Clock Updates
I recently traveled to Los Angeles with my TF. When I turned on my TF and connected to WiFi, I expected it to update the time based on the GPS location. It did not.
So I checked the clock settings, and it is set to auto-update the time (Network time I think it's called). Curiously, it's set to -5 Central Time (which -6 is Central, -5 is Eastern). Not sure why, but this was a pretty odd setting to me.
GPS
This is more of a curiosity question. In the air, I decided to see where I was. I figured, "I have a GPS in my tablet, it should be able to tell me where I am." I was wrong! It was not able to grab a satellite while in the air, which seems silly to me.
Is it a true GPS or does it get location data from somewhere else? Seems to me like it SHOULD work in an airplane, but I might not understand the technology appropriately.
It is typically rather difficult to get a workable GPS signal on an aircraft. You generally need to be right up against a south facing window.
EtherBoo said:
Clock Updates
I recently traveled to Los Angeles with my TF. When I turned on my TF and connected to WiFi, I expected it to update the time based on the GPS location. It did not.
So I checked the clock settings, and it is set to auto-update the time (Network time I think it's called). Curiously, it's set to -5 Central Time (which -6 is Central, -5 is Eastern). Not sure why, but this was a pretty odd setting to me.
GPS
This is more of a curiosity question. In the air, I decided to see where I was. I figured, "I have a GPS in my tablet, it should be able to tell me where I am." I was wrong! It was not able to grab a satellite while in the air, which seems silly to me.
Is it a true GPS or does it get location data from somewhere else? Seems to me like it SHOULD work in an airplane, but I might not understand the technology appropriately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive also noticed that if your moving it doesnt grab the signal as good as if your connected Via a mobile hotspot or your cell. The only way it works flawlessly, is if you turn the map on standing still to see the area where your at.
Like the commercial where they get stranded and the guy holding the Transformer gets out of the car and turns on GPS and it locks on. if i do that , it works perfectly but moving in a car it fails to update on time as i move
Other thing to keep in mind is that the system uses A-GPS where it uses the data connection to download info on the current locations of the GPS satellites therefore equaling a much faster lock on. If you don't have a data connection, naturally you'd find it take longer to lock on. I've tried the GPS sitting in my room, a good 15 feet from a shaded window and I can lock on 9 or so satellites relatively quickly. I imagine that your movement speed also affects the lock speed and a plane is usually moving a little bit.
Good to know about the GPS, thank you.
So what's up with the Clock not updating and claiming CST is -5 GMT?
Many commercial gps chips have a relatively low max speed limit. They are ok for normal vehicle travel, but will not work in aircraft or other high speed vehicles. This is by design. Prevents them from being used for military purposes
Only 1 time have I been able to successfully get a GPS lock while in the air, using my old WinMo phone + a BT GPS receiver, while on a flight to HI.
The GPS chip was accurately measuring the speed at ~600 MPH. I don't think there are limits until you get into the supersonic (missile speed) range.
So what's with the clock since the GPS question has been answered?
Sorry, I know this is slightly old, but as far as I know it's because of DST.
was daylight saving time set. Also remember some locations in the US do not use DST. Check your settings. It does not read actual local, time, but rather reads GMT and does the math. If you give it the wrong inputs, it will give you the wrong answer.
Related
Just curious if anyone else has issues with GPS reception on their sprint touch. I upgraded to the latest htc rom earlier in the week and everything is great except I cannot get GPS to hook up - I've had it work only once.
i upgraded too and i'm using GPS with GoPilot Live, iGO8 and Garmin Mobile XT and it works without issue.
what GPS program are you using with your touch?
Google maps is the only application i've tried. It will search (and search, and search) but doesn't find any or only 1 sat.
Make sure all your settings are correct and try using something like GPS Viewer to get the initilal lock.
Any hint on which settings, and what the the correct values for those settings would be?
Thanks for the tip on GPS Viewer - I will def check it out!
Thanks,
Tim
First, make sure you have the proper Radio/ROM, I assume you do.
Second, under System Settings>External GPS
Programs>COM4 Port
Hardware>(None) Baud Rate>4800
Access>Check Manage Automatically
Third, under Personal Settings>Phone
Services>Location Setting>Location On
Fourth, the Registry
I know of only one value that may help if you change, there are more, but haven't seen them, and I believe it's different on some carriers, like Sprint
HKCU>Software>HTC>SUPL AGPS>GPS Mode
For the inital sat lock, make sure you stand outside on a clear sky and wait at least 5 min, if it takes that long.
The first time I did this, I was trying from inside, finally tried it outside after 3 days of no luck, but now it works quite well. I usually get connected under 30 seconds. As long as your in the same area when you reconnect it should be quick, the first is usually the longest. And I personally use LiveSearch for the directions.
Change from 2 to either 4 or 1, this may help, never really guarenteed though
I was in Boston this weekend and noticed the GPS on my Touch would not lock in a signal in the financial district surrounded by tall buildings. But when I have a clearer view of the sky it works fine. Are you in an open area when you are using it?
hapa_dude said:
I was in Boston this weekend and noticed the GPS on my Touch would not lock in a signal in the financial district surrounded by tall buildings. But when I have a clearer view of the sky it works fine. Are you in an open area when you are using it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It surely helps! Any obstructions will make it harder to pickup the signal.
TheChampJT said:
First, make sure you have the proper Radio/ROM, I assume you do.
