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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
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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!
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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.
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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!!)
Strange error I haven't noticed until a few weeks ago.
I've tested in both Damage Control v1, v2.05, and Fresh 2.0d (current ROM i'm running)
With google maps/nav it always places me about 50 feet+ to one side of the street. It moves with the vehicle just fine, but always puts me on a side street, so if I'm traveling down a 2 lane highway it's constantly saying "turn right onto hwy xxx"
My GPS is always DEAD ON accurate though. I mean even inside my house if I'm at the front of the house it puts that dot within 5 feet, if I goto the back of the house (bedroom) it puts me RIGHT OVER that spot. The movement however is not so great. My phone while in the GPS mount has a clear view of the sky through the windshield.
Am I the only one experiencing this?
Google NAV is basically useless, because of the annoying constant re-routing.
I had this on Thursday when I was traveling for the holiday. I was using DC2.0r2 at the time however. I didn't have the same experience with my last install of DC2.05. I will repost after my trip today. Might be some time.
Bump...
10char
Same here.gps problem with 2.1?
Yes I have this problem. It's been mentioned in the main damageless thread and the bug thread so I think people are aware of it.
I was having the same issue with the dcr2 but it went away when I wiped and went over to freshes. Might be cuz It's based off the latest Sprint leak?
Works very well for me on dcv2. I think it's almost as good as co-pilot with the directions. It's so easy to start by going "navigate to 123 fake st". I usually had to restart my phone every time I wanted to use co-pilot otherwise it couldn't find a gps signal.
Also seeing this issue.
When I fired up navigator it started telling me to make the first turn (down the street) before I even got in my car -- so I had to use maps instead. Using maps, my marker was always a bit off. For example, it was showing me consistently North of the road (not on any road) when I was traveling West. Not sure exactly when this started, but I am currently running Fresh 2.0d, just for the record.
EDIT: Also, just FYI, this is with a good and proper GPS lock. It does follow my every move and turn, and is entirely responsive, but it seems as though my location is consistently mis-calibrated somehow, and always by the same amount/direction.
Anyone tried pushing one of the 1.5 gps.conf files to a 2.1 rom and seeing if it makes a difference?? I remember that was a fix in the early 2.1 roms from flipz that came out. Try it and see.
All seemed to be working OK today for me. This is like my third/fourth flash of a 2.1 ROM that seemed to have done it for me. No more flashing for a little while. Not that it is a fix at all, but I've had it both not work and work after switching out a few different ROMs.
I was going to make a thread on this. It was off for most of my trip. I muted the audio and just watched for my exit. After awhile it moved me on top of the road and it was ok, but it did it again a few other places.
It was a really odd bug. DC2.05
It worked for me in D1. But it's off in D2. GPS seems to be fairly accurate when just finding my location in maps. It's when I start to nav that it goes off.
It actually started doing that thing today where it can't find a GPS signal until it's restarted again, so I guess it's not unique to the ROM or nav software. My phone just seems to be bad with GPS if it's been a while without a fresh restart.
Has anyone tried using the Sprint Navigation on this or is it just Google's beta Navigation application? For me I never did actually try the Sprint nav, just stuck in the Google one. I knew where I was going the whole time, so instead of trying things I just shut it off.
Hey so I just installed the update for google maps and now the GPS and compass finally seem to be working properly. Anyone else seeing this?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Yes and no. The pointer turns a little smoother in maps but if you go to street view and activate compass mode you will see that the XY axis lags terribly. The vertical axis is fine and very responsive but horizontal is slow like molasses. Compass is IMO still broke.
I installed it, and things seem to be somewhat improved. However, I still consider them to be broken.
Hopefully, this isn't the 'fix' Samsung and T-Mobile was talking about. Spotted nine satellites again, but can only lock onto a single one. The cycle continues.
The Compass is still slow to update and not at all 1:1 with my movement. GPS reception is still poor, and Google Maps still can't decide if I'm in Seattle or Issaquah (hint: I'm not in Issaquah).
Slight improvements, but not fixed.
Thanks for the heads up, though. Anybody else tried it?
I'm pretty sure you're imagining things. The compass problem is strictly a hardware/firmware issue. Simply updating a single app like GMaps isn't going to fix it. But don't take my word for it.
To see the raw sensor data, go to the dialer, and type in *#*#1472365#*#* then press Test Application, then Show Sensor Data. Look at the compass and tell me it's functioning correctly.
My GPS connects faster than heck, but being 30meters off really sucks. I mean my G1 would be 3-9meters off not 30
My vibrant isn't even connecting to a satellite tonight. This ain't no G1.
Is anybody's working to satisfactory? Or am I the only one?
