Update from trials week of September 26-October 2.
After my initial setup confusions I found that that button works as expected. I ran a number of tests making simulated observations. When all requirements are met (see below), the observations take between 2 and 4 seconds to register in the Google Sheet. Since the Flic button posts the record to the spreadsheet via the phone, it is easy to add location to the spreadsheet, which I’m doing. The results look like this:
double_click|-122.2556428|37.88614248|September 30, 2022 at 10:51PM|
I haven’t looked very far into formatting the data in Google Sheets yet. A quick test of whether the date record was being treated by the spreadsheet as a date/time value or plain text seemed to indicate that Google Sheet was taking it as plain text. At least, the column does not respond to date/time format changes using standard controls.
A few problems so far:
When you don’t have a network connection the button does not work. There are quite a few times during the week when my cell connection fails and I don’t have wifi. This means I can’t create an observational protocol that is dependent on immediate recording of every incident. This is a big drawback.
It’s possible to set a sound or vibration to confirm an observation has been made. This is dependent on the phone. Right not I have this off, so I don’t get this confirmation. Even though the double click has worked reliably when I’ve had network connection, it would be useful to know when it fails. For instance, if I make an observation while driving through the Berkeley Hills (notoriously bad cell service), I find myself doubting whether it was properly recorded or not.
Despite these drawbacks, I’m going to work in the next few days to figure out an observational protocol that will be resilient to recording failures. I’m mainly concerned with severe arrhythmia episodes. These are very noticeable. I think if I record liberally during the episodes and pay attention to whether the requirements are met, I should get reliable data.
Requirements:
1, Both Flic and phone are with me.
2. Phone is charged.
3. Bluetooth is on.
4. Phone has network access.