see all the content you upload, on the spot that you uploaded it.
get the free client here :
http://www.reperion.com/newclient
be sure to register for a free account first, read the readme in the directory above
EDIT : SUPPOERTED MAPS :
Google Earth
Google Maps
Google Maps Mobile
Virtual Earth
Virtual Earth Mobile
Mappoint 2009
Yahoo! Maps
MapQuest
checkout the example at http://tracker3.reperion.com/wrldmap.aspx?name=d-8498
BETA : http://www.reperion.com/beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate, will give it a test and see how it goes...

Hi, first post for me
I have wanted to do exactly the same thing, that is, keep the GPS tracking on my HTC Touch Diamond with the phone in "off" mode. The only way I have found to do it, is this; play music via a Bluetooth headset (you can pull out the jack-plug too, so no actual sound is heard). Now when you turn the phone "off" the GPS will continue to track.
There probably is some simple software out there that would work better, but this is my solution
Cheers

Perhaps this helps...
Go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\State\Suspend
and create a DWord value named NAV1: with value decimal 0 (0 means power on and here is a complet list of values)
This allos HTC GPS driver to stay on on suspend mode. I think this allows any application accesing GPS to get data while the PDA is off.
Can someone test it and report back?
If this works, i can create a CAB to easily deployment.
Cheers
Cheers

jcespi2005 said:
Perhaps this helps...
Go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\State\Suspend
and create a DWord value named NAV1: with value decimal 0 (0 means power on and here is a complet list of values)
This allos HTC GPS driver to stay on on suspend mode. I think this allows any application accesing GPS to get data while the PDA is off.
Can someone test it and report back?
If this works, i can create a CAB to easily deployment.
Cheers
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there, thanks alot for your discovery, will surely test it out later. With TomTom Navigator that I am using, once you have planned a route and it starts to navigate, the screen stays on forever. What I said earlier in my previous posts are irrelevant since TomTom just keeps the screen on and never dims the backlight nor turns off the device. So unchecking the Turn Off Device after XX mins is useless. Anyway we need some fix which can 1) Allow us to turn off the screen to save power but still have TomTom running and giving us navigation instructions and 2) Does not disconnect from satellite fixes when device is put into standby.
Your reg edit sounds like it will work, but will have to confirm it first. A cab file will be really appreciated. Cheers!
EDIT: preliminary testing: Turned on GPS outdoors, managed to get a satellite fix. Did not plan any route. Turned off screen (ie standby), turned back on, GPS signal was lost. Had to wait few seconds to reconnect to the satellites. Unsure about voice navigation while screen is off but since when I turned the screen back on the signal was lost already I don't think there will be any navigation when screen off. In short --> DOESNT WORK.

I didn't read through everyone's response, but what about just using a car charger, and setting the power settings to never turn off when turned on? You can turn down screen brightness if you're worried about the screen itself, but that should keep you connected at all times, and the battery should remain charged as well.
This also avoids registry tweaks that may have side effects. Simple, and painless in my mind.

avantgarde84 said:
EDIT: preliminary testing: Turned on GPS outdoors, managed to get a satellite fix. Did not plan any route. Turned off screen (ie standby), turned back on, GPS signal was lost. Had to wait few seconds to reconnect to the satellites. Unsure about voice navigation while screen is off but since when I turned the screen back on the signal was lost already I don't think there will be any navigation when screen off. In short --> DOESNT WORK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The change of NAV1: only affect to GPS device, so perhaps the nav software need more devices to stay on to work (or really the soft changes the power state of devices itself). I tested the changes above with HTC GPS Tool and seems to work, but seems navigation software are not the same... sorry.
Cheers

I'am using the IGO8 Navi Software on my Touch Pro.
I ride by mountain bike often and today I wanted to save the track I normally ride.
I turned on IGO 8 and get a satellite fix and started riding, when I came to my first check point I realised that on stand by mode, the IGO8 wasn't getting satellites.
So I minimised the IGO8 and I had the today screen on. I unticked turn-off device and turned the keylock on.
This was my only solution, it would be great to have the GPS running when switched off.

