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Anyone using Tasker?

jdhermit said:
Hello...
Curious about Tasker...can anyone tell me if a) this makes sense b) could it be done w/ Tasker c) would I have to be a brain surgeon to do it...
Click to expand...

Yep, with a "but".
I checked into this a bit (to use Tasker as a JuiceDefender replacement, to be exact) and it can definitely do it, however apparently it uses an app called APNDroid from the market to toggle the 3G. When you try to use the mobile data toggle task in Tasker, it points this out and says you have to install it first. The problem is that APNDroid is reported to not work with CDMA networks, so your DInc and my X are out. I haven't had time to test APNDroid to see for myself though.

Two things of note:
- I know it's possible to toggle 3G on CDMA because my SwitchPro app does it just fine.
- Someone who commented said Froyo will have an option in settings itself to toggle 3G, so it should definitely be doable in a near-future Tasker update I would assume.
 
oddly enough i don't see any previous profiles for turning on wifi and turning off mobile data. Or really anything at all for exit tasks.

Sadly I'm at work when I get to do most of my research and The firewall blockage is over done big time here. So I'm limited to browser searches on the phone. meh.
 
FoxtrotUniform said:
...Two things of note:
- I know it's possible to toggle 3G on CDMA because my SwitchPro app does it just fine.
- Someone who commented said Froyo will have an option in settings itself to toggle 3G, so it should definitely be doable in a near-future Tasker update I would assume.
Click to expand...

Disabling 3G on a CDMA phone is possible, but that's not the same as disabling data. All it does is limit the phone to using 1x, which as far as I know, can't be disabled without also disabling voice.
 
FoxtrotUniform said:
Someone who commented said Froyo will have an option in settings itself to toggle 3G, so it should definitely be doable in a near-future Tasker update I would assume.
Click to expand...
Froyo has this option but apparently it can only be toggled manually by the user and is not program accessible.

The Froyo option is better than APNdroid because it doesn't requite a reboot once you turn data back on.
 
Ok my home profile is working perfectly now so thanks for the help.

However one of my other profiles Is conflicting. I have a device shutdown to silent and device boot to turn silent off. The purpose of this is to remove the startup sound on my desire.

However now if I turn my phone off when I'm away from home It turns off silent and my home location wont turn It on as It wont be active till I return home.

So Is there a way I can have device to turn silent on shutdown then revert back to whatever it was before on boot?

Before tasker I was using an app to do this but would perfer If could do It In tasker.
 
HellFire said:
Ok my home profile is working perfectly now so thanks for the help.

However one of my other profiles Is conflicting. I have a device shutdown to silent and device boot to turn silent off. The purpose of this is to remove the startup sound on my desire.

However now if I turn my phone off when I'm away from home It turns off silent and my home location wont turn It on as It wont be active till I return home.

So Is there a way I can have device to turn silent on shutdown then revert back to whatever it was before on boot?

Before tasker I was using an app to do this but would perfer If could do It In tasker.
Click to expand...

You could try something like this, but I'm not sure if it will work:

Profile: Shutdown
Context: Device Shutdown
Task:
Variable Set [Name: %QUIETSTARTUP] [Value: 1]

Profile: Startup
Context: Device Boot
Task:
Variable Clear [Name: %QUIETSTARTUP]

Profile: QuietStartup
Context: Variable Value [Name: %QUIETSTARTUP] [Op: Equals] [Value: 1]
Enter Task:
Silent Mode [Set: On]

One of the complications of using an Event context is that settings aren't saved/restored because the event starts and ends at the same time. What the above profiles do is use a Variable Value state (so settings will be restored), with the Device Shutdown and Device Boot events triggering the start and end of the Variable Value state.

The thing I'm not sure about is if Tasker will undo the settings in the QuietStartup profile as it shuts down. If it does, then this probably won't work, as by the time Tasker runs on Device Boot, the sound you're trying to avoid will have already sounded.
 
Anyone now of a way that I can kill all apps if the CPU load is near 100% load for x amount of time?

I has an app get stuck last night and my phone ran at 100% for about 5 hours and it killed the battery. Probably got pretty warm too.

I suppose I could use the battery temp variable. I know I could set it to turn things off at night but I would like to know if tasker is capable of adjust anything based on the CPU load
 
sparhawk6 said:
The location-based profiles are a real drag on battery life if you set it to use GPS. I had to turn all those off.
Click to expand...

You're right about that. But any app that uses GPS will be a battery hog... there isn't really anything that can be done about it other than to reduce the GPS check frequency in Tasker.

