Curious GPS Behaviour - Difference between intermediate driver and comm port. - Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General

I´m using Garmin XT on my Diamond.
I´ve found a pretty strange behaviour on the sattelite reception dependent on the gps connection that I pre-select.
I explain myself:
I´ve configured the "software port" for gps on settings to work on comm 4.
Now If I use garmin with intermediate driver, I will get poor satt signal and frecuently satt unlocks and relocks, but still get a signal.
Now, if I use the "software comm port", the satt signal improoves noticeably, and I even get one or two extra signals (quite stronger, probably related to WAAS) that are not getting reported by the "intermediate driver".
Somehow the Diamond can handle better the gps if one use it directly through the software comm port, instead of the intermediate driver.
I would believe that this should behave the same but somehow there are some signals that are being ignored if one goes through intermediate driver.
Any thoughs about this?

Related

Assisted GPS activated and now???

Hi all,
I am using Navigon6 for navigation but while driving in a tunnel navigon says "you have reached the destination" after the tunnel it starts navigating as usual. I now activated "assisted GPS" with the Kaiser Tweak but now? How does it work now? What do I have to do?
Thanks
Michael
micha2802 said:
Hi all,
I am using Navigon6 for navigation but while driving in a tunnel navigon says "you have reached the destination" after the tunnel it starts navigating as usual. I now activated "assisted GPS" with the Kaiser Tweak but now? How does it work now? What do I have to do?
Thanks
Michael
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do nothing! Some people say the tweak works and some don't. It seems to have worked for me. I don't lose signal at this road will lots of trees now (I used to lose signal before I had this tweak applied).
Hi, so I tried the Kaiser with activated A-GPS and Navigon6. As I said I had the problem that Navigon gave the message "Destination reached" while driving through a tunnel. I expected that Navigon, because of a signal from A-GPS, won't bring these message. In the first moment I was happy because the Icon didn't turn to red in a tunnel but then there was the message again. But there is another problem, with activated A-GPS there seems to be some kind of signal (icon doesn't turn red) and because of this Navigon doesn't start routing after the tunnel. So it seems that A-GPS doesn't work together at least with Navigon6. Any ideas?
Cheers
Michael
Hi
I expected that Navigon, because of a signal from A-GPS, won't bring these message.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know A-GPS (QuickGPS on Kaiser) is just for getting initial fix for GPS applications. This helps avoid the initial delay in getting your location, after that it will perform exactly the same.
Regards
Phil
Hi Phil,
OK, I understood what A-GPS does but Navigon should proceed navigation after a tunnel (when GPS signal is back) again even A-GPS is turned on or not?
Cheers
Michael
PhilipL said:
Hi
As far as I know A-GPS (QuickGPS on Kaiser) is just for getting initial fix for GPS applications. This helps avoid the initial delay in getting your location, after that it will perform exactly the same.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PhilipL said:
Hi
As far as I know A-GPS (QuickGPS on Kaiser) is just for getting initial fix for GPS applications. This helps avoid the initial delay in getting your location, after that it will perform exactly the same.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
QuickGPS is indeed a form of Assisted GPS used to quick the initial fix. However, he is talking about the Assisted GPS tweak for use _while_ navigating. It already requires a fix and lets your phone keep on tracking when going through tunnels or when satellite reception is too low. If it works by simple extrapolating direction and speed or uses some sort of GSM tower triangulation technique nobody seems to know. All we know is that the signal doesn't get lost so quickly with it As always with stuff like that, YMMV.
