Related
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!!)
I used NoniGPSPlot to trace my movements as the GPS reported them, while I ran back and forth in my yard this evening; I took screen to show you how crazy can the GPS be in this device.
Facts:
1) these screens have been taken with the shake-to-screenshot function of BsB tweak
2) the results you see here are constant, I just decided today to take screens of what regularly happens whenever I want to test the precision of GPS
3) my movement has been a plain run back and forth on a linear path, probably 50m or so, no pauses but the ones needed to reverse the course when I reached the end of the yard
4) it is 8pm here atm, cold outside, clear sky, no buildings nearby except my own, which is still 30m away from the running path... and I do not live in a skyscraper anyway
5) I was holding the HD2 in my hand all the time while running
6) I had given enough time to the gps position to fix, I have deleted the erratic trace the gps gives as soon as it starts acquiring position
7) I can proficiently use TomTom to follow the road with my car, no erratic behaviours there, except the usual places where there's a slight turn and tomtom thinks you're still on the main course, just to realize a few seconds later that you actually are on the almost parallel street
Here are the shots:
(first one taken with GPSmodDriver disabled, nonigpsplot set to use the COM4 internal GPS)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(second screen, taken with GPSmodDriver enabled, profile set to walking, all default prefs, nothing changed but selecting the walking profile)
Also please notice the distance reported by nonigpsplot to have been ran, in the lower right corner. There's NOWAY I could've ran that much meters.
I would very much appreciate your thoughts, suggestions, whatever, except:
1) you should see a physiotherapist because you have a strange conception of "straight line"
2) you should check your yard for relativistic holes
3) your GPS chip is faulty, return the unit (lame excuse, were the GPS system faulty I would've gotten completely erratic readings -telling me I'm in asia for example instead of nearby rome- or no readings at all)
4) nonigpsplot is a bad software (that's, afaik, a very widely used app, can't believe it behaves erratically just for me; also, I used googlemaps connected though my wifi, and I can tell you that, even if gmaps doesn't do plots, the direction arrow representing me was pointing in the most variables place while I moved; anyway, if you have in mind other fre gps plotting softwares, I'll be happy to test them in my yard, or you can do the same at your place and report here
Well, GPS tends to be accurate if you're standing still, or if you're moving at a decent speed.
It is less accurate at slow speeds.
The accuracy per "tick" can be +/- 20m or more, but you'll usually find it's about 5m, so basically, every time it calculates the position it'll be about 5m off in any direction.
Despite that, your accuracy does seem to be all over the place, if that scale on the program is correct. How many satellites did you have a lock on? The meter on the bottom right of the screen seems to indicate very poor reception, this would also result in larger jumps in position, as would tall buildings/trees/anything around you.
I had 6 "working" satellites above me, the mean of the reception bars length was a little above 50%. My yard does have tall trees around it, not that many tho. Let's say that this Leo is not good for hicking, as for example, if I'm going to use it to find my way out of a forest, I can kiss goodbye to home The fix is still lightning fast if compared to my previous BT antenna.
theemed said:
I had 6 "working" satellites above me, the mean of the reception bars length was a little above 50%. My yard does have tall trees around it, not that many tho. Let's say that this Leo is not good for hicking, as for example, if I'm going to use it to find my way out of a forest, I can kiss goodbye to home The fix is still lightning fast if compared to my previous BT antenna.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should have a lock on at least 7 satellites to get a decent reading.
Most GPSes are no good for walking, I reckon the ones in phones are good for knowing where you are on foot, and just keeping you going in generally the right direction, and they concentrate more on usability for driving.
I think I should get more info on that, had no idea 7 satellites were necessary. Following my high-school studies, afaik 3 measures are sufficient to get an evaluation of a 3d position, so I supposed 6 satellites were far more than enough
In which case, my yard is not a good point enough...
Im using my HTC HD 2 as a data collector plotting up to 80 - 200 waypoints a day with 15 - 35 metre accuracy which is quite acceptable for a recreational type GPS. Equally as good if not better then our Bluetooth Globalsat BT338 units.
We get more satellites and a lower PDOPs then the Globalsats which have the sirf 3 chip.
