Database Develop

bad wifi signal (and some other questions)

Hi
New owner of this Tytn II and have a few questions I hope someone in here could answer.
I've got the following versions: (is this all the latest ones?)
rom 1.56.409.4
radio 1.27.12.11
protocol 22.45.88.07w
The device is bought and used in Norway. It's a clean HTC, no telco branding.
1)
I can't remove the cover on the back to remove the battery to get my serial number. The reason is that I'm afraid to harm the phone while putting too much pressure on it. And believe me, I'm using a lot of force to try to open it.
It's not put on wrong, since there is no glitches and everything seems ok.
So, is there a way to get the serial number via software or something?
2)
Signal strength on wifi is incredible low.
And yes I've tried to use it both with powersaving and maximum effect.
I'm standing 2 meters away from my linksys router and it tells me that I've got 80% strength. If I turn around, getting my body in the middle, it drops to 25%. Going 4-5 meters away, free sight, it's around 50%
This is a joke right? Must be a software bug I hope. Or a serious hardware bug or too protected internal antennas?
Any clue on this one?
My ipaq hx4700 is way better on wifi then this, getting 100% all the way in my house.
3)
Is there a way to use MSN with the wifi connection and not only use the 3G connection?
That's it this time.
I'll just dive into the forum even more to find other usefull hints.
(Yes I've searched for answers to my questions)

Wifi range of this device has never been marvelous (but still better than on my old hermes). I get 50% being at 3 meters of the AP (which is behind a wall).
Your version seems to be slightly nwer than mine; I have a 1.56.405.5 (Default HTC QWERTY English)
And finaly, WLM works fine through wifi

Thank you.
Well, too bad the wifi is so bad but nothing to do with it.
And yes, I got the IM working over wifi now, setting all applications that needs to go online to use the work network profile instead of the telco network.
Anything on the serial number or do I have to crack open the device? hehe

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.

Full HSPA reverts to GPRS every time I make a call

Please help me out with this, I'm getting very annoyed, upset and whatever else you can think of. Two days ago, I brought my Tilt into the ATT service center because of a problem, and they replaced it with a brand new Tilt. My older one was running 6.0 but this new one is running 6.1 WinMo, which I fear is the culprit here.
I get full HSPA bars here in NYC (kaiser tweak) under most circumstances, and it stays this way while I'm surfing the net and such but, whenever I make a phone call, it automatically switches to G ! ? There are times when it might go through with EDGE *the call*, but it's seldom. I never had this problem before the phone switch. It also happens without using Kaiser Tweak, with 3G. And while I AM able to use the phone with G, I feel that this might pose a problem at some point, and would like the phone to be able to reach its full potential or.. just be the way it was.
Help is seriously needed !
Doug

dougrb said:
Please help me out with this, I'm getting very annoyed, upset and whatever else you can think of. Two days ago, I brought my Tilt into the ATT service center because of a problem, and they replaced it with a brand new Tilt. My older one was running 6.0 but this new one is running 6.1 WinMo, which I fear is the culprit here.
I get full HSPA bars here in NYC (kaiser tweak) under most circumstances, and it stays this way while I'm surfing the net and such but, whenever I make a phone call, it automatically switches to G ! ? There are times when it might go through with EDGE *the call*, but it's seldom. I never had this problem before the phone switch. It also happens without using Kaiser Tweak, with 3G. And while I AM able to use the phone with G, I feel that this might pose a problem at some point, and would like the phone to be able to reach its full potential or.. just be the way it was.
Help is seriously needed !
Doug
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think theyre still using EDGE / 2G for voice calls.. not all markets have switched to 3G/HSDPA voice

I too have the same issue. I'm not saying a problem, cause in my opinion it is not. When a call is made it switches back to gprs. It takes about 30 secs after the call to switch it back to hsdpa. It is probably a bug or perhaps a lack of your carrier.
BTW. I'm with T-mobile Holland, perhaps it is network related.

What I'm trying to convey though is that my other phone (which was exchanged because I thought the top of the slider was loose) did not behave like this. It kept its full H bars through every call. And the only difference between the two phones is that the previous one ran WinMo 6.0 and this one runs 6.1
They DO use HSPA here in NYC, you have to turn it on with Kaiser tweak in order to use it, though.
Doug

u nailed it 2 times on the head here..
kaiser tweak..and ur stock winmo 6.1
- kaiser tweak is an essential tool for a kaiser..never leave it behind after a flash and always enable ur HSDPA
- winmo 6.1 is a dirty dirty devil, what i suggest is to reflash and use a good radio..i live in Central New Jersey and im in and out of NY daily ( midtown / diamond district ) and i have yet to experience a dropped call!
im running the below mentioned rom and radio..give it a go..most likely u wont be disappointed!
Jstar