Are we all sure about the definition of "Assisted GPS" - 'cos QuickGPS is not my understanding of it and neither is extrapolating position using GSM tricks when the GPS signal fails.
As far as I am concerned, Assisted GPS is the term to cover a variety of techniques aimed at improving the accuracy of a fix over and above what is possible from just the received satellite signal. WAAS (EGNOS in Europe) is the most common way of doing this but on a device with a built in data connection there are other options. The basic idea is that a variety of factors including interference to the satellite signals as they come through the ionosphere and GPS satellites being out of adjustment can reduce the accuracy of the calculated location. With Assisted GPS, there are a number of base stations dotted around the world at locations which have been very accurately determined by traditional surveying techniques. GPS receivers at each of these locations are continuously calculating their GPS based locations, comparing them with the known, correct location and generating hints in a defined format which other GPS receivers can use to improve the accuracy of their calculations.
The issue then is how to get these hints out in near real-time to the remote GPS receivers. WAAS and EGNOS use dedicated satellites to transmit them back to earth, but these only cover the US and parts of Europe. With a GPS in a mobile phone, you obviously have the possibility of using the data channel to distribute the correction data - a lot cheaper than launching satellites. The EGNOS correction data is already published on their web site - not sure about WAAS - I tend to assume that enabling Assisted GPS on a Kaiser just sets the receiver to downloading the correction data stream off the internet...
Martin
No, that's not Assisted GPS. That's Differential GPS.
Assisted GPS is designed to allow GPS to perform in areas with poor satellite reception, augmenting the fix with information on nearby cell towers (which have known locations and ranges). Also, in most situations, A-GPS also means that the GPS pseudorange processing is offloaded from the phone to the tower (to allow for E911 on phones with insufficient CPU to calculate a GPS fix on their own), but I'm assuming this part of A-GPS is not coming into play here.
Some users from the pocketnavigation forum have the same Problem with the Kaiser/GPS-Chip. It seems to be a really big software/hardware bug.
By loosing the signal in the tunnel the gps chip stops to send any information to the Navigon-software. That's the problem: The required systemtime for further navigation is missing.
So Navigon tells you: You've reached your destination.
Any Firmwareupdates for this Problem?
Greetings
As far as I understood it, QuickGPS is downloading the satellite almanac from the internet, instead of getting it through the GPS. A GPS which has not been turned on for a while will get this almanac even without internet connection, but it takes about 15 minutes to download it (happens automatically in any GPS unit). Getting it from the internet saves you these 15 minutes, but if you have used your GPS recently for more than a 15 minutes period, QuickGPS should not make any difference.
The almananac for the GPS satellites is like a sun or moon almanac, just for satellites instead. This means that if you have a current almanac, and your GPS knows your rough position, then the almanac will tell the GPS where it should expect to see the satellites. This includes which of the satellites are visible on a given position on the earth (roughly around a third of them), and at what azimuth and elevation. GPS satellites are orbiting the Earth in intervals of just under 12 hours in certain orbits, intercepting the Equator at 55 degree angles (which means that they will cross 55 deg North/South when they are closest to either pole). Since they are more than 20000 km out, this is not a problem if you are actually on or close to either pole, but it means that you will not see satellites right above you at either pole. WAAS satellites are geostationary (which