Ihave been really impressed with the HDT HD 2 GPS
5 or 6 satellites are good enough for an accurate position
Try marking a waypoint several times and testing the deviation in position
Well, I do not have a real "waypoint" whenever I stand still, I have a moving position, or at least that's what nonigpsplot gives me.
Out of curiosity, what's the tool you use to plot?
Were using OziExplorer for our mapping, finding our way to the waypoints etc
and a specially developed program for the data collection and plotting.
I have not used nonigpsplot if it has a trial download I will see how it goes on my HD 2
theemed said:
afaik 3 measures are sufficient to get an evaluation of a 3d position.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is, but it will have awful precision due to the timing tolerances of the GPS system. The more sats you have the more precise you get, with about 10 needed to get a 5m precision. Your software does tell you the reception is low, and this normally takes more into account than just the number of sats.
One thing that plays a great role is how separated the sats you're receiving are. If you use a GPS program that shows the sat positions, you can have a look at where they are. If they're all "packed" in the same area of the sky, your precision will be low. The more separated they are the better it gets (extend on the thought that if 2 sats are at the same place, they're no better than one, try to triangulate if 2 of the 3 points are at the same place or very close).
What this can show is that the HD2's GPS could have a bit less filtering than usual, but not much more.
kilrah said:
One thing that plays a great role is how separated the sats you're receiving are. If you use a GPS program that shows the sat positions, you can have a look at where they are. If they're all "packed" in the same area of the sky, your precision will be low. The more separated they are the better it gets (extend on the thought that if 2 sats are at the same place, they're no better than one, try to triangulate if 2 of the 3 points are at the same place or very close).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nonigpsplot has a nice 3d view of the sats position in the sky, and well they actually are in the medium circle between azimuth and the horizon. At least now I know how to make more out of that kind of info, I never thought about sat position to be important in that matter, even if after all it's pretty obvious
forest.ranger said:
I have not used nonigpsplot if it has a trial download I will see how it goes on my HD 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If not for anything else, at least nonigpsplot has a very big advantage when compared to oziexplorer... it's free And does work with gmaps and openstreetmap
I will take a sample of mine.
However with your low number of sats I would suspect thats your problem. Poor accuracy is what I would expect from only a few satelites.
theemed said:
and well they actually are in the medium circle between azimuth and the horizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget the number of visible sats and their positions change constantly
I had a play with NoniGPSPlot today while at work. While I was standing still I was getting the same erratic jumps as in the screenshots but when moving at a walk it would show a track line.
I was getting the same weak signal indication but the satellite page of NoniGPSPlot was showing 6 satellites and OxiExplorer was showing 8.
The erratic jumps in the screenshots could be just the normal variation of each gps plot exaggerated by the program.
looks like a deflection issue to me
I took nonigpsplot with me today on a roughly 34km total long trip, back and forth.
No big problems while moving, but as soon as I stopped the car at the (frequent here) traffic jams, the position kept wandering off in various directions with some looping paths and came slowly back near the real position of the car to almost stop there. It idled there even after I moved the car, to follow me with a big jump a few second after I started moving.
It's like there's some sort of built-in "inertia" in the GPS chip....
I've been messaging with the HTC support, and they basically dany that the HD2 gps chip could ever behave like that, and that it's sure the fault of the nonigpsplot application, which may interfere with the GPS reception EVEN WHEN IT'S NOT RUNNING )
I asked them to recommend me a gps plotting utility which is compatible with the HD2 GPS chip, let's see what they're going to suggest
Have you tried Reperion?
I use it with my HD2, its not beautiful, but it works well for me, using it mainly to send tracks live to Google Earth.
http://live.reperion.com/media/
theemed said:
I've been messaging with the HTC support, and they basically dany that the HD2 gps chip could ever behave like that, and that it's sure the fault of the nonigpsplot application, which may interfere with the GPS reception EVEN WHEN IT'S NOT RUNNING )
I asked them to recommend me a gps plotting utility which is compatible with the HD2 GPS chip, let's see what they're going to suggest
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chances are HTC support are only trained on basic phone functions. I would not rely on them for help on anything complicated. This is what XDA is here for!
bslask said:
Have you tried Reperion?
