Tasker Help

[kbrown.1407]

Hey everyone. I am new to the site and fairly new to android (less than a year switched over to Verizon Thunderbolt from iPhone). I recently checked out the Tasker app and am very intrigued by its capabilities. I have done some research all over (including tasker wiki) and haven't quite grasped the entirety of the application. I had a few profiles I was wanting to set up and was hoping I might be able to get some help with the requirements. As I stated, I am by no means an expert but I have done some independent research and have a minimal understanding of the app. The profiles I am interested in are below. Any help would be appreciated (step by step is preferred/appreciated).

Home (Assumed Location Based?)
-I would like my phone to turn on Wifi when I arrive home
-Send a text notifying person/people I have arrived home safely (Weekdays only if possible)
-Also set up to turn Wifi off when I leave (exit task)
Not sure what the best way to do this is to still conserve battery (Net only, no GPS?)

Car Mode (Likely based on Power or docked if I get a car dock)
-Turn on GPS
-Turn on Bluetooth
-Open Navigation App (I've seen Car Home(?) but it's apparently not compatible with TB. Any comparables out there?)
-Read any incoming texts while in Car mode (does this require a separate profile?)
-If possible also allow for dictating responses


As I understand it, exit tasks aren't required for some things (turning off GPS, Wifi, etc) as the phone will revert back to the original settings once that profile is no longer active. Is this correct?

That is all I have at this time. Again, any help is appreciated.

 

[Grievous]

Here's a quick location based profile example:

Profile: Work (8)
Location: 44.813816 / -91.498077 / 200.0m
Enter: Wifi On (9)
A1: WiFi [Set:On]
A2: Send SMS [Number:715-123-4567 Message:Get to work Store In Messaging App:Off]

Exit: Wifi Off (10)
A1: WiFi [Set:Off]

You can set the GPS scan rate in preferences

And here's an example of my Pandora profile for the car:

Profile: Anon (5)
State: Docked [ Type:Car ]
Enter: Anon (6)
A1: Media Volume [Level:15 Display:Off Sound:Off]
A2: Wait [MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0]
A3: Load App [Appandora Data: Exclude From Recent Apps:Off]
Exit: Anon (7)
A1: Media Volume [Level:5 Display:Off Sound:Off]
A2: Wait [MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0]
A3: Go Home [Page:1]
A4: Wait [MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0]
A5: Media Control [Cmdause Simulate Media Button:On]
A6: Wait [MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0]
A7: Kill App [Appandora Use Root:Off]
A8: WidgetLocker [Cmd:Activate]

 

[kbrown.1407]

Thanks for the help. I believe I can decipher most of that. A few questions though:

1. Any insight to the effectiveness of the location based "Home" task? I've seen lots of complaints with inaccuracy. Would it be better (for battery and function) to use a near wifi command as opposed to the lat/long?

2. Any other options for "Car Home" from Google since it is not compatible with my Thunderbolt? The voice controls are what I most want with my "Car Mode" profile. Also, is it possible to run a music app (pandora) while an app such as this is open?

3. What's the reason for the "Wait" command multiple times in the Pandora launch?

4. I've seen (and experienced) that the "Kill App" command no longer works. Are there any workarounds out there yet?

Thanks again!

 

[Grievous]

1. It's been my experience with tasker to take a "Try it and see if it works" approach.
What works for one person on their device may not work on yours and vice versa.
If you have good satellite reception a lat/long profile should work just fine.
Wifi proximity works too.

2. I'm not a fan of any of the "Car Home" type apps and always disable them.
There are lots of alternative "Car Home" apps on the Market just do a search for "car home" and you should find one that will work on your TB.
There are lots of voice activated apps also.
Vlingo and Google Voice Search are popular and work well. And now with the whole Apple Siri kerfuffle there are some apps that claim similar functionality. one is called iris.

3. Depending on the series of tasks I'm doing I have found it helps to insert a small wait time in between them. Especially "Kill App" tasks. See #4

4. I have discovered that inserting wait statements before the "Kill App" command works quite well.

Glad I could help!

 

[kbrown.1407]

Thanks! I got my home mode working I believe. The lat/long context wasn't working so I changed it to wifi near and it worked right away. We'll see if that's the case tomorrow.

I've got some app research to do for the car mode to find something that will speak my texts and/or speak who a call is from. I have vlingo. Is that capable of those actions?

A few other questions.

For the auto text when arriving home. To have that task only active on weekdays what would I need?

Maybe a dumb one but, is docked and simply plugged into a car charger recognized as two separate things or is it the same since it's the same power source?

Thanks again for your help. I feel much more comfortable with the app already. Still a little confused with the if statements and variables and %(function). Know of any good site with examples and/or tutorials of this section?

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[kbrown.1407]

So I definitely need some more assistance with this stuff. I have a handle on everything except the "IF" statements and the variables. Essentially the conditional portions of my profiles are throwing me for a loop. Here is where I'm at, the profiles and some of the troublesome areas are below:

1. "Near Home" - based on location this turns on both my GPS and the Wifi. My initial thinking was I would have the GPS come on to help locate my wifi signal but then I just decided to turn on Wifi. The problem I'm having with this one is that I want it to turn off once I do connect to my home wifi. This will carry over into the next profile ("Home") but, I've tried inserting a "Stop" "IF" "%HOME~1,on,etc". I've looked at lots of examples and I thought this was how it was done but I must be missing something.
2. "Home" - based on wifi connection sends SMS notifying I got home (would like this only on weekdays), turns my ringer and notification volumes back up (silent for work) and I also had a "STOP" condition before the volume adjustments "IF" Night mode was active (set up by time)., "Set Variable" "%HOME~1,on,etc"

There are more issues I'm having and they all relate to the conditional aspects of each Profile and where they cross other Profiles. If I can get a handle on the issues mentioned above that should carryover to the other pieces and I should be good to go this time (I hope). So please if anyone understands what it is I am trying to do and/or what it is I am asking. I need some help!!! Specifics would be greatly appreciated!

To recap I want my "Near Home" active to allow for connection to my Wifi when I get home. Once connected, "Home" profile active, I would like "Near Home" to turn off. Within "Home" I want to send an SMS if M-F and max volumes if not in "Night Mode".

 

[ilikemoneygreen]

Hi all,
Ok, I havent used this app in a while (its changed a bit) and it seems to be confusing me. Im trying to figure out whats going on with my battery, to do that I need tasker to log my battery lvl and the current time and date to a file. then i can run battery benchmark to drain my battery. In my head it goes something like this

Trigger (Phone State / 90%) Action (Log Battery level to file, Log time and date to same file)
seperate task
Trigger (Phone State / 80%) Action (Log Battery level to file, Log time and date to same file)
seperate task
Trigger (Phone State / 70%) Action (Log Battery level to file, Log time and date to same file)
...
all the way to 10%

In my head it is great but i cannot seem to input this task in tasker very well.

In tasker it first starts in profile which i click, go to state/power/battery level. i believe this is where i need to be however the only input here to from such and such to such and such. i dont want a between trigger only a once it reaches this trigger. Anyway i put 90 to 90 just to see if it would work... I then go to a task and when i got to action in the filter area i typed write. Write file is what i selected. Under file i put (where i think is the name of file) to battery level but idk whats going on. My desired action would be
one file/many (batterylevel, Date, Time)
(batterylevel, Date, Time)
(batterylevel, Date, Time)
(batterylevel, Date, Time)
....
not many files called something with (batterylevel, Date, Time) inside.
If that makes sense.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[Ollie]

Post #24 hosts the XML for what you are looking for. Import it into Tasker:

Using tasker to monitor battery - Android Forums