Does the inReach still ping when stationary?

It appears the inReach Mini 2 does not ping when stationary, is this correct?

This is rather confusing when tracking within Garmin Explore as you do not know if the user has stopped for a long rest break or is incapacitated

Thoughts and answers much appreciated.

Steve

0 twolpert over 2 years ago

If you mean "does the M2 send a track point when tracking and stationary", yes - but only at 4 hour intervals. The device continues to check position at the tracking interval to see if it is has moved. But it will not resume sending at the configured interval until it does move. This is true of all iR devices.

For example, suppose you are sending at 10 minute intervals and moving. At each 10 minute interval, the device first checks to see if it has moved since the the last time it sent a point. If so, it sends another and continues normally. If not, it enters "stationary mode".

In stationary mode, the device checks every 10 minutes (the current send interval) to see if it has moved since the last time it checked. If not, it waits 10 minutes and checks again. If 4 hours elapse before it senses motion, it sends a point and goes back to checking every 10 minutes. If it senses motion before 4 hours have elapsed, it resumes sending every 10 minutes and exits "stationary mode",

0 3653941 over 2 years ago in reply to twolpert

Many thanks for your comprehensive answer.

This is the first time I have usesd the M2 and I can see you need to manage your expectations.

I have asked the family member who I am tracking to send a preset message if he intends to stop for more than 20 minutes to gain a better feel as to how they are progressing and to ensure there has been no accidents.

Having said that, I have noticed that messages can take anything from a minute to a couple of hours to arrive even in a clear sky outdoor door location.

In my ignorance, I thought the M2 would operate like a cell phone and messages and location pings would come through almost instantly, but I can see now you need to give it a reasonable time tolerance.

Overall, I am happy with the performace and it's certainly worth having it you are trecking in the wilderness.

0 twolpert over 2 years ago in reply to 3653941

Iridium traffic SENT from the M2 should arrive at the Garmin servers in near real time. For example, sent track points should show up almost immediately. If they do not, the problem is likely that the device does not have a sufficiently clear view of the sky.

Once sent messages arrive at the Garmin servers, actual delivery is at the mercy of third parties. For example, SMS messages addressed to cell numbers travel from Garmin to a third party SMS gateway, to the recipient's cell provider, to the providers cell network, to the phone. If the phone is roaming, there are additional steps. Any one of these can introduce delays. The primary example being that the phone is off or out of coverage. Same thing is true to a somewhat lesser degree with messages sent to email.

Messages, including location requests, sent TO an iR device may be delayed for up to an hour (even when the device is powered up and has a clear sky view) because of the way messages are delivered. All iR devices perform an active message check at power up and once an hour. The device also checks for messages (implicitly) each time it sends something. So if the device is sending track points at 10 minute intervals, it will "notice" inbound messages each time it sends a point. Note that sending (and the implicit check) may be delayed if the device does not have a clear sky view.

According to numerous forum posts, location requests sent from the web are unpredictable. Some report that they never arrive. Others claim they work at the next message check. Bottom line - you probably should not depend on these.

Use of expedition mode may interfere with timely delivery on inbound messages in poorly understood ways.

The conventional wisdom here is to rely on sent track points. Make sure the device is powered up and has a good sky view (in so far as possible).