Database Develop

Kaiser GPS Problem workaround

Some people might experience with certain GPS software.
If you look at the log of the NMEA log, you might realize that it burst out every 6-10 seconds. After that you might wait for another 6-10 sec, which is unusable for real-time navigation. If you happen to meet this trouble.
I have a way which could allow normal update intervals.
Install GPSGATE, it create virtual GPS COM PORT and re-route the NMEA data.
Install GPSGATE, just use the default settings, it create the virtual GPS port as COM 1.
Just use GPS software on COM 1 .
software url: http://franson.com/gpsgate/

Can anyone confirm this works? Ive noticed my GPS works the same way. Im using the Kaiser / TyTn II with Mapking and i notice that i also get my signbal ins bursts and NOT a smooth stream. Anyone know if this will resolve the problem?

What is the update intervals with GPSGATE ?
Do you mean GPSGATE must be run concurrently with the other software TomTom 6 for example ?
It would be a good workaround for people who encounter this GPS issue.

could this be some delicious spam?

How exactly does the OP propose that a user space application can make the hardware produce data in a smoother stream?
I call BS.

seems like BS to me too...Probably some spam Can anyone who has tried it out verify if it really works or not?..
THKS

You don't need to use other GPS software concurrently,
just use the GPSGATE and mapking will do.
Remember you have to modify the settings in mapking to use the virtual com port ( com1 default)
Not SPAM

I am not sure, this is BS.
If I am not mistaken the GPSGATE will act like a "router" (middle man) between the GPS hardware (Internal GPS of Kaiser) and the application (TomTom).
If the GPS hardware is faulty (having problem) with bursting data every 10 seconds, then the GPSGATE will also receive bursting data every 10 seconds.
So, that's useless as long as the problem is in the GPS hardware.

Gpsproxy should be able to do the same thing and its free.

GPSGate is a splitter, allowing using more than one application with the same NMEA stream. It creates another virtual GPS COM port, that's it.
GPS on the Kaiser works great and I'm on SatNav business. Aquisition time is fast, reception is great and update ratio is every 1 sec, just like any other civilian GPS receiver. GPS is NOT evaluated by the refresh rate you see on the screen, other software will give you other rate, try OZI Explorer for instance. I used Kaiser with TomTom, Destinator & Ozi, all works really great even comparing to Sirf III GPS chipset embedded devices such as Eten X500, HTC Artemis and Asus 535.
Last, Microsoft has included the same functionality of GPS Gate in WM5 and WM6 under settings. You do not need to install any additional SW, you can send "trueman 12345" (the guy who opened this thread with 2 posts history) your money directly.

Thanks RonenB for this very usefull precision !

Thanks as well RonenB, However, it does not solve the odd occasional pause in the data that we're seeing. Is this hardware or software that needs help in the Kaiser?

Actually I'm not so sure we have defined the problem accurately here.
Examining the signal from the GPS shows some interesting info.
1
A satellite is locked onto for perhaps only one or two seconds at a time.
2
Several satellites can achieve a lock but out of these a few will be lost every few seconds
3
New satellites are also acquired every few seconds.
The Result
If you are in the presence of many satellites then there is a constant dropping of some and locking onto others. This leads to no problems as there are always a few satellites locked on and data flow is smooth.
BUT
If you are in the presence of only say 2 or 3 satellites it is possible to drop these two or three (as indicated above), but no new ones are acquired. In this situation there will be a few seconds before the first 2 or 3 lock in again. Result a gap in data flow to your GPS software.
Meaning
The Internal GPS is not polling data in bursts. In other words you cannot turn up the frequency of data polling (possible baud rate adjustment maybe). The data is continuous but if there are too few satellites then there can be gaps where it drops some satellites and does not lock others.
There are various applications that can show this behaviour graphically but tomtom shows it well on the satellite view screen.
Compared to external GPS satellite locks this works in a strangely different way. You will see the bars jumping around from a lock on this one to that one continuously. Only a problem as I say when there are only a few satellites in sight.
Mike
PS - I cannot see the advantage of GPSGate in this particular situation as it is due to momentary periods when no satellite is detected.
Having said all of the above, I find the GPS perfectly adequate for general use. Perhaps if I need spot on plotting data then it might be weak. However if I need that unusual level of accuracy I would not use my phone to do it. I regularly use mine in place of my car's tomtom and the results are on a par with the full tomtom device.

