Related
EDIT: DISREGARD THIS. GO TO POST #3 and #4
Hello guys,
this is my first post so if I'm posting in the wrong section please bear with me.
I recently bought a T5388++ HTC diamond 2 clone. Everything was fine except that I couldn't get a GPS fix. (In the Start -> Settings -> System -> GPS Settings [Satellite State] I only had *red* satellites)
I used the "aluminum foil in the back side" fix, which worked well and I could get a fix.
Being an uneasy person I open the back cover of the cell phone to take a look (beware the headphone cables).
Now here is the good part.
On the left side (near the sd card and where the stylus ends) is probably the GPS antenna.
In the inside, on the board's side, there are two metallic "pins" which (when the cover is closed) touch the back of the antenna. What I did was to add some foil on the back side of the antenna so the contact with the pins would be more tight.
This worked like a charm and the signal is very good. I can even get a decent fix (3-4 *blue* satellites) from inside the house.
Sorry for the lack of pics, if anyone tries it, post a couple pictures and I can show you what I did exactly.
EDIT: DISREGARD THIS. GO TO POST #3 and #4
Pics!!!!
Here are some pics.
First unscrew the four screws, one at each corner of the phone.
Then slice the phone with the help of small flat screwdriver or some other tool. (there are some appropriate notches for that purpose)
**Beware of falling parts**
In the forth and fifth pic you can see where I install the alu foil.
Now you can close the phone and enjoy your newly found GPS!
[I also tried some solder, but the results where almost the same]
Congrats.
However, I can assure you that is not the GPS antenna. Based on the antenna size and shape (its a small inverted F antenna, see the black sticker that is attached to in on top of the stylus case) I am assuming it is either the Bluetooth or WiFi antenna.
The GPS antenna is a bit higher, it is the small pink 'cube' thingy on top of the phone, connected by the micro coax connector.
I had reported before the micro coax is loose in some devices, and I suspect you 'accidentally' fitted it better while opening and closing the phone.
But congrats on your successful operation anyway, being able to open and close the phone and still have a working one is already good, and often, just doing that and ensuring all connectors are clean and properly fit solves a all sorts of problems.
Yeap you are right!
I have read you saying this about loose connectors, so when i first opened the phone I refitted the micro coax.
In my defense I tried to see if this was the antenna. I disconnected it and opened the GPS. Seeing many satellites on the screen (red ones) I concluded that this was not the GPS antenna. (I thought maybe WiFi since I've seen this type of connector on my laptop's wifi)
But having read your post now, I tried a new experiment and found out that the "red" satellites appear, due to the A-GPS (with neither "my" GPS and THE GPS antenna).
Damn...
So could someone change the title to "OLD GPS reception fix"
I had the same problem with GPS. I have risked and have changed orientation GPS of the antenna - GPS perfectly works. BUT now the speaker in which I hear the interlocutor doesn't work for me. At other person after the assembly has broken touch the panel. Therefore it is better not to recommend to open phone.
onde consigo a rom do htc t5388+ idioma PTG ?
magicwolf said:
I had the same problem with GPS. I have risked and have changed orientation GPS of the antenna - GPS perfectly works. BUT now the speaker in which I hear the interlocutor doesn't work for me. At other person after the assembly has broken touch the panel. Therefore it is better not to recommend to open phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You changed the orientation of the antenna. In which way?
When I opened the phone to see if the connector is set right one cable to the speaker was dispatched (very bad soldering). I had to remove the old cable and solder another one because it was not only loose it was broken, too...grrrr...that's very bad.
But I was lucky and did't burned my phone
So, I also recommend to be VERY careful when opening the phone.
BTW: It is much simplier to open the T5388++ than my ASUS P535.
MicAlter said:
You changed the orientation of the antenna. In which way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In a picture it is visible as I oriented the antenna.
cybermaus said:
Congrats.
However, I can assure you that is not the GPS antenna. Based on the antenna size and shape (its a small inverted F antenna, see the black sticker that is attached to in on top of the stylus case) I am assuming it is either the Bluetooth or WiFi antenna.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please identify Wifi antenna? Look in attachment:
"C" is GPS antenna.
What is "A" "B" "D" ?
"D" - I see little piece of aluminum foil, but nothing else. Under this foil is place for stylus only and above foil is contact + Vibration Motor.
