Database Users

GPS going crazy (proven with plot screenshots)

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)
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(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...

Vibrant GPS Test: Motorola CLIQ vs TWO Vibrants initial lock

Here's the Video, for those who want to see first hand the Vibrant initial GPS locking issue:
I decided to compare my two new Samsung Vibrant's to my Motorola Cliq...
I tried with and without the fix, and tried with and without wireless, and with and without use wireless networks... all resulted in the same results... The Vibrant GPS has a problem.
Test Case
1. Power off
2. Power on
3. Start GPS Test
Results:
Motorola Cliq: ~ 1 second
Vibrant 1: ~ 70 seconds
Vibrant 2: ~120 seconds
I repeated the the test several times, and the vibrants had random results from 1 to 10 minutes to find the initial lock.
After the initial lock, subquentiant locks took less than a second, however anytime the vibrant is shutdown, or hours pass, the vibrant goes back to taking minutes to lock.

awesome video.. i noticed a couple of things that were very interesting in this video:
one, i noticed after owning *cough*several*cough* cliqs that the cliq keeps the GPS polling in the background periodically. the cliq also runs in MS Based mode. i found this out after being on the road with my band with this phone. when my network signal is lost so is my GPS lock. that probably contributes to the faster lock displayed in GPS test. the software seems to keep the GPS locked in the background all the time.
two, i also noticed that the vibrant in the middle that showed a single sat lock in GPS test also displayed the same time discrepancy that i discovered and posted about in my reply in the "GPS fix" thread. the vibrant also seems to keep the GPS "off" when not in use by any programs.. and it seems to have a relatively cold startup. this probably contributes to the phone sipping battery as compared to the cliq. the vibrant also comes stock with the GPS in "stand alone" mode. this makes the GPS separate from the mobile network. in theory you should still be able to achieve GPS data and lock independent of your network connection status. this is helpful when navigating in an out of network area.
i do agree that the GPS on the vibrant needs to be fixed.. but i am very convinced that the problem is in the way that the software reads the raw data from the GPS and Compass and also how the hardware is utilized.. and not related to any hardware failure. i also agree that one thing i liked about the cliq was that the compass and gps were always bang-on accurate. even if the rest of the phone was a total fail.

This depresses me to no end. I love my Vibrant, and these issues are what's keeping me at bay with a return. So long as they just came out and admitted there was a problem, that they intended to fix, I would be happy.
What do you guys think? Is it worth it to keep the phone and hope that the OTA / 2.2 update fixes the issues? Or are we about to be left in the dust by lack of support?

im of the firm belief that the issues are software based and therefore very fixable.. i also was shown the email that mentioned the 2.2 update for the Vibrant that will be released in the "next couple of weeks." so.. im keeping mine. my GPS works well enough for now that its usable until an update is issued.

captain_awesome said:
awesome video.. i noticed a couple of things that were very interesting in this video:
one, i noticed after owning *cough*several*cough* cliqs that the cliq keeps the GPS polling in the background periodically. the cliq also runs in MS Based mode. i found this out after being on the road with my band with this phone. when my network signal is lost so is my GPS lock. that probably contributes to the faster lock displayed in GPS test. the software seems to keep the GPS locked in the background all the time.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure why they would change the code that already worked very well with the cliq... Turn the cliq on and BANG it locks with and without use wireless network setting
I hear that the galaxy s used newer gps hardware, so while I'm hopeful it's a software issue, I'm not so sure. Every app now days is using location services, so this is a MAJOR issue if they can't get GPS to lock on in seconds

dalepa said:
I'm not sure why they would change the code that already worked very well with the cliq... Turn the cliq on and BANG it locks with and without use wireless network setting
I hear that the galaxy s used newer gps hardware, so while I'm hopeful it's a software issue, I'm not so sure. Every app now days is using location services, so this is a MAJOR issue if they can't get GPS to lock on in seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what code are you referring to?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Is this news? I had a CLIQ and there have been several updates to it's GPS capabilities. Even the latest update (6 months after it's release) is supposed to improve lock time. I was happy with the CLIQ's GPS performance but it wasn't always good. The Vibrant has no problem getting a quick lock or seeing a bunch of sats with acceptable SNR levels. It just doesn't connect to nearly as many as it should and eventually it will take longer to get a lock (I'm back to a few seconds but who knows how long that will last) which seems completely like a firmware issue.
With some new tweaks I did to the GPS, I get a quicccccccccck lock from a FRESH reboot and this is only after 10 seconds or so. This is subject to get worse or stay the same but obviously, the GPS isn't flawed but the firmware is. It also seems like if it was to lock onto more sats, that it would be really good.
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What tweaks did you do to get 10 seconds after reboot?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

dalepa said:
What tweaks did you do to get 10 seconds after reboot?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's all temporary stuff so I wouldn't bother.