mikechannon said:
Actually I'm not so sure we have defined the problem accurately here.
Examining the signal from the GPS shows some interesting info.
1
A satellite is locked onto for perhaps only one or two seconds at a time.
2
Several satellites can achieve a lock but out of these a few will be lost every few seconds
3
New satellites are also acquired every few seconds.
The Result
If you are in the presence of many satellites then there is a constant dropping of some and locking onto others. This leads to no problems as there are always a few satellites locked on and data flow is smooth.
BUT
If you are in the presence of only say 2 or 3 satellites it is possible to drop these two or three (as indicated above), but no new ones are acquired. In this situation there will be a few seconds before the first 2 or 3 lock in again. Result a gap in data flow to your GPS software.
Meaning
The Internal GPS is not polling data in bursts. In other words you cannot turn up the frequency of data polling (possible baud rate adjustment maybe). The data is continuous but if there are too few satellites then there can be gaps where it drops some satellites and does not lock others.
There are various applications that can show this behaviour graphically but tomtom shows it well on the satellite view screen.
Compared to external GPS satellite locks this works in a strangely different way. You will see the bars jumping around from a lock on this one to that one continuously. Only a problem as I say when there are only a few satellites in sight.
Mike
PS - I cannot see the advantage of GPSGate in this particular situation as it is due to momentary periods when no satellite is detected.
Having said all of the above, I find the GPS perfectly adequate for general use. Perhaps if I need spot on plotting data then it might be weak. However if I need that unusual level of accuracy I would not use my phone to do it. I regularly use mine in place of my car's tomtom and the results are on a par with the full tomtom device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I believe that it is time to explain a little bit how GPS works.
The GPS satellites are transmitting their position rapidly. However, due to homeland security issues (US did not want to allow anyone to place a receiver in a jet fighter or a missile) civilian GPS receivers are limited to aquire position every 1 second only. This is not a problem for a normal user even for civilian aviation. Thus, when you look at the NMEA stream, you will see it coming in bursts and not as rapid as normal data. Since GPS strings are quite short, it is good enough for any navigation system.
Number of satellites aquired is not an indicator to anything. Like any RF system, the engineers can tweak the noise level so that it will look to you that you are receiving X amount of satellites, the signal is on the air anyway.
What is important though is the position of the satellites. the closer to the horizon, the less useable that satellite is to calulate the position. Therefore receivers are taking the best located satellites into account and ignoring others even of they are recieved. Valid fix (position) is aquired by at least 3 satellites for 2D (X,Y) and 4 or more for 3D (with elevation).
Result is that as a user, you should not bother too much looking into the stream or number of sattelite in use as long as you can get a valid fix. The important and effective elements are hidden from the user: number of transsistors in the GPS chipset, quality of antenna etc. User can just evaluate the overall preformance.
As I wrote above, the Kaiser integrated GPS surprised me for superb preformance. I just arrived this week from Israel to Germany and could get a fix as soon as I left the underground garage. I did not loose GPS signal even once since I started using the device. That includes forests and dence city centers. Real good job by HTC here.

This is the problem i am facing:
Im using MapKing with Hong Kong 2007 maps. Getting a fix is no problem. I can normally get a fix in about 10-15 secs. When i check the status page I will normally have a connection to 5-7 satelites.
The problem is that the icon does not move smoothly when i travel. In map king your position on the map is represented by a small car icon. It jumps from location to location every 3-5 secs but does not smoothly move along. Can someone please tell me if this is the case with tomtom as well? Maybe it a problem with mapking?

phame said:
This is the problem i am facing:
Im using MapKing with Hong Kong 2007 maps. Getting a fix is no problem. I can normally get a fix in about 10-15 secs. When i check the status page I will normally have a connection to 5-7 satelites.
The problem is that the icon does not move smoothly when i travel. In map king your position on the map is represented by a small car icon. It jumps from location to location every 3-5 secs but does not smoothly move along. Can someone please tell me if this is the case with tomtom as well? Maybe it a problem with mapking?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a Mapking problem and you should contact their support. Does not happen to me with Destinator, TomTOm and Ozi.

Ok, there is no point to argue, if you really find yourself having problem with GPS update lag, then give it a try. No harm indeed...
In HK, there are people the validity of the work around. GPS proxy might also work as well( i think it is the same principal) just i wasn't aware of this good free software before hand..
http://www11.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=5329804&extra=page=2
(u need an account and some chinese word knowledge)

trueman12345 said:
Ok, there is no point to argue, if you really find yourself having problem with GPS update lag, then give it a try. No harm indeed...
In HK, there are people the validity of the work around. GPS proxy might also work as well( i think it is the same principal) just i wasn't aware of this good free software before hand..
http://www11.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=5329804&extra=page=2
(u need an account and some chinese word knowledge)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quite agree it's worth trying, and the application has other uses too.
Mike

FYI: I got GPS to work easily by installing GPSViewer, opening COM4/4800baud and getting located. After that, using Google Maps was a breeze; total "trick" took me about 1 minute to figure out which is way quicker than some other workarounds on the internet.