Second, under System Settings>External GPS
Programs>COM4 Port
Hardware>(None) Baud Rate>4800
Access>Check Manage Automatically
Third, under Personal Settings>Phone
Services>Location Setting>Location On
Fourth, the Registry
I know of only one value that may help if you change, there are more, but haven't seen them, and I believe it's different on some carriers, like Sprint
HKCU>Software>HTC>SUPL AGPS>GPS Mode
For the inital sat lock, make sure you stand outside on a clear sky and wait at least 5 min, if it takes that long.
The first time I did this, I was trying from inside, finally tried it outside after 3 days of no luck, but now it works quite well. I usually get connected under 30 seconds. As long as your in the same area when you reconnect it should be quick, the first is usually the longest. And I personally use LiveSearch for the directions.
Change from 2 to either 4 or 1, this may help, never really guarenteed though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was having problems with mine too until I did the 4th one and changed it to a 1 from 2 and it works much better. Try it and see you can always turn it back to 2
This helped me
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173024
My apologies if this has already been posted somewhere. I did a search and came up empty...
So like a lot of people, I've been having some major problems with the GPS's reliability on the Touch (yep, last week's flavor of the week). It connects only when it feels like it, and numerous resets seem to temporarily solve the problem. Well, changing the following registry value seemed to solve all of my problems:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Providers\{7C4B7A3 8-5FF7-4bc1-80F6-5DA7870BB1AA}\Connections\Phone as Modem]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000"
Change the value to 0, and soft reset.
It appears that the GPS, by default, makes use of the "Phone as Modem" data connection to take advantage of aGPS, but if a "Sprint PCS" data connection is already active, the GPS doesn't swap connection methods and ultimately hangs. This problem is exacerbated if you have Push services or other data connections running.
I personally haven't noticed any problems with disabling PAM, but as usual, your mileage will vary. For me, I get GPS locks within 15 seconds when I'm in a reasonably accessible location, and I no longer have to reset-and-pray to get this thing working.
bill22 said:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173024
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My apologies if this has already been posted somewhere. I did a search and came up empty...
So like a lot of people, I've been having some major problems with the GPS's reliability on the Touch (yep, last week's flavor of the week). It connects only when it feels like it, and numerous resets seem to temporarily solve the problem. Well, changing the following registry value seemed to solve all of my problems:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Providers\{7C4B7A3 8-5FF7-4bc1-80F6-5DA7870BB1AA}\Connections\Phone as Modem]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000"
Change the value to 0, and soft reset.
It appears that the GPS, by default, makes use of the "Phone as Modem" data connection to take advantage of aGPS, but if a "Sprint PCS" data connection is already active, the GPS doesn't swap connection methods and ultimately hangs. This problem is exacerbated if you have Push services or other data connections running.
I personally haven't noticed any problems with disabling PAM, but as usual, your mileage will vary. For me, I get GPS locks within 15 seconds when I'm in a reasonably accessible location, and I no longer have to reset-and-pray to get this thing working.
Link not working, repost.
hate to tell you this, but if you are using the builtin GPS, a clear view of the sky does nothing to improve your gps position locking. our phones have AGPS which means it is fake GPS. It uses the distance from cell towers to triangulate your position, not satellites. Thats why you can get a lock inside with no view of the sky.
some ROMs have different settings on them so following the above directions should work. Or you can do like me and find a better ROM
Gah...this seemed like it was resolved for me, but now it's come back. When I have the GPS off and "Use Wireless Networks" turned on, my Vibrant (and every other smartphone I've owned in the past 5 years) has been able to use cellular location service to approximate my location. Again, I'm not talking about GPS. GPS is turned off.
This is really irritating as I use a lot of apps that require my location (weather, etc.), and I really don't want to turn on the GPS every time they need to estimate what part of the city I'm in...it just isn't necessary and takes too long. Location service is necessary for aGPS to get a quick satellite lock even if I was willing to use GPS.
It works great when I'm connect to wifi, but just using cell towers it usually either doesn't work or shows my location as somewhere I was hours ago. I'm in Chicago, by the way. Anyone else having this issue? I'm trying to determine if this is a problem with my phone or if T-Mobile's network in my area is just temporarily stupid. Thanks!
I've noticed that even with my gps turned on as long as I'm not constantly running an app that uses my location the gps will just blip on for whatever its needed for and then when you don't need it anymore its turns off, not wasting much battery.
I have noticed that my margin of error on my vibrant seems to be bigger than on my G1, but I can't fully confirm that, however I would probably turn to saying that its tmobile's issue with their towers (triangulation and all that jazz)
bessertier said:
I've noticed that even with my gps turned on as long as I'm not constantly running an app that uses my location the gps will just blip on for whatever its needed for and then when you don't need it anymore its turns off, not wasting much battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that aGPS needs to use the location service to approximate your location...otherwise it takes a long time to get a GPS lock. Since my location service has been acting up I haven't been getting quick GPS locks anymore.
bessertier said:
I have noticed that my margin of error on my vibrant seems to be bigger than on my G1, but I can't fully confirm that, however I would probably turn to saying that its tmobile's issue with their towers (triangulation and all that jazz)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hope so. I've never had problems with other phones in this area, so I hope it's not the Vibrant. I've already had it replaced once for a bad Menu "button."
****************************************************************
"EDIT" UPDATE (7 oct. 2010)
Well you dont need to go actually much further then this first post!
Things got out of context over here, furthermore I decided to give
my external gps receiver a break and run some more tests with
the internal one of my SGS.
And the results I got were much better than any
other phone I tested before. Except the ones with a build-in SirfstarIII chipset.