doublecheese said:
I'am using the IGO8 Navi Software on my Touch Pro.
I ride by mountain bike often and today I wanted to save the track I normally ride.
I turned on IGO 8 and get a satellite fix and started riding, when I came to my first check point I realised that on stand by mode, the IGO8 wasn't getting satellites.
So I minimised the IGO8 and I had the today screen on. I unticked turn-off device and turned the keylock on.
This was my only solution, it would be great to have the GPS running when switched off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trackme has a GPS powersave mode which allows the screen to be turned off but will still record your track. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=340667

Thanks
Let me check it out.

[REQ] GPS on/off apps

Gingerbread doesn't allow apps to turn on/off GPS anymore (CM still does but it's missing some features for my device that I can't live without). Only system apps can do this these days.
As I use Tasker to automate a lot of stuff this quite sucks. I tried making Tasker a system app but the latest version still refuses to toggle GPS.
Thus my request: Could someone please create 2 tiny apps that just turn GPS on/off that can be moved to system and used by other apps to toggle that setting?

Why do you need to do that?
Just keep gps on, it doesn't do anything while it's not in use by some app. In particular, it doesn't contribute to battery drain while inactive.

some apps use GPS while in background, e.g. Google Maps. So having GPS enabled does drain the battery

XlAfbk said:
some apps use GPS while in background, e.g. Google Maps. So having GPS enabled does drain the battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, I don't think I've ever seen that happen. The only time I see the GPS in use indicator on my notification bar is when an app like maps, my tracks etc is in the foreground. Just checked that as soon as I switch away from maps by hitting the home button, the GPS indicator vanishes.
Sent from my COS-DS using XDA App

XlAfbk said:
some apps use GPS while in background, e.g. Google Maps. So having GPS enabled does drain the battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
drbobb is right. Having GPS enabled does not mean that the actual hardware is on all the time. It merely means that android will allow apps to use it, at which point the GPS hardware will become active. So having it "ON" is just a permission thing.
If you are worried about GPS background apps (really Maps does that? I will surely test this), then I would highly recommend LBE Privacy Guard. Set the app up in such a way that Maps will need to ask you for permission to switch on GPS hardware. I tried this with the android browser because it uses GPS when you start it at google.com. Works like a charm!

well, it is as it is. this thread is not intended as a discussion thread about whether someone thinks disabling GPS is unneccessary. it's a request for an app that just turns on GPS and quits.

[Q] Mod or kernel hack to force GPS to stay on?

I would like to disable the ability to disable the GPS in the phones for use with an "invisible fence" app.
I don't care if the toggle in the notification area goes off or on, but I would like the phone to enable GPS on bootup, and just keep it on regardless.
Any ideas?

Why would you want it to stay on? It is a huge battery hog.

voldomart13 said:
Why would you want it to stay on? It is a huge battery hog.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mrcpu said:
I would like to disable the ability to disable the GPS in the phones for use with an "invisible fence" app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I was pretty clear in the original post.

WTF is an invisible fence app??
and any app that requires GPS, will use GPS as needed. OLD Facebook app version for example, as long as it was on your screen, GPS was constantly locking. But it would kill the battery in less than 2 hours from full charge. so the facebook app changed the gps to lock once every so often, while the app is open on screen.
Other apps run a background service to access GPS at a set or random interval. Google Latitude for example. Not on screen, but will check-in or update location when-ever.
As you see the APP needs to have the set permissions, and options selected.
and in the end. your battery is dead in 2 hours with what you *think* you want

