Final word on GPS LAG - Touch HD General

First good news:
Today, i have been "trial testing" the touch HD with Tomtom 7.415 in parallel with a tomtom ONE box in a car around Paris.
The voices have been in perfect sync (slight echo but NEVER above 0.2 s!) for 20 minutes!
Now, we could speculate and follow rumours, but this is a hard fact - relieving our beloved blackstone and TOMTOM by the GPS LAG accusation...unless anybody would claim that the tomtom ONE box also has the GPS LAG virus...
Second good news:
apparently, TOMTOM has just released new maps and tomtom7 explicitely for the touch pro and diamond, there is a large probability it will also work on the touch HD (see some "opinions" in this forum).
Notice that tomtom7 appears on the tomtom website if you identify yourself from Switzerland, Germany, Nederlands but is apparently not available for France and Italy. Maybe this is just a temporary situation due to translations and/or distribution terms.
So it's time for decisions, and i decided to buy tomtom7 - stopping "opinion forming" and "trial testing" evaluations. For once, my friends, there is a good company that listens to us and provide us with a great product....i have to admit that i feel embarassed!
.....Anybody could confirm that the official tomtom7 commercial release does work on the touch HD?

I nearly chocked on my grilled dumpling there....took tomtom 7 out for a spin and is fine on the HD

pzucchel said:
First good news:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree, before your post I also posted the same stuff; there is no GPS-lag, strange rumour...
Great to hear that new TomTom maps are on the way
Guus said:
I tested the GPS with TomTom 7.450, 4 times now, 4 different routes, all perfect, no lag at all, and a very fast fix. Even when I was looking for lag (because of this thread I was watching the screen/road carefully), I didn't see lag at all. The video performance, that's the real problem of this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Guus_ said:
I completely agree, before your post I also posted the same stuff; there is no GPS-lag, strange rumour...
Great to hear that new TomTom maps are on the way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rumor started because people believed that because the HD uses the same chipset as the diamond and pro it would lag too...This is not the case. I used Live search gps maps all day today at work with no lag.

utvol06 said:
The rumor started because people believed that because the HD uses the same chipset as the diamond and pro it would lag too...This is not the case. I used Live search gps maps all day today at work with no lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it is the same chipset...
I really don't get it, why the TP isn´t like the HD regarding the GPS.

speed200 said:
But it is the same chipset...
I really don't get it, why the TP isn´t like the HD regarding the GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no clue...the GPS reception strength is leaps and bounds above the Diamond and Touch Pros. Fix time is dramatically quicker. I can get a fix in buildings with my HD without being close to the window! I could never get a fix indoors with my Touch Pro..even flat up next to my window.

GPS signal strength is affected by the radio used by the device. Perhaps they use a different radio version? Same thing can be said about 3G signal. It is also affected by the radio. We know because we have tried many different ROM on other device and know for a fact that different radio gives slightly different results.

speed200 said:
But it is the same chipset...
I really don't get it, why the TP isn´t like the HD regarding the GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the fact we don't get it - doesn't mean it is not true! If you disagree with the result because you have a gps lag IN YOUR TOUCH HD - please report it in details with some experimental evidence.
...maybe the diamond gps antenna has a low S/N, and it has to be filtered by averaging multiple fixes?

Since GPS lag seems not to exist on our touch HD, can somewone then please tell me if the following behaviour is normal (for google maps)
When I drive at a speed of 50 km/h (approx 30mph), google maps shows the dot consistently 10 to 15 meters behind my current position. As soon as I stop (for a trafficlight), the dot catches up and displays my location rather precisely (there is always some error ofcourse).
So during driving, it is quite precise, except for the fact that it is allways 10-15 meters behind me...
Is that normal or is that the fabled lag?
(haven't tested tomtom yet, will use that for navigation anyway, so I am not to bothered by the behaviour of google maps)

The_Stranger said:
Since GPS lag seems not to exist on our touch HD, can somewone then please tell me if the following behaviour is normal (for google maps)
When I drive at a speed of 50 km/h (approx 30mph), google maps shows the dot consistently 10 to 15 meters behind my current position. As soon as I stop (for a trafficlight), the dot catches up and displays my location rather precisely (there is always some error ofcourse).
So during driving, it is quite precise, except for the fact that it is allways 10-15 meters behind me...
Is that normal or is that the fabled lag?
(haven't tested tomtom yet, will use that for navigation anyway, so I am not to bothered by the behaviour of google maps)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the software itself is the problem, not the device. I have used Google Map for driving only three times. The second time I used it, the dot did not move at all! It stays at the point of departure throughout the trip! This was on my Athena. When I used a proper GPS software including iGO and TomTom, I had no problem at all. Even when I'm travelling inside a undersea tunnel, the current position moves alone. Obviously this is done by the software extrapolating the most likely position based on the last known speed.

