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Anyone using Tasker?

amlothi said:
Hi Uncle Mike,

Sorry to resurrect this old question, but I'm again tinkering with this same problem.

Here is what I currently have, and what is happening as a result:

Context: Power, Time, Display Off (event)

I added the event context, because I don't want it annoying me if I am using the phone by popping up the clock app.

Tasks:Screen On, App > Desk Clock

When the profile activates, the screen comes on. Then, the desk clock appears for a second (black screen, clock only) and then it automatically kicks out to the regular Clock app (with buttons, weather, etc.)

I cannot seem to get it to go to the Desk Clock by itself.

HTC Desire with Sense. Using pre-installed app for the clock.

In my applications I have "Clock" and "Desk Clock". If I manually start "Desk Clock" I get exactly what I want. If I manually start "Clock" I get the clock page with weather and buttons. However, if I ask Tasker to start the "Desk Clock" app, I get the "Clock" screen instead.

Any advice? I've tried other clock apps, but none that I really like. The stock app is fine if it'll work correctly.
Click to expand...

I don't have an HTC, so I can't do any testing with this specific app, but the way the app behaves sounds like it works similar to Navigation in Google Maps, where Navigation is just a "sub app" of Maps. You may want to try enabling "All" when selecting the app in Tasker, and see what other options show up.
 
Thanks Uncle Mike. I checked that but didn't see anything other than the "Clock" and "Desk Clock" that I've tried before. At least, nothing that looked like a clock app.

Oddly, my profile works fine when I use the "Test" button in Tasker. So it might not be a Tasker issue at all.
 
Can somebody help me with an efficient way to perform the following:

When I leave work I want to automatically call my wife, let it ring for a few seconds, then hang up so she knows that I've left work and thus when to expect me home.

So far I have the following:

Profile: Leave Work

Contexts:
*Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, or Fri
*From 17:00 Till 19:00 (so the phone call isn't triggered when I go out for lunch, etc)
*Wifi Near (SSID, Invert, Toggle Wifi)

Tasks:
*Call Number 888-888-8888, Auto Dial
*Wait 10 seconds
*End call

I should note that while I am at work I don't actually connect to the wireless network, I just use the Wifi near to determine that I'm at work.

Ideally the call would be made as soon as leaving work as possible, but I need to balance that with battery life too. One problem I foresee is that since my screen is likely to be off, it will have to wait two full cycles to determine that Wifi is not near. That means the call won't be made until 10-20 minutes after I've left, by which point I'm nearly home so the call is pointless.

I had the above profile set yesterday but the phone never made the call. Though if I click the Test button it works fine. Any ideas why this didn't work? Or a better idea how to implement this?
 
megapixle said:
Can somebody help me with an efficient way to perform the following:

When I leave work I want to automatically call my wife, let it ring for a few seconds, then hang up so she knows that I've left work and thus when to expect me home.

So far I have the following:

Profile: Leave Work

Contexts:
*Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, or Fri
*From 17:00 Till 19:00 (so the phone call isn't triggered when I go out for lunch, etc)
*Wifi Near (SSID, Invert, Toggle Wifi)

Tasks:
*Call Number 888-888-8888, Auto Dial
*Wait 10 seconds
*End call

I should note that while I am at work I don't actually connect to the wireless network, I just use the Wifi near to determine that I'm at work.

Ideally the call would be made as soon as leaving work as possible, but I need to balance that with battery life too. One problem I foresee is that since my screen is likely to be off, it will have to wait two full cycles to determine that Wifi is not near. That means the call won't be made until 10-20 minutes after I've left, by which point I'm nearly home so the call is pointless.

I had the above profile set yesterday but the phone never made the call. Though if I click the Test button it works fine. Any ideas why this didn't work? Or a better idea how to implement this?
Click to expand...

Nothing in your contexts is a trigger to activate the phone call.

Can you add "When plugged into charger" to your context?

Then the rule should trigger the call once you plug your phone into the car charger, assuming you don't charge it at work.