Somewhere I reed a tip not to hold the hand on the bottom of this phone during the phone call in order not to shield located there GSM antenna, so it means B is probably GSM. Are you sure C is BT and not GPS?
You're right. "C" is 100% GPS antenna. My mistake. (I've changed it now in original post.)
Well, my guess is B (at the bottom) is GSM, based on the fact it is larger (lower frequency) and seems to have two (one for the 850/900 MHz and one for 1800/1900Mhz), which leaves A and D for Blue and WiFi.
PS: Or GSM has two because it has 2 radio's? I wonder if they would share antenna or not, since it is a dual-sim dual standby, I guess the could share)
serak_hd2 WiFi probl.
If you have opened your phone already you can easily discover which one is wifi and BT. Just put a peace of paper on one contact (blocking connection), reassemble (screws are not necessary) and try connect to BT devise (compare to previous performance(distance)) if it is gone (or big performance difference), you blocked BT if not, it was WiFi. After you know which is Wifi, just try to ensure good mechanical contact from antenna till the board (bending contactors little higher or putting allufoil (aluminum can oxidize quickly, so it is not the best solution)). Try not to touch the board, some of the components can be sensible to static discharges. If you have not opened it yet, try to consider ones more the possibility to change it by your seller for new one.
problem with touch screen
t5388 + + touch screen does not work, but the image looks perfectly fine.
How to fix this?
thanks
cybermaus said:
The GPS antenna is a bit higher, it is the small pink 'cube' thingy on top of the phone, connected by the micro coax connector.
I had reported before the micro coax is loose in some devices, and I suspect you 'accidentally' fitted it better while opening and closing the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also had this problem, the connector was loose, now I have very good signal. No aluminium foil needed. Your post saved me!
My recommendation to other people trying to solve this problem: be VERY careful when you open your phone.
I just ripped some magnets out of an old hard drive and want to use them to make a car dock from a DIY I saw (http://forum.androidcentral.com/evo...completely-invisible-phone-vehicle-mount.html)
I am worried about putting a magnet on phone as it always been common sense that magnets + electronics = broken ****. Though, isn't it magnets in the commercial car docks that trigger car mode to pop up on the phone?
small magnets will not hurt - many phones have magnets as sensors - the blackberry determines holstered or not via a magnet in the holster. Other Moto phones determined if they are docked or not via magnets in the dock.
But, any magnet strong enough to keep the phone from bouncing loose could cause interference issues. I don't think you can do any permanent damage, but if things start acting wonky, it may be the magnet.
ok I ran a magnet over, stuck on a few points but car mode never came up. Know the right location/method?
be very careful of the speakers. I have a friend who tried to do the same thing and his speaker sounded really bad after that
riotburn said:
ok I ran a magnet over, stuck on a few points but car mode never came up. Know the right location/method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I've read, magnets trigger no dock on the Atrix.
It's thought to be resistances on the USB connectors that trigger different docks to come up.
Worst case scenario is that you create a shortcut on one of your homescreens that manually opens the car dock interface, which is extremely easy to do.
Speaker is ok. Plus I still have warranty and what not, thought id actually take some kind of risk considering all the hard work devs do.
So, FOR ME, rubbing the magnet over the back of the phone did not cause any noticeable harm yet. The magnet would center about an inch above the speakerphone speaker in the center.
SG Pillar said:
As far as I've read, magnets trigger no dock on the Atrix.
It's thought to be resistances on the USB connectors that trigger different docks to come up.
Worst case scenario is that you create a shortcut on one of your homescreens that manually opens the car dock interface, which is extremely easy to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm, saw that for the multimedia dock. I dont see where to find the car dock program. I looked in apps and dont see it. Is it accessed from somewhere else?
riotburn said:
Hmmmm, saw that for the multimedia dock. I dont see where to find the car dock program. I looked in apps and dont see it. Is it accessed from somewhere else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have my phone on me at the moment (managed to forget it along with some other stuff as I left my house for class this morning).
I think its something like (this is with Launcher Pro):
Long press home
Create custom shortcut
Activities
Select Car Dock -> Cardock.main.cardockmainactivity
Name shortcut
If that doesn't work, I'll try it when I get home tonight.
SG Pillar said:
I don't have my phone on me at the moment (managed to forget it along with some other stuff as I left my house for class this morning).