JstarLuvsTina said:
u nailed it 2 times on the head here..
kaiser tweak..and ur stock winmo 6.1
- kaiser tweak is an essential tool for a kaiser..never leave it behind after a flash and always enable ur HSDPA
- winmo 6.1 is a dirty dirty devil, what i suggest is to reflash and use a good radio..i live in Central New Jersey and im in and out of NY daily ( midtown / diamond district ) and i have yet to experience a dropped call!
im running the below mentioned rom and radio..give it a go..most likely u wont be disappointed!
Jstar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's interesting. Paulbates over at hofo suggests (and I agree w/him) that it would have been silly for them to release a ROM which did this, and we'd see tons of threads here and elsewhere about it if it were the case. I only asserted though, that the radio version might not like the area in which I live yada yada..
As soon as the problem started however, I did install Kaiser Tweak, and enabled HSDA. It worked as usual, but the H disappears just as fast as 3G was disappearing, so it makes no difference. I'm also experiencing data connectivity issues on this phone for the first time ever. Last night, even with full E or H bars, as I tried to open Opera or PIE, I'd get an error saying I had no data session open and the web page wasn't available. I tried many different pages of course, so it was the phone.. This never happened with my other phone, and I'm really regretting having taken it back now.
P.S. as far as changing the ROM and radio, I'm very inexperienced (re: have never done it before) and will wait to see if changing the phone makes a difference first. I only wish they had given me an exchange phone with 6.0 on it. Even the guy at the shop said that a lot of people have been complaining about 6.1. Do you live in NYC btw ? If so, perhaps I will take your advice about changing the ROM/Radio myself. Only thing is though, I run Linux. I do also have a Macbook Pro.. Can I do it with either of those OS's ?
Doug

Oh this is so very annoying... I just brought the phone into the store and they replaced it again. The girl I dealt with was very nice, and went through testing it out, and agreed that it was indeed doing something it shouldn't be doing. She even swapped the SIM card, but it was still the same. I then got a new (refurb of course) and it seemed to stay on E in the store, but then I wandered outside into Bryant Park (where I am now) and the same ol' junk occurred.
The last call I made actually stayed on Edge, but that was about 1 of 7 calls. Not only that, but now my voice mail doesn't work either... It asks if I have an account, then prompts me to put in my phone number. When I do, it says it's not a valid account. I'm really regretting switching my phone over, big time.
I'm going to call CS and see what they have to say (yes, we know the network isn't solid right now, but we're "working on it") Yah...
This really puts me off, but if they can't do anything, I'll start messing with the ROMS. It's just that my download speed right now sucks, too. Can someone direct me to a mobile internet speed test, which is good ? I tried toast.net, but it's too slow to load anything on any of the servers. And speedtest.net requires flash, but those probably aren't very good for mobile phones, anyway.
Doug

To buy or not to buy? also, cool whip.

Hi, I'm a new member, but more of a lurker. I originally planned to buy a Hermes but after reading about all the hardware problems I decided to go for the Kaiser. My question is, are there any major problems with the Kaiser? I know of the ImageON driver issues, are there any other hardware or software issues?

I don't think there's any fundamental problem with the hardware. The 3 Mp camera is not great, but what do you expect of a camera on a phone?
There a lot of ROMs, official and cooked, you can choose one that suits you.
Mine works pretty well with the original WM 6.0 ROM or the HTC official 3.02 one. With more recent ROMs or radio firmware I have problems with GPS fix times and access to WiFi routers.

Thanks for the fast reply!
I'm sorry to ask this in the Kaiser forum, but would going for the Hermes be worse than the Kaiser? They're essentially the same, except that I've read of a lot of h/w problems on the Hermes.

Hermes is awful next to the Kaiser. I still have mine here, had to use it while my Kaiser was being repaired a few months ago and it was just a PITA. Slow as hell, deeply embossed and lower quality screen,... But I can't talk of hardware problems with it.
If you get a 2nd hand Kaiser, the important points you need to check is that 3G is working (early units had faulty 3G hardware that would fail after some time, but most should have been warranty-fixed by now), and that the USB port is not broken as some tend to break it by shoving the stylus in it instead of the storage place.

I guess I know which phone I'm going for thanks!
One more question! sorry lol, I know the Kaiser has A-GPS, do you have to pay for it? If I put TomTom on my Kaiser will I have to pay for using the assisted GPS?
Also, is CorePlayer working fine on the Kaiser, mainly with xvid/avi files?

A-GPS aka QuickGPS will want to download a small file off the internet at least once a week, be it through Wifi, Activesync or whatever else is available to get satellite data and allow for shorter times to first fix, that's all. And if you don't want to use it you're not forced to, it will just take a little longer to get a fix.
So nothing to pay, except if you decide to download that little file over GPRS where your data fees would apply.
Coreplayer works fine, I personally reencode my videos in 320x240 divx for viewing with it. Never really tried anything else for video.

