Database Users

Using the onboard GPS. good news and so so news.

Spoke with an engineer at Qualcomm who makes most of the 911 GPS devices for the phones. They did say that there is a way to access it and use it with consumer GPS programs. However they said it was a secret and they couldn't say how. They did however say that each provider disables it in their own way. At least I know it's possible now.

supervette said:
Spoke with an engineer at Qualcomm who makes most of the 911 GPS devices for the phones. They did say that there is a way to access it and use it with consumer GPS programs. However they said it was a secret and they couldn't say how. They did however say that each provider disables it in their own way. At least I know it's possible now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you want to tell us? That the Wizard has a built in GPS? Did you read the Spec of TI's OMAP CPU and seen that there is a GPS block?
I suppose that the developers have omit the antenna. Without antenna no GPS signal and therefore nothing to compute.

"I want to believe" says Agent Mulders Poster in his room in the FBI HQ...
I don't believe in this "emergency GPS" in all Handys. It's like beeing catched by Aliens...
A Phone can be located over the GSM network by looking at the radio station it's connected to.

The e911 gps feature is real. It provides more accurate locations for cellphone calls than triangulation so I read. Besides why would an engineer at Qualcomm lie? We talked in as much detail as we could.

What do you want to tell us? That the Wizard has a built in GPS? Did you read the Spec of TI's OMAP CPU and seen that there is a GPS block?
I suppose that the developers have omit the antenna. Without antenna no GPS signal and therefore nothing to compute.[/quote]
No I haven't read that, could you post a link? I am new to the MDA.

in the service manual i can't see anything that looks like a GPS chip or something, and btw, i think it would cost to much battery power!

I have absolutely no idea about the picture I am going to post a link to, but have a look.
Look at the upper right corner next to the IRDA bit.
Could there be truth to this thread???
http://msmobiles.com/f/viewtopic.php?t=9056

lutz,
the e911 gps chip isn't "always-on"
it on only activated with a user dials 911....there has been a porven hack that enables this by a user re-programming their phone to think that 922 is 911 and thereby dialing 911 would enable the GPS coordinants displayng htem on the phone.
*edit*
A quick google search shows this:
http://www.cellphonehacks.com/viewtopic.php?t=25480&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
Also just in case this site smashes that site I'm attaching the PDF's to the forums first 3 pages (at the time that was all the pages)

ok there maybe is a AGPS like feature in the second thread mentioned. but in the wizard there is not such thing. the picture in the first thread is only a architecture overview.

supervette said:
Spoke with an engineer at Qualcomm who makes most of the 911 GPS devices for the phones. They did say that there is a way to access it and use it with consumer GPS programs. However they said it was a secret and they couldn't say how. They did however say that each provider disables it in their own way. At least I know it's possible now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Qualcomm makes GPS for CDMA and EVDO handhelds, NOT GSM phones. The GSM network uses triangulation for positioning. The engineer was full of donkey doodoo.
There IS NO GPS hardware in the Wizard.

i did a registry tweak to my mda that enables settings for gps in the connection settings. so i know there is gps software on the wizard. why would tmobile have that on there if there isnt any gps hardware??

Could you say what the registry name / value is?
TBH, I know I posted the block diagram link, but as I don't understand those things.................
I can't see the wizard having a gps part as surely with the increase in
sat-nav consumers, it would have been an extremely positive selling point.
It's like selling an old jacket on e-bay and not mentioning the stash of cash in the pockets!! :wink:

the GPS setting in the connections menu is for controlling an external (bluetooth) GPS. This feature is new and on every WM5 Device ; )

This diagram only shows what is capable with the OMP850 processor, this wil not say that it’s in our Wizzard.
If you look into the service manual posted in another thread you will see that there is no internal antenna for a GPS receiver.
So the GPS hardware isn’t onboard the Wizzard.
If you look closer to the diagram you can even see more functions of the Omap850.
WLAN A/B/G
Serial port
U-wire port for a secondary display
Except for WLAN B/G the rest isn’t in our Wizzard.
Cheers,
Drifter
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lutzs said:
the GPS setting in the connections menu is for controlling an external (bluetooth) GPS. This feature is new and on every WM5 Device ; )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never seen this, could you explain some more please?
And looking at that picture ends me back to another thread I startedon here regarding whether or not the miniSD slot is SDIO enabled.

take a look here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=260882
On my ipaq hx2110 the menu was default on, but on the wizard you must enable it.