Does Tasker have Longitude & Latitiude location? I use Setting Profiles instead of Tasker, and I've set my "work" location as my Longitude & Latitude instead of Wifi. So your contexts would look like this instead:

Contexts (A): [Use this if you DON'T charge your phone at work]
*Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, or Fri
*From 17:00 Till 19:00 (so the phone call isn't triggered when I go out for lunch, etc)
*When Plugged into Charger
[this would trigger as soon as you plug your phone to your car's charger]

Contexts (B): [Use this if you DO charge your phone at work]
*Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, or Fri
*From 17:00 Till 19:00 (so the phone call isn't triggered when I go out for lunch, etc)
*When NOT at Work long/lat
[this would trigger as soon as you are away from work. dependent on how precise the lat/long is in Tasker. Could trigger when you're just out of the parking lot or halfway home]

I would try both and see which one, if any, works.

The only thing that concerns me is, would this be continual? Will your wife get calls and hangups continuously from 1700 to 1900?
 
Thanks for your reply, here are my comments.

BookLover said:
Nothing in your contexts is a trigger to activate the phone call.
Click to expand...

If I understand correctly, the 'Invert' option on my wifi near should be the trigger.

BookLover said:
Can you add "When plugged into charger" to your context?

Then the rule should trigger the call once you plug your phone into the car charger, assuming you don't charge it at work.
Click to expand...

I usually charge my phone at my desk once during the day. I want to make the call as automated as possible, without relying on me to do anything, such as plugging in to a charger. Usually my phone stays holstered on my belt during the drive home. If I have to take the phone out and plug it in, it's not much more effort to just place the call to my wife myself.

BookLover said:
Does Tasker have Longitude & Latitiude location? I use Setting Profiles instead of Tasker, and I've set my "work" location as my Longitude & Latitude instead of Wifi. So your contexts would look like this instead:
Click to expand...
Yes Tasker can use GPS coordinates but I'm trying to accomplish the task with minimal battery drain.

BookLover said:
The only thing that concerns me is, would this be continual? Will your wife get calls and hangups continuously from 1700 to 1900?
Click to expand...

There's a "Limit Repeats" option in Tasker to make sure the task is only executed once.
 
godslayer said:
Is it possible to set the hp to 2G/GPRS while display is off and back to 3G/H when display is lit again.

This should help to conserve immensely since majority of the time, the hp is in sleep mode.

Best I can do is to set APN to OFF while in sleep mode. Would this have the same effect?

(Edit: its not good having setting APN to OFF. This would mean disconnecting from any IMs)

Any idea?
Click to expand...

No one is interested in saving some juice?
 
megapixle said:
Can somebody help me with an efficient way to perform the following:

When I leave work I want to automatically call my wife, let it ring for a few seconds, then hang up so she knows that I've left work and thus when to expect me home.
Click to expand...

My suggestion would be to have the call be triggered by an exit task instead. The way you have it setup now, if you are off work for some reason, your profile will trigger at 17:00 each time.

So, maybe you want something like this:

Profile: At Work

Contexts:
*Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, or Fri
*From 17:00 Till 19:00 (so the phone call isn't triggered when I go out for lunch, etc)
*Wifi Near (SSID, Toggle Wifi)

Tasks: (whatever you want your phone to do while at work)

Exit Tasks:
*Call Number 888-888-8888, Auto Dial
*Wait 10 seconds
*End call

This way, your phone enters the profile at 17:00 assuming you are close to the Wifi Near. Once the profile exits (either at 19:00 or 2 scans of the wifi near) it will place the call.

Regarding your question on making the call right away - that one is tricky. Lets say you are able to set it up so that Tasker immediately detects that you've left the Wifi area.

What is the signal strength like in your office? Are there any areas where the signal strength is low? If you go to these areas, it will trigger the call every time. Do you ever step out to get a coffee, or otherwise stray from the wifi area? It will trigger a call.

The reason that the Wifi Near needs 2 scans is to prevent exactly this type of scenario when you are on the edge of the wifi signal radius. You don't want your profile dropping in and out all the time. Your wife might get 10-20 calls that way.


What are you using for location based contexts for your other profiles? If you are already using a Network Location or GPS location for another profile, it doesn't use any more battery to add it to this one.

Also, is this the only profile you are using Wifi Near for?