If you have Gps issues,Just move on to this thread:
2nd edit (20 Oct, 2010): That thread was removed without any warning or explanation so I posted the videos in another thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8903056#post8903056
END EDIT
RCinFLA said:
Like to share my experience as cellphone chipset designer and my dealing with various parties involved with GPS in phones.
Many of the issues are caused by business interests involved and there are quite a few parties plying to control location based services revenue stream.
SUPL, secure user plane protocol AGPS was created by network operators interest in mine, with the objective of putting them in the controlling position when it comes to extracting revenue from location based applications on their network.
Control plane AGPS is a general system where network operator independent entities can create a assist server along with possible services offering. They can encrypt their access to allow only subcribed (paying) users to access their service. The network operators has little control over this scheme.
With SUPL, in most cases, network operators outsource the location server function. Network operator hold location of their cell tower, as a total database, in close confidence. The network tower locations are also very dynamic over time. I believe the AGPS contractors don't get reliable and timely updates from the network operators.
Then there are third party business like 'Skyhook' which is trying to work around the network operator roadblocks by establishing a 'ponzi scheme' server database. If your phone has a good GPS location lock and detects a WiFi network, Skyhook's background app will have your phone send a message to their server reporting the SSID of the WiFi and its location. They then sell their server AGPS service to other companies, like Motorola, for inclusion in their phone software. Motorola may run into conflict with network operators. A network operator might refuse to buy a Motorola phone model with Skyhook installed on it. I noticed from the Captivate forum that the ATT version of Galaxy S has Skyhook capability.
Google is the 900 pound gorilla and is trying to wrestle control of location based services from network operators.
Finally there are the GPS chip manufacturers. Almost all of them have an AGPS server scheme of their own and try to promote it. The frontend processing (up to recovery of raw 50 bps satellite data) has unique hardware and firmware that are considered proprietary by the GPS chip manufacturer. In most cases a phone manufacturers like Samsung or Motorola are not allowed to have the software source code for this firmware or information on the actual interface protocol to the GPS chip. They are given a bundled binary file that the phone manufacturer software just dumps to the GPS chip at startup.
It is now up to the phone manufacturer to implement the GPS chip and antenna systems (along with WiFI, Bluetooth, Near Field Comm, and multi-band cellular) and provide software interfaces and drivers necessary to run the GPS function.
For size and cost reasons most recent GPS chips rely on the main application processor within the phone to actually do the GPS fix calculations. The software for this is provided by the GPS chip supplier but it must be coordinated with the particular applications processor chip used by the phone. It must share processing time slicing with the apps processor and work with operating system software resources such as RAM and ROM management running on the phone.
This is the first obsticle as most of the GPS chip suppliers have little expertise in the OS's that may be used (like Android or Symbian). The phone manufacturer usually has to provide help to create and debug the GPS driver software but the drivers are responsible/owned by the GPS chip supplier. There can be unique hardware/software interfaces that must be dealt with, like providing GPS TCXO calibration and cellular corrected frequency timebase to the GPS chip.
Then there is the OS's GPS interface. There can be translation software layers involved here. One such interface is based on GPS NMEA protocol but with additional hooks for things unique to phone operation like battery saver power strobing, and the complicated Secure User Plane or Control plane interface.
The AGPS system design landscape is litered with intellectual properties (patents) by many parties. Qualcomm is a dominate player here since their aquistion of SnapTrak company years ago. Royalties are paid to Qualcomm for every WCDMA phone sold, not only in AGPS area, but on basic CDMA patents used in a UMTS (Wideband CDMA) phones.
Now as to Samsung Galaxy S implementation of Broadcom GPS.
I think there is a lot of evidence that Samsung had early issues with the GPS antenna contact hardware. This has probably been corrected on recently manufactured phones.
I think the firmware supplied by Broadcom has the bandwidth of the correlators tighted down to provide greater sensitivity. This is great as long as there is a very good AGPS system to provide initial satellite ephemeris data. Without a good AGPS network providing satellite information the initial search and lock can take a very long time with narrow bandwidth frequency bins.
I have not seen evidence with my experience that my two Vibrants are receiving any reliable AGPS information from the T-Mobile network. They do seem to get rough Almanac satellite info from Google or other third party apps. These may be based on WiFi detection more then T-Mobile cell tower locations.
In LBStest I noticed that GPS Operational Mode has been set to 'Standalone'. I interpret this to mean AGPS is deactived. I don't see any difference when I switch to MS based assist, and clear the GPS saved memory to prevent it from prejudicing time to first fix lock test. Switching SUPL server to supl.google.com and port 7276 (with MS based operational setting) just seems to make my phone lockup for short periods of time.
Once phone does get full lock on satellites its performance is quite good. (my two Vibrant's were purchased in early Feb 2011). It rivals my Garmin SiRFstar III based GPS unit in locked on sensitivity while inside a building.
I think the AGPS system issues will get worked out over time.
The Qualcomm based CDMA2000 systems (like Verizon) will likely have better initial coordination on AGPS system operation. CDMA2000 also provides network timebase directly compatible with GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*******************************************************************
All this nagging about GPS.....that it is not working in many devices and it's working in other many.....and of course I am talking about those ones who still would go for ONLINE gps navigation.....
In my humble opinion, what you guys should be asking yourselfs and the big corporations is, why nowadays, 99% of the smartphones(so not just sgs), even the most expensive ones are build with weak, less capable internal gps receivers, forcing users to go online(celular network /a-gps) or using external bluetooth gps receivers to get stable satellite fixes that means stable navigation.
