OK, I'm traveling to Europe soon... will Maps and Navigation work the same way there? When I view maps of Europe from here everything is visible, but I'm not able to test directions from here. I know there are issues with the GPS on the Vibrant, but so far (running 2.2 upgrade) I haven't noticed them... albeit I am new to the Vibrant. Thanks in advance! SFB
I just got back from a week long trip in Switzerland. I unlocked my Vibrant and used a Swisscom SIM card, and it worked great. I was able to pull up my location in maps and use it to move around the cities I was in. The only time I had trouble was if I was walking down narrow streets with little visible sky... but as soon as I got to an open square and the sky view opened up, I was fine again.
I'd say... get your Vibrant unlocked and pick up a pre-paid SIM card that includes data for the country or countries you'll be in, and have fun!
Oh, and I forgot to address the other part of your question. I also used it to look up directions to go places that included bus and/or tram/train rides, and that worked very well too. It worked well for me in Switzerland at least.
Yep, everything will work. Amazingly Google knows about Europe too.
Unlock and get a prepaid SIM at wherever you are going to avoid paying T mobile's usureous international data roaming charges.
I used Locus from the market on a recent trip to the UK. I shut off data and used only the phone's gps and the offline maps and it worked fine for directions.
Thanks for the info on Navigation and Maps in Europe. I'll be getting a TIM card in Italy, but will be getting a data plan with TIM for the first time (I will try and check out TIMs offerings online before we leave). Does the GPS function without a dataplan? My old Garmin just uses satellites... just wondering...
The GPS does function but in order to make use of it you'll need a map that you can download ahead of time.
It took mine about 5 minutes to find me initially but that was the first week of Jan. so I was still on Elcair at the time.
I have a similar question. Does google nav work same way in Mexico as it does in USA? thanks
Related
Hello!
I'm just back from a trip from london. I brought with me my P4000 thinking that I would be able to use it's great GPS abroad.
It never worked once.
I thought this thing had an aGPS chip, meaning it was a true GPS that could be assisted by cell towers to find a fix faster. So, my understanding was that it should have worked abroad, albeit slower to find a fix then here.
As soon as I got back home, it started working again.
Any ideas?
Mod Edit: Moved from Titan Upgrading
Thanks!
Hello!
I'm just back from a trip from london. I brought with me my P4000 thinking that I would be able to use it's great GPS abroad.
It never worked once.
I thought this thing had an aGPS chip, meaning it was a true GPS that could be assisted by cell towers to find a fix faster. So, my understanding was that it should have worked abroad, albeit slower to find a fix then here.
As soon as I got back home, it started working again.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were roaming overseas, then you won't be inside Verizon's firewall, therefore you won't have connectivity to the PDE server. The standalone GPS should have still worked, though it probably would take a lot longer to fix due to the fact you moved a great deal since the last fix. Did you try to use QuickGPS to download the ephemeris data? That probably would have sped up your fix a little.
I'm using tomtom, so, I don't need access to verizon. Anyway, I'm with Telus.
I've let it stand by the window for hours and it never got a lock. I didn't try QuickGPS.
Should I have switched something in the registry to have it work in standalone mode instead of assisted?
Well, i'm living in Republic Of Moldova. WE have no aGPS here at all, but i still can use GPS function on Titan. I have to wait about 1-3 minutes for lock.
I have installed DCD 3.2.6 rom and 3.42.50 Radio. Use SeaSGEE to download ephemeris data and Navitel Navigator. But Tom Tom and any other programs work fine too.
PS Sorry for my English.
I recall having a similar discussion in an earlier thread.
See if any of this info helps:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2538917
If you do that right, i'm pretty sure it won't even attempt to connect to a PDE server (when u change GPSMode), so you should be able to get a *slightly* quicker lock, as it won't waste time looking for that server.
I do also suggest using some other tool like QuickGPS to retrieve the ephemeris data before trying to get a lock; it *should* speed it up, but I don't know how true that really holds.
Ok,
Thanks for all the infos. I'm going to Madrid next month, I'll try again there.
I was able to get GPS locks all over Europe no problem this past July.
I'm using tomtom, so, I don't need access to verizon. Anyway, I'm with Telus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it doesn't matter whether you have Verizon or Telus when it comes to aGPS. I was referring to aGPS. If you aren't inside your carriers internal network, then you won't access the PDE.
The GPS should still work regardless, just in standalone mode, which is why I asked if you tried QuickGPS to try and speed up the lock times.
I was under the impression that there is a registry setting for the global "zone" for our GPSr to look for and that it was set to US.
From the posts I reviewed few if any folks have been able to lock overseas unless they got locks while traveling
GC, have you found any settings in the registry for this?
In QuickGPS I think the setting is as follows:
[HKLM] - Software\HTC\QuickGPS\region
Its set for US for me here in TN and I think someone from Holland posted on PPCGeeks a long time ago NL worked for him to get a lock once he found and got it via trial and error...