I was driving with iGuidance for about 1 hour this morning and I'm seeing different behavoir for this bug. iGuidance also has an excellent GPS signal viewer, mine was showing 8 out of 8 sattellites, all green, all the time (they turn red when not receiving signal from a sat). My map was moving about once per second or slightly faster. The program only paused once after about 30 minutes into the trip, for about 20-30 seconds. The iGuidance program's moving arrow's color also changes color based on signal quality of the combined sattelite lock, Green for good 3D mapping, Yellow for 2D when there are minimal sats for navigating, and Red for no signal data. During this pause the arrow went Red to indicate no data.
This seems like a bug to me.

Dead horse beating: Kaiser vs Visiontac GPS Tomtom review

I went through a few Windows Smartphones before getting my first PPC (a Motorola MPx) just over a year ago. I already had a Bluetooth GPS receiver: Visiontac VGPS 700 I was trying to use it with my Motorola A1200, with no luck. However, with the MPx, and Tomtom, I was able to navigate via GPS with my own GPS system as it were.
That setup quickly (within weeks) gave way to a Cingular 8525 paired to the Visiontac GPS and away I went. I travel a lot for work. From So Cal to (this past year) Mass (Boston), NYC, Kentucky, Ohio, Tenn, Utah, Arizona, NM, and so on. I've used the 8525 in all kinds of areas, from urban areas like San Francisco, NYC, Philly, LA, Cincinnati, Chicago, and so on to areas in the relative middle of nowhere such as the So Cal desert, some areas of Kentucky, PA, and TN I've been to the last year (way, way off the nearest road). Since I've had it, I've put probably driven 20,000-30,000 miles with the Visiontac and Tomtom on. I've got a decent idea of how quick it takes to get a lock when cold, how long to get a lock after getting off a plane in another portion of the country, and how many satellites it shows in Tomtom. I've checked it against hundreds of roadside speed warning signs, and used it to calibrate the speedometers of three Jeeps now.
Then, a last week, I get the ATT Tilt (aka 8925, aka Kaiser). I move my 6gb micro SD across to it, fire up Tomtom (which I've always run off the card- it makes it easier when flashing every other week.) and go. After getting the com port dialed in (COM 4) and the baud rate (started at 4800 like many on here said, now on 57500) I've noticed that the internal GPS of the Kaiser just doesn't compare with the Visiontac bluetooth unit.
I went to San Fran this weekend (from Riverside- about 380 miles) and drove around town up there all weekend using the new phone for directions. I put about 1100 miles on the vehicle, and the navigation on the Kaiser. After losing signal in some areas of the city and having to drive until it found a satellite again and recalculated a route, where I didn't remember losing it before on the old setup, and noting that instead of 5 bars shown for signal as on the Hermes, I see a fluxuating 3-5 bars on the Kaiser.
So, this morning on the way in to work, I fire up both units, side by side to see what the deal is. I was wondering if the Kaiser really was lacking where the Visiontac/Hermes setup didn't seem to be.
Sure enough, the Kaiser running Tomtom 6 shows 3-5 (most often 4) bars on open freeway where the Hermes shows 5 bars. In the GPS configuration settings on Tomtom I find what I believe to be the answer. The Visiontac GPS tracks 12 satellites, the Kaiser, tracks only 8 most of the time, occasionally will track 12.
If that wasn't enough to cause me to lose direction and location, the Visiontac GPS appears more sensitive. The way Tomtom shows how good the signal is, is by the height of a particular satellite's bar on a bar graph. If you were to divide the bar into 5ths, the Visiontac seems to constantly be a fifth higher (20% more sensitive) than the Kaiser's built in GPS.
As for battery usage, I get about 3.5 hours of navigation (along with a few phone calls using the Jawbone headset) with the Kaiser before I get the "charge battery to prevent data loss" warning. On the Hermes, I get about 5.5 hours, with the Visiontac GPS able to run to almost 8 hours before needing a recharge. I expected a loss in battery power, due to the unit also having to power the GPS chip. I'm not sure I expected 2 hours, but I'm not completely bummed over it. My GPS usage is largely in a vehicle, or inside, to find out how far something is, so I can plug it in if needed.
I have also noticed that Tomtom is faster to start on the Kaiser. It is faster to allow you to type in addresses to navigate to, or points of interest to look up, and it calculates the route quicker. Key press response in general are quicker than on the Hermes. I expected a little quicker, thanks to the added RAM, but not this much- they both have 400 mhz chipsets. Granted, it still isn't instant, but it is an improvement.
Phone Specs at time of test said:
Hermes:
Running Starbase64's 6 3.62 WWE/HTC Rom for Hermes
Stock Battery
Kaiser:
Running ATT as-delivered ROM 1.57.502.2 (08/25/07)
Stock Battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Overall:
I just wish there was a way to up the sensitivity and/or the number of satellites that the Kaiser's GPS tracked. Compared to the Visiontac VGPS 700, it just can't compete in urban environs or in heavily wooded areas. It looses signal too easily. And, while I haven't tried some of the larger bridges around here yet, I am left wondering how it will do under them. Aside from that, it is great to not have to carry around two items to navigate, I have no more bluetooth receiver falling off my dash when going around a corner, and if I have my phone, I can find a place for dinner, or find my way out of an unfamiliar area with 90 percent confidence. The Kaiser is quicker than the Hermes for navigation, and overall is accurate, however it does leave a little to be desired. Am I happy I went to the Kaiser? Absolutely. Am I going to be selling my Hermes and Visiontac? (the original plan) Probably not for a while.
Hopefully this helps any who are later to the game than I am and/or still sitting on the fence trying to decide whether or not to jump in.