heygrl said:
With some new tweaks I did to the GPS, I get a quicccccccccck lock from a FRESH reboot and this is only after 10 seconds or so. This is subject to get worse or stay the same but obviously, the GPS isn't flawed but the firmware is. It also seems like if it was to lock onto more sats, that it would be really good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooh, that's interesting. You seem to have six locks, and two of those are reported "00" and are red? How are you getting locks there?
What tweaks did you make to keep zero's on your phone?

Try this. mines locks very fast using these settings
these are my application settings in LbsTestMode (use SGS tools to get into it)
session type >tracking
test mode >s/w test
operation mode >standalone
start mode >hot start
gps plus >on
dynamic acuracy >on
acuracy >1
gps logging >on <----this is very important

why did you dig up an 8 month old thread??

darksandz93 said:
why did you dig up an 8 month old thread??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because he thought he could help someone.
Why did you post in an 8 month old thread if him resurrecting it offended you so much? Just let it die again.

and who said i was offended? its simple question out of curiosity. how bout you get off your high horse buddy.

Maybe our GPS isn't so bad after all..

DROID with network based location off, GPS based location on
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Vibrant with network based location off, GPS based location on
Same story for one DROID X at this store even with it's AGPS on (there is an option within the location menu for enabling or disabling aGPS on the X), but another DROID X got a quicker fix than both of those DROID's however I suspect it was polling GPS before I opened up maps. The Vibrant pulled that location in about 10 seconds, no "Location Unavail." Msg at all and it was all indoors.

ha thats the same store i bought my vibrant from i can tell your by rainbow and 215 but yeah i havent really had issues with my gps at least that i know of it seems accurate to me

Side by side comparison with my G1 shows me (at least) that the 2 Vibrants I've tested take about 10x as long to get a fix and use about 1/10th the number of satellites.

I haven't had a single gps error since before the vibrant was even released but judging by how many people are I suspect certain batches were defected

Maxy6 said:
Side by side comparison with my G1 shows me (at least) that the 2 Vibrants I've tested take about 10x as long to get a fix and use about 1/10th the number of satellites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same story for me, except my Vibrant side-by-side with my Blackberry 8900 (can't confirm # of satellites but I can confirm time to get a lock).
Anecdotal evidence isn't convincing me that Samsung is dragging their feet here.

Maxy6 said:
Side by side comparison with my G1 shows me (at least) that the 2 Vibrants I've tested take about 10x as long to get a fix and use about 1/10th the number of satellites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds bad but can we get some guesstimates in time? 1secondx10=10 seconds. 10secondsx10=100seconds..
In MS-Based mode under LBSTestMode (whether or not this actually makes any changes to GPS behavior, that's what I have it in) It takes no time to get a lock.

gps works great for me. I get a lock in doors instantly..... Its a little off though in doors but out doors its spot on. I dont need to find a pot of gold so within 20 feet is good for me.

Locational services work, maybe, one out of five times for me. When they try to locate me, it shows me in a neighboring city for at least five minutes. If I wait forever, it will sometimes finally update with the correct location.

So im at work in a huge brick building. With just my location on it puts me about 10 blocks away. I went outside on the deck at work in a open view, opened google maps again and saw I was still 10 blocks away, I pulled down my notification bar and turned gps on, within 4 seconds it found me right dead smack center of my work building.
I dont know, I dont have any issues though. Thing works great for me...