I use it with my HD2, its not beautiful, but it works well for me, using it mainly to send tracks live to Google Earth.
http://live.reperion.com/media/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloaded and installed... alas I'm inside now so i can't really use it
Will report back... but still, my request to HTC support about an alternative plotting solution was to tease them out of the "not our fault, it's the app, uninstall it!" defense strategy...
elyl said:
Chances are HTC support are only trained on basic phone functions. I would not rely on them for help on anything complicated. This is what XDA is here for!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well okay, that's correct still, I can't complain with the guru's at xda for something which is probably due to HTC's shortsightedness in choosing/implementing the gps subsystem of their device. I know I should just pair this hd2 with my old BT antenna to see if I get the same weird position jump while being still that I get with the internal gps...
theemed said:
I used NoniGPSPlot to trace my movements as the GPS reported them, while I ran back and forth in my yard this evening; I took screen to show you how crazy can the GPS be in this device.
Facts:
1) these screens have been taken with the shake-to-screenshot function of BsB tweak
2) the results you see here are constant, I just decided today to take screens of what regularly happens whenever I want to test the precision of GPS
3) my movement has been a plain run back and forth on a linear path, probably 50m or so, no pauses but the ones needed to reverse the course when I reached the end of the yard
4) it is 8pm here atm, cold outside, clear sky, no buildings nearby except my own, which is still 30m away from the running path... and I do not live in a skyscraper anyway
5) I was holding the HD2 in my hand all the time while running
6) I had given enough time to the gps position to fix, I have deleted the erratic trace the gps gives as soon as it starts acquiring position
7) I can proficiently use TomTom to follow the road with my car, no erratic behaviours there, except the usual places where there's a slight turn and tomtom thinks you're still on the main course, just to realize a few seconds later that you actually are on the almost parallel street
Here are the shots:
(first one taken with GPSmodDriver disabled, nonigpsplot set to use the COM4 internal GPS)
(second screen, taken with GPSmodDriver enabled, profile set to walking, all default prefs, nothing changed but selecting the walking profile)
Also please notice the distance reported by nonigpsplot to have been ran, in the lower right corner. There's NOWAY I could've ran that much meters.
I would very much appreciate your thoughts, suggestions, whatever, except:
1) you should see a physiotherapist because you have a strange conception of "straight line"
2) you should check your yard for relativistic holes
3) your GPS chip is faulty, return the unit (lame excuse, were the GPS system faulty I would've gotten completely erratic readings -telling me I'm in asia for example instead of nearby rome- or no readings at all)
4) nonigpsplot is a bad software (that's, afaik, a very widely used app, can't believe it behaves erratically just for me; also, I used googlemaps connected though my wifi, and I can tell you that, even if gmaps doesn't do plots, the direction arrow representing me was pointing in the most variables place while I moved; anyway, if you have in mind other fre gps plotting softwares, I'll be happy to test them in my yard, or you can do the same at your place and report here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no doubt - the gps in the HD2 does not perform as expected (or rather, does not perfrom well at all - very bad accuracy, completely useless in everyday navigation - it fits only for general orientation). I can verify the same behavior. is it software or program related issue? The guys in HTC don't really (want to) help us...
i always find that the GPS is very inaccurate. if i'm standing in my front yard it will show me a half mile out into the woods, with a few minutes of waiting, i can get it as close as 500ft away, but never the accuracy i find with a garmin GPS.
i remember with PSP i used the GPS Homebrew app MapThis, it always lowered the CPU clock speed automatically to prevent interference. with root, would lowering the X10 CPU increase the accuracy of the GPS?
lansingone said:
i always find that the GPS is very inaccurate. if i'm standing in my front yard it will show me a half mile out into the woods, with a few minutes of waiting, i can get it as close as 500ft away, but never the accuracy i find with a garmin GPS.
i remember with PSP i used the GPS Homebrew app MapThis, it always lowered the CPU clock speed automatically to prevent interference. with root, would lowering the X10 CPU increase the accuracy of the GPS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many sats is it picking up ? are you surrounded by hills or high buildings or anything ?
mine can tell which corner of the garden im in and its not really a big garden either
it picks up sats very quickly too
also what firmware are you on ?
according to gps essentials, i have a lock with 6 satellites. the area i'm in has lots of woods and has a liitle bit of hills, and i'm running R2BA020 O2 version, on X10i
My GPS is incredibly accurate too...I'd say even faster than my Garmin.