And we cannot forget that the windshield of the car maybe can be a factor for the lag

pzucchel said:
Second good news:
apparently, TOMTOM has just released new maps and tomtom7 explicitely for the touch pro and diamond, there is a large probability it will also work on the touch HD (see some "opinions" in this forum).
Notice that tomtom7 appears on the tomtom website if you identify yourself from Switzerland, Germany, Nederlands but is apparently not available for France and Italy. Maybe this is just a temporary situation due to translations and/or distribution terms.
So it's time for decisions, and i decided to buy tomtom7 - stopping "opinion forming" and "trial testing" evaluations. For once, my friends, there is a good company that listens to us and provide us with a great product....i have to admit that i feel embarassed!
.....Anybody could confirm that the official tomtom7 commercial release does work on the touch HD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, my English is not so good as yours. But does it mean now you can by the Software TTN7 and the maps too on the website from TomTom?

You can not purchase the tomtom application, but you can purchase the maps if you have the program installed and working correctly with tomtom home. Currently only tomtom home version 1.5 allows you to sync your device as the TTN7 application has NOT been officially released by tomtom for the HD to my knowledge.

utvol06 said:
I have no clue...the GPS reception strength is leaps and bounds above the Diamond and Touch Pros. Fix time is dramatically quicker. I can get a fix in buildings with my HD without being close to the window! I could never get a fix indoors with my Touch Pro..even flat up next to my window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am seeing the same thing on my HD, I could not get a fix in my house on my TYTNII or on my Omnia, but I can with my HD, and as I posted before I have yet to see the "lag" that has been talked about

My device works fine with Copilot 7, with no lag.
Lag however IS evident on Google Maps. I think is is simply Google Maps that causes the lap by slower page updating. Considering that this is an "online" programme, I think that it is reasonable to assume that such a programme will not be as instantaneous as a dedicated programme.
That's why you pay good money for a faster programme!

First of all...
I completely agree with the ZERO LAG thing and also while the parts of the HD are almost identical HTC has done a lot of optimization, mostly the way the software communicates with the hardware, which is where the GPS lag was resulting from in the first place.
Good to see how fast HTC picks up some things (while other things take years but that is beside the point) as the Diamond is only a couple of months old and they already fixed so many issues and improved so much..
Second thing though, I have not been able to get a lock indoors, but at home and at work I got a couple of stories above me so that probably causes too much signal interference.
3G reception is always perfect though no matter where I am...

nikki-m said:
My device works fine with Copilot 7, with no lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here with CoPilot Live 6 (with TTS!).
No lag, and good reception, even indoors away from a window!!!

Quick question:
For Tom Tom to work on the Touch HD you have to buy separate software? Or does buying a physical Tom Tom device mean you have the privilege of having it on an alternative device (the Touch HD)?

The HD is my first HTC phone so can't comment on previous lag issues, however side by side to my PDA running TomTom 7.4, my HD running 7.9 is about 100 to 150 meters behind. I know they are different versions, will go back to 7.4 to test further, but that is quite a lag.
On a seperate note, how do you get an external bluetooth GPS to work with the HD? The HD seems to have less bluetooth settings than my WM5 PDA.

The_Stranger said:
Since GPS lag seems not to exist on our touch HD, can somewone then please tell me if the following behaviour is normal (for google maps)
When I drive at a speed of 50 km/h (approx 30mph), google maps shows the dot consistently 10 to 15 meters behind my current position. As soon as I stop (for a trafficlight), the dot catches up and displays my location rather precisely (there is always some error ofcourse).
So during driving, it is quite precise, except for the fact that it is allways 10-15 meters behind me...
Is that normal or is that the fabled lag?
(haven't tested tomtom yet, will use that for navigation anyway, so I am not to bothered by the behaviour of google maps)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Stranger, at 50 km/hour you do about 15 m/s. every GPS of the class we use, e.g. not for professional use, has one position fix every second - which corresponds to about 15 meters. All navigation softwares do quite a lot of interpolation and data filtering, as we all know when we enter into a gallery and the position keeps moving or when we are slightly sideways on the road but the actual position is nicely on the road! So, it is not a surprise that your software could be within a second from the last measurement, since it has a full second before having the next one anyway and a full bunch of operations to make (screen redraw, route calculations, etc.etc.)
BTW, Igo does exactly the same.

