FAQ for Mobile Phones:

  • Which mobile phones are supported?

    Any mobile phone supporting J2ME with CLDC 1.1 and MIDP 2.0 can be used (for example a Sony Ericsson k320i or Nokia 6230i). If your mobile phone supports bluetooth we can usually access any external GPS receiver from Watchee (note that some seldom phones have bluetooth but don't support access from J2me, for example the Samsung SGH-E380). If your phone has no bluetooth the localization of Watchee can't be used, but all other features are still available.

  • My mobile phone contains a GPS receiver already

    Congratulation for having such a beauty. Just download Watchee and start tracking.

  • Which mobile phone can you recommend?

    Many, the Sony Ericsson k320i is the cheapest phone supporting all features, but k510i or k550i is a good phone to try as well, the price can be below 100 € / 100 US$.

  • How to configure the mobile phone for internet access?

    Watchee uses the plain GPRS internet to connect to the server. Usually your carrier has on his homepage a possibility to send a free of charge SMS to your mobile phone to configure internet access (APN). For example for the German E-Plus the APN is "internet.eplus.de" without login name and without password.
    Also the mobile phone manufacturer offer such services, here are some examples:
    Sony Ericsson
    Motorola
    Samsung
    Nokia (German)

  • I have a Nokia N73 and can't find the external GPS receiver

    Phones like the N93 have two ways to find the external GPS receiver:
    1. The so called 'Location API'
    2. The watchee look up by scanning all bluetooth devices
    First watchee lets the location API (there could be an internal GPS receiver detected) try to find and if no succes tries self.
    You can switch off the first or the second approach in Menu -> Configuration -> Edit
    On a N93 usually both ways should work, but it you experience problems try to switch off the Location API and use the second way. Newer Nokia Firmware like '4.0736.3.2.1' are known to work fine with both ways, older may fail. You can get your version by typing *#0000#.

  • Sony Ericsson post installation configurations (e.g. k320i)

    After you have installed Watchee you can optionally configure the permissions which your phone grants the Watchee application. Like this you avoid too many security questions during operation. Before starting Watchee, go to the folder were Watchee is installed, select Watchee (but don't start it). There choose "More" and configure all the permissions to be relaxed.

  • Can i avoid to enter my PIN-Code every time i switch on my phone?

    It's possible to deactivate the PIN-Code request on most phones in the configuration menu.

  • Watchee tells 'photo is not supported' but i have a photo in my phone

    If your phone has a cover protecting the lens open this before taking the photo. This is for example necessary on phones like Nokia N95 and N93.

  • How can i change the photo size?

    When you install Watchee all photos taken will have a minimal size of typically width=120 and height=160 pixels (encoding=jpeg). You can change the size in
    Menu -> Configuration -> Edit -> Photo Size.

    Allowed values are (in small letters):

    • small: typically 160x120 (~ 2-3 kByte each)
    • medium: typically 240x320 (~ 10 kByte each)
    • big: typically 480x640 (~ 200 kByte each)
    • default: The size is given be the phone, Sony Ericsson chooses typically a small and Nokia a 0.5MB size (not recommended)

    If you know the mobile phone specific control string (video.encodings) you can also enter any other supported size of your phone, an entry could be encoding=jpeg&width=120&height=160.

    Please note that some phones don't support access to the camera from J2me. For example Nokia Series 40 3rd. has camera access but not older releases (e.g. Nokia 6230i does not support it).

  • How can i change the tracking rate?

    The tracking rate is calculated depending on the current speed or on significant course changes. You can change these settings in
    Menu -> Configuration -> Edit -> GPS Interval.

    The settings are a comma separated string and default to "120, 30, 80, 240, 4, 30":

    • sendIntervalAtMinSpeed: typically 120 sec, configured for linear equation at low speed (2 km/h)
    • sendIntervalAtMaxSpeed: typically 30 sec, a track is send every 30 sec for high speed (speedForMaxInterval or above), 0 switches this feature off
    • speedForMaxInterval: typically 80 km/h, above this speed sendIntervalAtMaxSpeed applies
    • sendIntervalHeartBeat: typically 240 sec, with speed 0 (<2 km/h) send every given second a position
    • minSpeedForHeadingChangeThreshold: typically 4km/h, above this speed headingChangeThreshold will be applied
    • headingChangeThreshold: typically 30 degrees,when you change your direction more than the given value, a tracking location is sent, 0 switches this feature off

    The above reads to:
    At 80 km/h and above you are tracked all 30 seconds
    At slow speed you are tracked only every 120 sec, the tracking rates in between are calculated by a linear interpolation y=mx+b which is here: rate=m*speedKmH+b
    With no speed (<2 km/h) a heart beat is send all 240 seconds
    If you move faster than 4 km/h and change your course more than 30 degrees an additional location i send

  • How can I autostart Watchee when i switch on the phone?

    On Sony-Ericsson devices (JP7) it's possible, but not on Nokia.
    Some phones like the newer Sony Ericsson phones with JP-7 or newer Java platform (e.g. k550i) support auto-start of Watchee.
    You can register or un-register Watchee auto-start in Menu -> Configuration -> Edit. Further you can configure Watchee to auto-connect and auto-track, but if you want to avoid the security questions of the phone you need a signed Watchee Midlet. Please contact info@watchee.net in this case.

  • How can I control Watchee by using normal SMS messages?

    You can send any SMS to your mobile phone on port 50412 which contains commands to startup Watchee or configure Watchee.

    An SMS to launch Watchee and switch on tracking looks like this: 

    doAction: xb start; gps start; tracking start

    or, for example, later switch off tracking: 

    doAction: tracking stop

    or change the tracking rate: 

    setSetting: trackingRate 120, 30, 80, 240, 4, 30

    Note that usually most such tasks are done over the Watchee Web portal, but to be reachable Watchee must be started and the server connection must be on. If this is not the case the above SMS is the only possibility to trigger Watchee to live (despite doing user interaction on the phone).

    Your mobile phone will ask you for permission for above SMS tasks to avoid misuse. Further you can configure the Watchee permission-dialog in the Watchee menu Menu -> Configuration -> Edit.

    You can download a little application at http://watchee.net/J2meSendSMS.jad (directly from phone) or http://watchee.net/J2meSendSMS.jar (via your PC) to send such SMS messages.

  • Can i track using CellId informations only (without GPS)?

    Yes, if your phone delivers the CellId to the Watchee application we lookup the position at http://www.opencellid.org and add the latitude and longitude from there. Most modern Sony Ericsson phones (like k550i) deliver this information.

    On the other hand, if you have a GPS receiver you can feed CellIds of your carrier to the http://www.opencellid.org database and help like this to register cells.
    You need to switch this on in
    Menu -> Configuration -> Edit -> Feed openCellId.org.

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