I think its something like (this is with Launcher Pro):
Long press home
Create custom shortcut
Activities
Select Car Dock -> Cardock.main.cardockmainactivity
Name shortcut
If that doesn't work, I'll try it when I get home tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it myself and it works great, thanks.
Yup that works great. Thanks! Now to figure out how it turns on when put in a dock.
Wait so for the mount to work, you would have to setup the charger? that blows, the magnet turning on the phone is better.
riotburn said:
Yup that works great. Thanks! Now to figure out how it turns on when put in a dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, you would press the shortcut
What's really weird to me is that the other day Cardock was showing up in my app list all the time, now it has disappeared and I have to add it the way you listed above. What caused it to disappear?
natious said:
well, you would press the shortcut
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant figure out how putting the phone in the car dock makes the phone turn on. I understood pushing the button would start dock mode
The old flip phones (StarTac) would typically use a magnet to sense if they were open/closed. AFAIK there's nothing in the new phones that understands magnetism at all, much less is harmed by it.
The microUSB standard provides for "sensing" by means of placing a fixed resistance across the new fifth wire. Devices see a set resistance, look it up internally, and determine what device has been attached. I suspect Moto is using this sensing to signal what dock a phone is plugged into--all part of a standard.
FWIW, cell phones going back at least to the original Palm Treos have done something similar, they look at the impedance of whatever is plugged into the ear/mic socket, and then configure themselves for earbuds, mono ear/mic, and other different devices all plugged into the same socket. This is mature and invisible technology by now.
Hi, anyone of you using NFC tags?
I bought some and don't know if they are working correctly...
My tags are only found when they touch the back glass - when there is a little spacing they don't work! Whey I use the plastic phone protection (less than 1mm thick) the tags are not detected any more! (maybe once in 100 attempts)
What distance do you reach?
Is there a possibility to increase the range?
What part of the back are you touching? The antenna is right between the LG and the Nexus. http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/yapggXkL1qUdlt3J.huge (The black sticker)
It works fine with my dixtronic. That covers the glass too.
I believe NFC has a maximum working distance of 1.5 inches.
AW: NFC distance
1.5 inch are about 3.5 cm - I don't even get 0.3 cm!
It is independant of where I put the tag - believe me, I tried it everywhere on the phone...
So you manage distances of several cm? Then I must have bought bad tags...
AW: NFC distance
Once more:
- What tags are you using?
- What distance between Nexus 4 and tags is (really) possible?
I'm having this same issue and this thread came up in Search so I thought I'd revive it instead of making my own thread.
I am using two different NFC stickers as my test. One is actually stuck to my desk at work, the other is still on the wax paper it came on. I can only get the movable sticker to read, and that's only when I touch it to the back of my Nexus and slide it down. Once it reads, I set it down on my desk to act like it's stuck (in case the one that is stuck there is bad) and I can't get it to read. I even set the phone down on it, nothing. I hover a millimeter above the desk and slide it down the phone and I get nothing. When I lift it back up and touch it to the back and slide like before, it reads. Why is my range SO small? How is it not reading the stickers when they're horizontal on my desk? If it matters at all, I bought the stickers from the people who made NFC Task Launcher app.
Well - to be honest, I do not use them anymore...
BUT: If you try "NTAG203 168 Byte" or "NXP Mifare Classic 1K" or "NXP Mifare Ultralight C 192 Byte" (the best one) you can reach far more distances (up to ~2cm) - then it works though the Phone-Cover and some mm more plastic without any problems.
Ok I did more messing around and found out what was wrong, I'll post in case anyone in the future finds this thread.
After doing more experiments, I found that I could lift the phone up, and lift the sticker up and it would read the sticker from a distance of around 2-3cm. I tried doing it horizontally and vertically, in case for some random reason, my phone's NFC wouldn't read horizontally. It worked when off the desk, but as soon as I set the sticker back down and tried to read it, nothing. After pondering for a bit, it hit me. My desk is basically all metal. I didn't really think of it because most of what I see is "wood", but upon further investigating I found out it's just a thin covering of some material that looks like wood on a full-metal desk. After 1 Google search, I find out that metal can interfere with NFC signal, which is why I couldn't pick up my tags on the desk.
Sure enough, put the tags on a small stack of sticky-notes and my phone read it from about 3cm above the tag. Problem solved. Man, that was frustrating. I was worried that my phone's NFC sensor was defective or something. I wasn't about to RMA and wait for weeks to get my phone back, I'd miss the thing too much so I'd just live with it. Well, that's not the case so great. Hopefully this helps someone in the future.