My guess would be that you're just in an area with poor satellite reception. How accurate does it say your location is (like accurate to within what distance)?
Even on 3G with GPS off, my phone's accurate to within 500 feet.
GPS Status
Go to Android MArket and download an app called GPS Status. In it you can check sattelite reception, position and precision.
not trying to hijack your thread here but I live in Canada and im planning a long drive on Monday. Ive recently downloaded co-pilot and all the North American maps that go with it. Anyone have experience with this app, and also what happens when you move outside a 3g area? I would suspect that since you are using gps, and since the maps are downloaded that it wouldn't matter?? Just wondering if im right or not so I know what to expect on the road. Also, should I set the phone to never sleep / keep screen on while its plugged in throughout the drive? Its about a 13hr drive so im worried about keeping the phone on and plugged in that long. What are the opinions of others who have used this type of app?
brunswick000 said:
not trying to hijack your thread here but I live in Canada and im planning a long drive on Monday. Ive recently downloaded co-pilot and all the North American maps that go with it. Anyone have experience with this app, and also what happens when you move outside a 3g area? I would suspect that since you are using gps, and since the maps are downloaded that it wouldn't matter?? Just wondering if im right or not so I know what to expect on the road. Also, should I set the phone to never sleep / keep screen on while its plugged in throughout the drive? Its about a 13hr drive so im worried about keeping the phone on and plugged in that long. What are the opinions of others who have used this type of app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its pretty accurate without 3g. I use it without any internet connection (3g/wifi) and it works well. Accurate about turning, etc. But im talking about walking.
I use Google Tracks all the time on my mountain bike and find it VERY accurate.
brunswick000 said:
not trying to hijack your thread here but I live in Canada and im planning a long drive on Monday. Ive recently downloaded co-pilot and all the North American maps that go with it. Anyone have experience with this app, and also what happens when you move outside a 3g area? I would suspect that since you are using gps, and since the maps are downloaded that it wouldn't matter?? Just wondering if im right or not so I know what to expect on the road. Also, should I set the phone to never sleep / keep screen on while its plugged in throughout the drive? Its about a 13hr drive so im worried about keeping the phone on and plugged in that long. What are the opinions of others who have used this type of app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do long drives from Vancouver down to Portland. Copilot has been very useful. Instant GPS lock even without a data plan. I never had to configure Copilot, it will always stay on when the program is on. Just plug your phone when the battery gets low
I believe it has something todo with the software / app you're using.
As I use the GPS with Google maps, it's surprisingly accurate and picks up movements as short as one single step in any direction right away and it is right on the spot where I stand according to reality.
I think your poor accuracy has nothing todo with the hardware anyway.
lansingone said:
i always find that the GPS is very inaccurate. if i'm standing in my front yard it will show me a half mile out into the woods, with a few minutes of waiting, i can get it as close as 500ft away, but never the accuracy i find with a garmin GPS.
i remember with PSP i used the GPS Homebrew app MapThis, it always lowered the CPU clock speed automatically to prevent interference. with root, would lowering the X10 CPU increase the accuracy of the GPS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly it sounds like your GPS location service is off and all that its getting is the wireless cell tower tracking. Try going into Settings-Location and check to see if GPS Satellites is enabled. It's probably off though by the sounds of it, or you have a faulty GPS receiver in your phone
yeah this phone seems to be less accurate than the x1, z1 gave me a 20 ft accuracy in the worst case and this one seems to be around 100 or even more :S
even my phone locates me on basketball ground whn im in home...approx 30m.....lol..
Not trying to start a fight, but I do want to prove that the GPS on the Fascinate is working, at least on some units.
I started out on my rooftop deck, and got a lock on the GPS. You can see I turned off wi-fi. I got 10 sats locked, ~4ft resolution. I then walked out of the building, and went around my block, purposely crossing the street at time, and even walking 3 sides of a 4 way intersection to see if the GPS would track it. Consider this is Chicago as well, with plenty of buildings around, I think it's doing darn well.