Hi Jerry,
The picture you see is what is capable with the chip made by Texas Instruments.
But the designers of the HTC Wizzard haven’t used all the properties of the OMPA850 processor so there are a lot of extra’s who aren’t used.
This is also the case with the GPS receiver witch can be used on board of the Wizzard but it isn’t by design.
The Chip can handle SDIO but if the designer disables it software wise or use on interface connected to the Chip that isn’t SDIO capable then it isn’t there.
I can give you an example.
Years ago I had a VCR but I couldn’t buy the one I would have so I bought a cheaper one in the same series.
Mechanical it was the same but there where a few switches let then the one I had in mind.
After opening the cover there where on the PCB board holes where there used to be switches for the more expensive one.
After some DIY I discovered that only the switch was missing but not the software in the VCR itself.
So I had the more expensive one for less money.
Cheers,
Drifter

Hi Jerry,
The picture you see is what is capable with the chip made by Texas Instruments.
But the designers of the HTC Wizzard haven’t used all the properties of the OMPA850 processor so there are a lot of extra’s who aren’t used.
This is also the case with the GPS receiver witch can be used on board of the Wizzard but it isn’t by design.
The Chip can handle SDIO but if the designer disables it software wise or use on interface connected to the Chip that isn’t SDIO capable then it isn’t there.
I can give you an example.
Years ago I had a VCR but I couldn’t buy the one I would have so I bought a cheaper one in the same series.
Mechanical it was the same but there where a few switches let then the one I had in mind.
After opening the cover there where on the PCB board holes where there used to be switches for the more expensive one.
After some DIY I discovered that only the switch was missing but not the software in the VCR itself.
So I had the more expensive one for less money.
Cheers,
Drifter

lutzs said:
take a look here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=260882
On my ipaq hx2110 the menu was default on, but on the wizard you must enable it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bonus. Thanks.
I can't seem to find the REG hack for activating the voice dial / commands over BT headset.
Any ideas? Please. LOL.

Ignore above, found it. Yippeeeeeeee

HTC Sedna and Tomtom

Hi,
Have someone any idea about using Tomtom with the Sedna integrated GPS ?
Thanks.

My p6500 from orange works fine with tomtom 6 using the internal gps. Also I-go 8 works fine too.

I got TomTom 5.21 working with no problem.

Same here Tomtom v6 works a treat

I have Tomtom 6, and I can't see how to connect to the built-in gps receiver, how do I do this?
I've tried:
Change preferences > Show GPS Status > configure and the available options are:
TomTom Bluetooth GPS receiver
TomTom wired GPs receiver
Other Bluetooth GPS receiver
Other NMEA GPS receiver
But none of these work. Currently, 'Other Bluetooth GPS receiver' works with my external one, but if I could use the built-in one it would be much nicer. One less thing sliding around on the dashboard!
On the subject of GPS, what's that quickGPS all about? The manual says very little about it.

xmastree, use Other NMEA GPS receiver, then pick the correct one, on my Orange M700 it is GPS in COM9, I think the Sedna is different, my trial unit went back months ago. You check the correct one with Start, Settings, System, GPS to find what the hardware is using.
I liked quickGPS. Normally a GPS chip only knows about the local satellites where the chip is manufactured, in this case Taiwan, and does not know where to look in the sky for sats good for the UK the first time you use it. It can take up to 2 hours before you get lock. quickGPS goes to an Internet site over 3G and populates the chip with sat co-ords. My trial Sedna picked up in 2 minutes after using it.

woodvale said:
You check the correct one with Start, Settings, System, GPS to find what the hardware is using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Woo Hoo!
That did the trick. I also checked 'Manage GPS automatically' under 'Access'
Strangely, the settings are under Start, Settings, System, External GPS which seems odd.
quickGPS goes to an Internet site over 3G and populates the chip with sat co-ords. My trial Sedna picked up in 2 minutes after using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, although I wonder why it seems to want to refresh every seven days...
Thanks for the help.

xmastree said:
Woo Hoo!
That did the trick. I also checked 'Manage GPS automatically' under 'Access'
Strangely, the settings are under Start, Settings, System, External GPS which seems odd.
Nice, although I wonder why it seems to want to refresh every seven days...
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. I was quoting my Orange M700 settings on WM5 AKU3, the Sedna was WM6 and I trialled it about 4 months ago, don't expect me to remember the detail.
Did not spot the 7 day quickGPS refresh on mine, but I would not think this would be a lot of traffic, they're aren't many GPS satellites!

