Retrieva pet collars in ViewRanger
ViewRanger supports the Retrieva range of pet and animal trackers. The trackers share an interface with ViewRanger's Buddy Beacon.
Add a tracker - manually
To add a Retrieva tracker you need to know its numeric id (for example 00000001). You also need to know the tracker's phone number and your own phone's phone number.
To add a tracker and request its location:
- Choose Options > Beacon & tracker > Locate now
- If you are a shown a list then choose 'Add buddy or tracker'
- Choose 'Retrieva tracker'
- Enter a name for the tracker, for example 'sam'
- Enter the numeric id of the tracker (for example 00000001) and its phone number. Note it is important that you accurately enter these values.
- You may be asked to provide the phone number of your own phone
- Confirm that you are happy for ViewRanger to send SMS messages to the tracker
- Once ViewRanger receives a reply it will show the tracker on the map
Add a tracker - using an SMS message
If you have received an SMS message from the tracker then you can use that message to add the tracker. To do this:
- Go to the tracker list using Options > Beacon & tracker > Buddy & tracker list
- Choose Options > 'Read inbox - choose'
- This shows a list of all messages in your phone's inbox. Choose one.
- ViewRanger will read the message. If it is from a collar that ViewRanger does not yet know about you'll be asked if you'd like to add it.
Locate a tracker
To request the location of a tracker:
- Choose Options > Beacon & tracker > Locate now
- Highlight the tracker you'd like to see the location of and press OK
- Once ViewRanger receives a reply it will show the tracker on the map
Watch a tracker
To watch a tracker, that is be sent regular updates on its location:
- Choose Options > Beacon & tracker > Watch / track
- Highlight the tracker you'd like to watch and press OK
- You'll be asked how many times you'd like to receive messages. For example, if you enter 8 you'll receive 8 notifications.
- You'll be asked the frequency of messages, that is the time between messages in minutes.
- When ViewRanger receives messages it will show the tracker on the map
Buddy and tracker list
Choose Options > Beacon & tracker > Buddy & tracker list to go to the list of all trackers. Here you can control the trackers, edit them and set icons.
In the list highlight a tracker, press the cursor pad centre or bulls eye button and you'll see a list of commands you can perform:
- View on map - swaps to the map, centring it on the last known location of the tracker.
- Locate now - sends the tracker a message asking for its location
- Watch / track - asks the tracker to send its position regularly.
- Stop watch - tell the tracker to stop sending its position regularly.
- Off / On - sets the tick or cross next to the tracker. This is used if you ask several trackers at once to send their location.
- Details - show a panel with more details about the tracker. This contains additional information such as the hdop, speed and heading.
- Edit - see the properties panel where you can change the name, numbers and icon.
- Delete - delete the tracker.
- Navigate to - ViewRanger will navigate you to the tracker's location.
The Options menu contains other useful commands:
- Add buddy or tracker - add a new buddy or tracker.
- Locate list - in the list you'll see a tick or cross next to each tracker. This command will ask all trackers that have a tick next to them to send their position to you.
- Watch list - this command asks all trackers that have a tick next to them to regularly send their position to you.
- View list on map - swaps to the map view, showing all trackers for which ViewRanger knows a location.
- Read inbox - choose - shows a list of all messages in your phone's inbox. Choose one and it is processed. This is useful when you have received an SMS while ViewRanger is not running. It can also be useful for setting up a new device.
- Read inbox - 24 hours - reads and processes all messages in your inbox received in the last 24 hours in chronological order. Note that currently during testing this has been increased to 7 days.
- Set all on / off - set all trackers to have a tick or cross next to them.
- Discard changes - discard any changes to the ticks and crosses.
Settings
From the buddy and tracker list choose Options > Settings, to see the settings for trackers. They include:
- Update frequency - how often watch or send messages will be sent. Can be set to a decimal value of minutes.
- My beacon PIN - the PIN number you use to protect your location when using the ViewRanger buddy beacon.
- My phone number - the phone number of your phone handset on which the software is running.
- Incoming / Outgoing tracker SMS messages - these two settings control whether messages are saved in your in or outbox. You can choose to have all the SMS messages saved; to have just the last message saved (per tracker); or to have none saved.
- Tracker position sound / colour - set the sound made when a position report is received. The default alert panel is a beep and on screen note. The colour controls the box drawn around the tracker icon on the map. Choose white to have no box shown.
- Tracker battery low sound / colour - like the position alert, this sets the behaviour when the battery voltage is detected to be low.
The other settings are not used for Retrieva collars.
Alarms
If the battery voltage is detected to be low ViewRanger will set an alarm flag. It will continue to report this until you clear the alarm, which you can do by highlighting the tracker in the list, pressing the cursor pad centre or bulls eye button and choosing 'Clear alarms'.
The alarm is reported at the top of the map view when the tracker is at the centre of the screen and in the list of trackers. The border around the icon in the map view will flash.
Track and Roam Mode
To tell a Retrieva tracker to go to roam mode or to track mode, highlight a tracker in the list, press the cursor pad centre and choose 'Request roam mode' or 'Request track mode'.
Navigate
You can navigate to a tracker. When you do this ViewRanger uses its GPS to indicate the direction to go to reach the tracker.
To start navigating to the tracker highlight the tracker in the list, press the cursor pad centre and choose 'Navigate to'. This is only available if ViewRanger knows the tracker's location. If the tracker's location is updated then the navigation will automatically direct you to the new location.