The thing is, it sometimes works quite well. I haven't been able to nail now a pattern with it. Turning on AGPS helps a lot, sometimes. Other times it fails to download the data for AGPS and drops to standalone mode, which is what it should do, but why would the download seem to fail when the G1 sitting next to it works fine? I've tried various settings for the server and such, all of them work sometimes.
The other irritating thing is when it seems to download the almanac, then proceeds to sit there "seeing" only one satellite (SNR bars in GPS Test). It knows which ones are in the sky, it should use that to get the GPS chip tracking all of them at once, as it has the channels. It's acting like a single channel receiver sometimes. That's a big reason why AGPS is so fast, it knows which channels to listen on, no need to search for signals.
I didn't have the G1 before the GPS was fixed, but it sounds a lot like our issue. The way the SGS acts leads me to think it's software related, likely the GPS driver or firmware. The actual RF performance seems pretty good, sometimes better than the G1 going by the SNR reported. It's just acting like it's often getting poor instruction from the driver/OS level.
My biggest complaint is that Samsung and TMobile are trying to act like it's not a problem. If Samsung can't reproduce it, they aren't trying or they have programmed the GPS chip in such a way that it works in their location. Samsung is a global company, there's no excuse for not testing a flagship device in multiple countries. And in todays market, there's no excuse for not being upfront and honest with your customers. Nor is there one for not beta testing with real customers in every major market you want to enter.
If I were running things over at Verizon, I'd be laughing my way to the bank and telling Samsung to keep their busted SGS. They were smart enough to get more than one manufacturer with a "superphone" and don't need Samsung. Between the Droid X and the Incredible, they have got TMO and AT&T spanked hard.

Yea, how long until their competitors start running ads poking fun at it, like the no jacket required ads last week making light of the iPhone antenna problems? HTC and moto should be all over this.

I am unable to get a lock indoors and outside it takes 20sec to a minute or more to lock on and then it turns on and off sporadically. It will seem to be fine and then it just does not function and then in awhile it seems to be better. I have the MS etc. fix enabled and before that it was not functioning with any kind of regularity or accuracy. I get 1 of 12 in use at the most and most of the time I get zero in use.The accuracy after it finally gets a lock is adequate but not great.I use Cardio trainer on a daily basis several times per day and it is just awful as it locks on and off and leaves me with terrible accuracy. Indoors it shows me about 2 to 3 miles away and most of the time it picks up no location at all. An email I received back from Samsung after complaining stated that they have not found the cause of any problem and they are continuing to try and find the cause and resolve the issue. I called tech supp and they at least mentioned that there might be an issue and could give me no other information. That is not very reassuring to me as the device has been out internationally for some months now and out of the box has had GPS issues. Really makes me question my decision to purchase this device. I do love it but the GPS is a integral part of my usage and it does not look like there is any help anytime soon. I am just past the 14 day period so a refund is not possible. I was holding on to the hope that Samsung would act quickly or even just act on this issue and I guess I was betting on a tired horse.I guess Samsungs track record speaks for itself and it is not too pretty. I really do prefer using it to my N1 it has tremendous potential to be as good or better than any phone on the market.

How's the GPS?

How is the GPS on the G2/Desire Z?
Is it fast? Can it lock quickly on the signal? Is it accurate?
I'm currently using a SGS I9000, and let just say it is quite crap.

GPS is pretty ****ty for me. Not as bad as (I assume) the GalaxyS line, but still pretty ****ty. 30m is unacceptable when my Droid (1) can get me walking around my house.
edit: Lock on takes for-frickin-ever indoors (if at all), and is decent outdoors. Yes, I've run gps status and cleared/redownloaded gps data, before anyone asks, lol.
Again, spoiled motodroid former user. I'd go back but vzw rapes with charges, and I like the G2 aside from the horrid (imo) gps. Ymmv.

zerosx's report is the first negative report i've seen re the GPS - mine's on the money (usually within 10') and 40-45 seconds from cold start to a lock on 4-9 satellites. not unusual to see a lock on 11 sats out of 11 in view
below is a screen capture of GPS Sat map i took, while in the house. It actually had me located withing 10 feet of where i was, until i plugged the phone into the usb port to take the screen capture and it jumped back 10 feet more at the instant i plugged it in.
did a "my tracks" log on a short trip across town - none of the path that looked like a drunk had drawn the lines like on my Vibrant, no cutting across corners at turns, no driving 75 feet off to the side of the road, etc
check the forums - you won't see any threads on the GPS - there just haven't been any issues
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Meh, maybe I got a bad one? I really don't know, I seriously can't get the damn thing working.

i wasn't attacking the credibility of your report, just stating it was the first one i've seen
you might consider taking it back for exchange cause mine is eerily spot on - i say "eerily" cause after the vibrant, being located on the right block of my subdivision while outside, was a lucky day. Inside the house, it wouldn't even lock on one satellite

I have had issues with it picking up GPS in my house as well. Right now I have been looking at the GPS Test app and it still displays 0 satellites. When I go to Google maps my location is close but about 10 m off or so. When I am outside I have not had a problem with it. Yesterday I was able to pick up 4 to 6 satellites within about 40 sec. I'll try out the Tracks app later today and see if it is accurate.

