[Feature Request]: "GPS no-lock timeout" (or "GPS max lock attempt time") so battery doesn't drain if you're inside and can't get a lock.

[RadioPapaXray]

Platform

ESP32, Cross-Platform

Description

Heltec v3 with a M100 Mini gps (with pin 46 connected to n-channel mosfet to control power).

If I set it to get a lock every 10 minutes but I go inside and it can't get a lock, it keeps trying and trying and draining the battery.

Make a setting to set how long to try to get a lock before switching the GPS back off.

(Or, maybe set it for some percentage of GPS update frequency time?)

[b8b8]

But then when would it turn back on?
Lots of possibilities of losing GPS connection completely by accident. Also the heltec v3 itself uses wayyyyy more power than the GPS. If instead of using the heltec v3 you used a heltec t114, you would get 5x to 10x the battery life even with the t114 GPS add-on (any NRF based device will give you 10x the battery of the esp32 heltec v3).

You can manually toggle off the GPS in the position settings when you are inside. Also devices without a screen you can triple click to turn off the GPS chip.

[StrangePelaton]

I have an idea for this that might work. Will have to mull it over.

[krzys-h]

I'm running into a similar issue. I have a Helltec T114 with a small battery that I like to carry around with me, and sometimes leave indoors, which causes the GPS to drain battery like crazy.

The way I see it is that in addition to introducing a timeout to how long we look for a lock (I'm not sure how it works now, maybe it already has some?), the update frequency setting could do some sort of exponential backoff, e.g.:

• if you couldn't get a lock, try again in 2 minutes
• if it still didn't work, try again in 5 minutes
• if it still didn't work, try again in 10 minutes
• if it still didn't work, try again in 20 minutes
• once a limit of 20 minutes has been reached, keep retrying every 20 minutes

This way, the node would automatically limit the battery draining updates when inside, and switch back to normal update rate once you come outside for a while.