Years ago, many of the first smartphones came with sirfstar chipsets or alike , so once again, why not now? That's the question that should not be ignored or forgotten.
A friend of mine, that would not dare to pay more than a 100 box for a phone, bought an ancient ETEN device on a sale for 40 box with that old windows mobile 5 and guess what...the internal gps get fast fixes just like any standalone gps device because it got the same sirfstarIII chipset
Why the heck, the expensive so called high-end smartphones of today are not build with better gps chipsets? Why A-gps? So we are forced to get data accounts?
And what happens when I want to navigate abroad? Roaming?
For data transfer and internet I use wifi; I have it at home and I find hotspots everywhere...I will save those extra 120 euros(or more) per year (data account costs)
And nobody will force me to get one(internet/data account); not even for gps navigation that I so much use..
I use gps navigation only offline, using a external bluetooth device on a daily basis and, many times abroad; it works like a charm on my SGS; and I am talking about serious GPS car navigation software like iGo, Sygic, Navigon etc. .
Don't even use Google maps or alike.
I cannot tell you how my sgs is doing on online navigation, I dont have a data account so I wont even try it.
But once Samsung get this online gps navigation thing fixed, you guys should concentrate your energy on the real issue:
The A-gps scam
And for all the corporations out there: Just deliver a device with a capable gps chipset and you will sell millions..
And for all the users out there: Just get a good compact external bluetooth gps receiver and stop nagging....
Thanks to 3rd party developers, the Android OS on my SGS can be "fooled" and I can connect any navigation software to my bluetooth gps receiver threw programs like Bluetooth Gps Mouse Unlimited and Gps Provider.
I do have to " allow mock locations" at settings first...
« »
¿Ein? You don need data to get GPS fix, A-GPS is only an aid to get faster fixes
I thtink you're a littel misinformed
LOL.. o boy.. the AGPS is to help say if your indoors so you can get a faster lock... the phone will work without it.
Ummm I can see why you would think what you think, but I do believe you are wrong.
Firstly: as far as I'm aware, the SGS has the same GPS chip as the latest TomTom standalone unit.
Secondly: I guess AGPS is a data feature, it uses the triangulation of cell towers and pulls information to assist a sat lock, but it is not really a different way of using GPS. Ultimately you still need to get a sat lock to use a GPS App.
So it may speed up this lock, but it won't replace it. It just means it'll take you a little longer to get a sat lock than without it.
So you have the choice use it or don;t use it, no-one is forcing you to use data.
Logicalstep
Oletros said:
¿Ein? You don need data to get GPS fix, A-GPS is only an aid to get faster fixes
I thtink you're a littel misinformed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol those online translators dont work that smoothly...
I don't need a data/internet account to use celular networks aid, that means a-gps.That mean going online via 3g or 2g...
But IF I don.t have a data/internet account added to my phone subscription, my phone costs will be much higher depending on my use....
You are missing the point anyway...
betoNL said:
Lol those online translators dont work that smoothly...
I don't need a data/internet account to use celular networks aid, that means a-gps.That mean going online via 3g or 2g...
But IF I don.t have a data/internet account added to my phone subscription, my phone costs will be much higher depending on my use....
You are missing the point anyway...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you're missing the point, you don't need any kind of data connection to use GPS, you can use it offline
Exactly...already the first line of Wikipedia says it: "Assisted GPS, generally abbreviated as A-GPS, is a system which can improve the startup performance of a GPS satellite-based positioning system."
There is, however, a related issue w/r/t A-GPS and a data account. Back on WinMo, I could download the ephemeris data to speed up the GPS fix for one week in advance (I think it was called QuickGPS or something on my HTC TouchHD, also had sth. like it on an old Eten). This allowed you to get a quick fix for said week, even without a data connection. Android, on the other hand, seems to download this data on the fly - meaning that if you don't have a data account you will experience a slow fix until your almanac has been filled "naturally" by the satellites you're seeing. I experienced that while on vacation this year without a roaming data contract - it took me a good 3-5 minutes to get the first fix and it was good from there on (well, as good as the SGS GPS gets ). I'd love to have some tool that does exactly what QuickGPS did, but I am not aware of anything like it.
TriC_101 said:
LOL.. o boy.. the AGPS is to help say if your indoors so you can get a faster lock... the phone will work without it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have always smile in my face when someone thinks he can get a lock indoors..
Yes in a cartoon box you can. Not in real building I'm afraid.
And for all those who think SGS's GPS is usable without A.
Try it.
You will see.
Dont post things you just caught on wikipedia.
xan said:
I have always smile in my face when someone thinks he can get a lock indoors..
Yes in a cartoon box you can. Not in real building I'm afraid.
And for all those who think SGS's GPS is usable without A.
Try it.
You will see.
Dont post things you just caught on wikipedia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get a lock on 6-7 Sat no problem inside.... and so can lots of others.. don't know what your doing wrong but its not hard to get a lock inside.
Pics or it didnt happen
seems you all are little misinformed as to how the gps on android specifically sgs works. It is actually three systems at work here. Gps standalone without gprs and cell triangulation which gets lock within a minute same as standalone bluetooth units (they also take up to a minute from cold boot but because generally it is plugged in the car lighter and always on people think its blazing fast).then you have agps that downloads preloads data regarding satellite location in regards to your position via network instead of downloading same data directly from satellite thereby saving time. Both these can be used without checking network location in settings so to recap if your network location is unchecked you are still using agps as long as you have network connection (data connection that is).and samsungs system for agps being better than others cause it downloads data for while week as opposed to others downloading data everyone gps is turned on. Third level is network triangulation via cell towers that gets you that instant lock at the cost of accuracy useful mainly to let apps get your general location without having to engage real gps thereby saving power as well as give maps a chance to start calculating route while gps is still getting lock therefore appearing to operate faster.