Would adding the external antenna help, for the areas whre it is a pain?
I don't know what it looks like or how painful that would be, but it may be an option.

I'm not completely happy with the GPS performance of my Tytn2. I had a MDA Vario (pre-pre-decessor of the Tytn2) and an external Adapt-700 bt unit. That one worked brilliantly. Even inside a Renault (with the coated windows) it worked flawless. Alway perfect reception. It's different with my Tytn2. In the morning, it takes some time to get a fix. I was used to 10-15 seconds before a fix was there. Now it is sometimes 1 minute.
But...I've notices something. The QuickGPS program makes it work a lot better. I knew that it should improve the performance, but the program is a bit misleading. It says that once you retrieved the data, it's valid for six days. So...you'd be in the clear for the rest of the week so to say. But I noticed that when you do a 'refresh' in the morning (every day), it works much, much better. I can even get a fix where it wouldn't before.
So, my tip would be to run the QuickGPS every day, or every time before a drive.

Over2land
Another question. How well is TomTom performing for you 'quality of mapwise'? I've read a few posts complaining about how old the maps are for Nagigator 6, and especially for the U.S. Also comments about 'no rumored upgrade' for Navigator 6.
I just purchased it, so I got it for whatever it's worth. But just curious about what you are seeing.

ewingr said:
Over2land
Another question. How well is TomTom performing for you 'quality of mapwise'? I've read a few posts complaining about how old the maps are for Nagigator 6, and especially for the U.S. Also comments about 'no rumored upgrade' for Navigator 6.
I just purchased it, so I got it for whatever it's worth. But just curious about what you are seeing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Missed the first question, sorry.
I have no idea if an external wired GPS antenna would help it. I would hazard to say it couldn't hurt. However, with the Hermes, there was evidence put forth that the external antenna (for the radio/GSM) fried the output circuits or some such, rendering it useless as a phone. I'd be worried about that happening here. Also, I've got like 5 vehicles on the road right now I rotate through, or try to rotate through, and a hard-mounted wired antenna wouldn't work for me.
In San Fran, there are issues with Tomtom not knowing where and when I can or can't turn a certain direction which really annoyed me. In So Cal, there are certain areas (understandable with the housing boom) that it just doesn't have on the maps. Areas that are 3 or 4 years old still aren't there. I've also noticed the same thing in NJ, intersections don't exist in the maps and so forth. I guess really there is something I've noted everywhere I've gone. Tomtom always gets me there, often with less fan trouble than if I was one my own, I find it more accurate than Mapquest also.
They really do need map updating.
And, they really need to look at updating quickest routes. Half the time in my local area, I don't follow Tomtom's freeway suggestions due to congestion, which is persistent congestion that should be noted. Areas like the 15/91 interchange, the 10 between the 5 and 405, the 10 where it drops south to hit the 60, and so on.
Then again, I've not used any other map/ turn by turn software so I have nothing to compare it against either.

ewingr said:
Would adding the external antenna help, for the areas whre it is a pain?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still have an external GPS antenna in my car. I didn't have time to hook it up yet, but I'll check if it makes a difference. With my previous GPS receiver, which I kept in my glove compartiment (hence the antenna), it worked well. Not that it was really needed, but I just wanted optimal reception.

This is a great post. I am trying to buy a used kaiser now so I don't need a extra gps receiver. Seems I need to consider it again.