If you had something like:
Contexts:
*Wifi Near (SSID, Toggle Wifi)
*Network Location (Work)

Tasker will only check the Wifi Near when you are inside the network location area. So, if you aren't using them for other profiles, this might actually use less battery.
 
godslayer said:
No one is interested in saving some juice?
Click to expand...

I'm not aware of a way for Tasker to control 3G vs 2G. Perhaps there's a locale plugin that can do this, not sure.

I actually have a profile setup so that my mobile data turns on every 60 minutes and waits 2 minutes for things to sync before turning off again. This saves my battery immensely.

In my case, I only have this active when I'm at work. I'm usually at my computer anyway, so anything urgent I will see right away.

Perhaps you could set up a similar thing - but if you absolutely need to get your IMs immediately on your phone all the time, you have to maintain a connection and pay the price in battery life.
 
Tasker is the best app I've come across. So far my uses for it include:

Automatically silence my ringer when in the desk dock (only at night)
When charging during the day, sound an alert when the battery is full
Set my ringer to ring only, vibrate only depending on time of day
Set my ringer to vibrate only during calendar events that have certain characteristics (i.e. they contain the word "meeting" or "doctor", or have "vibrate" in the description)
Set my ringer volume, media volume, enable GPS, disable WiFi, and user speakerphone on calls while in the car dock
Set my ringer to vibrate only when I enter specific locations (based on combinations of couse network location, fine GPS location, and WiFi proximity)
Link to Astrid to remind me of incomplete tasks when I'm near certain locations
Turn on WiFi when I'm at home, and off again when I leave
Override my current ringer settings for certain callers, and cause an escalating ringer with vibrate
Read aloud incoming caller ID so I can test phone lines I can't ID using normal procedures, while my Droid remains in its holster
When I put the phone in the car dock AND I'm at home, it reminds me to take the batteries I left charging in the garage and put them back in my work truck
Restore my volume settings when I turn the screen off, in case I accidentally changed them with the volume rocker (happens easily on the Droid)
:o


You know, I did not know about this! honestly only this time I've heard, read and think that there's something like this.

So you a brilliant idea, I salute you for this. I will really, really use the above stated tips for my daily activities.

I look forward to reading more of your writings. I will keep visiting this blog very often.:)
 
I've only just started using Tasker... I've worked out how to get it to load my music app (Music Mod) and set the volume, when the headset is plugged in.

Is there any way I can get it to 'Play' [resume last played track] as well?

Thanks

EDIT: Ignore that... it seems it does start playing now?? Sure it wasn't doing that when I first set it up.
 
logic25513: do you keep GPS on during the course of day to get the locality related options ? if yes, does your battery last without a charge throughout the day ?
 
zigackly said:
logic25513: do you keep GPS on during the course of day to get the locality related options ? if yes, does your battery last without a charge throughout the day ?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for him, but when I used GPS based tasks in Tasker it drained my battery. I went from 100% at 8 am to warning messages on the screen by 11. I switched to wi-fi near.
 
A.Nonymous said:
I can't speak for him, but when I used GPS based tasks in Tasker it drained my battery. I went from 100% at 8 am to warning messages on the screen by 11. I switched to wi-fi near.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised to hear that. I have 3 tasks that are GPS based and leave my GPS on all the time and my battery lasts the full day without a problem.
 
Maris said:
I'm surprised to hear that. I have 3 tasks that are GPS based and leave my GPS on all the time and my battery lasts the full day without a problem.
Click to expand...

There are lots of factors that impact battery life. How much power does his phone need to use to check location, and how often is the check performed?

Also, perhaps there are lots of other things using his battery also, and GPS is just the one thing that made it "unacceptable" for him.
 
Hi,

I was wondering if someone can shed some light on where i am going wrong in my tasker programming. I have a task widget setup so when I click it, it turns on gps and gives me a menu of apps: places, google sky, maps, and navigation. That works with no issues. I would like that when I exit the app for more than 2 minutes, it turns off gps and states "turning gps off". This is what i have:
Profile: Keep gps alive
Context: load app google sky map, navigation, maps, or places
Enter task: Variable set %GPSON to On
Exit Task: Variable set %GPSON to Off, Wait 2 minutes, turn GPS off IF %GPSON matches Off, Say Turning gps off.