Idan73 said:
Gps standalone without gprs and cell triangulation which gets lock within a minute same as standalone bluetooth units (they also take up to a minute from cold boot but because generally it is plugged in the car lighter and always on people think its blazing fast)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Standalone gps's got their batterys, and thus they start "warm".
Thing is, standalone SRIF3/4 gps gets a warm lock without any AGPS nor network triangulation within 5-10 seconds. SGS (and bunch of top-of-the pack devices) cant come even close to that.
the GPS on the SGS works fine offline
i don't even have data on when going on long road trips
you just need an offline GPS software with maps, like CoPilot or some other one you like
xan said:
Standalone gps's got their batterys, and thus they start "warm".
Thing is, standalone SRIF3/4 gps gets a warm lock without any AGPS nor network triangulation within 5-10 seconds. SGS (and bunch of top-of-the pack devices) cant come even close to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure they do. Sgs warm lock is 5 to 10 seconds as well. To test get the lock first then turn of data and network lock then start gps.restart of the phone same as restart of the standalone counts as a cold boot and takes about minute.
xan said:
Pics or it didnt happen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here ya go.... I don't have to prove anything just look on youtube.. This is the phone on for just 10sec.. if I had waited it would get down to about 10 feet... this pic was taken in a room where I get the lowest signal. and I live in a Condo with 2 foot concrete walls.. I don't have a digital camera.. this was taken with my old Samsung dumb phone.. but it does prove you can get a lock inside no problem.. also if i'm in a house I can get 6-7 sats to lock in the condo 5 at the most in that room.
only 3 sats and maybe the walls are thin
Polarfuchs said:
only 3 sats and maybe the walls are thin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL Trust me the walls and not thin.. i'm on the 10th floor of a 25 floor Condo complex. I get alot more signal is a house.. Now my X10 can get about 7 Sats locked in the same room. and down to 5 feet. but the point was you can get a lock inside..
I'll try it.
I live in a 3 stories house at ground floor. The shutters are down and I'm 1 meter away from the windows.
After 3 Minutes I get 5 sats in view but none used.
I'll hang on.
Even after 10 Minutes I only have 5 satellites in View and zero in Use.
So no fix for me.
The numbers on top of the bars are from 15 to 25.
Logicalstep said:
Ummm I can see why you would think what you think, but I do believe you are wrong.
Firstly: as far as I'm aware, the SGS has the same GPS chip as the latest TomTom standalone unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of Tomtom devices got a SiRFstarIII™ GPS chipset
If the GS got such one the amount of GPS threads in this Forum would be reduced considerably
What is your awareness based on?
Oletros said:
No, you're missing the point, you don't need any kind of data connection to use GPS, you can use it offline
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Idan73 said:
seems you all are little misinformed as to how the gps on android specifically sgs works. It is actually three systems at work here. Gps standalone without gprs and cell triangulation which gets lock within a minute same as standalone bluetooth units (they also take up to a minute from cold boot but because generally it is plugged in the car lighter and always on people think its blazing fast).then you have agps that downloads preloads data regarding satellite location in regards to your position via network instead of downloading same data directly from satellite thereby saving time. Both these can be used without checking network location in settings so to recap if your network location is unchecked you are still using agps as long as you have network connection (data connection that is).and samsungs system for agps being better than others cause it downloads data for while week as opposed to others downloading data everyone gps is turned on. Third level is network triangulation via cell towers that gets you that instant lock at the cost of accuracy useful mainly to let apps get your general location without having to engage real gps thereby saving power as well as give maps a chance to start calculating route while gps is still getting lock therefore appearing to operate faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL... Lets put things in perspective :
1) Wich car navigation software do you use
2) when you UNcheck wireless networks =a-gps(in location and security) and you CHECk "use GPS satellites = build-in gps receiver and then you go outside, you start your car navigation software in you gs( taking into consideration that you have the righ map installed) how long does it take to get a fix so you can start driving?
3) Do you know the difference between a cold and warm start? Why the heck some of you mention car lighters????
Please just answer me these 3 questions and meanwhile I will post some educative information
Seems to have GPS lock problems after kk update. Very difficult to get lock, and even when lock is eventually found, signal drops off easily. Anyone with this problem and have a solution for this?
koj012 said:
Seems to have GPS lock problems after kk update. Very difficult to get lock, and even when lock is eventually found, signal drops off easily. Anyone with this problem and have a solution for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest I have seen that on my 4.3, where GPS lock takes more than twice longer (sometimes 5-10 times) than on my S3 - there is another thread on that somewhere. I was hoping 4.4 to come with improved firmware on that one, but apparently not so much
i'm not on kitkat, but i have problems with gps.
however, problems occurs only when recording a track with "my tracks" from google.. as navigation apps works fine, no issue with the signal. only my tracks is giving me huge gaps between checkpoints..
I dont have gps locking problem in kitkat, but with directions while navigation, gps marker points in opposite direction.