What ROM are you using on your Kaiser? There have been great differences in GPS performance between ROMs. From general advice AGPS should be disabled too for best performance.
Personally I'm very happy with mine, I'm working a lot with different GPS modules, and the performance is as good as the best ones I have. Sat count might be a bit lower (which gives fewer bars in TomTom), but the performance is really similar.
As already noted, an external antenna could help. The typical GPS antenna you'll find in a stand-alone module is a 25x25x4mm ceramic block weighing 30gr, no need to say that it's impossible to fit such a thing in a phone, so obviously the integrated antennas in those are a lot less sensitive.
Of course our uses are different and if you always use the combo in your car it doesn't matter much if you have 2 separate devices. I tend to rather use it walking, running, biking, flying so in lots of different places and with a separate receiver I would of course not have it with me most of the times I'd have needed it. Having the integrated one is great for me, even if there's a little tradeoff in performance.

I am using Romeos 4.2 and have never had a problem with my gps on mt TYTNII. I get a fix indoors which I cannot do with my Garmin Rino no external antenna required.

Kaiser GPS - Strange FIX (12427 Meters below zero)

GPS on my Kaiser always worked fine until yesterday.
Now i only get a fix with 2 sats. I'm from Germany and GPS Tuner says my position is
48°51'59,000''N
13°2'36,237''E
-12426m haha... somewhere underwater?
speed sometimes over 600 km/h ...
Google Maps says it can't get my Position,
TomTom shows the worng Position above.
I updated QuickGPS data a few times with no errors, but still can't get it to work. Strange...
I will test my external GPS Mouse when its battery is full... still loading

xsmiler said:
GPS on my Kaiser always worked fine until yesterday.
Now i only get a fix with 2 sats. I'm from Germany and GPS Tuner says my position is
48°51'59,000''N
13°2'36,237''E
-12426m haha... somewhere underwater?
speed sometimes over 600 km/h ...
Google Maps says it can't get my Position,
TomTom shows the worng Position above.
I updated QuickGPS data a few times with no errors, but still can't get it to work. Strange...
I will test my external GPS Mouse when its battery is full... still loading
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read this before. Some guy was having the same issue but only when he was in cemetery. Really. Try to search and u will find his thread.

I got erroneous data from Tomtom once when I was walking near Eton College (tall buildings surrounding narrow streets). It said I was travelling at about 190 mph through some place that sounded French (cant remember the name). Shutting down Navigator and restarting it and a soft reset didn't make any difference. For a while I thought a hardware fault had developed with the device because it was just after I started using Bluetooth for the first time with it. As I have no customisation on my device other than the addition of Tomtom Navigator and Microsoft’s Date and Time update for Daylight Saving (my media files are on microSD as is Tomtoms map and voices), I performed a hard reset. All is now well and Tomtom is back to normal and hasn't posed this problem since. I haven't been back to Eton so I don't know if the location played a part in bringing on the problem.

Ok, today I walked around a litte bit and now it works! I did nothing. I think this is a problem of bad GPS reception. The Problem only occured when I was surrounded by buildings.

xsmiler said:
Ok, today I walked around a litte bit and now it works! I did nothing. I think this is a problem of bad GPS reception. The Problem only occured when I was surrounded by buildings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably you where near some powerful RF transmitters with very close frequency of that one used by satellites.
Medical equipment also generate spurious harmonics that could make any GPS radio receiver crazy.

Hi, I face a similar issue at the beach in front of my house - it shows me as -44 m for the altitude at the beach. everywhere else, e.g. in cities, it shows up fine.
Ghost in the Tytn2? who knows...

i have tested this issue. i stood under high tension power lines and 100 feet from them (high emf field) this caused bad data, also had my tomtom with me (bad data as well). there are many variables that can cause incorrect data. emf field, signal blocked, use the htc gps tool next time and see how many sats your locked on, next time this problem happens. I personally have found that less than 4 fixed sat's will throw off gps data, since the kaiser/tilt dosn't have waas correction built in. I have a gps puck with waas correction and tested under to 100 feet from high tension power lines and recepion and correction was 60% better. i have even noticed in my car (metal all around) the fix is about 30ft off, wich isint bad for a gps non waas. experiment a little bit. But make sure you use quick gps.
also the resonant freq that gps uses is 1575.42 Mhz, so if there are transmitters in the area with a freq in the range you will be subject to interference. 1240.000 - 1400.000 mhz is in the amateur radio band, this could also throw off spurious harmonics, so if you have a amateur radio operator around you, this could also be a part of your problem. and if any of you seen my username you also might know that im a amateur radio operator, so when it comes to amateur radio and frequiencies i know what im talking about.
ohh yea forgot to ad 1.7-80mhz is in the ballpark for broadband over powerline (BPL) this has been known to interfear with damn near everything. so if your one of those unlucky people that live in a BPL enabled area this could also be a huge factor. read more about bpl (i am very against this). http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fc...portadobe/ntia_bpl_report_04-413_volume_i.pdf

Turning Static Navigation off in Diamond?