Related

GPS comments for Blackstone

Peoples,
I have a Diamond and I often use the GPS, BUT I am always suffering from extended periods to find satellites, sometimes lag, etc etc
I do know how to get "around" some of these issues (on Diamond) by using GPS Test, HTC GPS tools, lighting candles, sacrificing chickens....but its a right pain
The question is put to all Blackstone users....do you suffer from these issues?!?!?
Looking forward to your responses!!
I didn't noticed any problem with GPS
i also use an Athena and the Fixe with blackstone is quicker
The HD is quicker than the diamond with initial GPS fix.
are most folk using TT7?
Huck33 said:
I didn't noticed any problem with GPS
i also use an Athena and the Fixe with blackstone is quicker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And I could take just between 2 to 11 seconds for fix in Athena. So HD even beats that?
On the Touch HD, the fix is quite fast, usually 10-15 seconds. Then in operation, there's sometimes a small lag, but no more than 1-2 seconds when driving above 100 Km/h -- which is perfectly understandable, since the GPS signal itself is refreshed every second.
GPS location
i am finding the initial GPS location, very quick, keep the quick gps updated.
however when using software like either tomtom 7 or igo 8, position actual and position GPS seem very different. And if at the wrong time, could be very costly re:speed camera's.
other than that, IGO8 blows the socks off tomtom7, just the voice comms alone, then we goto 3d maps and buildings too....
mindblowing, igo8 for the HD! works great

GPS Accuracy

I bought the HTC Touch HD a few weeks ago and noticed that the accuracy is not just bad, but atrocious. It can't even locate me within a 300 meter radius. Is that normal? Does anyone else have this problem? I am using the latest Google Maps.
Thanks in advanced.
I would try a proper GPS program and see if it is the same, if so your HD is faulty.
No problem here. .Maybe silly question, but did you click on "Use GPS"?
--cheerios
skotler said:
I bought the HTC Touch HD a few weeks ago and noticed that the accuracy is not just bad, but atrocious. It can't even locate me within a 300 meter radius. Is that normal? Does anyone else have this problem? I am using the latest Google Maps.
Thanks in advanced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you have a satalite lock? Google maps also determines position from cell towers and gives an estimate to your location within approx 500M. Once gps is activated and satlites have been aquired, a more accurate position is displayed (and i get a blue triange above the location - i guess to indicate actual position).
The little blue trianlge shows the direction you're moving - so the GPS is pretty accurate! Sometimes it doesn't get a lock for a while (it'll say at the top-right when it has active satellites) - if not, then it just uses that cell tower triangulation thing which gets it within about 500m as mentioned above.
aabye said:
No problem here. .Maybe silly question, but did you click on "Use GPS"?
--cheerios
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, it is on.
It can get working when I'm on the move, but as soon as I am still, it screws up. For instance, I can be driving to work and it works fine as far as telling me where I am at the moment. As soon as I close it and reopen it at work, it tells me I am somewhere 300-500 meters from work.
I guess I don't understand how it can work so well on the move, but as soon as I need an accurate reading, it is way off. Does this happen to anyone else?
skotler said:
Ya, it is on.
It can get working when I'm on the move, but as soon as I am still, it screws up. For instance, I can be driving to work and it works fine as far as telling me where I am at the moment. As soon as I close it and reopen it at work, it tells me I am somewhere 300-500 meters from work.
I guess I don't understand how it can work so well on the move, but as soon as I need an accurate reading, it is way off. Does this happen to anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once it's closed it loses the "Use GPS" setting and you have to turn that back on and wait for the Satellites to be located all over again.
Well i think there is a gps delay issue with the latest HTC phones as blackstone, Raphael and diamond and i believe there is a little on the x1. Well there will is always ways to tweak settings in the registry i guess. well you'll probably find something here at xda...