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xclub_101 said:
To be honest I have seen that on my 4.3, where GPS lock takes more than twice longer (sometimes 5-10 times) than on my S3 - there is another thread on that somewhere. I was hoping 4.4 to come with improved firmware on that one, but apparently not so much
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I have actually had the same problem, I thought it was only me. I ran stock Italy ROM 4.3, but don't see any improvement under 4.4.2 Poland. Even GPS Status app does not seem to help.
xclub_101 said:
To be honest I have seen that on my 4.3, where GPS lock takes more than twice longer (sometimes 5-10 times) than on my S3 - there is another thread on that somewhere. I was hoping 4.4 to come with improved firmware on that one, but apparently not so much
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Click to collapse
Interesting, my GPS lock in MapsWithMe Pro is almost instantaneous. About 5 seconds, usually. Unless I'm indoors, but you can't blame a phone for the laws of physics.
N9005 DBT 4.3 MK2/MJ7/MK2
If I use Google Maps, it will only triangulate if I turn on 'Use WiFi', 'Allow Google Location' and more of that rubbish, and even then it takes about 5 minutes to get a lock.
My advice: Stop using Google Maps.
ShadowLea said:
Interesting, my GPS lock in MapsWithMe Pro is almost instantaneous. About 5 seconds, usually. Unless I'm indoors, but you can't blame a phone for the laws of physics.
N9005 DBT 4.3 MK2/MJ7/MK2
If I use Google Maps, it will only triangulate if I turn on 'Use WiFi', 'Allow Google Location' and more of that rubbish, and even then it takes about 5 minutes to get a lock.
My advice: Stop using Google Maps.
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Click to collapse
1. I almost NEVER use Google Maps (OK, maybe for testing stuff) - and I can only wonder how you got that idea anyway Generally I am very happy with Sygic and I also use GPS Test for quick testing, also Accurate Compass (for very quickly calibrating the compass).
2. I have now tested MapsWithMe for like 2 days and I can guarantee you that the "instantaneous GPS lock" is COMPLETE bullsh*t - the program is only caching your last position (which generates huge problems if you move between locks), then it tries to use location data from your WiFi connection if that is active; if not it then tries to use some very basic and EXTREMELY INACCURATE positioning based on GSM cell towers (at which point the error displayed for my position was in the order of 1-2 km); during all those steps the program also fires-up the GPS - but it acquires the lock EXACTLY with the same speed (or complete lack thereof) as any other program attempting GPS lock
3. What still remains a little surprising for me is that sometimes (like well over 50% of time but NOT 100%) my GPS lock is MUCH, MUCH faster (in any program) if I have the Mobile Data connection active (which normally I rarely have); once I have the GPS lock I can then stop the Mobile Data connection and the lock remains perfectly good. EDIT: However the WiFi connection does NOT seem to make ANY difference on GPS lock whatsoever.
Isn't this basicly what AGPS should be doing. It requires a data connection to get the positioning fix faster than just using the GPS. once it gets the location it does not need the data that much. Except for google maps to download the map and navigation information, and this is why it needs a data connection all the time.
Sygic does not need a data connection for the map nor navigation. But, of course, having a data connection well get the fix faster.
y2kkingboy said:
Isn't this basicly what AGPS should be doing. It requires a data connection to get the positioning fix faster than just using the GPS. once it gets the location it does not need the data that much. Except for google maps to download the map and navigation information, and this is why it needs a data connection all the time.
Sygic does not need a data connection for the map nor navigation. But, of course, having a data connection well get the fix faster.
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Oh, I had no surprise from the fact that aGPS can work
What I might have not mentioned above (fixed that now) was:
- a WiFi connection never improves things
- my old i9300 never needed the mobile data connection (or any kind of connection - that made basically no difference on it).
Those two seem to suggest that the Note3 "GPS driver stack" is worse than the old i9300. Also the fact that the mobile data connection does not improve things in 100% of the cases was IMHO interesting to note.
xclub_101 said:
1. I almost NEVER use Google Maps (OK, maybe for testing stuff) - and I can only wonder how you got that idea anyway Generally I am very happy with Sygic and I also use GPS Test for quick testing, also Accurate Compass (for very quickly calibrating the compass).
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Click to collapse
Ah, miscommunication. I did not mean you used Gmaps, I meant people in general. Gmaps is a nightmare, on 50Mbps LTE it still barely loads... Even on my homenetwork of 120Mbps WiFi it takes ages to load the map itself, surely the packages are not 1GB a piece?
2. I have now tested MapsWithMe for like 2 days and I can guarantee you that the "instantaneous GPS lock" is COMPLETE bullsh*t - the program is only caching your last position (which generates huge problems if you move between locks), then it tries to use location data from your WiFi connection if that is active; if not it then tries to use some very basic and EXTREMELY INACCURATE positioning based on GSM cell towers (at which point the error displayed for my position was in the order of 1-2 km); during all those steps the program also fires-up the GPS - but it acquires the lock EXACTLY with the same speed (or complete lack thereof) as any other program attempting GPS lock
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I travel an average of 600KM a day.
Yes, MWM caches the last position. Which is hilarious from time to time, last week it thought I was still in Zurich when I was actually in Berlin. If you click the gps icon three times again, it repositions. Waiting for it to refix automatically takes ages.
I do not have WiFi on the Autobahn, (If only! ) and 70% of the journey I do not even have a mobile signal.
3. What still remains a little surprising for me is that sometimes (like well over 50% of time but NOT 100%) my GPS lock is MUCH, MUCH faster (in any program) if I have the Mobile Data connection active (which normally I rarely have); once I have the GPS lock I can then stop the Mobile Data connection and the lock remains perfectly good. EDIT: However the WiFi connection does NOT seem to make ANY difference on GPS lock whatsoever.
