Easy To Embed Photos In Your Spotwalla Track

[outdoorsntn]

We are seeing a fair amount of IBA Premier ride applications where riders are not taking advantage of the opportunity to embed their required ride certification photos (DBRs beside their odometer and PayPal receipt) into their Spotwalla track. Embedding photos into our Spotwalla tracks, made simple by Jason Jonas, alleviates the cumbersome process of resizing and attaching photos to emailed ride applications and makes the ride verification process on our end more efficient. Here’s how: When logged into your Spotwalla account either on your phone or on your computer, simply touch/click on the waypoint message where you want to insert the DBR photo, a box will appear, and at the bottom of the box you will see "Add/Update Picture", touch/click on “Add/Update Picture” and you can insert the picture of your DBR or PayPal receipt there. Easy as falling off a log. Hope this helps with submitting your IBA ride certification applications.

 

[Ninemmsig]

FWIW, it might be less confusing to move the “wait for a reply email and attach your PayPal receipt…” from the Steps section (2) and just say in the first paragraph of the insta-cert how-to description area to imbed a photo of your paypal receipt when you submit your ride For verification. When I did my first insta-cert ride submission, I read it as a requirement to send the PayPal receipt as a reply to the email. But if others are also doing it, I guess I’m not alone!

 

[outdoorsntn]

FWIW, it might be less confusing to move the “wait for a reply email and attach your PayPal receipt…” from the Steps section (2) and just say in the first paragraph of the insta-cert how-to description area to imbed a photo of your paypal receipt when you submit your ride For verification. When I did my first insta-cert ride submission, I read it as a requirement to send the PayPal receipt as a reply to the email. But if others are also doing it, I guess I’m not alone!

Ninemmsig: Well put. Both methods are options.

 

[Gerry Arel]

Doug, what if our 'pings' are not at the gas station where we get our DBR? Would we just choose the ping 'closest' and that would work?
I use an InReach for tracking, and there are no 'custom messages' - the unit pings every 10 minutes. I am often in/out of the station without a tracking ping to attach a pic to. As an example, my last SS1k ride had a few of my stops with no tracking ping.
This is really the primary reason I didn't bother submitting it that way, and just assumed that I would not be able to use that method.

 

[outdoorsntn]

Doug, what if our 'pings' are not at the gas station where we get our DBR? Would we just choose the ping 'closest' and that would work?
I use an InReach for tracking, and there are no 'custom messages' - the unit pings every 10 minutes. I am often in/out of the station without a tracking ping to attach a pic to. As an example, my last SS1k ride had a few of my stops with no tracking ping.
This is really the primary reason I didn't bother submitting it that way, and just assumed that I would not be able to use that method.

Yes, closest "ping" works. Your DBR shows city, state, time, and date and from a rules quote though similarly applicable: "Remember it is YOUR responsibility to prove you visited all required stops. Spotwalla goes a long way towards this proof." Hope this helps.

 

[Gerry Arel]

Well that helps. I'll give it a go soon enough. Thanks!

 

[varnerju]

I finally got on board with this. My initial testing of SWTracker seemed to kill my phone battery, but then I tried just opening the app when at a stop that I wanted to embed a photo. Worked great! Except... Does anyone know why when I selected "bonus location" type instead of "OK" or "gas", the photo didn't post to NewSpotwalla?

Good to know I can attach afterward, I'll do that for now, but hoping to do it "live" in the future.

 

[outdoorsntn]

Have you watched Ray Davis' videos, developer of SWTracker? Gotta ask that crazy question as an SWTracker user because I've learned a ton from Ray Davis and his videos and spoke with him a few times on the phone.
https://rvtechtools.com/swtracker.html

 

[varnerju]

Hmm.... Data is there in Spotwalla when I go to Browse Devices, but not showing up on the trip. And actually, SOME of the Bonus posts have photos on the trip... Very interesting

 

[varnerju]

Have you watched Ray Davis' videos, developer of SWTracker? Gotta ask that crazy question as an SWTracker user because I've learned a ton from Ray Davis and his videos and spoke with him a few times on the phone.
https://rvtechtools.com/swtracker.html

Yeah, I have been watching those, and that is how I'm getting further into the weeds. Speaking of which....

I should put away my "jump to conclusions mat". Looks like we have a 1D10T problem with the guy using the app (ME!) I distinctly remember taking and hosting the photo through the app. I'm almost inclined to think that some of the bonus photos maybe didn't post because they were from the photo bank instead of live camera? I don't exactly remember which method I used on which location. But, I am now seeing an alignment between the Browse Device method of interrogating the message, and the trip points way of digging into the message.

All the more important that I now know how to add photos afterward. Thanks for sharing! And next time I'll probably enforce my own "sleep on it before posting", (especially immediately after completing an Iron Butt where I might be a little too tired to think complex computational thoughts )

 

[outdoorsntn]

In my mind... relatively simple...
- Set up trip in SpotWalla via trip manager being keenly aware of the start and end dates and time parameters of your trip
- Make sure devices you are using are selected while creating the trip (multiple devices can be used... i.e. Spot device and iPhone...using SWTracker)
- Take a test-run around your backyard with your phone making sure the start of your trip (around your backyard) 'indicated by the Big Star' appears in the trip link you've sent yourself to your email address and click on that link. You can also use this method while you are traveling...click this link and watch your trip location messages populate on that map as you travel along.
- Walk around and take photos of your vehicles, shrubs, mailbox, folks speeding through your neighborhood, etc and select ANY of the custom message icons, then go to Library or Camera and upload that photo into your trip. Pretty simple. Hollar if you have any questions.