Ok, I see what you are saying...sa we speak, I am trying to get the location of where I am at on my phone. The status has been on "Seeking GPS satellites (0)" for about 3 minutes now. It just relocated my location nowhere near me.
Ok, I just got a message telling me that my "GPS receiver is having trouble tracking GPS satellites." It's a very clear night in southern California, no clouds, no trees, etc...If it is because I can't get a satellite, is there a way to configure it?
Can it be because I am inside my house? If so, that is absurd!
skotler said:
Ok, I see what you are saying...sa we speak, I am trying to get the location of where I am at on my phone. The status has been on "Seeking GPS satellites (0)" for about 3 minutes now. It just relocated my location nowhere near me.
Ok, I just got a message telling me that my "GPS receiver is having trouble tracking GPS satellites." It's a very clear night in southern California, no clouds, no trees, etc...If it is because I can't get a satellite, is there a way to configure it?
Can it be because I am inside my house? If so, that is absurd!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i suggest you to go out and test it.. well also i suggest you to always keep your quick gps application updated so you'll get a quick fix locked to sattelites.. my Raphael locks on around 20-30 seconds and sometimes even less....
no problem here!
i've tested head to head with my old Asus P535 SirfIII (wich is pretty good as gps) on a 300km trip and they react in the same way.
no lag, no errors.
i use iGO8!
Well i found this on youtube: omnia vs HD in gps...
i am aware of that greek clip
what can i say? they have their experience, i have mine.
from my experience i say the gps of hd is good enough, as long as i don't make maps and i don't need precision on cm level
GPS works great on HD. Tested with IGO8 and latest TomTom, as well as Google Maps - all have accuracy within 5m range, wich is more then enough for normal navigation use.
I also tested my HD along side with Garmin car navigation unit - they were literary synchronized to the very second, even the voice instructions came at the same time, it was actually very funny
If you're having problems, I suggest you look up here on the forum for HTC GPS tool.
Well just to say, I agree with you guys eventhough i have a Raphael.. well i guess the gps chipset are the same.. (correct me if im wrong though) .. well many people in the Raphael community is talking about 50 - 100 yards lag but i only experience 5m, the most ive experienced was 10m but that was just once..
GPS doesn't work inside. Not just on the Touch HD but on any GPS device.
At the most, my lag is a car's length. I think my Trinity was slightly more accurated but not by much.
As far as getting a lock from inside, I can occaisionally get a lock if I am sat by my West facing window, but otherwise not a chance!
Ok, I got it working! I guess it just takes a couple minutes without touching any keys to acquire the satellites.
So in conclusion, to impatient people like me, don't touch any keys for a good minute or two. Thanks, guys!
HandGrip said:
GPS doesn't work inside. Not just on the Touch HD but on any GPS device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine does. Can take about a minute/minute and a half to lock to the satalites, usually finds about 9 of them, and from google maps when zoomed in to max you can see roughly where abouts in the house the handset is.
The cell tower lock is useless. I'm in the north west of england. The cell lock feature keeps telling me I'm in Russia!!
like all gps i have used, sometimes getting a fix is hard work, regardless of apparent sky conditions.... i guess thats what happens when technology (the gps sats) are made by the lowest bidder
if you have a "your postion within 300-500m" message displayed, then that is using the cell mast to get your position, you never see this message when using GPS
some progs and some roms prefer to have the gps ports mapped, i do it manually for all my gps progs using com4 and bit rate of 9600k... seems to offer best situation
afaik, no civilian GPS can assure an accuracy of greater then 15m, although some units some of the time seem to be more precise
i dont see lag, i see the limitations of GPS (outside of military application... but then again, we've seen how accurate smart bombs are not!!)

