General
Why aren't my events aren't firing?
Check that you aren't using a task killer or exclude Llama from your task killer. Also check that the current cell you are in is in an Area. Also, your Llama may have died. Check in the /sdcard/Llama/LlamaLog.txt file for any errors.
I taught Llama about my home, but it doesn't think I'm there. Why?
Your phone may have connected to another phone mast that it didn't initially find. Go to the Recent tab and manually add the cell to the area.
I'm miles away from my home and it still thinks I'm at home. Why?
Because Llama uses cell towers to identify your location, it's possible that the cell which covers your home also extends for miles. Llama is not for you in that case :(
Why can't you just use GPS like everybody else?
GPS doesn't work so well in built up areas or if the phone is in your bag or pocket. GPS also uses up your battery. Llama passively uses the information that your phone needs to go about its mobile phone duties.
Llama is going crazy and flashing up lots of messages
Turn off Debug Toasts under the Debug Settings
What are my profiles/events aren't occuring at the wrong time?
Llama needs your events to go in pairs. If you have an event to switch to silent mode at night, you need a corresponding event to switch to normal normal in the morning
My events have an enter/in area condition, and they're still not firing straight away. Only once I've turned the screen on. What's causing this?
Android has an annoying "feature" that sometimes prevents Llama (and other applicaitons) from receiving location updates. Enable the Cell Polling mode setting. This causes Llama to poke Android so that it updates it's internal location and notify applications about it.
I've changed phone networks, now Llama doesn't know where it is. What gives?
Different phone networks have their own set of phone masts, each with their own unique IDs. You'll have to relearn your areas again... or change back to your old phone network. Whichever is easier.
Where's the widget? I need a widget for everything!
I don't like widgets. They slow down your home screen when it's loading. Also, I've not seen a single widget that follows the Android guidelines properly, so your home screen looks like ar**. I will add one eventually. In the mean time, create a folder on your home screen, and add Llama shortcuts to it. The shortcuts can point to profiles, events or individual event actions.
Llama has support for the Minimalistic Text Widget. The custom text that Llama currently sends to it are:
- llamaareas
- The names of the current areas, separated by commas
- llamaprofile
- The name of the current profile
I use Wifi polling, but want to save more battery. How can I do this?
You can use Llama's events to increase and decrease the frequency that Llama checks for nearby Wifi networks. First of all, learn all of the phone cells near your desired area. We'll use 'home' in this example. Then create an event defined as Enter home -> set Wifi Polling to 5 minutes, and another event defined as Leave home -> set Wifi Polling to Never. Now create another area called 'home (wifi)' and teach Llama which Wifi networks can be found at your home. Create any other events based on entering/leaving the 'home (wifi)' area.
What this does is teach Llama that there is a big area where your home is, and it should start checking to see if the smaller area that is your actual home is nearby. There is no point having Wifi polling turned on if you are on the subway or out of town, and those two rules make sure it's not being used.
Depending on what other events you have, you can of course go one better and say Enter home (wifi) -> Set Wifi Polling to never. This will stop checking for wifi networks if it's already seen that you are at home. However, if you have any leave home (wifi) events, they won't run.
I was using Llama then stopped using it and now my mobile data doesn't work.
It's possible that you (or one of your events) disabled mobile data. Reinstall Llama, and start creating an event. Add both the APN and mobile data actions, and set both of them to 'On'. Then press test events to reenable mobile data. Alternatively, go to your phone's APN settings (which can be found at Wireless & networks, Mobile network, Access Point Names), and check that none of the entries in the list are suffixed with 'Apndroid'. If they are, remove 'Apndroid' from the end of them.
How can I set a priority for events?
Llama's events don't run with a priority. This is because events don't always do the same actions. e.g. Why should an event that turns my Bluetooth on in the morning override another event that switches to loud as I leave my home (coincidentally in the morning). Instead, you should make sure that your events are defined well enough so that they don't overlap. (One day I'd like to make a nice UI to show this, I just haven't figured out how yet.)
For example, you may have an event to set your phone to loud between 12pm and 2pm. You may have another event defined as a calendar event containing the phrase 'work lunch', which sets your phone to silent. If your work lunch starts at 11am, you phone will switch to silent, but it will then switch to loud at 12pm. To fix this scenario, modify the first event to: time between 12pm and 2pm, calendar does not contain an event named 'work lunch'.
Can I use the speed of my phone to determine whether I'm in a car?
Short answer: no.
Medium answer: yes, but it'll eat your battery. Long answer: Yes, but it'll eat your battery because GPS would have to be constantly on checking your speed. Unfortunately, GPS is the only way this could work, because cell mast locations aren't accurate enough to calculate your speed. Your phone jumps between cells quite frequently, which will give incorrect speeds because one moment you'll be on one side of your neighbourhood, then a few seconds later you'll be on the other side.
I only have 1 cell in an area, can Llama still triangulate my location?
Llama doesn't do any smart stuff like triangulation to determine your location. Android only reports the current cell to applications. Llama simply compares the current cell to the cells in the areas that you have taught it about. Only having one cell in an area is not a problem. What does matter is that the cells at your distinct locations are different; if your home and work are covered by the same cells, there's no way for Llama to tell the difference. You'll have to use the experimental Wifi positioning instead.
How do I make a shortcut to a profile or an event?
Long press an empty area of your home, choose shortcut, then llama, then either define an event or choose a profile. You can also create a home screen folder to place all of your llama shortcuts in. I recommend using ADWLauncher, Go Launcher or LauncherPro, as they support customisable icons.
Why do you have to put an icon in the notification bar? Can I hide it?
Yes you can hide it, but the icon is import to the operating system. If an application shows an ongoing notification, then the operating system is less likely to kill the application if the operating system needs memory for another application. When memory is low, 'unimportant' applications and services are killed and removed from memory before 'important' applications. The notification tells Android that Llama's background service is 'important'.
Why doesn't GPS toggle on and off?
Android fixed the hack that applications used to turn GPS on and off in Gingerbread (Android 2.3). Bear in mind that Android manages GPS power usage by itself: if no applications are using GPS, then the GPS hardware isn't turned on and using power. The tickbox in the settings is simply permission to use GPS.
Is there any other way to donate? e.g. PayPal
Currently, I don't accept any other methods for donating. If you want to donate more via the Android Market, then just buy my other app. You can uninstall it after the 15-minute refund period if you don't fancy using it. Cheers
Can you give an example of using Llama variables?
You basically use the variables to store some internal state, that you can then use to toggle other events. e.g.
You may decide that when your phone is both charging and connected to speakers that it's in a "music-dock". Rather than littering all of your events with 'charger connected, headset connected', you could instead use a variable:
-charger connected, headset connected -> Set Llama variable: MusicDock = yep
-charger disconnected, headset disconnected -> Set Llama variable: MusicDock = no
You could then modify all your other events to not change profiles when in MusicDock. e.g.
-at home between 10pm and 6am, LlamaVariable MusicMode=no -> Change profile to Silent
That event will stop Llama changing to silent when it's in the "music-dock".
When I uninstall Llama, it says 'uninstall not successful'. Omfg, what is this virus sh*t?
If you've used the screen off action, you will have registered Llama as a device administrator. The uninstall screen unhelpfully doesn't tell you about this. Go to Settings -> Security -> Device Administrators and untick Llama from that list. Then try uninstalling Llama again.
