Sensors

Sensors

The original version of this document is located at https://docs.qfield.org/how-to/advanced-how-tos/sensors

Sensors

QField supports background sensor logging, allowing you to passively collect sensor data, display live measurements on the map canvas, and store readings inside feature attribute fields.

Activating Sensors

📱 Fieldwork

You can toggle and manage registered sensors from under your project settings.

Workflow

  1. Open the Side Dashboard.
  2. Tap the three-dotted menu (⋮) and select Sensors.
  3. Tap a sensor name in the submenu to toggle data collection.
    When active, a sensor icon displays next to the sensor name; when inactive, a dot icon displays.

Active sensors collecting data display live readings inside a sensor information panel at the bottom of the map canvas.

Sensor-Driven Tracking

You can also store live sensor readings linked to GNSS positions by initiating tracking sessions on point vector layers.

Configuration in QGIS

🖥️ Desktop preparation

Workflow

  1. In QGIS, open Vector Layer Properties… > Attribute Form for your target point layer.
  2. Select the attribute field intended to store sensor readings.
  3. Set Default Value to sensor_data('sensor_name') (replace 'sensor_name' with your target sensor identifier).
    Read more on default values here.

Running Sensor-Driven Tracking

📱 Fieldwork

Workflow

  1. Open your project in QField and initiate a tracking session on the configured point layer.
  2. (Optional) Enable the sensor constraint toggle when configuring the tracking session to record a new point feature each time the sensor captures new data.