One thing you can do as a substitute for GPS is to use Wifi Near by itself, or in conjunction with a network-only Location context. Because Tasker knows that network-only Location is more power-efficient than Wifi Near, if you combine Wifi Near with network-only Location, Tasker will only check check the Wifi Near context if the network-only Location is satisfied first.
 
HellFire said:
It works in the sense that there is no sound on startup. However it doesn't reset back to what is wad before
Click to expand...

Garrett67 said:
Anyone now of a way that I can kill all apps if the CPU load is near 100% load for x amount of time?

I has an app get stuck last night and my phone ran at 100% for about 5 hours and it killed the battery. Probably got pretty warm too.

I suppose I could use the battery temp variable. I know I could set it to turn things off at night but I would like to know if tasker is capable of adjust anything based on the CPU load
Click to expand...

I have no (more) ideas on these. You might want to try the Tasker discussions at Google Groups:

Discussions - Tasker | Google Groups
 
I'm having a hard time understanding the program.. while in the car it found the GPS fix (OK) however I want to set a profile for work and one for home..

for work I want the wallpaper to but something else and home something else.. However i went to display and I think it was long press and picked what I wanted but nothing happened.

Once I was inside the building I had to use the cell tower but still I don't think something is set up right.
 
I followed step by step the example task per LifeHacker here, and it doesn't appear to be working. I am doing this on a Captivate. Here is an image of the task on my phone:

7551cc60.png

But when I launch Navigator, it does not kick off the GPS.

I didn't see any instructions about how to 'activate' the task, or make it 'available' , but I presume the fact that it exists, and the green ON button is there.

Any suggestions?

[EDIT]
I'm an idiot. After posting and looking at the picture i attached, which I guess I needed a LARGE view of the screen :o , I see the apply button.

Got it working.

[
 
UncleMike said:
Disabling 3G on a CDMA phone is possible, but that's not the same as disabling data. All it does is limit the phone to using 1x, which as far as I know, can't be disabled without also disabling voice.
Click to expand...

That'd be fine. I'm assuming that's what JuiceDefender does to save battery life and I'd like to disable 3G via tasker, but it doesn't look like that's possible.

0sync0 said:
Froyo has this option but apparently it can only be toggled manually by the user and is not program accessible.

The Froyo option is better than APNdroid because it doesn't requite a reboot once you turn data back on.
Click to expand...

Bummer. Hopefully the Tasker guys can pull some magic down the road for us, or I can just get used to doing it manually I suppose :rolleyes:
 
A question...

Like several other people I'm trying to create a little task that turns on WiFi when I get home, and turns off APN. When I leave home it turns off Wifi and turns on APN. I have a task that basically looks like this:
OnEntry (set by location): WiFi On, MobileData Off
OnExit: WiFi Off, MobileData On

Location is set by network (with a 200m radius) rather than GPS to save battery.

It doesn't work. 1) it doesn't normally update for ages, 2) when it does it only does half the instruction.

I have no idea about 1. I have a 20 minute walk to the station that takes me well outside the 200m radius by about 10 minutes (wifi scan is the default 2 minutes). When I get to the train I inevitably have to set the preferred settings myself.
Coming home, when I reach my front door neither wifi nor APN is set i.e. APN switches off without switching WiFi on. I thought for a while that this was because APN had switched off and therefore could not get a location, but then I remembered that this was because a task had been activated and surely therefore it would complete.

Anyone got any ideas what might be going wrong?
 
I've had excellent results with Network based positioning; I think it uses cell tower data on a Sprint Evo. I stopped using GPS positioning, because it can be hard on the battery if you're in a weak GPS signal area (it tries harder to get a fix).

I've been playing around heavily with variables; when I plug or unplug, it pops up how long it was charging or discharging and how much progress (in battery %) was made up or down. I use data from this variable for a widget that gives me battery% and estimated time to 15% left.

I also have profiles set at 50% and 25% that turn off services to slow battery drain.

Finally, I have it track how much time I spend at work and put in a calendar entry with the time. It includes timestamps of when I arrived and left.

Not pretty, but with projects like those, you really learn the product.

I also set it up to do things like turn on wifi when I get home, turn if off if I lose signal (thanks to a poster on this thread for the idea of exit task). It launches navigator when I leave, dims the screen at night, and switches to vibrate when I have a timed calendar entry.

Fantastic product!

Rick
 
I don't have a direct solution for you, but you can do what I did. Switch to using WiFi-Near instead of Location. This has been more accurate for me. Only problem I've had with it is figuring out I had to leave the Channel setting at 0.
 