This! GPS Status shows no satellites indoors. It's quite frustrating.
Larry - haha no prob. I didn't give it a second thought, and you're pretty much describing my former iphone4 to the letter. It was... creepy.

The GPS works fine if I just want to lock down where I am but the moment I start trying to use it in my car for turn by turn it goes south quick. It loses all signal and is stuck on "Searching for GPS..." for about 2 minutes then comes back and gives me about 30 seconds of information before freezing up again.
It's an improvement coming from the Vibrant but still not as solid as my Nexus One.

Mine is flawless, locks up withing seconds and it's super percise. The native nav app also works rather well.
GPS is one of the strongest points of my phone.

Mine is pretty accurate.

gps is all good here

Mine Locks way way faster then my old ass G1

GPS is fantastic. Locks about twice as fast as my nexus one does. 5ft-10m accuracy generally.

The GPS has been the best I have had. It locks a lot faster than my N1.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Well, today I haven't been able to use GPS at all. No lock. I cleared everything through GPS status and still no joy. Earlier in the week I had trouble, but that was due to a setting I had turned on in Beautiful widgets. I turned it off, and everything was fine. Its still turned off so now I'm left scratching my head. Granted, we're experiencing ****ty weather today due to a Nor'easter, but it isn't that bad, as I'm having no issues with my satellite tv signal. Typically I've been able to acquire lots of satellites (8 or more typically) anywhere in my home, so I'm a little worried, especially since I just past my remorse period and am now into t-mobiles "go **** in a hat" part of phone ownership. Any suggestions? I've done two battery pulls today and GPS is still dodgy. Stuff like this makes me miss tin cans and string.

since you've already noticed one app affecting your GPS, have you thought about backing all your apps up to your SD card (OnTheFLy backup app) and then un-installing them, doing a factory reset and seeing if GPS functionality comes back?

Yeah, I thought about that. Gps started working again a short while ago. I'll probably give the backup/wipe deal a shot tomorrow. Out of all of the apps I've installed that have options concerning control of gps the beautiful widgets home weather widget is the only one that appears to knacker gps functionality. We shall see.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

if its the beautiful widgets with animations, iirc some folks have complained about that update version
i'm still running the first version, with no problems

It works very well with in 5 feet. I believe the G2 is A-GPS it uses cell towers
and other means too track your location.

I used it in LA all last week when visiting. It was awesome and there was only one time where it navigated incorrectly.

[Q] Compass and GPS all out of whack!

So I've noticed the compass and gps on my phone has been all out of whack since I bought it. Funny thing is, I had another SGS4 that I returned for the same reason because I thought something was wrong with it. Bear in mind I have all forms of location sensing enabled. I've tried both on WiFi and 3G/4G and I still get the same results.
1. My compass is all out of whack.
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Above are three phones. All settings are identical across each device. You have two GS3s displaying the correct information and my GS4 in a blue case depicting the wrong information.
2. GPS is all out of whack like whoa.
Okay, so when I open MAPS it detects my location as being wayyyy off where I'm actually located by a few miles. After a couple seconds it catches up and finds where I'm really located. This wouldn't be so much a problem except for the fact that it screws with alerts/notifications based on my location. For example: Google Now can't doesn't display the To Work To School Travel Time information correctly because it assumes I'm in this other location. Same with weather. This happens pretty much everywhere I go so it's not like I just live in a weird spot.
So what's the deal? The other two Galaxy S3's don't seem to have any of these problems. What's wrong with my phone and what can I do to fix it?

Look for GPS Status and Toolbox in the play store.
It has a compass calibration tool.
Seems to work pretty good.