I never really used GPS till I got this device and only from the complaining here had it really got me interested . Although I use GPS maybe 3 times a year, I've made it a point to use it every drive I take to see if its still working.
I always get a lock within 5 seconds to at most a min. Stationary or moving don't matter. I've never had my phone say location not available.
My phone always sees 11 or more and only locks on to 3 or 4 once it locked 7...
When I hit navigate to then a destination it instantly finds me and routes me. While driving it every now and again has a blue circle but that's usually during lots of overpasses turns on freeways and etc. For the most part it has no circle ...
I will admit every now and again it'll lose route and not reroute so I back out and hit navigate again and back to navigating.
Its even found me in portland Oregon in the city.
So my question is, although GPS could be better I.e. faster lock, more birds to lock on and tracking while moving, it still has served its purpose and found me my way a few times when I'm lost.
On the way home I will use it again and it will find me almost instantly and navigate me all the way home...
Am I lucky? Or do others work good enough to get around, yes could be better, but is yours good enough like mine to where even if they don't fix it, its not that big of a deal cause for the most part for me it works?
Another thing is I'm beggining to think its hardware and software. Reason is messing with the settings does improve or have different results, but on the other hand the gps fixes seem to give everyone different results and why would Samsung release them all with poor GPS just to supposedly fix it in a few weeks/ wouldn't it have been easier to fix then ship em out?
Who knows, no one is for sure, but I just want to know who's is atleast satisfactory like mine? Maybe I just don't have high GPS standards cause I don't use it to get 1 meter off. If I'm atleast 50 meters away I think my eyes and brain can help me find the other 50 meters.
So are you satisfied even though it needs improvements? I am. I don't think it needs fixed, but as Samsung says "optimized".
Please no there are many GPS threads comments this is a little different ...
Is your GPS useless, or does it get the job done, not how you wish, but gets it done?
Edit: this is no gps fixes. Pure stock.
Mine isn't as terrible as some people say on here, but there are definitely problems. Latitude, for instance, often falls back to network location even with a clear view of the sky. Driving, it will randomly drift far enough that the GPS goes to rerouting mode, trying to bring me back on course. And there are times that it just refuses to get a lock for 10-15 minutes, though luckily that doesn't happen too often. Definitely worst GPS performance than my G1.
But, all that being said.. Not so bad that I'm really stressing about it. I'll give Samsung/TMO a few more weeks for an update and hopefully they patch up the issues with Froyo. If not, or if the update gets delayed, I'll start tinkering with the fixes from the forums.
mine works fine too. quick to lock, navigation works perfectly. i was locking on 3-4 satellites last time i tried.
it's not very good indoors, and often has trouble determining location, but outdoors it has been completely satisfactory.
this is all with gps on, and use wireless networks off, btw. completely stock, and the compass works fine too.
Is anybody's working to satisfactory? Or am I the only one?
I never really used GPS till I got this device and only from the complaining here had it really got me interested . Although I use GPS maybe 3 times a year, I've made it a point to use it every drive I take to see if its still working.
I always get a lock within 5 seconds to at most a min. Stationary or moving don't matter. I've never had my phone say location not available.
My phone always sees 11 or more and only locks on to 3 or 4 once it locked 7...
When I hit navigate to then a destination it instantly finds me and routes me. While driving it every now and again has a blue circle but that's usually during lots of overpasses turns on freeways and etc. For the most part it has no circle ...
I will admit every now and again it'll lose route and not reroute so I back out and hit navigate again and back to navigating.
Its even found me in portland Oregon in the city.
So my question is, although GPS could be better I.e. faster lock, more birds to lock on and tracking while moving, it still has served its purpose and found me my way a few times when I'm lost.
On the way home I will use it again and it will find me almost instantly and navigate me all the way home...
Am I lucky? Or do others work good enough to get around, yes could be better, but is yours good enough like mine to where even if they don't fix it, its not that big of a deal cause for the most part for me it works?
Another thing is I'm beggining to think its hardware and software. Reason is messing with the settings does improve or have different results, but on the other hand the gps fixes seem to give everyone different results and why would Samsung release them all with poor GPS just to supposedly fix it in a few weeks/ wouldn't it have been easier to fix then ship em out?
Who knows, no one is for sure, but I just want to know who's is atleast satisfactory like mine? Maybe I just don't have high GPS standards cause I don't use it to get 1 meter off. If I'm atleast 50 meters away I think my eyes and brain can help me find the other 50 meters.
So are you satisfied even though it needs improvements? I am. I don't think it needs fixed, but as Samsung says "optimized".
Please no there are many GPS threads comments this is a little different ...
Is your GPS useless, or does it get the job done, not how you wish, but gets it done?
I'm the same, I don't use GPS that much, but when I do it works fairly well. Its not the best I've used but it gets the job done. Only once when I was driving on the freeway could it not lock on.