Having used the built-in receiver for a while now, I'm still not too happy with it.
Most of the time it's fine, but other times it just loses the signal and you get this effect:
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I was stationary at the time.
Comparing the built-in one and my external bluetooth receiver:
No contest really, is it?
And here I am, supersonic, somewhere over the North sea. I was actually in Kirkham, Lancashire.

xmastree said:
Having used the built-in receiver for a while now, I'm still not too happy with it.
Most of the time it's fine, but other times it just loses the signal and you get this effect:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using an Orange M700 (HTC 3600 [Trinity]) WM5 AKU3 for almost a year now with the same GPS chip as in the Sedna (HTC P6500) with no ill effects. Only downside is it is a bit slow to lock, sometimes 60 seconds, but once locked is fine. Initially it was in a screen sucker cradle but my cig socket for the power is mounted in a centre console level with the back of the drivers seat so the coiled cable was constantly springing out so I switched to putting the unit in the drinks holder way BELOW and underneath the dashboard in my personal car where you would not expect good signal but it is not a problem in all driving conditions.
We recently bought 35 Sednas and I have 3 deployed now in a live pilot not using cradles and only one suffers. His company car has a metallised screen (to cut UV radiation, a Picasso) which also stops the GPS signal. There is a small area of the screen not screened just behind the rearview mirror where we have the existing external GPS receiver that was used to supply his previous PDA cradle that did not have GPS. We will be re-fitting this to a new cradle due to be fitted in the next few days. The other 2 units have no problems, but are different cars.
I took my base build sedna on the road over the weekend in my own car without UV screening and it was as good as the M700. I even put it on the passenger seat and on the floor, still good as gold.
So I think it is your car that is the problem, you'll have to use an external GPS antenna, unless ............. My previous trial P6500 was WM6.0 but that also worked fine in my same car as now, the new ones are WM6.1, but I doubt it.
Regards QuickGPS 7 day refresh, now I have the P6500 back, it is a waste of time, you only need to sync once in the UK after a hard reset. QuickGPS was not available on the M700 so I couldn't comment before. I synced my base build P6500 2 months ago once, used it in the image to be burned on the 35 new ones and they've all picked up fine in practice.

Well the car is a Peugeot 307, and the PDA is mounted just to the right of the instrument panel. The bluetooth receiver usually lives in the centre of the dash, but sometimes if it's charging it's right next to the PDA and gets a much better signal.
If I'm going to use an external antenna, I may as well use the bluetooth receiver instead.

xmastree said:
Well the car is a Peugeot 307, and the PDA is mounted just to the right of the instrument panel. The bluetooth receiver usually lives in the centre of the dash, but sometimes if it's charging it's right next to the PDA and gets a much better signal.
If I'm going to use an external antenna, I may as well use the bluetooth receiver instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ask your Peugeot dealer about the screen (and side windows). I take it you are UK given your screenshots, so I guess to the right of the dashboard panel is below the dashboard top and near to the door pillar between screen and driver's door. I would not expect a GPS receiver to lock in these conditions, or at least be very slow and freeze, how the hell is it going to lock onto 5 simultaneous satellites with no line of sight in a car, especially if all the windows have UV screening?
NB Bluetooth GPS is an external antenna as well, it just uses BT instead of a real cable.

woodvale said:
I take it you are UK given your screenshots, so I guess to the right of the dashboard panel is below the dashboard top and near to the door pillar between screen and driver's door.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not below the dash, it's on top, in clear view from above.
FWIW, during a rather 'spirited' launch this morning, the bluetooth receiver ended up in the passenger footwell and still got a better signal.
NB Bluetooth GPS is an external antenna as well, it just uses BT instead of a real cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about that. The bluetooth receiver has the GPS chip in it whereas an external antenna plugged into the PDA will just pick up the satellite signals and feed them to the PDA's gps chip.

Sygic
Took tomtom off my Sedna and installed the latest Sygic v824.
Could not make iGo8 to work.

Took tomtom of my Sedna and installed Sygic latest v824.
Tried to install iGO8 but the phone keeps getting stuck.