Hi there,
It's indeed confirmed now that the gps chipset in diamond is Static navigation enabled, i.e. it won't refresh your location and speed if you are walking, it'll just lock your last gps location instead of updating it continuously while you walk. So it's nearly makes it impossible to walk to your destination i.e. you can't geocache at all.
I hope anybody has some clue about turning it off.

Have you tried something like SirfTech - if you can get it to connect to the internal GPS device (and assuming it is a SirfStar chipset, which I still don't know for sure?) then you should be able to toggle the static navigation setting. There are instructions right at the very bottom of that page on how to adjust the static navigation setting.
The other remaining question is how long this change will persist - hopefully it should persist until the battery is removed, but it depends how the power to the GPS receiver is switched - it's possible that switching off the PDA, or even putting it into standby, could cause the GPS receiver state to reset to default.

Its not a sirf chipset and those tools wont work on it

someone1234 said:
Its not a sirf chipset and those tools wont work on it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that. I guess we people will have to live with it. There's a HTC GPS utility from HTC which works on this qualcomm chip but I am no expert if there's any setting which can turn static navigation off. For someone wanna give a try to the HTC tool, download the attached file.

i just did a quick test with Diamond running TomTom walking along the street. It works fine in pedestrian mode. My actual postion was accurate at all times during the test. Diamond GPS is suitable for navigation in pedestrian mode.

Probably you have not tryed with some device with really good SirfStar III GPS, like ETEN X500.

@panosha
my point is: walking navigation mode is indeed available with Diamond running TomTom. I am not to compare GPS performance of Diamond directly with Sirf III equipped devices.
That said, if you take a look at my signature, you would certainly notice that I have also few HTC Sirf III equipped phones presently and not to mention TomTom GO 510. I am quite certain that Diamond is quite usable for walking routes..

Is usable for walking routes, but it has mediocre behavior for this use, concerning the good GPS devices.

@panosha.
mediocre behavior indeed.
I was referring to the very first post in this thread:
.. it won't refresh your location and speed if you are walking, it'll just lock your last gps location instead of updating it continuously while you walk. So it's nearly makes it impossible to walk to your destination i.e. you can't geocache at all...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, it will refresh GPS location as you walk.
yes, it will update GPS position fairly constantly.
yes, it is possible to walk to a destination and geocache.

Sorry but I have to disagree.
While the Diamond keeps up with a standalone device while driving, I took them both out walking today and the Diamond is terrible while walking. In fact I did the route three times and it was always approximately 30 feet out of synch which is no good at all in a city environment.
If anyone has any idea how to improve this I'd certainly be happy to hear it.
I have a P1i and external receiver and at this rate I may have to return the Diamond and go back to it, which is a shame.

Yeah. That's the point. It indeed keeps up while driving but crap while walking.

Folks, I think it would be really important to find a solution for this problem.
It seems that it has definitely to do with static navigation and
is no problem of any kind of application.
Since I have my diamond I used a lot of different gps software,
but the lag is always the same.
This is indeed very bad, thus the reception quality is superb!
My last HTC was a trinity which had also a Qualcom chipset,
but with this device I never noticed such a behavior.
Somehow it must be possible to turn the static navigation of...

Are there any news so far?

I guess nobody could figure it out yet. WE have to keep our fingers crossed

Is there any other news?
Disabling static navigation would be greate!!
Does anyone know the brand/model of the gps chip?

And there's always a lag between your actual position and the position shown in the GPS software....
Sometimes this lag is more than 50m...
HastaSSSS

I am trying to see if the Qualcomm ONEgps - GPS can have its programming changed with QPST, but unfortunately I havent found any information on getting it to run with Diamond. I think that would be the only way to turn off static nav, as the system is not Sifir or what ever its called, so non of the current "static nav" off solutions will work. I have OziExplorer running and I get the issue. I also noticed that there is a lot of unecessary activiting on decent/assend info, its as though it has quite a unstable 3d lock.
Can anyone else using TomTom pedestrian mode could confirm if there is no delay (more then 10-30 seconds) between starting walking and position beginning to update?
Thanks!
D.

does tt has special option for pedestrian? maybe the problem is tt and NOT the hardware (gps-diamond)??
i am using igo and it has special options for pedestrian, for car, bicycle, public transportation and even emergency vehicle. seeing this made me think that the program will react different at different speeds.
i did not tried the pedestrian option but i promise to do it and come back with the results.

Sorry about the dumb question, bust how can I switch to pedestrian mode in TomTom???

