v1.2.0 - Geofence/Distance Tracking

Release Notes - v1.2.0

Release Date: 2025-12-19

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🎉 What's New

🌍 Geofence Validation

Pings are now restricted to a 150km radius around Ottawa (centered on Parliament Hill). This ensures all wardrive data stays within the coverage mapping region and prevents accidental data submissions from outside the target area.

📏 Minimum Distance Filtering

A new 25-meter minimum distance requirement between consecutive pings has been added. This prevents duplicate data points when stationary or moving slowly, resulting in cleaner and more meaningful coverage data.

📍 Distance from Last Ping Display

The UI now shows real-time distance from your last successful ping location, helping you know when you've moved far enough for a new ping to be accepted.

🐛 Debug Mode

Developers and advanced users can now enable detailed logging by adding ?debug=true to the URL. This provides extensive console output for troubleshooting connection issues, GPS problems, and ping failures.

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⚙️ Improvements

⏱️ Timer System Refactoring

• Auto-ping countdown now pauses when you send a manual ping and resumes afterward
• More reliable timer management with better clock skew handling
• Cleaner countdown display with consistent status messaging

🎨 Status Color Consistency

Standardized color coding across all status messages:

• 🟢 Green - Success (ping sent, connected)
• 🟡 Amber - Warning (skipped pings, cooldown)
• 🔴 Red - Error (disconnected, failures)
• 🔵 Blue - Info (connecting, sending)
• ⚪ Gray - Idle (waiting)

📍 GPS Handling

• Improved handling of GPS watch data during manual pings
• Better fallback logic when GPS data becomes stale
• More informative status messages when GPS issues occur

🧹 Code Quality

• Refactored countdown timers into reusable components
• Centralized timer cleanup on disconnect
• Better separation of concerns throughout the codebase

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📚 Documentation

• README updated with detailed instructions for joining the #wardriving channel in the MeshCore app before using the web app
• Step-by-step setup guides improved for both Android and iOS

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🔧 Technical Details

New Configuration Constants

Constant	Value	Description
OTTAWA_GEOFENCE_RADIUS_M	150,000m	Geofence radius around Ottawa
MIN_PING_DISTANCE_M	25m	Minimum distance between pings
GPS_WATCH_MAX_AGE_MS	60,000ms	Max age for GPS data in manual pings
MIN_PAUSE_THRESHOLD_MS	1,000ms	Minimum timer value to pause
MAX_REASONABLE_TIMER_MS	300,000ms	Maximum timer value (clock skew protection)

New Functions

• calculateHaversineDistance() - Accurate distance calculation between GPS coordinates
• validateGeofence() - Check if coordinates are within Ottawa region
• validateMinimumDistance() - Check if moved 25m+ from last ping
• createCountdownTimer() - Generalized countdown timer factory
• debugLog(), debugWarn(), debugError() - Conditional debug logging

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⬆️ Upgrade Notes

This is a non-breaking update. Simply refresh the web app to get the latest version. No configuration changes are required.

Note: If you're testing outside the Ottawa region (150km from Parliament Hill), pings will be blocked with a "Ping skipped, outside of geo fenced region" message.

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🙏 Acknowledgments

Thanks to everyone testing and providing feedback on the MeshCore wardrive coverage mapping project!

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What's Changed

• Refactor and optimize wardrive.js with comprehensive debug logging by @Copilot in #46
• Fix manual ping timeout after stopping auto ping by @Copilot in #48
• Add GPS status feedback and freshness validation for ping operations by @Copilot in #49
• Add live countdown for GPS skip in auto-ping mode by @Copilot in #50
• Fix auto ping timer conflict during manual ping by @Copilot in #52
• Add GPS geofence and distance-based ping filtering for Ottawa region by @Copilot in #53
• Add geofence validation, distance filtering, and debug mode by @MrAlders0n in #54

Full Changelog: v1.1.1...v1.2.0