means they can only be somewhere over Equator at about 36000 km orbit), and these satellites do not transmit normal position and time information like the other satellites (SVs) in the GPS system, but precision and integrity information. Put in other words, they tell the GPS receiver 1) Is the signal in your area good or bad and 2) What vector to correct your measured position in whatever area your GPS says you are in. Similar for LAAS units, although they differ in being local area only but on the other hand, more precise. LAAS units are called pseudolites, because they act almost like satellites, though they are really not. For aviation, LAAS enables precision auto-landings in "zero weather" for the same reason, but since the LAAS station is on or close to the surface of the Earth, it only works when in line-of-sight of it.
The problem I am experiencing is if I turn my GPS off and move it a couple of hundred of miles and then turn it on again. This is usually when I am flying, and as we all know, the battery of the Kaiser is not really built for powering the unit for very long! When I turn the GPS on after for intance an hour or so, it still assumes the original position, and it will sometimes get a lock on on or two satellites only, trying desparately to maintain that position. Knowing how the GPS satellites interpolates via a time-shifting technique, I can see why this happens, as it gets a false fix. Aviation grade GPS systems will never lock on to anything less than 3 satellites for a 2D fix, and prefers 5 or 6 satellites minimum for integrity reasons (called RAIM).
What I think is the real problem is that these end user GPS systems for road use have to be more sensitive, so they can be used behind shielded windows and poor reception areas in buildings etc. Trees with many leaves can be an issue also, although clouds are no factor in this equation. Sunspots can blind the system completely if they are strong enough, and that is why eLORAN is an update to the LORAN-C system which is currently being considered for backup purposes mainly.
So, my Kaiser and other end user GPS units will be less restrictive for a good quality fix, and accept second guessing the position, where as aviation and other critical uses of GPS have to have a good position.
We need a GPS utility for the Kaiser GPS to carry out a position reset so it can do a new fix.
Hi guys,
OK I understood what A-GPS is but there is still the issue that Navigon really stops Navigation if the signal is lost when A-GPS is turned on.
If A-GPS is turned of there is also the message "destination reached" but after the tunnel it starts navigating again. Any idea on this?
Cheers
Michael
micha2802 said:
Hi guys,
OK I understood what A-GPS is but there is still the issue that Navigon really stops Navigation if the signal is lost when A-GPS is turned on.
If A-GPS is turned of there is also the message "destination reached" but after the tunnel it starts navigating again. Any idea on this?
Cheers
Michael
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds more like a bug in Navigon more than anything, check for updates on their site.
A-GPS for Mobile devices as said by some in this thread, extrapolates from the last vector information of the GPS using also information of cell location (in some countries this info is not available due to Gov restrictions) and inserts new data available for any app when signal loss is present from the GPS unit, thus reducing the 'Lost satellite reception' on your app. On WM devices, we are not looking directly at the GPS output but at a 'handler' at com4 able to supply GPS information to more than one app at a time. This is where A-GPS and QuickGPS insert their data when needed. A-GPS just directly inserts nomal NMEA data stream whereas QuickGPS sends the latest Ephemeris data it has downloaded for satellites saving the GPS unit wasting time downloading it from the sats themselves at turn on.
It does seem that Navigon can not resume from the handover back to normal data as other apps can. The fact that it even says 'Destination reached' in a tunnel without A-GPS shows an inherent problem!