GPS not working

I have tried to search but got no results with term GPS so I`m starting new thread.
My gps is not working. I tried different radios, roms and still nothing.
HTC gps tool cannot get fix. GPS Test finds COM4 port but it shows only 'GPS Starting up'. Igo8 shows 'waiting for signal'.
Can be gps faulty? Everything else on the phone works perfectly.
I have disabled A-gps, I have actual data trough quick gps and still nothing.
Thanks for any advice.

pete777 said:
I have tried to search but got no results with term GPS so I`m starting new thread.
My gps is not working. I tried different radios, roms and still nothing.
HTC gps tool cannot get fix. GPS Test finds COM4 port but it shows only 'GPS Starting up'. Igo8 shows 'waiting for signal'.
Can be gps faulty? Everything else on the phone works perfectly.
I have disabled A-gps, I have actual data trough quick gps and still nothing.
Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you downloaded latest satellite information using app QuickGPS?

yes I have

any other advice?please

My 2 cents
I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but can you confirm that someone else's phone can actually get a GPS lock in your area.
I had a weird experience last summer, my ATT Fuze at the time, was getting a lock here in Florida within 5-6 seconds. Then I went on a trip by car to Canada, and when I was somewhere in North Carolina, I could not get GPS lock at all. It was high up in the mountains with clear sky above me but no lock ever. Couple of driving hours later it was working perfectly, the same in Toronto area. On my way back, in the same area, it could not get a lock at all again. It worked perfectly anywhere else afterward.
Not sure how to explain it. Is it possible that the GPS signal in that area was so weak?

i tried my friends HD and he catched signal from the same place in few seconds, so it really looks like my device is faulty. Is there any way to test gps receiver?

you can check your if bluetooth and wifi signal work properly. if you can't find bt or wifi signal. Maybe you gps/wifi/bt antenna unfastened. My HD came with the same problem last year. I opened my HD and reconnected the two anternna and everything went ok.

olioch said:
you can check your if bluetooth and wifi signal work properly. if you can't find bt or wifi signal. Maybe you gps/wifi/bt antenna unfastened. My HD came with the same problem last year. I opened my HD and reconnected the two anternna and everything went ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same problem...
hove do you reconnect the two antenna ?
regards
Phil

philippe_wurtz said:
i have the same problem...
hove do you reconnect the two antenna ?
regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see the pic below. the connector is on the other side of the tf slot
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my wifi and bluetooth is working correctly. Does these two share the same antenna with gps or gps is another one?

pete777 said:
my wifi and bluetooth is working correctly. Does these two share the same antenna with gps or gps is another one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i read your post carefully and find that you can get gps fix. so it is no problem with anternna.
if you want to test your gps hardware, you can use an app called "htc gps tool". your problem may caused by software or settings. try do hard reset or flash a new rom

I already flashed multiple roms, tried different radios..nothing..
I`m using htc gps tool but I dont know how to check if there is gps hardware problem. I just dont get fix.

do you live near to military area?

pete777 said:
my wifi and bluetooth is working correctly. Does these two share the same antenna with gps or gps is another one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pete, just check both of those 2 black cables to make sure they are snapped down. One is GPS (by volume bottons) the other is BT and WIFI. If, you can't keep them snapped down after re-assmbly, then put a dab of Gorilla Glue, let dry 4hrs and re-assemble - that will hold for ever.

pete777 said:
my wifi and bluetooth is working correctly. Does these two share the same antenna with gps or gps is another one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pete, just check both of those 2 black cables to make sure they are snapped down. One is GPS (by volume bottons) the other is BT and WIFI. If, you can't keep them snapped down after re-assmbly, then put a dab of Gorilla Glue, let dry 4hrs and re-assemble - that will hold for ever.

so there is a possibility that my gps cable is disconnected?

pete777 said:
so there is a possibility that my gps cable is disconnected?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, maybe from a drop that popped the cable loose. If, you're not affraid to void warranty (or it's out of warranty), then as last resort - I would open the device and carefully check the cables. Remember, I would first reflash back to a ROM that I knew the GPS was working on before digging in. There are posts in the HD forum that have disassembly/assembly videos of how to repair the HD.

I opened my HD and it was loose gps cable. Just connected it back and its working perfectly. Thanks for all advices.