I am sure you are onto something here
I think you guys are really onto something here. I have had the most frustrating time with my titan because of this very issue. I travel outside of the USA frequently and in all my travels have only managed to get a lock once! All through Australia and Thailand with no phone signal I was unable to get a lock with either flight mode on or phone mode on. Even in Taiwan where VZW has some modicum of representation (i.e the phone function worked but zero data) I go no lock.
gc was right about the agps thing. Outside of Verizon network you will not get assisted gps (although strangely when in "extended area" roaming inside USA it still seems to work).
in the end i tried a hundred things to get a lock including leaving the phone out in the full view of the sky for 6 hours. Nothing worked except the gps mode that scrawnyb talked about. I finally got a (very slow) lock after what seemed like hours.
I really believe that osteo's answer about the zone (i.e. "US" here in USA) is also part of the answer. I can only assume that the ephemeris data has to be relative to where you are on the earths surface, so the phone having some idea of where you are surely would help (especially without cell tower help from agps).
Targitai, if you visit this thread again can you please check the setting in your phone to see what zone setting you have that assists with locking. You need to look in [HKLM] - Software\HTC\QuickGPS\region and check that you are not set to "US" or similar.
I wont be traveling OS for a few months now, so I cannot confirm any of the above. I hope others who are traveling see this thread and can report back.
Thanks for the helpful info on this thread. This problem has been bugging me for months. Strange this is that my bluetooth gps never takes more than about 2-3 minutes to get a lock, even after crossing to the other side of the earth, over 9000 miles to Australia.
Well,
I'm here in Madrid now and it doesn'T work.
I tried changing the registry key of the GPS mode and it didn't help.
Any other things I can try?
stanelie said:
Well,
I'm here in Madrid now and it doesn'T work.
I tried changing the registry key of the GPS mode and it didn't help.
Any other things I can try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long did you wait, and do you have a clear view of the sky?
After traveling a long distance it can take some time to download the full catalog info on the satellites.
I waited a few hours in clear sight of the sky.
My old hp hw 6515 with a old stand-alone GPS chips can find a lock fine...
sorry, double post...
I have had my gps lock over the ocean in an airplane. I dont have navigation software installed other than google maps so I just used Visual GPS to verify I had lat/lon fix and a gps speedometer app to tell me I was going at the same speed the captain had said. No wireless data connection at all.
Hi, I have a similar problem, but when I'm in a no service area, the GPS locks in 2 minutes. When the phone gets a cell phone tower, never gets a lock unless I let him overnight catching sats. I'm from Venezuela, may be the cell phone towers or the network, I don't know, induce some kind of conflict in the position calculation of the GPS. In the flight mode the problem persist.
So I had to go to China for 3 weeks for work. I had an ATT phone to use over there but I took my NS4G to use on wifi and for google maps. For some reason I could not get a lock on GPS no matter what I tried. As soon as I landed back in Chicago I pulled up maps and it locked right on. I was running open Soju but tried a stock rooted rom and MIUI while I was there and never could get a lock. Any ideas as I will probably be going back and not having maps sucked to navigate. I was sure my GPS took a crap on me and the phone was going back when I returned but it works great back in the states.
I noticed MIUI had a erver address that I assume is for agps. If I changed that to a china server would that work?
I went to China last month and had the same difficulty in getting a GPS lock. As soon as I bought a data package (around 300mb for 1 week for about 20+ Yuan. The china mobile prepaid simcard costs around 50 Yuan with some preloaded credit), the GPS locks very quickly.
I'm using the GSM NS i9020t so I could use a Chinese sim card, I'm not sure if an ns4g can do that.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Thanks I wondered if having data off was the problem. Can anyone explain what GPS exactly uses the data connection for? Why can't wifi do the same thing? I thought about buying a NS in Hong Kong but my ATT phone doesn't have a sim card but I wasn't aware of the pre-paid sims. Thanks for the reply.
Most phones use A-GPS there are some that can serve as a standalone gps but I am almost sure that the nexus needs to combine the gps signal with cell tower position to get a gps lock
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I had the regular nexus s and I just came back from china last week. The GPS was working outdoors for me in airplane mode. Beijing, Xi'an particularly. But it took longer than normal to get a lock ....like 10-20 sec I figure? Some time pollution was so bad that even the GPS had could figure out my position in Xi'an.
This also goes for my Motorola xoom in airplane mode. It picked up my position like in a split second. This is without any data or wifi. Just only in airplane mode.
Hi guys,
I purchased the DVP from States and using it in South Korea now.
Seems everything works fine except for GPS.
Does anyone have GPS problem? Any solutions ?
I use this phone in France and no problems with GPS!
nakedtiger said:
Hi guys,
I purchased the DVP from States and using it in South Korea now.
Seems everything works fine except for GPS.
Does anyone have GPS problem? Any solutions ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it works both in China and Russia. You may need to wait a long time for the mobile to communicate with the satellite.
do you have the offline gps maps? The one I purchased has only online Bing .
works fine in UK
It works semi-fine in Canada for me. And by that, I mean it takes longer than what I have been used to with my android devices to pick up an accurate signal. Of course as everyone knows, my compass is dead as of Mango
Works in India too!
Yes - I've used mine in Spain, Canada, Scotland, England, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and the U.S.
Hi, my GPS on the DVP wont work, somebody have the same problem??? some issues to repair?!!
