So I’ve just used Spectora now for a few of my Mock inspections. I’m using a Samsung Galaxy S20 and everything seems to be working great, except by the end of my inspection, my battery is nearly dead on my phone. I’m assuming this is due to the number of pictures I’m taking and the flash being used in so many dim to dark areas.
Does anyone use a different camera for taking pictures and if so, what do you do to import them into Spectora without taking a ton of time after the inspection to finish the report?
Or do you do other things to try to help with battery life? If I get to a point where I’m doing two inspections a day, I won’t be able to get that to work if my phone dies after the first inspection.
I use a Note 9, take an average of 50 pictures per which are inserted directly into my inspections software, I could easily do 3 inspections without any worry of draining the battery in my phone. Although I don’t use Spectora I wouldn’t think the software program would matter that much, but I could be wrong.
I use Spectora on a Moto G and it barely uses any battery to do an inspection. I probably average around 100 pictures, half in the app and half out of the app. Flash usually set to auto.
Although I have yet to take the plunge (and use my onsite Companion software) I have considered the battery problem. If you use your phones GPS to get to the home your inspecting make sure you have a good car charger and use it during the drive. The second thing to purchase is a ‘back up battery pack.’ I got one from the local BBB. It is an iHome so I guess it was intended for an iPhone but works fine with my Android and the right cable.
I take around 120 pictures per inspection with an older iPhone 5s. The battery can get low but I have my newer phone to continue with so no problem. Pictures all end up in the same place when I get back anyways.
You likely have the app set to auto-save every few minutes or so. This will chew up a battery while it uses service to upload often.
I have mine set to “on-demand”. When I get in the truck to leave, I plug in the phone & hit save. It uploads & charges on my way to the next one.
This really helps preserve the battery when you are in an area of poor service as it will just keep searching for a signal when set to auto-save.
What Brandon said…Also make sure you have no background apps running such as maps, music, weather, web browser, etc. Close out things you are not using.
If still a problem, you can shut off bluetooth and enter airplane mode if you really want to conserve battery during the inspection. Hopefully that is not necessary.
Also you can check your “battery health” in the general settings. If it has dropped under 80% then it may be time to start planning for repair/replacement.
Don’t need a car battery strapped to the back. 