ObrienDave said:
Look for GPS Status and Toolbox in the play store.
It has a compass calibration tool.
Seems to work pretty good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My S4 had the same problem when I bought it in June. Used GPS status and toolbox 1 time and it has been accurate ever since. This should work for you as well OP.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4

Thanks! One other question though. What about the second thing it does?
Okay, so when I open MAPS it detects my location as being wayyyy off where I'm actually located by a few miles. After a couple seconds it catches up and finds where I'm really located. This wouldn't be so much a problem except for the fact that it screws with alerts/notifications based on my location. For example: Google Now can't doesn't display the To Work To School Travel Time information correctly because it assumes I'm in this other location. Same with weather. This happens pretty much everywhere I go so it's not like I just live in a weird spot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have a similar problem I've been troubleshooting for a while now. My GPS is fine. But the compass is flaky. I've been using the GPS Status app for years (paid version) and love it. I've calibrated the compass numerous times. I've also used the Super Compass app which has a different style compass calibrator.
The compass will read accurately if the phone is held vertically (pitch up 90 degrees). But if I place the phone horizontally or anything less than vertical, the compass goes crazy. The only time it matters is in the Maps app when I have the maps centered on me...the maps swings around wildly and reads inaccurately. I suspect there is something wrong with the phone, but I would like to compare to another S4.
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I was about to post a similar thread but figured we can consolidate compass issues.

shimn said:
I have a similar problem I've been troubleshooting for a while now. My GPS is fine. But the compass is flaky. I've been using the GPS Status app for years (paid version) and love it. I've calibrated the compass numerous times. I've also used the Super Compass app which has a different style compass calibrator.
The compass will read accurately if the phone is held vertically (pitch up 90 degrees). But if I place the phone horizontally or anything less than vertical, the compass goes crazy. The only time it matters is in the Maps app when I have the maps centered on me...the maps swings around wildly and reads inaccurately. I suspect there is something wrong with the phone, but I would like to compare to another S4.
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I was about to post a similar thread but figured we can consolidate compass issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your GPS on? Mine will also do that sometimes if I use a compass app without the GPS being on at the same time.

troyboytn said:
Is your GPS on? Mine will also do that sometimes if I use a compass app without the GPS being on at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS is on all the time.

Ok. I'm pretty sure now I have a bad Magnetic Sensor.
If you dial *#0*# into the phone dialer you get the Factory Test App (see screenshot). Then choosing Sensor, all the raw data from all the sensors are displayed. If you go down to Magnetic Sensor you can do a Selftest or Power Noise Test. Selftest passes fine. But the Power Noise Test fails for me. Once in a while it will pass the Power Noise Test and the compass will work normally. But 9 times out of 10, it fails the test and the compass is all out of whack. So, I am almost 100% sure this a hardware problem. I guess I will take the phone in to get replaced.
Does anyone know exactly what the Power Noise Test does or means? Is it trying to compensate for the internal magnetic field produced by the phone? Like a noise filter but for magnetism? That's my best guess.
BTW, the *#0*# feature is pretty cool...came across it in another forum. Very handy. :good:

I would think that the noise test has to do with ambient electrical noise in the immediate vicinity.
Are there any electrical devices running nearby when you do the testing?
Fans, AC, welders, fluorescent lights and so forth?
Any of these could be a source of electrical noise.

I always used GPS test app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chartcross.gpstest and went into settings then selected clear agps then update agps. I don't know why but having WiFi on helps. Fire up maps, let it get a fix, then you should be good. As for compass, I think mine might be out of alignment too. I tried using three apps for astronomy to determine what I was looking at in the sky but I couldn't even find the moon Even though I was facing right at it and the program was 90° off.
I just tried the GPS status and toolbox and calibrated the compass. It's working correctly now.

ObrienDave said:
I would think that the noise test has to do with ambient electrical noise in the immediate vicinity.
Are there any electrical devices running nearby when you do the testing?
Fans, AC, welders, fluorescent lights and so forth?
Any of these could be a source of electrical noise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't matter in what environment I'm in, the problem remains. I've compared my readings to my wife's G3, side by side, and her phone reads correctly while mine is wrong. I'm using the phone in the same places I have used all my previous phones and none of them had problems...at my desk, in my car, at work, at the coffee shop, etc....
Usually, if I'm welding I'm not using the Map app on my phone.
Plus, the fact that the test FAILS says to me that there is a hardware problem.

shimn said:
It doesn't matter in what environment I'm in, the problem remains. I've compared my readings to my wife's G3, side by side, and her phone reads correctly while mine is wrong. I'm using the phone in the same places I have used all my previous phones and none of them had problems...at my desk, in my car, at work, at the coffee shop, etc....
Usually, if I'm welding I'm not using the Map app on my phone.
Plus, the fact that the test FAILS says to me that there is a hardware problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try that app to calibrate your compass? It fixed mine right up.

oscarthegrouch said:
Did you try that app to calibrate your compass? It fixed mine right up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read post #5 in this thread.