Alright, thanks amigo!

kilrah said:
A-GPS aka QuickGPS will want to download a small file off the internet at least once a week, be it through Wifi, Activesync or whatever else is available to get satellite data and allow for shorter times to first fix, that's all. And if you don't want to use it you're not forced to, it will just take a little longer to get a fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AGPS is not the same thing as QuickGPS (though it took me ages to realise).
Quick GPS is what you describe and is generally considered to be worthwhile.
AGPS is similar, but it downloads more specific information which (I believe) is based on which phone masts you're near - and therefore should be even better for getting a good fix. The problems are A - It will cost money if you have to pay for your internet connection and B - apparently (though I've never used it) it will sometimes update the data while you're actually using GPS and as a result lose your fix while you're driving somewhere. A lot of people don't like AGPS at all.

dancj said:
AGPS is not the same thing as QuickGPS (though it took me ages to realise).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well.. it is in some way. The problem is that AGPS can be implemented in different ways up to different extents...
The first thing is what is mentioned above - downloading ephemeris data from the net instead of getting it directly from the satellites, which would require continuous link with each satellite for about 1 minute. First fix time is thus shortened as the data for 1 week is stored locally. This is what QuickGPS and SeaSGEE do.
The usual "Disable AGPS" in KaiserTweak / Advanced Config is a second thing. It switches to a different position calculation algorithm that is supposed to work better in low signal conditions, by extrapolating the movement at the time signal is lost and trying to guesstimate how it could evolve everytime some signal is received. But many people don't like that as it's only giving decent results in certain conditions like driving, and when walking, geocaching etc it does nothing more than giving wrong info.
What you mention by using cell towers and an internet database is also something that can be done under the AGPS naming, but AFAIK it's not implemented on the Kaiser.

It sounds like you know more about it than I do so I'll bow to your greater knowledge

One and a half years of intensive HTC S730 (Wings) usage

Here are some of my personal experiences with the HTC S730 (Wings) smartphone that I bought almost two years ago and have been using ever since every day:
To start off I got it as a 2-year contract for a reasonable price. It had all the necessary abilities I could ever ask for from a phone (push-email, WiFi, qwerty slideout), highly customazible with 3rd party software and it wasn't even sim locked when I got it. In the first week or so however I started to notice it slowing down periodically and being unable to launch new programs. I ran out of RAM in awkward situations, having to use the task manager or restart my phone as it became unresponsive. I found ways to overcome this problem by limiting my open programs with Oxios Closeapps or switching to 3rd party applications such as the Opera Browser that can be shut down instead of leaving it on the background.
A word of warning: The first phone bill was a bit of a shock (~200€) for gprs data transfer. Windows Mobile prefers 3G connectivity over WiFi it seems. Remove the gprs settings if you don't use them, or get an unlimited dataplan like I did. It only costs 9€ where I live.
After the first month I started to notice tiny scratches and cracks in my phone's housing even though I'd been super gentle with it. I even bought a cushioned leather case for it to keep my phone from more harm. The cracks have become more noticeable over time and I must say the building materials are very sketchy, unlike the aluminium case my Nokia E-series phone used to have.
One major applaude for HTC is it's durability and ability to resist WATER(!). I submerged the phone into a lake while fishing, picked it up and instantly removed the battery (this is horrible!). I let it dry in peace for two weeks, left alone in a bowl of rice to get the humidity out of the circuits. The water indicator sticker below the battery got wet and colored (barely) so that's a bad thing for warranty if it decides to stop working some day soon.
I've had some trouble with the D-pad taking multiple keypresses from just one click, and got it solved by using the keyboard fixing "tool" found on this forum, decreasing the response time of D-pad's keypresses to 200ms.
Regarding to the GPS "rumors" found on this site whether or not it functions with the right rom/settings/registry entries my word is: YES. There is a gps chip in this phone. YES. It does work. Sluggishly without an antenna, but I got it to work with 100% accuracy inside our office building. I've done no additional tweaks to my phone other than flash the Alcaline 6.1 ROM using guides found on this forum. I used Google Maps with GPS strolling down the streets and checking my location periodically on a Tom-Tom, comparing the results. Hope you can get it working too.
Please, share your own experiences about HTC S730 or ask questions that I might answer from this phone as I believe I have a fair amount of experience with it.

GPS?
ignatiuscheese said:
Regarding to the GPS "rumors" found on this site whether or not it functions with the right rom/settings/registry entries my word is: YES. There is a gps chip in this phone. YES. It does work. Sluggishly without an antenna, but I got it to work with 100% accuracy inside our office building. I've done no additional tweaks to my phone other than flash the Alcaline 6.1 ROM using guides found on this forum. I used Google Maps with GPS strolling down the streets and checking my location periodically on a Tom-Tom, comparing the results. Hope you can get it working too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hay ignatiuscheese,
Are you serieus? do you have an preproduction or an regular wings? I have a wings with xuque's rom. can you give me a link to a tutorial for enabling my GPS, or make an own one. Can you remember how you did it?
I hope you can help me enabling GPS.
Greets,
Niels

Hey Niels, thanks for replying.
I have a regular wings, bought from Finland as a 2-year contract with a local operator so definately not a pre-production model. I do believe there is variation between different operators and their phones, some phones might have different chipsets but mine just so happened to be GPS-enabled.
As mentioned before I used the Alcaline 6.1 rom found on this site (it's a sticky thread) and installed Google Maps. I checked the "Use GPS" box and vóila: working gps. As mentioned it's very sluggish, only 1-3 satellites at a time at chosen locations but works. Haven't tried any secret registry tweaks or additional flashing.

GPS
Hi,
Could you please test the gps/googlemap without the sim card? In order to discard that the software is using your gsm data instead the gps data.
Many thanks in advance,