Wifi signal gone

When on wifi my kaiser seems to loose the signal and picks it up again.
its just going on and off.
No problem with the routersignal all wireless computers work fine.
anyone knows about this problem?
cbgnl said:
When on wifi my kaiser seems to loose the signal and picks it up again.
its just going on and off.
No problem with the routersignal all wireless computers work fine.
anyone knows about this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you put the slider to best performance rather than best battery?
Yes i did
never had the problem with the tytn and wizard.
I only get that on my TyTN II when I'm far away from the router and the signal strength is low. If you've already set the performance vs battery life slider to give maximum performance as suggested by kareem9nba and it's still behaving as reported, what happens when you're near to the router?
If it's just that your saying the range isn't as good as youve been used to with other devices, I have nothing to compare my TyTN II with as this is my first WiFi capable ppc - but I'm sure other more experienced members here will be able to comment. If you're near to the router where there's no doubt it should be working fine and still getting problems then thats a different matter.
maybe your router needs a restart or maybe its just faulty.
have you tried other devices with same router?
try a wifi sniffer/scanner see what happens (a good example would be PeekPocket)
mospantagruel said:
maybe your router needs a restart or maybe its just faulty.
have you tried other devices with same router?
try a wifi sniffer/scanner see what happens (a good example would be PeekPocket)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All other devices doenst have the problem output signal is ok but i ll try peekpocket
Flying Kiwi said:
I have nothing to compare my TyTN II with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do! My Kaiser's performance is on a par with my old HTC Universal, which is to say, they are both terrible at getting a signal. I don't think my Kaiser is faulty as back in the Universal forums, it was often commented how useless the WiFi was in comparison to other machines. I used to have a HP Ipaq 5450 which could get a signal upto approx 20m from my router, my laptop starts struggling at around 50m. The Universal could just about get a signal upto 4m away, the Kaiser is no better.
I realise much of this is due router location and the fact that I was trying to get WiFi in my garage, but in my bedroom with a full signal on the laptop, the HTC devices struggle to get more than 1 bar and if I move 10cm further away from the router the signal goes completely.
I think the WiFi on the Universal and the Kaiser just isn't that powerful. I guess it's Maximum Performance setting is still quite low power in order to save battery life. Wonder if there is a registry tweek to increase the power to the WiFi card, and if doing that would blow the card?!
Steve-C said:
The Universal could just about get a signal upto 4m away, the Kaiser is no better.
I realise much of this is due router location and the fact that I was trying to get WiFi in my garage, but in my bedroom with a full signal on the laptop, the HTC devices struggle to get more than 1 bar and if I move 10cm further away from the router the signal goes completely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using an 11 Mbps Wifi capable router (about 2003 vintage) and even with a wall and a floor between my TyTN II and the router it still works about 15 m away, I've yet to try any further as that'd be outside the house. I was impressed to see it even detected other WiFi sources in the area though. I found that even though the signal quality bar was fluctuating, my web browsing still worked OK. Bumping the slider towards the performance end did make a difference to the signal quality indicator (although it still fluctuated). If your TyTN II is only working up to 4 m from your router then I think there's a fault with either device, you should be getting better than that.
I can connect to my linksys WRT54G when beside the it and 20mt away. Even when beside it the TynII will cycle off (disconnect) and then reconnect again. I thought it was signal strength but I am beginning to think its just a crappy wifi setup on the tyn. I also have my slider on best performance.
Flying Kiwi said:
I'm using an 11 Mbps Wifi capable router (about 2003 vintage)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny that, so am I! However I bought it because it was cheap and I really didn't know much about WiFi etc several years ago when I bought it. I notice many routers come with external antenna's, mine is all internal so I would think that it's more my router isn't that powerful, combined with the Kaiser having a less powerful WiFi set-up that older models. To be fair, the Ipaq had an external antenna (of sorts, a little lump on top) and my previous laptops didn't have built in WiFi, their external WiFi adaptors also had external antenna's.
Frankly I think that all this internalisation of components is having a negative impact on signal strength and range. To compare I have a GSM car kit with an external antenna that picks up a much better signal than a phone on it's own. Likewise my GPS can be connected to an external antenna and I've noticed when connected it will pick up more satalites, with a stronger lock, than when on it's built in antenna. It also picks up more than the Kaiser (internal antenna) or Universal (external bluetooth GPS with internal antenna) ever do.