Weird GPS problem. Moving even while my car is motionless.

Hi i have weird problem with my GPS.
While I driving (car is moving) everything is beauty and sweet but once I stop my car my GPS is still moving for about 10 sometimes 20 sec showing 2km/h then 0km/h then 2km/h again. Sometimes when I stop car on junction my Gps will jump on the perpendicular road and from time to time my arrow on the map just turn around to opposite direction and the maps sets a new route! Once i move my car everything going back to normal.
I was using first my TomTom and i just thought it`s a map problem although i haven`t problem with that on my Rhodium either X1. So I decided to try Igo8 and it`s exactly this same. Even on the roundabout my gps can jump somewhere else on different road.
I tried all Radios available for HD2, many Roms and just have no idea what more I can do. Many people on HD2 forum in Poland have this same problem.
I also tried GPS fix cab downloaded here from xda but no luck its ever worst.
I can add that i'm getting GPS fix in few second so its good the problem is just my gps is moving around.
PS. Very, very rarely have no problem with this jumpin gps around. But is like 1/30.
Do you have access to an external Bluetooth GPS receiver you can test out? That could eliminate or isolate some possibilities.
balane said:
Do you have access to an external Bluetooth GPS receiver you can test out? That could eliminate or isolate some possibilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unfortunately i don`t. but on my Touch Pro 2 and Xperia never had this problem.
hi,
are you using the 'gpsmoddriver' software, that is floating around here in the forum?. its made for using the compass data when no gps fix is available. it causes such failures in igo and copilot on my hd2. after uninstalling it gps works much more percise to me, when im not moving.
regards mad
Happens with mine as well. I have replaced my HD2 and it seems that the 2nd unit acts the same. tried various ROMs/RADIOs (official/cooked) - nothing seemed to fix this.
It's quite funny though... most of the people rather paying attention to the fix time instead of the accuracy (which is quite bad imo) in addition to this weird phenomenon. I doubt that the AGPS is somehow related, but it will be nice to know how to disable this feature, and try to acquire the signal without it. maybe this is the cause.
Btw, check this out - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=600232
Fatherboard said:
Happens with mine as well. I have replaced my HD2 and it seems that the 2nd unit acts the same. tried various ROMs/RADIOs (official/cooked) - nothing seemed to fix this.
It's quite funny though... most of the people rather paying attention to the fix time instead of the accuracy (which is quite bad imo) in addition to this weird phenomenon. I doubt that the AGPS is somehow related, but it will be nice to know how to disable this feature, and try to acquire the signal without it. maybe this is the cause.
Btw, check this out - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=600232
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agps - this feature is available in NRGZ roms. I tried to turn on and off and it was no different.
PS. thanks for answering.
madbird said:
hi,
are you using the 'gpsmoddriver' software, that is floating around here in the forum?. its made for using the compass data when no gps fix is available. it causes such failures in igo and copilot on my hd2. after uninstalling it gps works much more percise to me, when im not moving.
regards mad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As i said before : i was using it. I had feelings its jumping around the places more than without it so I uninstalled it.
Tried to email HTC regarding this. they claim that their HD2's don't exhibit this behavior, even though I've tried two different units, from different batches.
I don't know what to do... this drives IGO nuts - it causes igo to switch lanes, directions and having the route recalculated without any good reason.
Fatherboard said:
Tried to email HTC regarding this. they claim that their HD2's don't exhibit this behavior, even though I've tried two different units, from different batches.
I don't know what to do... this drives IGO nuts - it causes igo to switch lanes, directions and having the route recalculated without any good reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes its just pointless to talk with those dickheads.
They ll never say true.
With pink camera was this same. They were saying at the beginning that they have no problem with pink spot at all. And what was next? We need just more people to email or ring them.
Most of them even not using HD2. They've seen for few minutes and think they'll know everything about it.
It was so many bugs with this device they just dont want to hear about another one!
In addition to that, both of my units tended to show different position and altitude readings each time i powered up igo or google maps. while exhibiting the differences I obviously didn't from my current position, not even an inch.
to try to make things clearer. that's what I did :
loading igo -> acquiring signal within seconds -> getting a certain position reading with altitude of 11 meters (for example) -> quit -> reloading igo -> acquiring signal within seconds -> slightly different position, altitude of 75 meters or a negative value (for example).
even the small blinking dot in igo (which determines the actual gps mark) doesn't fit to my physical location on the road which I'm currently driving on. it sometimes blinks few meters to the right/left, and sometimes it tracks behind the guidance arrow (as it should be).
Could be
Simply a limitation of GPS. I have seen it on other GPS's. Garmin etrex. Try walking with one and even thou you are walking in a straight line it plots a zigzag path. More satelites (10+) should reduce this issue.