How I got my eLocity to execute Google Maps with GPS location support

I have Google Maps with GPS location support on my eLocity. This is a short note describing what I put together -- I did no work here, I just found the appropriate notes left by others.
Update: Navigation works too. See below.
I had an eLocity that I put Dexter's v1.42 on. But the market on that does not show Google Maps. So I put Bestialbub's fix on top of that. And that did display google maps, so I downloaded it. However, for whatever reason, the resulting market was very unstable, and would force close, even as a background task when I wasn't using it.
But it was good enough to play with. And with it I got the fundamentals working, however, I did end up reflashing with the latest stock eLocity firmware and installing Bestialbub's market on top of that.
So I installed Google Maps on the eLocity.
The eLocity does not have a GPS, so you need some external GPS device. I used my Nexus One and an app called Bluetooth GPS Output
I believe that app cost a couple of bucks, and there are free apps that will do the samething and should work, but I found pretty good instructions on how to get Bluetooth GPS Output to work here.
What Bluetooth GPS Output does is to take the GPS information on my Nexus One and make it available over bluetooth to any connected bluetooth device that wants it.
I then basically followed the instructions from here.
Bluetooth Pair your phone and Archos tablet (I have the Archos 70 250 gb)
Open Bluetooth GPS out on your phone,and turn it on, you should see a screen showing satellite info
Archos Settings/Location and Security/Bluetooth GPS, then select my paired phone. If that is grayed out, try opening up the app on your phone before actually pairing your Archos with your phone.
Open up maps and enjoy the Navigation!
But the last step isn't that simple because the eLocity doesn't support Bluetooth GPS in the Location & security settings page.
But there are workarounds....
Similar to Bluetooth GPS Output, there are apps that do the reverse. Listen for a Bluetooth GPS Stream, and convert that into an internal android source.
And for that, I chose, an application called BluetoothGPS -- similar name, different developers.
I installed that on the eLocity.
At this point I made the eLocity discoverable over bluetooth and discovered it on my Nexus One. The two devices said they were paired but not connected. I'm not sure what that means. And still with this working, I still see on the eLocity, the Bluetooth is active but not really connected icon, while the Nexus shows a bluetooth connection has been made (though that could be indicating a connection with its dock which is 10 feet away.).
On the Nexus One to get Bluetooth GPS Output talking to Bluetooth GPS I:
Didn't do much if anything in Bluetooth GPS Output, I just started it
On the eLocity, I:
On the device's Application settings page, under development, I enabled "Allow mock locations"
I started the application Bluetooth GPS
On Bluetooth GPS's main tab, I enabled Mock GPS Provider
Bluetooth GPS presented a list box with my Nexus in it, and asked me to connect, so I did.
And on Bluetooth GPS settings tab, I frobbed some reconnect interval settings.
And with that, it basically seems to work. The connection does not seem incredibly stable, I am not sure if it's related to screen display timeouts and devices sleeping, or some other source of flakiness.
But it does seem to work.
So I took it out for a test drive, to see how well it worked. This was typical suburban driving. And only lasted about 30 minutes.
The nexus was plugged into the car, the elocity was on battery. Bluetooth on, Bluetooth GPS Output running, Bluetooth GPS running, and the map showed the current location. Great!
So I directed the map on the eLocity to take us to the post office, and ... waited ... and waited ... and nothing happened.
Aha, it needs data. So I turned on the Nexus One's wifi hotspot, connected the eLocity to that, and, ...
Success! Driving directions and navigation worked just fine, with one caveat. For whatever reason, i would tell me when I started up Navigation that if I wanted voice nav, I needed a plugin from the market, but when I said sure, go get it, the market would force close. However, voice navigation worked anyway.
During the 30 minutes I played with it, the connection between the two devices was nice and stable, and the map always displayed the right location and navigation worked as expected.
The eLocity is a very nice mapper compared to the Nexus One, for whatever reason, at equivalent zoom levels, the eLocity display shows much much more of the surrounding area than does the Nexus One. And physically the screen is about three times larger, and much easier to see in daylight (cloudy day though.)
However, the Nexus One displays a map where your current driving direction is always oriented to the top of the screen. This makes it very easy to orient where the next turn or landmark is.
Presumably because the eLocity does not have a digital compass, the eLocity always displays north to the top of the screen. This can be better at sometimes, as when you are trying to get a feel for where a very long route will take you, and worse at other times, when you're just trying to navigate through streets.
But all in all, pretty cool.
Note the Google Maps blue location dot:
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grax!!!!!
Thanks!!!! great tutorial!!!!!!!