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Nothing suprising about that. It uses the celltowers to triangulate by sending a data package, as opposed to attempting to connect to three satelites. If the network is fast enough (UMTS and above) it is much easier to get an accurate position. GPRS doesn't work all that well, nor does having 1 bar of signal on anything but LTE.
WiFi only helps if there are active points nearby (no need to connect to them, detecting them is sufficient) and you have 'use wireless networks' enabled under Location Settings.
I just tested: WiFi and Mobile Data off, No network signal, on the Fyra (Highspeed train. Or as much as the NS can manage, anyway.) from Schiphol Airport to Breda @160kph. Got a lock with SpeedView in 15 seconds, detected 24 sats. Not instantaneous, but then you can't ask for that at such speeds.
I do have to say, on the previous firmware it took much, much longer. About 1-2 minutes. And I tried a Dutch Note 3 yesterday, it required almosylt a minute on the same firnware version.
The weather also influences the signal, clear skies vastly improve things. As does solar activity. Last October you could wait an hour and not get a lock, due to a solarstorm causing too much magnetic interference in the atmosphere. Even my GPS locator itself took almost half an hour.
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ShadowLea said:
...
Nothing suprising about that. It uses the celltowers to triangulate by sending a data package, as opposed to attempting to connect to three satelites. If the network is fast enough (UMTS and above) it is much easier to get an accurate position. GPRS doesn't work all that well, nor does having 1 bar of signal on anything but LTE.
...
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Actually original aGPS doesn't quite work that way at all - here is some info from some of the guys doing some of the Linux kernel drivers for aGPS devices (I can not guarantee it is 100% accurate but fits OK with other info that I have seen):
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Hardware:AGPS
And another thing to remember when testing GPS - after a successful GPS lock it is very likely that you will have a MUCH faster 2nd GPS lock for up to about 2 hours. So any such immediate 2nd lock should be see in the above context, also the lack of it
Least this problem isn't just me. Always used to track my rides with Endomondo without a hitch but I went out for the first time since KitKat and I couldn't tell you how many times it dropped out on that 2 hour ride ... but it was alot
Xalies said:
Least this problem isn't just me. Always used to track my rides with Endomondo without a hitch but I went out for the first time since KitKat and I couldn't tell you how many times it dropped out on that 2 hour ride ... but it was alot
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Seems to be a very common problem. Read somewhere that this is a software issue and there is a fix if the phone is rooted by flashing a patch on it. But I'm not about to root my phone and lose the warranty. SAMSUNG please release an update quickly that fixes this problem.
koj012 said:
Seems to be a very common problem. Read somewhere that this is a software issue and there is a fix if the phone is rooted by flashing a patch on it. But I'm not about to root my phone and lose the warranty. SAMSUNG please release an update quickly that fixes this problem.
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I am rooted (with knox 0x0 ) and I have looked into that patch - the one that I saw only sets a different AGPS server address and has minimal or no impact - actually I have a strong feeling that there is something in the CSC that overrides it, which explains why the AGPS server only improves things for me when connected only on mobile data and not over wifi.
IMHO that seems to be mostly a firmware / software driver issue - on my old S3 it looked like there was a lot more "caching" of the "GPS almanac" and slightly more pre-calculation of the "GPS ephemeris", possibly on the application CPU on the phone (which has humongous general-computing power compared with the CPU used inside the GPS circuit, which however is highly more specialized). On the Note 3 it seems to work in a "safer" approach in which older (than like 2 hours) GPS almanac data is considered inaccurate and so is the time otherwise used to pre-calculate GPS ephemeris (which time to be honest I have seen WILDLY inaccurate on some carriers, something like 27 seconds away; and of course if the time is not carrier-set the phone time can easily be tens of minutes away ).
My two Wear watches (Sony Smartwatch 3 and Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20) both have built-in GPS.
I have been using Google Fit to track my runs, and so far the experience with built-in GPS has been hit and miss.
The GPS won't lock fast enough without my phone around, or it will lock inconsistenly. There was even a time with my Casio where the GPS locks only after I finished my run.
For the Casio, the built-in apps like the Location Memory seems to lock the GPS pretty consistently when off the phone.
Can't really test it with the Smartwatch 3 though...
Anyone else having issues with built-in GPS locking too?
inscythe said:
My two Wear watches (Sony Smartwatch 3 and Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20) both have built-in GPS.
I have been using Google Fit to track my runs, and so far the experience with built-in GPS has been hit and miss.
The GPS won't lock fast enough without my phone around, or it will lock inconsistenly. There was even a time with my Casio where the GPS locks only after I finished my run.
For the Casio, the built-in apps like the Location Memory seems to lock the GPS pretty consistently when off the phone.
Can't really test it with the Smartwatch 3 though...
Anyone else having issues with built-in GPS locking too?
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Click to collapse
I have an Urbane 2nd Edition and I always use the app 'Wear GPS' to get a lock first before switching to ghostracer to record runs. It will show the satellites in the area and how many are locked. Not sure if it will help, but could try it. I get a lock within seconds but I also have LTE activated and paired to the phone through cell data so that may help me with assisted GPS data.
mward1995 said:
I have an Urbane 2nd Edition and I always use the app 'Wear GPS' to get a lock first before switching to ghostracer to record runs. It will show the satellites in the area and how many are locked. Not sure if it will help, but could try it. I get a lock within seconds but I also have LTE activated and paired to the phone through cell data so that may help me with assisted GPS data.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the recommendation. I am still not getting a GPS lock, but it might be because I'm indoor at the moment.