Nodders said:
A question...

Like several other people I'm trying to create a little task that turns on WiFi when I get home, and turns off APN. When I leave home it turns off Wifi and turns on APN. I have a task that basically looks like this:
OnEntry (set by location): WiFi On, MobileData Off
OnExit: WiFi Off, MobileData On

Location is set by network (with a 200m radius) rather than GPS to save battery.

It doesn't work. 1) it doesn't normally update for ages, 2) when it does it only does half the instruction.

I have no idea about 1. I have a 20 minute walk to the station that takes me well outside the 200m radius by about 10 minutes (wifi scan is the default 2 minutes). When I get to the train I inevitably have to set the preferred settings myself.
Coming home, when I reach my front door neither wifi nor APN is set i.e. APN switches off without switching WiFi on. I thought for a while that this was because APN had switched off and therefore could not get a location, but then I remembered that this was because a task had been activated and surely therefore it would complete.

Anyone got any ideas what might be going wrong?
Click to expand...

I figured out a few things while I was setting up my Incredible to turn on bluetooth when I was not at work or home, and to silence the ringer at work. I also had tried using location by network.

When using location by network keep in mind it is not very accurate; your location could be a couple of km from where you actually are. Also, keep in mind that particularly when your phone is asleep the default scan frequency is 600 seconds.

What I ended up doing was using GPS instead, with a scanning frequency of 300 seconds (access settings by under 'menu'). I also decreased timeout to 40 seconds. I set the location radius to 1 km. By doing this everything worked fine; I plan to decrease the location radius and see how it works.

I had worried about battery usage with GPS on, but actually it was not bad. For today I have 60% battery left with Up time of 15 hrs, Awake time 3 hrs 40 min with a Seidio 1750 battery.
 
If I have 2 profiles setup. One is "Home" that turns on my wifi and turns the ringer volume to max. I also have one that sets ringer volume off between 11pm and 6am.

Which one takes priority if I am at home at 1am? Will my ringer volume be on or off?
 
Im just getting to grips with this program but i belive if you at at home u will have ringer full then volume will be changed at 11pm to other profile.

If your quite profile is not set to home location and you are away from home at 1am then upon return your volume will be changed to max.

I belive you can change the piorities of the profiles tho.
 
kgeissler said:
If I have 2 profiles setup. One is "Home" that turns on my wifi and turns the ringer volume to max. I also have one that sets ringer volume off between 11pm and 6am.

Which one takes priority if I am at home at 1am? Will my ringer volume be on or off?
Click to expand...

What happens, and when it happens depends on the when each profile becomes active. If you're home at 11pm and stay there until 6am, then from 1pm to 6am your ringer will be off. If however, you're away from home at 11pm, you ringer will still be turned off, but if you arrive home before 6am then your ringer volume will be maxed.

HellFire said:
Im just getting to grips with this program but i belive if you at at home u will have ringer full then volume will be changed at 11pm to other profile.

If your quite profile is not set to home location and you are away from home at 1am then upon return your volume will be changed to max.

I belive you can change the piorities of the profiles tho.
Click to expand...

You can assign priorities to the Tasks that profiles execute, but not to the profiles themselves.

What I would recommend in the above case is to add a time context to the home profile so that it's not active between 11pm and 6am. This will avoid the conflict.

Also, the "to" time in a time context is really considered as "through". What I would do with the above is set the "to" time to 05:59. This will cause the profile to go inactive at the END of 05:59 (which occurs at 06:00). The corresponding time context for the home profile would be 06:00am - 10:59pm.

My profiles still need some cleaning up, but I have a "manual override" profile so I can set the volume to whatever I've predefined. The task for that widget sets %VOLMAN to 1 or higher, and all of my time-based profiles have a Variable Value context of %VOLMAN = 0. This way, none of my time-based profiles will kick in if the override is in place.

My calendar entry profiles are what need cleaning up. They set the ringer to vibrate, but if my override is set to silent then I don't want the calendar entries make it "louder".
 
sl0wd0wn said:
This might be of some help.

Tasker, Mobile Data, and CDMA Phones - Any Solutions? - Tasker | Google Groups
Click to expand...

Thanks for the find. Going that route I may as well just use JuiceDefender itself. Not sure I see that guys point in using Tasker to tell JuiceDefender to do it's mobile data thing when that can just be set in JD itself.

The good part is, I wasn't keen on Action Intent. There's gotta be a way to use this command to tell, say, SwitchPro Widget to toggle it's 3G/Auto-Sync mode. I'll look into this, thanks again!
 
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