Thanks
try to use wifi when youre in maps and see if you get a rough general fix. if the circle doesnt shrink past 350m or something like that then youve got the common gps bug. its in more wp devices than just the dvp.. Lots of mango-ed devices report it.. Reverting back to premango fixes it. Or in lots of cases, it just fixes itself.. Mine did after a few restarts and a few days.
You can also download a gps testing app (e.g. gps test) off the marketplace to see if you get raw data from gps.. If not, highly likely the bug. wait it out a little?
This is a AT&T Atrix with a fresh darkside ROM on 0.1.9 kernel....
the GPS was working perfect over back home and would lock on within few seconds...
I just came on vacation here for a week and now it's taking FOREVER (from a minute to never) to get a lock. at times it'll 'see' 6-11 satellites and still can't track...
any ideas with this?
Clear data and cache for Google Maps, Mapdroyd and other such software.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
I reset AGPS on gps status
if i clear cache, i might loose pre cached maps as i ached it for walking around town
I was in Paris over the summer with the atrix. Unfortunately I felt similar issue. It takes about one minute or more to lock on to GPS. Sometimes I had to reboot the phone. Problem is I find that all phones that have GPS chips built in usually
have very cheap chips inside. Thing is I believe that phone manufactures put low end chips to save cost. Plus they rely on the fact that you are using data all time with google maps. With data, GPS can lock on very fast since it can talk to the cell towers and find out where it is. But there isn't really anything you can do since your traveling and obviously not paying for roaming. If you can get a WiFi hotspot that will make your GPS lock quickly again. Other than that you have to just wait in an area with a lot of open sky.
bummer... my dad's iphone connects well, but he bought data plan with it...
around eiffel it picked it up rather quick (open space I guess) but around buildings it was worse. much worse than downtown miami back home...
I was hoping on relying on that alot lol. too bad I gotta use maps now. omg, so old school (haha)
When the A-GPS is deactivated, which I guess it is, since you guys deactivated data (because of expensive roaming) it takes longer.
The GPS needs to "download" the Almanac and that takes time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals#Almanac
But once this happened, it should lock back on much faster. The case here might be that our phone relies on data/ A-GPS, so the Alamanac doesn't get stored.
Can someone with a stock-ROM confirm this?
It acquires a lock much slower because it can't use A-gps like it does in the US.
To tackle this you would need to connect it to WiFi in france, change your ntp server to a european one with FasterFix or manually, turn on gps and get it to lock on once.
After that time it will download a-gps cache relevant for European locations and things will go much faster.
Well using the wifi at the hotel. I downloaded the newest a-gps data with gps status. it's 0 days old...
at times I'd see 4-5 sats today, but still had trouble. but my dad's iphone (and my and their ipads) trac with GPS right away.
I even turned on data to check if this was the cause and it didn't help. that test cost me about 700kb which probably will cost me 10 bucks
Had the same issue in France and England last month
I was in Paris and London with my wife a few weeks ago and I saw the same thing happening in both cities/countries. I have an unlocked (free by AT&T) Atrix and I was using prepaid SIMs from Orange France and Orange UK so I had 3G data in both countries. Before I left for Europe I had pre-cached Google Maps of Paris and London as well but found out I didn't need to since it was pretty easy for me to get a data connection in both cities.
Anyway, when I tried to use GPS while walking around town it would sometimes take several minutes for it to get a lock on my position. Several times it took so long I just used the map itself to find my way around instead of waiting for the GPS to locate me.
Anyway, it's a bit off-topic from the original post but if anyone is about to go visit either of those cities/countries I would highly recommend getting your phone unlocked so you can buy a prepaid sim when you land. You can walk into an Orange store in Paris and for 10 euros you get your prepaid account setup with a remaining 5 euro credit and then you pay for a 10 euro "recharge" to your account which you can then use to get unlimited data for one month. In London you can get a prepaid "Dolphin" sim for 10 pounds and then another 10 pounds will buy you 250 MB of data (it's not unlimited in the U.K.).
no Agps. /thread
You can modify /system/etc/gps.conf to make gps start faster for the certain region, as I did (I have AT&T Atrix, but live in Russia). Here is my contents of gps.conf:
Code:
SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
SUPL_PORT=7276
NTP_SERVER=ru.pool.ntp.org
XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
I think you can use europe.pool.ntp.org for France.
Anyone try to use the GPS for offline mapping on the S4 outside the US? Did you get a fix? I know it should work, but I also know some phones just won't do it for whatever reason.
My last phone (a Galaxy S2 epic 4G) was unable to get a fix outside of the US so I'm a bit weary. I had to use an android based media player to navigate last time I went to Europe
Takes a few minutes to get the new signal, but it worked in Hong Kong.
M3wThr33 said:
Takes a few minutes to get the new signal, but it worked in Hong Kong.[/QUO
Awesome, that's exactly what I wanted to hear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember in-city GPS is very... selective.
You should get a data connection if possible, because all the high rise buildings make it very hard to get an accurate signal. Even with data giving A-GPS (Bought a sim card for $10 for the week), the signal was constantly drifting a block or so.