TRusselo said:
WTF is an invisible fence app??
and any app that requires GPS, will use GPS as needed. OLD Facebook app version for example, as long as it was on your screen, GPS was constantly locking. But it would kill the battery in less than 2 hours from full charge. so the facebook app changed the gps to lock once every so often, while the app is open on screen.
Other apps run a background service to access GPS at a set or random interval. Google Latitude for example. Not on screen, but will check-in or update location when-ever.
As you see the APP needs to have the set permissions, and options selected.
and in the end. your battery is dead in 2 hours with what you *think* you want
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not correct. (at least on the apex rom I'm running).
If you turn off the GPS in settings (not using the toggle on the notification bar), then fire up google maps, the first thing it does is tell you that not all the options for locating the user are turned on, and to go to settings and turn on GPS.
I recall reading somewhere that Google disabled the ability for apps to turn the GPS on and off. They could query it if it was enabled, but couldn't turn it on if it was off.
If the user can turn it off in settings, then that defeats the purpose. I want the GPS on all the time, regardless of settings.
I don't care about battery life, I have 4 captivates in this house, I am well aware of their capabilities and limitations. And I don't really care if you think it's a good idea or not, all I'm asking is if anybody knows of a way.

there is a difference between switching GPS "on" and having GPS activated or locking signal.
in the android settings or with any toogle app, you can turn GPS on or off.
I have it ON 24/7, I bet you do too.
you turn GPS "on", so apps CAN use/activate it if they try to.
you turn GPS "off" to prevent apps from using it, thus reducing battery drain and increasing security.
having GPS on 24/7 doesn't do crap to battery, it depends on the apps, and how they are programmed to use GPS, and if they were programmed to work like you want, they would work like I SAID.
there have been apps that used GPS like you suggested. THEY GOT FIXED. you really dont understand how fast it drains the battery.
and i dont mean to offend, but you also dont understand how the apps interact with the GPS.
Originally Posted by mrcpu
I would like to disable the ability to disable the GPS in the phones for use with an "invisible fence" app.
I think I was pretty clear in the original post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. You weren't, WHAT THE FRICK an invisible fence app? and how does using the LARGE font help?
house full of captivates? did your dad get a family plan?

GPS management with ICS

I have been using llama (Llama on Google Play) since my early days on the OG Atrix and now on the Atrix 2. Moving to the ICS leak, I've noticed that GPS control has been disabled, and after searching I see that Google removed the ability for user programs to enable/disable the GPS.
However, the llama website says this about it:
Android fixed the hack that applications used to turn GPS on and off in Gingerbread (Android 2.3). Bear in mind that Android manages GPS power usage by itself: if no applications are using GPS, then the GPS hardware isn't turned on and using power. The tickbox in the settings is simply permission to use GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the few places I've found that corroborates that statement is this post from a Droid Razr forum (forgive the cross-post): Post on another forum, which eventually says
GPS is turned on by default after updating to ICS. That said, turning it off really won't save battery. It's a myth that just having GPS switched on will drain your battery. GPS will only use battery when it's active, and it's only active when the crosshairs are flashing in the notification bar. That will only happen when you have an app running that uses GPS. So, as long as you're not running something that's using GPS, leaving GPS switched on will not drain any more battery than leaving it switched off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now, obviously there are many programs that might be running in the background that like to use the GPS, and it still seems like there are times I wouldn't want to let anything use the GPS which means the GPS chip should never power on.
Here's the question finally: given the plethora of advice that says to turn off the GPS when not in use, what are you doing with the GPS in ICS?
In my case, Llama can't turn off the GPS for me anymore, so unless I couple Llama with something like Smart Actions (which apparently can turn off the GPS), the GPS is staying on most of the time. I'm going to try leaving the GPS on all the time to see how much it affects my battery.

close tiantam
hi,
i had same problem that profile scheduler did not switch on/off the gps once i upgreded to ICS.
there is a work around for your apk (to turn on/off gps), pls search for "secure settings" at play store which will serve as plug-in for your apk.
unfortunately, it did not compitable with profile scheduler.
i had tried to put profile scheduler as system apk, did not work.
only motorola default profile manager will toggle the gps.
hope this helps.