I'll try again after work outdoors...
EDIT: maybe this information might help... I'm currently residing in Singapore, and Wear GPS shows me mostly US satelites. Could it be causing the slow lock times?
inscythe said:
Thanks for the recommendation. I am still not getting a GPS lock, but it might be because I'm indoor at the moment.
I'll try again after work outdoors...
EDIT: maybe this information might help... I'm currently residing in Singapore, and Wear GPS shows me mostly US satelites. Could it be causing the slow lock times?
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I've used it successfully in the US and France, but can't speak for Singapore. If you swipe up and right in the app, you can 'clear data' and then swipe left to 'insert Xtra data', I think this updates satellites in the area. Not sure if you'd still need to be near your phone for this to help sInce my watch has standalone data and I haven't tried it on other watches.
mward1995 said:
I've used it successfully in the US and France, but can't speak for Singapore. If you swipe up and right in the app, you can 'clear data' and then swipe left to 'insert Xtra data', I think this updates satellites in the area. Not sure if you'd still need to be near your phone for this to help sInce my watch has standalone data and I haven't tried it on other watches.
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I tried it earlier with a short outdoor walk from the station to home, trying to avoid buildings.
It is indeed locking faster initially after running Wear GPS prior to running the Google Fit.
Insert XTRA data is not supported on my watch apparently, likely due to the lack of independent LTE connectivity.
However, it is still losing tracking intermittently. But I guess that is expected, as mentioned in Casio Support's FAQ:
http://support.casio.com/wsd/en/faq/
Your current location greatly influences your ability to obtain GPS information. You may experience GPS signal reception problems in the areas like the ones described below. In extreme conditions, you may not be able to receive GPS signals at all.
• Where the view of the sky above is narrow or where there is no view of the sky above
• Near trees or buildings
• Near a train station, airport, or other congested locations, or in locations where there is heavy traffic and radio wave interference
• Near railway aerial wires, high-voltage lines, TV towers, etc.
• Underground, in a tunnel, or underwater
• Indoors (Reception may be possible near a window.)
• Near wireless communication equipment or other devices that generate electromagnetic waves.
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Click to collapse
Here is my conclusion:
1. The built-in GPS is very limited due to the size and various other factors (Smartwatch 3's GPS is apparently even affected by sweat).
2. Phone and LTE-enabled watches like your Urbane benefits from A-GPS, thus more consistent in GPS performance.
3. Google may have put a really generous timeout for Android Wear's location requests to the phone, making it take quite a while to fallback to built-in GPS. The Wear GPS seems to force the switch.
4. Casio and Sony probably envisioned these watches to be used in more remote locations like mountains and hiking treks. Urban environment like Singapore has way too much interference.
Well, I guess I still can't really leave my phone when I run, but at least I'm relieved that it's not really due to defective unit.
Thanks for the tip for the Wear GPS app though!
inscythe said:
......Thanks for the tip for the Wear GPS app though!
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Click to collapse
No problem. I know the developer for Wear GPS also created Ghostracer with the intent to be used with the SW3 at the time he created it. Ghostracer has an option to "Force Watch GPS" even with the phone around I believe. I've been using it for over a year. I know many use it with the SW3(ghostracer has a Google+ community), not sure what's causing the GPS problems in your area. My watch also has the sweat issue. GPS dropped sometimes when I first started using it in November 2015 when I would sweat. I've been wearing a 2" wristband under the watch during runs for the last year and GPS has been nearly perfect.
This was exactly my problem - GPS locking issue.
I have used the WSD-F20 for 3 consecutive days.
When the phone was around, it has got connected and awaited the GPS information from the phone.
When the phone was in my backpack "on the top" (meaning not buried down) and receiving the GPS signal it has locked fine and worked flawlessly. Pure joy to work with. Compared it to my handheld Garmin GPS and confirmed exactly the same data.
When the phone was totally away (left on the office desk and I was walking around the building) the watch locked itself and worked fine, too. Although when it has got the signal of the stored company WiFi, the GPS lock broke and the watch set an inaccurate position from the network!
But the real issue has shown when I was riding my bike outside and had the phone buried down in my backpack, "Faraday-shaded" with 3 cans of liquids. All the smart operation worked perfectly, BT connected, but the phone was not able to get the GPS signal at all. And I am talking about 5 hours cross-country riding of 60 km through open fields. My handheld unit on the handlebars worked as usual, no problems, so no GPS signal fall out or shading anywhere.
The Wear does not have a long timeout, I'd say it has got none at all. It just couldn't switch to the internal GPS, waiting all the time for the phone only. Which is very stupid in my opinion. Why should a device, capable of receiving signal from 3 different systems, able to lock instantly like no other, rely/wait for the phone's only GPS?
There should really be a very decent timeout period or even better, let the user choose from where he/she wants to get the signal. In the watch settings menu is only ON/OFF. With this logic the whole watch is pointless to me. Imagine using it in some freezing weather. You would not carry your phone almost outside your backpack or jacket. You will bury it deep. Or like me, riding a mountain bike, you do not want fall down with the phone exposed. You will bury it deep in your backpack. Or should I be turning my phone's GPS off? Why would I do that? Always switching or forgetting, not being able to locate it when lost... etc.
The Casio WSD-F20 is an ultimate device, the best out there for my purpose but until this thing is sorted out it's useless. I have returned it back to the seller and I'll hope for a future fix.