Still, it all just about works for my needs, so I'm going to leave well alone!
Juzzman said:
I can connect to my linksys WRT54G when beside the it and 20mt away. Even when beside it the TynII will cycle off (disconnect) and then reconnect again. I thought it was signal strength but I am beginning to think its just a crappy wifi setup on the tyn. I also have my slider on best performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same problem... i hope that's a firmware problem....
checked
i checked signal and even did hard reset on kaiser.
i still have full signal and goes to zero all the time
no clue here
eipiklein said:
i have the same problem... i hope that's a firmware problem....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But does this actually affect your browsing? In the end the signal quality bar can do whatever it wants as long as the data still gets through as far as I'm concerned and for me that’s happening. My hunch is that the reason why the signal quality bar intermittently dips down (even when nearby a router) is associated with power management on the TyTN II (which will still be in place to a certain degree even when the performance vs. battery life slider is fully at the performance end).
Flying Kiwi said:
But does this actually affect your browsing? In the end the signal quality bar can do whatever it wants as long as the data still gets through as far as I'm concerned and for me that’s happening. My hunch is that the reason why the signal quality bar intermittently dips down (even when nearby a router) is associated with power management on the TyTN II (which will still be in place to a certain degree even when the performance vs. battery life slider is fully at the performance end).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really i can't connect to my wifi router, while other hardware can (a laptop for example). it loops from "connecting" to "available" with 5 bars. but nevers connect or never shows an error. i tried open, WEP, WPA, WPA2 with no results... its a compatibility problem of TYTN II with some routers....
i hope that upgrading firmware, this problem dissapear....
Hi
My experience isn't that the signal itself is particlarly poor, but that it can be prone to loose connection regularly if its very weak. Atm I'm sitting some 150m from the accesspoint (quite powerfull transmitter), through a couple of concrete walls and its fast, as in almost so fast as the Kaiser can chew. Livestreaming from Youtube is np etc. The signal is no doubt very poor tho, and I have to use max signal/minimum battery on that bar you can adjust.
What drives me nuts is that it DCs me and often force me to key in the network key randomly every 1 to 20mins or so. I don't know if this is due to weak signal (both my laptop and the kaiser have 1 bar) or config of the wlan/kaiser. The PC dont DC, but its deffo a cranky connection. It almost seems like theres some auto-DC feature somewhere.
On other networks I haven't seen this. Generally I find the Kaiser wlan surprisingly powerfull, albeit it often shows a weak signal I've found this to be very relative and far from always descriptive of real life performance.
/Mac
kaiser wifi low signal - wi fi poor reception - wifi disconnecting and reconnecting:
Suffered a lot with my kaiser wifi poor reception. Tested several radio versions and could solve the problem.
Radio version:
1 71 09 01 - too low WIFI reception
1.27.12.11 - disconnecting and turning OFF the WIFI with no automatic reengage of the access point or turning ON the WIFI if coverage is good.
1.65.17.56 is the versione that SOLVED my problem.
This radio was collected from the original HTC shipped rom:
RUU_Kaiser_HTC_WWE_3.28.405.0_radio_sign_25.83.40.02_1.65.17.56_Ship.exe
In this moment I am running Radio 1.65.17.56 with
ROM jjblaster3 - updated 28014 with good WIFI behaviour.
I need to underline that the reception I have now with the Kaiser, can never reach the sensibility of my Nokia 5530 WIFI or the one I have on my laptop with good antenna embeded in my LCD framem but I am happy now because the WIFI is making sense now.
Best Regards
cbgnl said:
When on wifi my kaiser seems to loose the signal and picks it up again.
its just going on and off.
No problem with the routersignal all wireless computers work fine.
anyone knows about this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm facing the same problem. WiFi worked fine and one day it was suddenly gone. Tried quite a few radios, including 1.65.17.56 and still no deal.
To elaborate, when WiFi is turned on, the icon never even comes up in the taskbar, and it continues to remain in an off state (when checked in wifi settings) even when it's turned on (in the comm manager).
I'm guessing this could be a hardware problem like a loose contact to the antenna? Anyone heard of such issues?
(On a side note, the phone function never worked either, I always got a "No Service")
I've fixed it! I believe the problem was indeed a loose antenna. I opened up my phone and removed the antenna peice (the plastic plate that also houses the speaker) and pushed up the two pins left of the camera (so that they'll have better contact with the antenna piece. Put everything back and now the WiFi works!
Now if only I can figure out why the cellular doesn't work..