It's the same s*ht
The GPS on this receiver, for the time being, really sucks...
I'm hopping that someone will figure out a solution, or with a release of a new radio ROM.
Even when I'm driving, the gps lags so much.... Drives me crazy!
When I stop on a red light, the gps still indicates speed for 15s more or less, until it actually stops on the place where my car actually is...
I wonder if the gou acceleration driver is actually installed...it could happen that this delay is due to the fact that the CPU has to do all the work, and since the resolution is VGA, it means extra work, which the CPU can't handle 100%...
HastaSSSS

AGPS - any proof of it working/providing benefit? (new topic - pls read!)

Now please no groaning when you see this topic. I know the GPS has been hammered to death on these forums; this post is my vein attempt to see if one particular area of interest of mine has at all moved forward.
(let's also side-step the whole "does your GPS lag?" issue here too!)
(..and, for clarify, I'm referring to AGPS as in the use of the mobile phone network to 'assist' positioning by use of triangulation in areas of poor/no GPS reception, and NOT the use of QuickGPS to download current sat. info in an attempt to get a quicker initial fix)
I used to use TomTom Navigator v7.450; it worked (of a fashion! ) although one specific thing that never worked was that whenever AGPS was enabled (using AdvancedConfig or similar) TomTom would get a signal and then immediately drop it again.. on/off on/off etc.. the fix being to disable AGPS.
I must admit I'm suspicious about HTC having their stock ROMs with AGPS disabled by default - especially as this was initially a 'selling point' of the device and part of the sales blurb ("not only does it have GPS but really good GPS using AGPS".. oh the irony!) - have they themselves ever got it to work?!?!
Now TomTom Navigator v7.910 is out (have just installed it myself, currently waiting for an updated map to download). I have seen it muted that this now works with AGPS on the Diamond or maybe the Pro (ie. someone reports the above bug, yet claims it now works having moved to v7.910). Can anyone else confirm this? More importantly, can anyone confirm AGPS has given the Diamond any GPS-related benefit what-so-ever?? (ie. great if it doesn't stop TomTom working anymore, but does it actually improve it like it should?).
I'll of course try it out myself later today or over the weekend and report back.
Hope this makes sense.. cheers.

just tried TomTom 7.910 (9185) with AGPS enabled, and cant say i noticed much difference.
seems the same now with it enable or dissabled. Cant be sure tho, havent done a long journey yet.
Will update later/tomorrow.

mugglesquop said:
just tried TomTom 7.910 (9185) with AGPS enabled, and cant say i noticed much difference.
seems the same now with it enable or disabled. Cant be sure tho, haven't done a long journey yet.
Will update later/tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the time etc.
Interesting, because..
I've just taken a wonder outside and found I'm still getting the signal constantly being lost bug (looking at the screen that shows the sat. bars I have a good signal for a few seconds, then this goes and 'No GPS device' is displayed, then good signal back again and so on).
On this Diamond I'm using ROM 1.93.401.2 the the supplied radio (1.0.25.05), as I suspected this 'improvement' (potentially) noticed by you/others is more likely a result of a ROM/radio update and not a TomTom software update (guessing this AGPS bug isn't the first thing you try after flashing is it?).
Hmm..
nb. I'm using the exact same version/build of TomTom as you

hmmm... yeh, i'm going on a 60+ mile journey later, so will have a play.
Using Dutty's 3.4 ROM and Radio is BS14...

I thought that the whole point of AGPS is so you could help you get a GPS fix when indoors. Which I always thought was an unusual selling point when the entire purpose of GPS software is to help you find your way in the outdoors. Perhaps it could be more useful for those new tagging services that are popping up.
Anyhow I've been running a fairly recent version of iGo8 using Dutty's Rom 3.3 and 3.4 (both with that new radio).
With AGPS turned off, GPS signal is quickly attained and holds strong outdoors. Nothing indoors, naturally.
With AGPS turned on (via Duttys "AGPS Settings" utility), GPS signal is as quickly attained and flickers fully on then fully off, repeating constantly. When indoors, nothing at all.
So, with iGo8, AGPS seems to be a non-runner.
By the way, I once read that AGPS has to be configured to your particular mobile provider. Perhaps that's the issue?

Same here, with a-gps enabled signal drops constantly

after my journey yesterday, had the same problems as above.
tried with TomTom 7 and iGo8

I've never had any problems with GPS apart from slow getting a moving fix when the unit is physically very hot.
The main benefit of AGPS for me is that you can get your location on Google Maps within 1500m or so without enabling GPS.
It also proves A-GPS works.

ben cole said:
I've never had any problems with GPS apart from slow getting a moving fix when the unit is physically very hot.
The main benefit of AGPS for me is that you can get your location on Google Maps within 1500m or so without enabling GPS.
It also proves A-GPS works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, I think this is thanks to googles effort, not AGPS... Google uses Google Gears API which can position you by using basestations and SSIDs.
AGPS is correcting/updating the GPS data with actual almanac data sent from you mobile provider...
Pitchb3nd said:
Same here, with a-gps enabled signal drops constantly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me, anyone being able to use TomTom and AGPS without losing signal periodically?