GPS alternative fix for android, mac, pc, phones, laptop tablets via bluetooth gps

* This involves setting up connection via bluetooth to external GPS sensor. If you already know about this, just skip this post. No flaming needed
If not and still frustrate with GPS accuracy with all the latest ROMs, then read on.
I'm just posting so late researcher and newbies are aware of this quick and easy option too instead of the soldering or other alteration that involves open up the physical device. I've been using it for almost 2 years but did not have time to read around much so did not know about this option until recently. I'm slow...I know...lol
Recently, I've been researching for better solid GPS solution and how to cut down battery drain on ICS & JellyBean and ran into a video that involve using external bluetooth. (I did tried the Corrected GPS hardware fix, didn't really help...)
Anyway, I found several external sensors out there, but the ones that are cheap and small are $12 TomTom MKII or $25 Globesat BT-368i at ebay/amazon.
I thought globesat has more capability and longer rechargeable battery life (10+) so I got the Globesat. But MKii probably will do just fine.
Vibrant built-in GPS sensor works great for Froyo, but so-so or OK for GB, ICS, JB, CM7, CM9, or CM10.
When the built-in works, it has all kind of restriction such as does not work after CPU goes into deep sleep or you must do full lock immediately after reboot and before deep sleep & cannot toggle the gps off again.
So any solution that work ON/OFF on demand that is locks quickly with accuracy of within 30ft is perfect to me. You need accuracy of 30 ft or less or else google map or some other program will jump around on locking where you are and give false/wierd direction.
Fortunately, the option of using external GPS sensor via bluetooth is available in most Android and does the job well. I use GPS almost daily to check if there is traffic jam or other quicker alternative detour so the external bluetooth is always available in my car is perfect.
Not only that, it can save your battery too.
I gained about 5 hrs of battery time with Wifi & GPS off most of the time. I get even more battery time when I put the phone on Airplane mode and use GPS exclusively via bluetooth - meaning only bluetooth enable. I don't know how to explain it but I noticed it does. I guess the external sensor does most of the work and just relay minimal data to it and built-in radio/wifi/gps not running so it saves ton of battery.
So far, the coolest thing that worked now is I got more battery out of the phone under ICS or JellyBean ROM (not using built-in gps with wifi off) under Airplane mode and offline turn-by-turn navigation (google maps & Sygic) that still work with external sensor via bluetooth. In essence, that is like having the traditional garmin or tomtom gps anywhere you go as long as you have map available stored locally on your phone (aka offline). Sygic allows you to buy entire US map or the world and put it on your phone for offline navigation. Google maps allow only 6 offline map where each map is around 70-82mb or less. I got entire Orange county in my offline map and can use external gps to pinpoint where i am. The only sucky thing with google maps is you have to get the turn by turn navigation first then you can toggle gps off. Sygic does not rely on built-in gps enable in order for it to work. This is all great the next time I go to Yellowstone National park, since cell signal there sucks for T-mobile. With the external gps, you can put it on your hat and go hiking and still get gps to work wether you use online or offline Google maps, Sygic, Locus, or Orux....
To get your device able to use external GPS sensor via bluetooth, all you have to do is:
1) buy the bluetooth GPS sensor
2) download & install Bluetooth GPS app on android market ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=googoo.android.btgps&hl=en ) by Googoo Android
3) run it, checkmarked "Enable Mock GPS Provider", click Connect
4) go to device Settings, checkmarked "allow mock locations" or equivalent.
5) that's all...use any map software online or offline kind.
The lock I got with this is within 1 second and accuracy of around 6-15ft (on globalsat BT-368i)
You can use this device during hiking to save your cell battery.
You can also use it with mac, pc, windows phone, laptop, tablets that do not have gps sensor built-in with it...all for $12-25...worth it