I remember reading that a GPS fix leaked for the Captivate and it seemed to fix the issue. And the new SGS phones coming out for Verizon and Sprint seem to have better luck with GPS.
For me too GPS locks 95% times. However Navigation is the only application that crashes my phone once in a while....and I dont like that
Mine seems OK, with the light use I've given it. Haven't tested it out with route-tracing software like some have -- but for just getting an accurate lock, it seems on par with other phones I've used. (Maybe a little slower to lock.)
I had tested my GF's Samsung Moment alongside my Vibrant many times and the Moment hooks to GPS quickly and consistently. I cannot think how Samsung could implement an inferior GPS in their flagship phone!
My gps works flawlessly, when I read all these threads its hard to remaster because everyone I use gps it takes a matter of seconds to lock in and route me to my destination. Even in my area of living which is outside of the city it is very vet close to where I actually am and even right on. I would be frustrated if it didn't work as I do use my gps every so often but it is precise in my experience and I'm very happy with the final product.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I now have two GPS's in two of our cars. The primary reason for buying a GPS a while back was so I could meet up with guys that I often 4wheel with in various locations. I would get lost when somebody told me to meet them in a city that I didn't know very well. My wife saw how handy my GPS was and took it. I finally got a G1 and it was used as a backup in case the wife wouldn't let me use "My GPS".
Anyways fast forward a year or so. We bought a second GPS for her car. Why because she got the new one of course.
Now that I have 2 GPS's in my cars my phone has been well a secondary or I should say hardly ever used. However when I'm on foot and I get backwards its always been nice to know I could fire up my GPS and find my way somewhere. Lord knows I've been lost a few times in down town Seattle. Wandering around and firing up maps and then using the by foot option has saved me many times. Sure it didn't have to be accurate since all I needed to know was do I walk 3 blocks north then 1 to the west or is it 3 blocks to the west then 1 block to the north?
The Vibrant GPS works when I need it, but honestly I really wish it was a bit more like the G1. Its nearly useless when I use CardioTrainer and a few more apps.
I have had my Vibrant for about 45 days and the GPS has been awful since day one. I have tried some of the fixes which did help a little bit but I still have problems. The GPS cuts on and off so much that Cardio Trainer is pretty much useless most of the time. It has started to freeze on me while attempting to use Cardio Trainer today, which necessitated pulling the battery. The GPS normally shows me about 2 of 3 miles from where I actually am. The compass is just about totally useless. This is a wonderful phone and would be a fantastic phone if the compass and GPS just worked normally. I am starting to be concerned with the phone starting to freeze up as it has not done that in the past.
Mine worked great for a few weeks. Even though it wouldn't lock more than 3 or 4 satellites the performance was completely satisfactory. Then it got a little quirky with accuracy and my position started jumping around a lot. Then it started positioning me miles from where I actually was sometimes, causing Maps to lock up, causing the entire phone to lock up, and generally being unreliable.
Over the past week or so I've had to reboot the phone half the time I try to use the GPS in order to get it to work. I can usually get it to work at a satisfactory level eventually, but it's far from painless. I haven't tried any of the "fixes"...my GPS settings are stock.
On my first phone the GPS and phone in general was a disaster.
Once returned, my second phone is "ok" for driving assistance use, it takes awhile for a lock but it works. But I otherwise leave GPS turned off or else my phone will randomly shut down/reboot.
With trepidation I applied a no lag fix and it has turned my opinion of the phone from "meh" to wow (even though I was not even sure I had a lag problem, but little did I know).
So if GPS gets fixed and 2.2 deployed, and assuming 2.2 solves lag or a no-lag fix is implemented for 2.2, then I will be very happy. But it sure seems like a bit of grief to get to that point. Anything goes wrong down that path, and I'll focus on HTC or other devices... cause for similar past issues with hardware I never buy HP
mjpacheco said:
So if GPS gets fixed and 2.2 deployed, and assuming 2.2 solves lag or a no-lag fix is implemented for 2.2, then I will be very happy. But it sure seems like a bit of grief to get to that point. Anything goes wrong down that path, and I'll focus on HTC or other devices... cause for similar past issues with hardware I never buy HP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Add a compass fix to that list and I'm there with ya.
After applying the gps fix I haven't had a problem since. I use the gps daily and have only had 1 restart. Had my vibrant since day 1. Maybe I just got lucky.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I completely understand the need to get the GPS fixed, but I have to honestly ask...why do so many people seem so worried about the compass?
Are there that many of you out there that wander around using the compass all the time ? Is it because of apps like Layar ?
Using a smartphone as a compass/gps on a hike is useless if you plan to be out more than a few hours so that can't be it.