I've got a bunch of screenshots from the GPSTest utility I took during the walk, which I tracked with MyTracks from Google. I'll upload a few images here, as well as the .kml and .gpx file for those who want to break down the trip into detail. I'll post a link to the full gallery. I kept the 0 signal strengths in there, since they showed up every now and then. I assume this is normal, I don't know, I'm not a GPS expert.
The file names are by date/time so you should be able to cross reference signal strength / sat lock at a given time with the track data from the gpx/kml file.
Hope that helps encourage a few people, perhaps you just need to exchange your unit for a new one, instead of return it for a different phone?
Happy to answer questions.
Brandon
Edit - Gallery Link - http://picasaweb.google.com/111158456836091222310/GPSWalk#
Been using it since yesterday and I havent had a GPS problem at all. Google Maps is amazing on this thing, as it always is
namebrandon said:
I started out on my rooftop deck, and got a lock on the GPS. You can see I turned off wi-fi. I got 10 sats locked, ~4ft resolution. I then walked out of the building, and went around my block, purposely crossing the street at time, and even walking 3 sides of a 4 way intersection to see if the GPS would track it. Consider this is Chicago as well, with plenty of buildings around, I think it's doing darn well.
I've got a bunch of screenshots from the GPSTest utility I took during the walk, which I tracked with MyTracks from Google. I'll upload a few images here, as well as the .kml and .gpx file for those who want to break down the trip into detail. I'll post a link to the full gallery. I kept the 0 signal strengths in there, since they showed up every now and then. I assume this is normal, I don't know, I'm not a GPS expert.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the detailed test data. The GPS Test screens do look pretty good to me except for that bizarre example that is all zeroed-out. Recurring cases of that do not seem at all normal to me. But at least the unit recovered.
As for accuracy of the track -- and walking tracks are among the more demanding tests you can do -- I would say it is mixed but at least understandable given the conditions. Seems okay on the north-south streets. But it goes a little wonky on the east-west legs, especially near the end along the north side, when I guess you were in the shadow of those high-rise buildings, and the track wandered maybe as much as 15 meters into the block interior.
The pragmatic question about such tracks, which are never perfect, is: How accurate is acceptable? Sometimes it is useful to carry another known, good device recording a simultaneous benchmark so the two tracks can be compared. Also, when walking, it is good to set My Tracks to its maximum granularity of only 1 meter between data points instead of the default of 5 meters. I think the reasonable issue is how this performance compares to competitive smartphone devices.
Do the aberrant part of the track coincide with the places where GPS Test showed the satellites zeroed out? I am guessing that is true for the portion near the end of the circumnavigation.
In any case, this is the sort of test that users here can sink their teeth into, far better than andecdotal impressions.
Hey man! Thanks for the tips on how to correctly (or I guess, usefully) test the GPS. Thanks for taking the time to check the data too.
You can see if you look at google maps the buildings are a bit tall in some areas, so it certainly killed some signal. The zeros seemed to happen when I shook the device, which I had to do to take a screenshot (shaking is the trigger for the program). I think that is when the device lost signal every once and a while.
You'll notice I was on the sidewalk, which I think is portrayed pretty accurately. I was originally confused why I wasn't dead on center to the street.
It also caught when I purposely cut across the street at one point in time to see if it would track to the other sidewalk, and it did.
Regardless, it's accurate enough for me, and hopefully, accurate enough to give confidence to others out there that at least some Fascinate units have a good, working GPS.
Great news! Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to pick up my Fascinate tomorrow and try this out myself where I live.
I've had nothing but good performance from my GPS so far. On the way home from work 2nite I copied a myTrack of it and did a little meandering through a parking lot to see how accurate it was. GPS Test could saw up to 12 satellites at one time, but mostly 10 and locked onto 10 of them for most of the drive home. Accuracy was down to 3.3ft as well, but fluctuated up to 9ft from time to time. highest SNR I saw was 37, while most hung around 27-34. No screen shots of the GPS Test unfortunately, but I do have my tracks. I did stay in the right lane on the free way most of the way home, but had to go around traffic once I hit Modesto. I did go into the fast/left lane just before Jack Tone Rd and again after Briggsmore Ave and it captured that pretty good. I got off the freeway at one point just to mess with Google Nav and it handled it great. Once I got off on my exit I did some driving around the parking spots in a large parking lot. Pretty close to what I did. I'd say with in the 4-10ft estimated accuracy the GPS Test was showing.