WHILE DRIVING w/ ext BT GPS configued as Source GPS on CM10 Preview w/ ext bt option...11 out of 12 birds locked and accuracy down to 11ft...
The moment you turn on, it can lock 6+ satellites almost immediately
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EVEN ON AIRPLANE MODE (where almost everything is shutdown including DATA except for GPS & BT), it still saw 10 out of 12 birds with similar locking and was still able to navigate w/ ext bt gps
Navigation turn by turn under AIRPLANE mode

inaccurate signal for car navigation
kobesabi said:
* This involves setting up connection via bluetooth to external GPS sensor. If you already know about this, just skip this post. No flaming needed
If not and still frustrate with GPS accuracy with all the latest ROMs, then read on.
I'm just posting so late researcher and newbies are aware of this quick and easy option too instead of the soldering or other alteration that involves open up the physical device. I've been using it for almost 2 years but did not have time to read around much so did not know about this option until recently. I'm slow...I know...lol
Recently, I've been researching for better solid GPS solution and how to cut down battery drain on ICS & JellyBean and ran into a video that involve using external bluetooth. (I did tried the Corrected GPS hardware fix, didn't really help...)
Anyway, I found several external sensors out there, but the ones that are cheap and small are $12 TomTom MKII or $25 Globesat BT-368i at ebay/amazon.
I thought globesat has more capability and longer rechargeable battery life (10+) so I got the Globesat. But MKii probably will do just fine.
Vibrant built-in GPS sensor works great for Froyo, but so-so or OK for GB, ICS, JB, CM7, CM9, or CM10.
When the built-in works, it has all kind of restriction such as does not work after CPU goes into deep sleep or you must do full lock immediately after reboot and before deep sleep & cannot toggle the gps off again.
So any solution that work ON/OFF on demand that is locks quickly with accuracy of within 30ft is perfect to me. You need accuracy of 30 ft or less or else google map or some other program will jump around on locking where you are and give false/wierd direction.
Fortunately, the option of using external GPS sensor via bluetooth is available in most Android and does the job well. I use GPS almost daily to check if there is traffic jam or other quicker alternative detour so the external bluetooth is always available in my car is perfect.
Not only that, it can save your battery too.
I gained about 5 hrs of battery time with Wifi & GPS off most of the time. I get even more battery time when I put the phone on Airplane mode and use GPS exclusively via bluetooth - meaning only bluetooth enable. I don't know how to explain it but I noticed it does. I guess the external sensor does most of the work and just relay minimal data to it and built-in radio/wifi/gps not running so it saves ton of battery.
So far, the coolest thing that worked now is I got more battery out of the phone under ICS or JellyBean ROM (not using built-in gps with wifi off) under Airplane mode and offline turn-by-turn navigation (google maps & Sygic) that still work with external sensor via bluetooth. In essence, that is like having the traditional garmin or tomtom gps anywhere you go as long as you have map available stored locally on your phone (aka offline). Sygic allows you to buy entire US map or the world and put it on your phone for offline navigation. Google maps allow only 6 offline map where each map is around 70-82mb or less. I got entire Orange county in my offline map and can use external gps to pinpoint where i am. The only sucky thing with google maps is you have to get the turn by turn navigation first then you can toggle gps off. Sygic does not rely on built-in gps enable in order for it to work. This is all great the next time I go to Yellowstone National park, since cell signal there sucks for T-mobile. With the external gps, you can put it on your hat and go hiking and still get gps to work wether you use online or offline Google maps, Sygic, Locus, or Orux....
To get your device able to use external GPS sensor via bluetooth, all you have to do is
1) buy the bluetooth GPS sensor
2) download & install Bluetooth GPS app on android market by Googoo Android
3) run it, checkmarked "Enable Mock GPS Provider", click Connect
4) go to device Settings, checkmarked "allow mock locations" or equivalent.
5) that's all...use any map software online or offline kind.
The lock I got with this is within 1 second and accuracy of around 6-15ft (on globalsat BT-368i)
You can use this device during hiking to save your cell battery.
You can also use it with mac, pc, windows phone, laptop, tablets that do not have gps sensor built-in with it...all for $12-25...worth it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello everybody,
I have an Ainol Novo 7 Fire Tablet with the feiyu 1031 rom , and I just installed Sygic Maps on it yesterday, I also downloaded the bluetooth gps app by googoo android and when I connected my external bluetooth gps ,I got a lock on my position within seconds. My problem is that when I open Sygic maps, I get the error " Inaccurate Signal for Car Navigation" even though the bluetooth gps app shows me all the available satellites , I have enabled mock location in my setting also but still have no luck in sygic catching the gps signal
Any help or advice would be sincerely appreciated
Thanks
Prakash