ben cole said:
I've never had any problems with GPS apart from slow getting a moving fix when the unit is physically very hot.
The main benefit of AGPS for me is that you can get your location on Google Maps within 1500m or so without enabling GPS.
It also proves A-GPS works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah Google Maps does this on its own without having AGPS enabled on the Diamond. I believe AGPS is supposed to be more accurate than 1000m - 1500m though.
Oh and I believe the way that Google Maps gets its position depends on your mobile provider. I used to get the message "your location is not available" constantly on my network but one day (simultaneously as the iPhone was released in my country), the location was available. So I believe that the network flicked a switch for this technology to work.

AGps and TomTom
Hi,
agps have need to run to:
1) Carrier to inform MobilePhone here is (Is a Base Station Issue)
2) Public information about position
On mobilephone if is enable i think is need to have different information, and tomtom have old pattern to process agps information.
With googlemaps have new process and can use.
With my diamond agps run (googlemaps)
Cityhunter71

Please, don't mix the Google technology and A-GPS. They have nothing in common.
Google maintains their own privately held database of GSM-cellids which GMM can query to determine your position based on the current cellid.
A-GPS is a technology where the GSM-basestation itself receives GPS-satellitedata and relays it to the device. With this additional data, the GPS-receiver in the device is supposed to achieve a faster fix.
Have fun!

a-gps works with 7.450
i remember once that it was taking forever for the satelites to be found yet is was updating my postion on the map constantly via a-gps (which im sure was enabled by default in stock rom as ive never changed it)
a-gps is useful inside because you usually have your phone with you and to find a route, you need gps

Apologies for my erroneous post.
I realised my error today when I installed Google Maps on an ageing Blackberry I had unlocked to play with.
Started it up and lo and behold there was my location....thought I'd better head back here to suffer my shame ...LOL

Thanks for the input guys.
So - in summary:
Even with later ROMS / radios / software applications, there is still yet to be seen any benefit from the Diamond (theoretically) having an A-GPS capability.
RUBBISH!!
I personally subscribe to the theory that there is a missing link between the A-GPS driver type software and an info feed from the likes of the network operator, ie. it's all very well it picking up info on the network but without a back-end database to translate this it's useless.
As far as purpose goes.. I personally think A-GPS sounds on paper to be a great idea. Not a replacement for GPS, nor to be used exclusively indoors, but a good aid/starting point. For example, if I'm sitting in an unfamiliar office in London and wanted to use TomTom to navigate me a route to where I want to get to, A-GPS could provide TomTom with a rough starting point. Similarly, I often find myself launch a nav program (when I'm lost!) and standing there for up to 5 mins waiting for a fix.. at least this would give me an approximation from which I could probably work out myself where I was from looking around me. In my mind when you first fire up TomTom on the Diamond A-GPS should simply put you in the right postcode and start doing its stuff while the GPS seeks out its signal, and not still show me as being either at Home or its last known destination. But in any event - it seems not to work!! Bugger!!

I thought that aGPS was also to help hold a GPS signal when in tunnels, canyons, heavy forest cover (ie.Redwoods in this area, many tower to well over 300 feet!) or any situation where the signal from the satellites may be impaired, or even blocked completely.

Im running Duttys 3.5 and with AGPS on I will get a signal for 10 seconds, then it goes for a second, then back for 10. then gone. Turned AGPS off and all is well.

I can confirm that AGPS does work, some parts here in Finland it works and someplaces it does that on off thingy. once when I was just playing with my tomtom it got signal where it would never get it without it. but mostly here it doesnt work properly so i disable it.
But in Helsinki (larger city) it works properly and helps getting signal fast beneath tall buildings.
But yeah it doesnt work in my hometown so its kinda rubbish here.
Maybe it has something to do with how new are nearby cell towers or something. dunno

In Trondheim, Norway it worked with Telenor and gave me a signal indoors, but when I use it together with TomTom the signal gets lost periodicly, really really annoying since "everything" is already there. Probably just something with the co-operation with the regular GPS or something?

I think i got it to run.
I use tt7.910 on diamond with htc 1.93 dutch rom
My mobile provider is mobistar.
I can get a lock inside, tough it's slow(ie not as fast as outside).
When I fire up tt7 the almanac data is showing in the satelite screen.
reg settings are:
Code:
GPRSConnection: Orange World
GpsMode: 4
Network: Orange World
ServerIP: 194.51.71.138
ServerPort: 7275
ServerUrl: agps.orange.fr