Basically the GPS is only accurate to a certain range from +-50m to +- 2 meters depending on the no of sats. The location is detemined by timing from when the signal was sent to when it was received. Calcs how far away the sat is (Speed of light??). It is possible you care getting a fluctuation in your current location. Eg
Sample 1 says you are point a.
Sample 2 says you are 2 meters to the right.
Sample 3 says you are 2 meters to the left.
Still in the +- 5 meters but the gps is plotting you moving backwards and forwards.
Guys, it is a problem everyone has, gps position is not as accurate or stable on the hd2 as on most other htc devices. And with an erratic gps position automatically comes an erratic speed. Don't know yet if it is because of a different gps module that's inside the hd2 or because of the inclusion of crappy gps drivers. Will try to find out soon....
Anyway, gpsmoddriver is not the cause of this problem since the problem is also on an hd2 without having gpsmoddriver installed. Because of the functionality of gpsmoddriver to improve the gps readings, in some cases it can amplify your erratic gps position, and that is also what some of you have been experiencing. Remember you can always use gpsmoddriver to add the hardware compass functionality to your navigation software, while additionally configuring gpsmoddriver to leave gps data untouched so it won't make the erratic position and speed worse. For more info or help, please visit the gpsmoddriver thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=571266
EDIT: Of course the HD2 has a new snapdragon chip which has built-in GPS just like many previous generations of phones. Most likely qualcomm changed the way gps works in their new line of Snapdragon processors...
The movement of vehicles around you or even the movement of the sun's rays on buildings nearby can distort GPS signals. The GPS navigator software tries to rationalize this distortion and that usually appears as a movement when you are still. On the other hand, if you drive into a tunnel using TomTom and some other software, you will often see yourself driving straight on in the tunnel well after the GPS is receiving no more satellite signals.
In top-of-the-line built-in navigation systems, the GPS data is supplemented by inertial guidance. (Someone could create a similar supplement for the HD2 The supplementary information allows the system to reconcile the GPS information with information on your car's actual movement.
But for us mere mortals, we just have to live with it.
Well... this particular gps chip is quite useless, then. if my navigation program has to recalculate the route each time I stop at traffic light, then it seems that I either have to purchase a usb-based gps to pair with the HD2, or replace this device. I counted on it to perform well.
Fatherboard said:
Well... this particular gps chip is quite useless, then. if my navigation program has to recalculate the route each time I stop at traffic light, then it seems that I either have to purchase a usb-based gps to pair with the HD2, or replace this device. I counted on it to perform well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Complain to HTC, perhaps if they get enough complains they will come out with a hotfix or a rom upgrade that fixes it. Nobody said that the hardware is not that good (though it's possible), but it could also very well be a bad implementation by HTC!!
Already did.
They have obviously denied my complaints.
thanks again, anyway.
I noticed this behaviour yesterday night, at about 10pm. I was playing with NoniGPSplot, and while I was completely still (and freezing me arse outside believe me), it was tracking a movement back and fro and all around in small step, keeping track of me traveling some meters still while I was standing in the same point.
It was night and I was in my big yard, so no sunrays nor moving vehicles around nor buildings over my head.
I think this behaviour is very well hidden in tomtom since it automatically puts you on a road, and "smoothens" the gps data by making you follow that road no matter what, but a "realtime" software like nonigps tracks that all so well. Gonna notify htc about it now.
Guys, let's not go overboard on this. Non-military GPS is only claimed accurate to around 20 metres, regardless of the quality of the receiver. It's the US Defense Department messing with your HD2, not HTC.
Stephen Selby said:
Guys, let's not go overboard on this. Non-military GPS is only claimed accurate to around 20 metres, regardless of the quality of the receiver. It's the US Defense Department messing with your HD2, not HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, absolutely, I've noticed the same behaviour with all three of the BlueTooth GPS I used in the past. So, I would not be too quick to blame HTC for this.
my touch cruise's gps receiver worked with static navigation enabled to avoid this false movement. maybe this is just a usual behaviour?
Agree to that.
But regardless of the fact that the thing is not a military GPS system, It should do it's work correctly as for me the GPS is almost useless when driving slow or within a city. My 2nd phone (HTC DIAMOND) and 3 personal navigation devices are mounted in my car to compare and all work fine when the HD2 isn’t .
The GPS looses all the time the fix to the satellites and then quickly gets the fix back. when using a GPS monitor you can see that the satellites constantly moving really rapidly. (moving --> getting fix and loosing it again)
This is for 4 other reference devices which are running simultaneously not the case so it seems really an issue with the GPS device.
I tested this with different ROMs (1.44 Vodafone, 0.6 dutty WM 6.5.5, 1.66 stock and another one I cannot recall the producer anymore.)