praks_khemlani said:
Hello everybody,
I have an Ainol Novo 7 Fire Tablet with the feiyu 1031 rom , and I just installed Sygic Maps on it yesterday, I also downloaded the bluetooth gps app by googoo android and when I connected my external bluetooth gps ,I got a lock on my position within seconds. My problem is that when I open Sygic maps, I get the error " Inaccurate Signal for Car Navigation" even though the bluetooth gps app shows me all the available satellites , I have enabled mock location in my setting also but still have no luck in sygic catching the gps signal
Any help or advice would be sincerely appreciated
Thanks
Prakash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@prakash, i have ainol novo 7 fire tab with 4.0.4 version i would suggest you to install gps test and see if the app on your tab show the gps status as On in green color and also shows the gps coordinates. one thing i had to do with my tab is downloaded build prop editor app from appstore and edit the gps.enable propery from false to true (requires root access, and my ainol tab had default root access).
remember the ainol tab does not have a build in gps chip which is why you need to turn the above prop to true.
i am successfully using the below combination for my my ainol fire tab
nokia phone with built in gps. using extgp app from nokia to transmit gps coordinates over bluetooth. on my tab using gps bluetooth mouse and i now have gps location shown on google maps, navigator etc.
hope this helps.

venky4rhyme said:
@prakash, i have ainol novo 7 fire tab with 4.0.4 version i would suggest you to install gps test and see if the app on your tab show the gps status as On in green color and also shows the gps coordinates. one thing i had to do with my tab is downloaded build prop editor app from appstore and edit the gps.enable propery from false to true (requires root access, and my ainol tab had default root access).
remember the ainol tab does not have a build in gps chip which is why you need to turn the above prop to true.
i am successfully using the below combination for my my ainol fire tab
nokia phone with built in gps. using extgp app from nokia to transmit gps coordinates over bluetooth. on my tab using gps bluetooth mouse and i now have gps location shown on google maps, navigator etc.
hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same tablet with the same firmware and...
thanks for your answer! It works

AW: GPS alternative fix for android, mac, pc, phones, laptop tablets via bluetooth gp
Where do you get the globesat so cheap?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app

I'll have to give this a try and get back to you on the results. Thanks!

testomat said:
Where do you get the globesat so cheap?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto. I would like to know this as well. I'm seeing the 368i for about $60 and the mkii for about $25.
smithmal

Test
test
---------- Post added at 10:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ----------
venky4rhyme said:
@prakash, i have ainol novo 7 fire tab with 4.0.4 version i would suggest you to install gps test and see if the app on your tab show the gps status as On in green color and also shows the gps coordinates. one thing i had to do with my tab is downloaded build prop editor app from appstore and edit the gps.enable propery from false to true (requires root access, and my ainol tab had default root access).
remember the ainol tab does not have a build in gps chip which is why you need to turn the above prop to true.
i am successfully using the below combination for my my ainol fire tab
nokia phone with built in gps. using extgp app from nokia to transmit gps coordinates over bluetooth. on my tab using gps bluetooth mouse and i now have gps location shown on google maps, navigator etc.
hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Everyone
Thanks for all the great info.
I have a Novo8 Discover with 4.1.1 trying to connect to a Samsun Captivate via bluetooth. I have tried all the fixes above except couldn`t find gps enable property so i changed gpswithwifi from 1 to 0. This allowed GPS Mouse to show connected but says unable to compute gps data. Also have GPS NMEA Sender installed on phone but on trying to connect says java.io IOError. Seems that I am close but am still doing something wrong. I have tried all sorts of things and spent a lot of time on this.
Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you and best regards,
Robin

I use a Nokia LD3W with my Vibrant and it works fantastic. I use it while racing my motorcycle and the data refresh rate is so much higher and accurate than the internal, it works excellent.

Thanks for the reply.
My Discover doesn't have internal GPS so there is a bit of trickery involved to make it work. How is your battery life?
Truth is I bought the wrong tablet for my intended application. The company I bought it from said it had GPS and I took their word for it.
Haven't had time to mess with it lately but will keep you posted when I do get it running.
Regards
Robin

GPS problems
Hi everyone,
I realize the I don't have the time or skill to make this work.
I have an External GSP model BU-353 w/USB. I have ordered a female USB to male Micro USB.
I hope to make this work on my Novo8 Discover.
First, is it possible to make this into an accurate, reliable GPS?
Second, how much would it cost to have some pro help to make this work?
Thank you and regards,
Robin