Its been about a day since i rebooted the phone, so we'll keep it going to see if has the problem where it will work after rebooting or changing settings and then stop after a few days.
since I cant post links yet, here the map of myTrack
maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=113114085618005181110.00048ff7980f2df305ac9&t=h&z=12
I haven't had much chance to use it on mine, but I will say that the first time I enabled it, it took about 10-15 seconds to get a lock. After that, it appears to lock virtually instantly every time an app activates it. Also, it seems to be very accurate within Google Maps and Navigation. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.
I've also had generally good results from the GPS. The only problem I've seen is that it is sometimes slow to lock on, especially indoors or inside a car. Once locked on, accuracy has been perfect. I tried out Google's new "walking directions" feature, and it announced "You have arrived" right as I stepped up to my mailbox.
Even the slow lock-on hasn't always been an issue. I was rather amused on Saturday night when I stepped outside with a friend who has a Droid X so I could show him how to use the walking-directions feature. My Fascinate locked on as soon as we got outside, and the X was still searching several minutes later.
I'm sure the GPS issues are real, since lots of people are seeing problems (and Samsung has acknowledged the issue). But for me, it has worked well enough; after Samsung ships the fix, I can only assume it will be even better.
My phone arrived today and the first thing I tested was the GPS. Seemed to lock on much quicker than my previous Android devices.
After leaving the phone's GPS alone for a while, I went back into GMaps and it would not lock on...which is not to say its a phone problem. It would lock onto the wifi signals, so it was locking in my general area. However, I also experienced this on my other phones (it actually locked to the exact spot my other phones would). A simple exit of Maps and reopen and it locked to my location in 2 seconds.
For now it seems to behave as it should. I do have all three settings checked, btw.
Well here I am near the river Thames near where it becomes tidal - ergo, pretty close to sea level (actually about 30ft above). My new all dancing DHD' GPS system tells me I am 230ft in the air. I honestly do not think I am that high!
It seems to me the DHD contains a blast form HTC's past, the Touch Cruise also added 200ft to the GPS heights. Why have they implemented a GPS hardware issue they have known about for years...is the GPS system hardwired into the snapdragon chip? Is it the kind of thing a software update will eventually correct?
I use OS maps a lot for hiking and tracking, and while I know the height issue is not a big thing as I know the problem, my tracks will always be out by 200 ft vertically.
However, the compass works, unlike on my old HD2...but I really hate little faults like this, they gnaw on me...I really hope none of the GPS system implanted in the noses of bombs and missiles don't have this fault!!!
This may be the app you are using.
I use Compass from Catch.com and find it pretty good.
Also make sure you are receiving signal from at least four satellites to get accurate reading.
my bad
thanks for the advice - MM Tracker is clearly out buy 150-200 feet in altitude...I have the compass as well, it has accuracy +/- but I can't see where it has altitude.
Open Compass app.
Tap 'Menu' button, then Compass Type then GPS
On large Green Bar it reads Speed, Altitude and Accuracy.
Bottom green display shows how many satellites are in use.
thanks, I had not seen that feature, very nifty - when it has stopped raining I will go outside and full complement of satellites and check. Certainly held up against the window, the 200ft discrepancy does still seem to be there using the compass...I will check later – thanks for your thoughts on this.
nope there is a problem
according to the compass I am 316 foot in the air. I beleive where I am is about 25 foot above sealevel - looks to me that HTC has reimplented the same fault they has on the Touch Cruise. No biggy, but it is annoying, a little
If you look through this forum, a few other people seem to have a faulty gps .
My suggestion would be, get in touch with who supplied the phone for an replacement, as a wrong reading on GPS will affect footprints, locations, sat nav etc.
Maybe you do not use these programs much, but with the cost of the phone, everything on it should work, especially the hardware.