HD2 GPS perfomance

Hi All,
At the moment i own a TP (a.k.a HTC Raphael), but i'm thinking about buying a new phone and the HD2 is one of the candidates. Before buying i would like to know if the GPS performance of the HD2 is up to scratch?
For some unknown reason reviews never (...hardly) include GPS tests.....WHY!!!??
The GPS performance of the TP even with the official HTC patches is still worthless. Waiting for a fix could take an hour (i'm NOT exaggerating).
pi_mento said:
Hi All,
At the moment i own a TP (a.k.a HTC Raphael), but i'm thinking about buying a new phone and the HD2 is one of the candidates. Before buying i would like to know if the GPS performance of the HD2 is up to scratch?
For some unknown reason reviews never (...hardly) include GPS tests.....WHY!!!??
The GPS performance of the TP even with the official HTC patches is still worthless. Waiting for a fix could take an hour (i'm NOT exaggerating).
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i know what you are talking about, i had an TP before my HD2 too, and i have to say there is world of difference between them. with my tp i had to wait about 15 mins. with hd2 about 10 seconds.. even inside buildings i get a fix! with my tp i wouldnt even hoped for that.
so yeah its a LOT better
The HD2 is in a different GPS league from the TP, Diamond, etc. They were a disaster.
IOW it's much better IMO.
Works pretty good. I just enable QuickGPS when I flash a ROM and I never have any issues (never tried using GPS without that!)
I've an everage GPS fix in ~15sec.... It's brilliant! even from cold start!
Sometimes you get GPS even in very light buildings
GPS is awesome, simply awesome... outside get a fix in a few seconds with full sat coverage (all the columns show a satellite) inside it takes a few seconds longer and again full columns... there is barely any lag on the journy (icon vs real travel)...
GPS fix in 30 secs in Street Navi, 15 secs in Aviation software ...... great!
Also, 10-15 seconds, outside even less...
What I find amazing: Even in my living room, sitting about 1,5m away from the window, I get fix to 7-10 satellites within 20 seconds...
(Always with fresh QuickGPS data)
when i had a diamond i had no issues at all, the hd2 is a lot faster
I have never used GPS on a PDA before but have a dedicated (new) TomTom GPS unit and when I decided to try my HD2 I mounted them both in the car and ran tests.
Within 5 minutes my mind was made up. The TomTom was outperformed in all areas. The route recalculation is much much MUCH faster than the TomTom and the same applies for the aquisition of the GPS signal. Combine this with an awesome screen and it is perfect. I play music throught the headphone socket to my car stereo and run GPS at the same time. When a call comes in the music mutes and resumes when I hang up. The GPS unit runs in the background without any issue. The TomTom GPS unit is now in the cupboard collecting dust.
I have never used quick GPS as I have never had a need.
I agree, HD2 GPS works like a charm.
QuickGPS - what for!?
After reading the feedback in this thread, I suddenly remembered the QuickGPS. Last time I used it was two months ago, because... it was there to be used! Without QuickGPS I get a fix in my HD2 in around 5 seconds! I am not joking! Never felt the need to go for QuickGPS. BTW, went just now to Options and ticked "Download QuickGPS automatically". Why not!? I have Copilot 8 and love it. Just missing the QWERTY keyboard. Otherwise, there's no better combination in the world when it comes to portable phone-music-GPS-video-Internet-camera-etc, etc.
Wow! Thnx u guys for the feedback!
I can live with getting a fix within 30 sec's on a cold start (coming from an avrg. 15 mins for a fix). The HD2 seems to be the PDA/Phone that i have been waiting for since the dawn of Pocket PC 2002 .
HD2 here i come!
I've found the HD2 to actually get a GPS signal even inside my dad's car. no other gps device can get a signal through the windscreen. It's weak on the HD2, but there!!!
A bluetooth GPS stick cannot even penetrate it.
HD2 GPS is a joke!
I do not mind much if the GPS locks indoor, though HD2 does it very easily indeed (and fast). I find really bad is the very poor precision of HD2 GPS - it constantly gives a 20-40 meters error in all directions (no matter in the city or in open field, no matter how many sats are found, even 10). My old Samsung i780 has an error within 2 meters. Just record your path (on feet) with e.g. RunGPS or NaviComputer and you will see the the ugly zigzag line instead of a smooth one which I used to have with i780. Of course if you are not lucky to have HD2 with much better GPS than my..
(It is almost OK with TomTom car navigation, though, with occasional map rotating and recalculating the route).
GPS is very fast and precise here, definitely the best GPS signal out of all the WM phones I've owned
My GPS with iGO conects in about 10sec and its very precision. Corect in area of 3-4 meters
DMAND said:
GPS is very fast and precise here, definitely the best GPS signal out of all the WM phones I've owned
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This is interesting, maybe your old Tmous radio (..50..) is doing a miracle. i have 2.09.51.03 radio, the previos 2.07.51 had the same bad GPS precision.
However, how do you know that it is precise? If I simply looking at a Google map standing still, I see pretty precise spot which my GPS gives, but once I begin to move, the position begis to jump 20-40 meters to all directions..
HD2's GPS really rocks! My old N95 took about 15 mins to fix.
yep fast here as well about 10 sec for a fix cold.