Is it just the principle of the thing ... that they provide the feature so it should work properly out of the box?
I'm not trying to be a wise ass here...I'm honestly curious.
Sent from Samsung Vibrant
Stresa said:
I completely understand the need to get the GPS fixed, but I have to honestly ask...why do so many people seem so worried about the compass?
Are there that many of you out there that wander around using the compass all the time ? Is it because of apps like Layar ?
Using a smartphone as a compass/gps on a hike is useless if you plan to be out more than a few hours so that can't be it.
Is it just the principle of the thing ... that they provide the feature so it should work properly out of the box?
I'm not trying to be a wise ass here...I'm honestly curious.
Sent from Samsung Vibrant
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In a word: yes.
While I don't use Layar much, it would be great if it worked. I've tried to use Google Skymaps several times and gave up due to the compass completely freaking out when I hold the phone up to, you know, look at the sky. It's nice the have a working compass for Google Maps...even if it's just for street view. Yelp taunts me with directional functionality that doesn't work, and I could go on. In general I'd like to know that apps that use the magnetometer to detect orientation (and who knows what will come along that will use that functionality) will work. I don't think that's too much to ask.
Now, I also do a lot of city navigation on foot, and having a compass to figure out which way to walk when I come up from a subway on my way to a meeting is a huge help. Seriously. At that point I don't have a GPS because I've been underground.
I've used Android devices (like the G1) that are old-ish, and I've used Android devices that are not considered high-end devices with working compasses, so yeah, on principle I expect my high-end $500 device to work at least as well as they do. Had I known about the worthless compass before I purchased the phone it would have given me pause...I probably would have at least considered another device. It bugs me that such a simple piece of functionality being broken will prevent me from using apps and features that I'd otherwise find useful on my expensive device.
Now I have a Swiss Army knife with a broken saw blade. Yeah, it's just the saw blade, but I paid for one with a working saw blade, dammit, and it wasn't cheap.
dex1701 said:
In a word: yes.
While I don't use Layar much, it would be great if it worked. I've tried to use Google Skymaps several times and gave up due to the compass completely freaking out when I hold the phone up to, you know, look at the sky. It's nice the have a working compass for Google Maps...even if it's just for street view. In general I'd like to know that apps that use the magnetometer to detect orientation (and who knows what will come along that will use that functionality) will work. I don't think that's too much to ask.
Now, I also do a lot of city navigation on foot, and having a compass to figure out which way to walk when I come up from a subway on my way to a meeting is a huge help. Seriously. At that point I don't have a GPS because I've been underground.
I've used Android devices (like the G1) that are old-ish, and I've used Android devices that are not considered high-end devices with working compasses, so yeah, on principle I expect my high-end $500 device to work at least as well as they do. Had I known about the worthless compass before I purchased the phone it would have given me pause...I probably would have at least considered another device. It bugs me that such a simple piece of functionality being broken will prevent me from using apps and features that I'd otherwise find useful on my expensive device.
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that sucks dude. i just noticed what you were saying about google sky map, mine was tripping out for a little while but then it finally settled down. can't really tell if it's pointing in the accurate direction because it's daylight
my compass has worked just fine on maps though. it always points me in the right direction, and even the compass on the "gps status" app is correct, birds locked on or not
lolcopter said:
that sucks dude. i just noticed what you were saying about google sky map, mine was tripping out for a little while but then it finally settled down. can't really tell if it's pointing in the accurate direction because it's daylight
my compass has worked just fine on maps though. it always points me in the right direction, and even the compass on the "gps status" app is correct, birds locked on or not
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If I hold the phone "just right" I can usually get the compass to work ok in things like Maps where accuracy isn't terribly important. It's still painfully slow compared to other Android devices I've used, though. Most I've seen have nearly instantaneous compass updates when you turn...on my Vibrant (both of them) I have to wait a while for it to settle down before I can tell how it's reading. When I hold it in an odd position...like you do for Skymaps...it's all over the place. Sometimes it works, but it's hard to tell unless you're manually keeping track of which way is North, which kinda defeats the purpose, eh?
dex1701 said:
If I hold the phone "just right" I can usually get the compass to work ok in things like Maps where accuracy isn't terribly important. It's still painfully slow compared to other Android devices I've used, though. Most I've seen have nearly instantaneous compass updates when you turn...on my Vibrant (both of them) I have to wait a while for it to settle down before I can tell how it's reading. When I hold it in an odd position...like you do for Skymaps...it's all over the place. Sometimes it works, but it's hard to tell unless you're manually keeping track of which way is North, which kinda defeats the purpose, eh?
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true
hopefully samsung releases a fix baked into some froyo here soon. they had better do SOMETHING this month anyway
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.
...
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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.