The issue is if I exit the app and go back into it within the 2 minute timeframe, it still turns gps turns off. My thought was that by relaunching the program, the variable changes back to %GPSON=On and it wouldn't shut it down. Do i have to use an "end if" command or something?
 
I have a home profile that automatically turns on wifi when at home and attempts to turn off mobile data with a "Mobile Data Set Off" task. Wifi is correctly activating but when I go to Settings->Wireless & networks, "Mobile network" remains checked. Does Tasker's "Mobile Data" not correspond to Android's "Mobile network" setting? Do I even need to bother turning off Mobile Data when I turn on wifi? Or does the OS simply know not to use the Mobile Data if wifi is on?

Thanks for your help, I'm slowly getting the hang of this.
 
I cannot for the life of me get Tasker to exit from the wifi near state. It's really, really starting to piss me off. I've got a task that's I want to run when I'm at the office and I'm plugged into my car dock. I'm using wi-fi near for location because that seemed easier to me than screwing with GPS which could potentially drain the battery and tower locks which seemed inaccurate to me. The phone enters wi-fi near like a charm. I drive up in the parking lot and I'm inside for a few minutes and it's wifi near. Beautiful. It will not exit wifi near for the life of me. I left the office today and drove 25 mins across town. My task executed when I left the office like it was supposed to. I got to the client site and spent about 20 mins there. So I've been gone from the office about 45 mins now. When I got back in the car, the task executed again. No idea why. Wifi scan is set to 120 and All checks is 600. Either of these should've provided two cycles for it to not find the wifi network. Then I went home for lunch. I was at home for about 35-40 mins. Now I've been gone from my office for 90 mins. When I got in the car, the task executed again. I'm no where near work at this point and I've been gone for 90 mins. What do I have to do to get this thing to exit wifi near status? Or should I look for another way to track my location?
 
LogicX said:
Profile: Keep gps alive
Context: load app google sky map, navigation, maps, or places
Enter task: Variable set %GPSON to On
Exit Task: Variable set %GPSON to Off, Wait 2 minutes, turn GPS off IF %GPSON matches Off, Say Turning gps off.
Click to expand...

Where and how are you turning GPS on? I feel like you aren't giving all the steps so it's hard to see why it wouldn't be working.

First thought would be to try this:
1) Wait 2 minutes
2) Wait Until %GPSON = off
3) GPS disabled


Or, try to use two profiles, it might work better. Something like:

Context: map applications
Enter task: Variable %GPSON = 1
Exit task: Variable % GPSON = 0

Context: Variable %GPSON = 1
Enter task: GPS enabled
Exit task: Wait 2 minutes, Wait Until %GPSON = off, disable GPS
 
megapixle said:
I have a home profile that automatically turns on wifi when at home and attempts to turn off mobile data with a "Mobile Data Set Off" task. Wifi is correctly activating but when I go to Settings->Wireless & networks, "Mobile network" remains checked. Does Tasker's "Mobile Data" not correspond to Android's "Mobile network" setting? Do I even need to bother turning off Mobile Data when I turn on wifi? Or does the OS simply know not to use the Mobile Data if wifi is on?

Thanks for your help, I'm slowly getting the hang of this.
Click to expand...

It is independent of that setting in Android.

When you click to add the mobile data task, there is a little question mark you can tap for help. You should review that whenever you are adding tasks. The explanation is in that help text.

The only way to truly keep mobile data off is to use the MobileAPN command and APNdroid.
 
A.Nonymous said:
I got to the client site and spent about 20 mins there. So I've been gone from the office about 45 mins now. When I got back in the car, the task executed again. No idea why.
Click to expand...

It sounds like the profile is activating whenever you are in your car, independent from the Wifi Near state.

Are you sure the Wifi Near state is active?

Perhaps you can post what you have setup. I expect there is some reason that the Wifi Near is not required to execute the task you want.
 
Ok here's a concept that I'd like either to do with Tasker or a standalone app? Picture this...I'm walking down the road with my earphones jammed deep in my ears listening to nice loud music. A neighbor nearby starts talking to me. I want to be able to hit one button and have it 1) mute the media volume (or pause the media player) and 2) enable the microphone so I can hear hear the neighbor through the microphone to the headphones so I don't have to take the headphones out of my ear. Possible? :)
 
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