[Discussion] GPS Problems, Lock speed, Accuracy, Fixes - The Poll

Few people are complaining now about the low quality of gps. Can you prove this?
oxylos said:
Few people are complaining now about the low quality of gps. Can you prove this?
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Hmm, I did try and track myself on the bus this morning and it did seem to have a problem finding me - it kept flipping between near where I was and about halfway back home. Used it walking down the street and again it didn't seem to be very good at nailing where I was (HD2 seemed much better). I've enabled location via cell location as well as GPS, so I'll see if that makes much difference.
This doesn't sound too promising :/
I've been using my iPhone 3G to track my runs when I head out, and I assumed the Galaxy would do just as good (or better!) at it. Hopefully it's something they can fix with a software patch and not a hardware problem...
Nicolopolus said:
Hmm, I did try and track myself on the bus this morning and it did seem to have a problem finding me - it kept flipping between near where I was and about halfway back home. Used it walking down the street and again it didn't seem to be very good at nailing where I was (HD2 seemed much better). I've enabled location via cell location as well as GPS, so I'll see if that makes much difference.
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Did you get it from Expansys? I am trying to find out whether it is just a batch or it is a more generic issue.
I too am seeing poor performance with the GPS. Seems to be a hardware issue.
I did a test over the weekend comparing my Galaxy S with a friend's HTC Desire. Using one of the many GPS utilities the Desire was consistently seeing and locking more satellites when stood in an open area outside. When running Google maps and showing the current location I found that the "accuracy circle" (for want of a better description) was growing and shrinking several times a minute causing the map to zoom in and out.
I've also noticed that the compass is almost unusable and showing a much lower signal compared to the Desire. I did perform the figure of 8 calibration several times.
Evans_Prophet said:
Did you get it from Expansys? I am trying to find out whether it is just a batch or it is a more generic issue.
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Nope, got mine from Handtec. Really hope it's just a software issue that can be easily solved! Also noticed that google homepage in browser keeps saying I'm in China?!
Think I've read somewhere that samsung galaxy (the first one + the spica) have a broken gps driver causing such issues...don't remember if it was in sportypal forums or for a similar application. Very sorry to hear it's not fixed.
Nope I tried out google navigation at the weekend and was really impressed by the accuracy, it made my old tom tom look really bad.
So can we say that GS favours google navigation?
Can anyone confirm that?
This is very worrying, GPS is important for me, I don't want to have another N97 on my hands... fingers crossed it's a software issue....
Tyxerakias said:
This is very worrying, GPS is important for me, I don't want to have another N97 on my hands... fingers crossed it's a software issue....
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I'll have another play on the way home and let you know if there's any improvements.
Nicolopolus said:
I'll have another play on the way home and let you know if there's any improvements.
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I've not noticed any problems in Google Navigation. It found me almost instantly, and was so accurate in terms of showing me where I was while driving that there was almost no perceivable lag.
Whatever people are seeing it very unlikely to be a hardware issue, most phones use GPS chips from only 1 or 2 suppliers, its much more likely something temporary like a driver issue.
TravUK said:
I've not noticed any problems in Google Navigation. It found me almost instantly, and was so accurate in terms of showing me where I was while driving that there was almost no perceivable lag.
Whatever people are seeing it very unlikely to be a hardware issue, most phones use GPS chips from only 1 or 2 suppliers, its much more likely something temporary like a driver issue.
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TravUK, have you tried google maps - did you have any problems with it? (although I assume navigation would be using the same data to find you)
Nicolopolus said:
TravUK, have you tried google maps - did you have any problems with it? (although I assume navigation would be using the same data to find you)
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Yep, Maps works fine, including latitude. Also used Waze which took a little while to get a fix, but was also ok.
Well the journey home was much better! Probably helped that I was sitting by the window on the top deck of the bus, but I managed to get a much better fix, using both google maps and navigation. It wasn't like 100% accurate or anything, but certainly no worse than my hd2. Hardly got the large blue circle, but it did think I was in a field a few times, but that's to be expected. To note, didn't seem to make much difference whether I had both gps and cell data selected, or just gps.
My gps works perfect. Google maps finds it instantly and waze and speedometer apps work fine too. Localization is spot on. The gps even connects when I'm inside the house wich my Diamond never did.
I tested Navigon, which can be download from Market for a tryal period of 30 days now, and it working great on my Samsung i9000
it may be a firmware issue , everyone who is having problems should post the sw. version for comparision with others
Comparison of Galaxy GPS and iPhone 3G gps.
Hey everyone,
There's been some discussion regarding the "quality" of the GPS function in the Galaxy S, and after testing it out today, I sure hope it's a software bug or I'm going to be very disappointed.
This is my run as recorded by my iPhone 3G (with Fitnio): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/810054/samsung_fail/Picture%203.png
Now this is the same run as recorded by my Galaxy S (with RunKeeper): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/810054/samsung_fail/Picture%202.png
Take a wild guess which one actually reflects reality. Can anyone shed light on if the new "leaked" firmware fixes these problems?
They're all based on standard chipsets so its unlikely there's anything wrong with the GPS receiver itself. I hope it gets updated soon as it seems to be affecting a fair number of people.

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