Oswald-Kolle said:
Hi, anyone of you using NFC tags?
I bought some and don't know if they are working correctly...
My tags are only found when they touch the back glass - when there is a little spacing they don't work! Whey I use the plastic phone protection (less than 1mm thick) the tags are not detected any more! (maybe once in 100 attempts)
What distance do you reach?
Is there a possibility to increase the range?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried tried on a wireless payment card and my N4 can read it through 5mm of paper, any more than that it can't find it.
The problem may be with your tags, do you have anything else you can test it with like a wireless credit card or transport card?
I am currently running google maps 9.42.3. Android 6.0.1 Kernal 3.10.49-g6d40c12.
Last night, while taking my grandson to a soccer game, navigation would not update my position or take the next turn. I rebooted and that did nothing. As in the other thread, my GPS is not great. However, I could hit the location button on the map and it would get reasonably close to where I was at. Certainly close enough to suggest the next turn.
I know this has worked on this phone in the past. Is it possible that I "broke" it by turning off Google Play services access to my contacts? I now get messages saying that maps won't work properly because play can't access my contacts. I could understand why maps may not be able to navigate to a named contact if it didn't have access to my contacts but why would little ole me affect navigation? What could my limited contacts possibly have to offer to bring what used to be a great app to the point of being non-functional?
Thanks,
Wade
For what it's worth, Play Services needs access to pretty much your entire phone to work at all. And contacts is also tied to things like your Dialer, which is tied to your cell antenna... you get the picture. I found out the other day that if Google Maps can't get a fix from GPS, it takes a fix from whatever cell tower you're connected to, even if that tower is 10 miles away. More towers in your area, the better chance you won't notice the difference.
I am having navigation issue.
I don't know very much about the problem but you can fix navigation issue by just touching to the Harpia GPS device by removing the back cover of your mobile. It actually works for me every f***** time.
10 Seconds GPS Redneck Fix
Using @ashishwebmail touch tip I devised a 10 second solution for my XT1609 G4 Play. Sort of a temporary redneck fix but it works.
(Next I'll probably be experimenting with very thin conductive tape that might fit within the back of the phone.)
I straightened a paperclip except for the end with the bend upward. Took off the case and phone back. Put the paperclip in my case with the upward bend flush in the case corner so it contacts the GPS antenna. Replaced phone in case without phone back. Voila!
Getting a GPS fix every time in 2-6 seconds using both GPS Status and GPS Test, indoors with WiFi on or off!
Unable, as a newbie to this board, to post a link to the case I'm using. It's my favorite smartphone case ever, and cheap.
It's the one on eBay with the title "Slim Shockproof Rugged Hybrid Soft Silicone Case Cover For Motorola Moto G4 Play"
Conductive Tape GPS Fix Confirmed
Removed the case and phone back. Laid a 2 mm wide strip of aluminum tape from the top GPS corner, along the edge of the battery compartment, to the bottom corner, careful to keep it away from the phone back notches. Doubted the adhesive was electrically conductive as I think it's just cheap construction flashing tape, so I folded it back on itself on top of the GPS antenna to be sure it made electrical contact with it. Replaced phone back and case.
Getting GPS fix in 1-3 seconds indoors every time in 20 tries! (This is with WiFi on or off.)
I had an issue with the GPS not working for navigation on the Moto G4 Play and I ended up having the phone replaced under Motorola warranty, it was a bad GPS. This seems to be a fairly common issue for this model.
Alright long story short broke my screen, didn't want to buy a new phone, bought a for-parts Z3Z, was ready to swap the battery and screen over to the components then I realized the motherboard is the first thing to come off anyway, so I just swapped the motherboard from my old phone to the rest of the components from the new one. So I did that, yes all cables and everything are connected. But my bluetooth range is like 10 feet through air and won't go through a piece of cardboard or whatever at 1 foot. The GPS takes forever to lock and loses signal every couple minutes for a while.
I assume the antennae for BT and GPS are both on the motherboard that we know was working fine in my old phone (really well actually!), so what's the deal? Any ideas? It's making my phone almost unusable.
Also, wifi seems like MAYBE but not definitely it's been affected... I used to get 2 bars in my car in my garage at least, now I lose the connection the second I close the garage door behind me. It's weird how like all the antennas except the actual cell antenna don't work....