WiFi is too weak

This is my first experience with a Windows Mobile device.
I just installed L26 WM 6.1 Professional WWE V6a ROM (CE OS 5.2.19170 (Build 19170.1.0.0)), which comes with R 1.58.26.20 radio.
What I notice is that the WiFi reception of my Kaiser is too weak. In spots where laptops show weak signal, but still connect reliably, this thing cannot connect al all. At home, where it detects a strong signal, it drops the connection avery hour, or so and the only way to reconnect is to turn off - turn on the WiFi.
If this normal for these devices, or I am having some kind of problem. If you think I have a problem - any suggestions how to fix it?
Yeah it's common. The Tilt doesn't have a dedicated antenna like your laptop does. Most of them have an antenna routed around your LCD screen.
Can something be done to improve the WiFi reception? Some registry thack?
Go to WiFi power mode and select "Best performance" did the trick for me though the already power hungry tilt will get oven more hungry :-(
There is a setting that can adjust the amount of battery life consumed by the WiFi. I'm not sure if its related to the bandwith it uses or the extent to which it tries to find a signal. I tried it out in the hospital and the connection strength didn't change from the lowest->highest setting.
I'm sure there is something to be done on the software side though.
I set the WiFi power mode to "Best Performance". I don't notice improvement in the strenght of signal. But now the battery dosn't last even 8 hours in sleep mode. I leave my Tilt fully charged in the evening and in the morning it is dead.
juliank said:
I set the WiFi power mode to "Best Performance". I don't notice improvement in the strenght of signal. But now the battery dosn't last even 8 hours in sleep mode. I leave my Tilt fully charged in the evening and in the morning it is dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disable the wifi when not in use.
May I ask what you WiFi while you sleep - LOL
Switch services OFF when not needed (as the poster before said).
OT:
If you want superb battery live for example use 3G only "when needed" (internet, wireless modem). Install Chi-Tai's battery status tool and enable the the feature to see how much power is drawn from the battery. You will be amazed how much you can conserve by setting things up right even by changing the order of program load at startup... My idle comes down to 53-72 mA and I have not drainage problem anymore (at least for now :-()
WIFI very poor
I gave off my HTC P3600(Trinity) and purchased a TyTN II(Kaisar) in the hope of getting better options, particularly on WIFI. I was disappointed and I think Trinity is even better in handling WIFI. TyTN II could hardly detect a WIFI signal and when it does it always drop off. Has anyone had a similar problem and got a solution? Please share and help!!!!!
WiFi on Kaiser AT&T Tilt is weak
My Kaiser / AT&T Tilt has poor WiFi reception, even when on Best Performance.
My former Hermes 8525 was somewhat better. I am on this forum looking for a cure, like you.
Wow, Shocking! A Device with out a dedicated antenna doesn't get as good of reception as a Laptop.

quick gps and a-gps

when reading the forum i think people are confusing the two
our diamond has quick-gps standard. this means that it will download a list of sattelites from the internet and use this to get a faster lock.
a-gps is also available, but with adanced config only.
a-gps helps you inpositioning your device with the help of your phone network.
turning on a-gps has a negative impact on tom-tom. (reported on this forum) quick gps works very good with tomtom.
a-GPS is a logical extention to GPS if a wireless (not wifi) signal is present it allows the phone to maintain a GPS signal indoors, or areas of low gps signal.
It is NOT what some phones have reported as GPS by giving you the Cell area you are located in which may be accurate to > 100meters
It uses the cell phone to pin point the rough area it is in, then using incomplete GPS signal at the phone and / or the strong GPS signal at the A-GPS trasmitter to work out your location, it is possible for a trasmitter to be stationed indoors which will allow you to maintain a GPS lock indoors.
there is no reason it should have any effect on tomtom or anything else because its still getting accurate GPS signals all be it relayed from an earth based trasmitter.
quick GPS is a system that lets you lock on to sats quicker by giving the GPS reciever a list of information that "should" be in that area, by having this info it doesnt have to fart about to much getting GPS locks on sats that are not totally available.

GPS dead?

My HD7's GPS ('my location' doesnt work, nor does the free 'GPS' app.) doesnt seem to be working.
I dont have a 3g network, and my GPRS doesnt work thanks to the failure of HTC's connection settings app as well. But even over WiFi, the GPS fails.
Is that how it is? Does GPS required GPRS/3G to function?! If not, should i return my HD7?
ok GPS app now works and shows some altitude/longitude.... but the Maps 'my location' still fails. :/ any ideas?
i've got 3g and still refuses to work
anyone?
HD7 uses aGPS
Unfortunately, the GPS capabilities of the HD7 have disappointed me as well. In actuality, the HD7 uses assisted GPS technology which requires a signal from nearby cellular towers, preferably three towers or more, in order to triangulate the position. Also, currently no external true GPS can be used, at least via bluetooth, since the bluetooth profile on wp7 only supports hands-free audio.

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