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Positioning settings

Positioning settings control how Blecon calculates tag positions: how quickly positions react to movement, how steady they are, and how much data is collected before each calculation.

The main control is the positioning profile — a preset tuned by Blecon that sets all the underlying values for you. Most workspaces never need to go further than picking the right profile.

Positioning profiles

Choose a profile in Blecon Track under Tracking → Positioning. There are three named profiles:

Profile Behaviour Best for
Fast Positions react within seconds of movement. Positions may jump around more. Live monitoring of fast-moving tags — vehicles, forklifts, roll cages in active use — where you're watching the map in real time and reaction speed matters more than a perfectly steady trail.
Balanced Timely updates with good stability. The default. Most workspaces. General asset tracking where you want to see movement promptly without a noisy map.
Accurate Prioritises steady, reliable positions over reaction speed. Fewest false movements. Mostly stationary assets — pallets, equipment in storage, tools on shelves — and deployments where alert reliability matters most, such as tight geofences or dwell-time rules that must not fire on position jitter.

Profiles are maintained by Blecon

The named profiles are resolved from a central registry maintained by Blecon. When we improve the tuning of a profile, every network and workspace using that profile picks up the improvement automatically — you don't need to change anything.

A workspace on Custom keeps its own values and is never retuned automatically.

Scenarios

  • A distribution yard tracking tractor units and trailers in real time — use Fast. Dispatchers watching the live map need positions that react in seconds; occasional jitter is acceptable.
  • A hospital tracking infusion pumps and wheelchairs — use Balanced. Assets move a few times a day; you want moves to show up promptly but the map to stay clean.
  • A warehouse with return-to-base and dwell-time alert rules on mostly stationary stock — use Accurate. The longer measurement window and stronger filtering suppress false movement, so alerts fire on real events rather than signal noise.
  • A pilot where you're experimenting with hotspot placement — start on Balanced, and override an individual value (see Custom values) only if you have a measured reason to change it.

What a profile controls

Each profile sets the following values (shown individually when a workspace is on Custom):

Setting What it does
Measurement window How long signal measurements are collected before each position is calculated. Longer is steadier; shorter reacts faster.
Movement threshold How far a tag must move before its position updates. Also filters out sub-threshold jitter from trails and position history.
Heartbeat interval How often a stationary tag reports its position anyway.
Signal strength cutoff Ignore signals weaker than this (dBm) when positioning. Unset means all signals are used.
Instant positioning Update a tag's position immediately when a single strong, well-located signal arrives, without waiting for the measurement window. Faster, but positions can be jumpier.
Accuracy filter Ignore position updates with worse estimated accuracy than this. See Accuracy filter.

For the exact values each profile resolves to, see the Positioning settings reference.

Custom values

The named profiles cover almost every deployment. If you have a measured reason to override an individual setting, set it through the Tracker API: setting any tuning field switches the workspace to Custom, with every other setting keeping the value the previous profile was providing, so you start from a known-good baseline.

A workspace on Custom shows a fourth Custom card under Tracking → Positioning where each setting can be edited. Selecting a named profile switches the workspace back and the Custom card disappears.

The key trade-off is between reaction speed and stability:

  • Larger measurement window: more data per calculation, steadier positions, but slower updates.
  • Smaller measurement window: faster updates, but potentially noisier positions.
  • Lower movement threshold: updates for smaller movements, but more jitter and higher event volume.
  • Lower heartbeat interval: more frequent confirmations from stationary tags.
  • Signal strength cutoff / instant positioning: advanced controls — prefer the named profiles unless you've measured a specific problem.

Basic settings

These are independent of the profile:

Setting Default Description
Positioning enabled Off Turn positioning on or off for the network
Coordinate system GPS gps (latitude/longitude) or local (x/y/z in meters)

Questions? Contact Blecon support — we're happy to help.