SafeTrx now replaces the CG66 scheme

[Andy B]

One great new feature was that my shore side contacts received a text with a link in it enabling them to track our position pretty much in real time.

Sod That!
I go out in a boat to get away from everyone......

[chris moody]

I had an issue with Safetrx yesterday. My phone battery went flat so I could not end the trip in the app. By the time we had got ashore, and the phone charging, Safetrx had claimed it had already texted my shore contacts with the "trip overdue" message (Safetrx sends the texts once you are 30 minutes overdue). I ended the trip at that point, which was about 40 minutes overdue.

It took around 5 hours before my shore contacts received a text saying my phone battery was almost flat and to make contact with me, and the trip overdue text messages never arrived. Now maybe the "trip overdue" texts got stopped as I ended the trip about 10 minutes after SafeTrx claimed it was sending the overdue texts. But the 5 hour delay in the "low battery, contact Chris immediately" message is very worrying, and even a 10 minute delay in the trip overdue texts isn't great.

None of this mattered as I was using a manual shoreside contact texting system as well, and had a spare charged mobile capable of texting once the main phone had died, so they knew we were not in any danger It has however made me lose faith in the SafeTrx app. If we had been in trouble a five hour delay in alerting our shore contacts could have made the difference between a rescue and a body recovery.

[rogerblack]

Useful feedback, Chris, thanks.
Have you passed this on to the CG or whoever is administrating this scheme?
As it's new, I'd imagine they'd welcome any user feedback, good or bad, at this stage.

[chris moody]

Roger

I'll be emailing them and asking them to look into my actual trip data. They must have logs on their servers that they can look at and find out why the texts took so long to arrive.

Useful feedback, Chris, thanks.
Have you passed this on to the CG or whoever is administrating this scheme?
As it's new, I'd imagine they'd welcome any user feedback, good or bad, at this stage.

[Sarah]

How is everyone getting on with SafeTrx? I've only used the tracking option so far but love it for when we're teaching and a boat heads out the harbour in particular, at this particular moment I can see where our boat is and what speed they are doing! A little bit big brother but fab tool if used properly. Next step is to start using the other functions.
Chris did you get a reply about your query? Dom's battery died the other day and I immediately got a text telling me. Interested to hear what you've found.

[chris moody]

The overdue texts not being sent was a bug that I was the first to discover. It happens when the first contact in your list is turned off. They were testing the fix for it so I guess that's resolved now in the latest release. They are still investigating the delay in the sending of the low battery texts.

[PeterM]

Sarah - how do I allow others to look at my track ? Really just my other half to be honest ... ?

I've fiddled with it but cant see how .. if I can share it with anyone else as well would be good - like boat friends that will keep an eye on me from a long way away if I'm doing anything silly in small boats !

[Sarah]

There may be better ways but at the moment we're using track only mode - at the bottom of the page there is a green button for start then an orange button call for help and under that three buttons and the one on the right is share - we tend to use whats app to send a notification to each other. It sends a link which If you click on will enable you to view the tracker. I would post a screen shot but can't work out how to do that here?

[Sarah]

There s a list of FAQs on the RYA website - interesting reading. If you want to delete previous trips you can do so otherwise they remain on the database. Still not certain what happens if you make emergency call - or rather how you cancel it if accidental as it seems to send data immediately.

[chris moody]

Peter - Your emergency contacts get sent a web link with the start of trip text (if you choose to send it). They click on that and can see you in real time. I'll find an example for you.

Saarah - how do I allow others to look at my track ? Really just my other half to be honest ... ?

I've fiddled with it but cant see how .. if I can share it with anyone else as well would be good - like boat friends that will keep an eye on me from a long way away if I'm doing anything silly in small boats !