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Well i have a question.
When i use TomTom or IGO the position on the screen is always about 50 meters off to where I actually am.
So since IGO & TomTom Both have the same behaviour i guess i should look at the GPS module.
My old S730 was always spot on... when i looked at the screen and saw a turn on the left, there actually was a turn to the left.
Anybody knows how this can be solved ?
My TD2 does not have this problem, perhaps there is an issue with your particular phone?
I thoght about it before and found out that it was not inaccuracy but the delay GPS chip needs to calculate your position. Do one test. Some time when you stop at a red light and you know you've waited for about 5 secs, check your position then. I believe it will be accurate then.
I noticed that some GPS's try to calculate your current position based on direction and speed you had few seconds ago. I found out about it one time when I waited at the red light in a long tunnel. Obviously there was no signal there, but when I stopped, GPS kept on showing that I was moving about 40MPH for several seconds before it finally showed lost signal message.
Some GPS's do calculate your position ahead of time and some don't.
Maybe it was because i had assisted GPS turned on...
If you do a search on AGPS LAG (ANY HTCPRODUCT WITH AGPS) then you will see enough posts that speciffically deals with this problem...
My old phone is SPOT ON with TT and my new 2 times faster phone is less accurate, and in a street with lots of turns, take a-lefts etc it's quite important to rely on the machine. And when the machine says turn left on the next corner, is that left the one i am currently at or the one 20 meters ahead from where i am now....
It should be just as with my old phone spot on
Well disabeling AGPS definitely works...
I am now about 20 meters behind all the time. This seems acceptable although I keep finding it strange that my older phone was way more accurate.....
you mean disable QuickGPS or disable AGPS in Advanced Config??
It is definitely a lag issue, not a precision issue: my TD2 internal GPS is at least as accurate as my Qstarz bluetooth GPS logger, and this one has a dedicated large antenna and good GPS chipset. TD2 sensitivity is also comparable, maybe even better inside building, and the time before locking a signal from coldstart is also comparable or better...
BUT there is a lag of maybe 30 m around 50 km/h in my car, and it is is indeed quite noticeable for driving directions...No big deal for me, as I do not rely on voice instruction but always have a quick peak at the screen (I was bitten by ambiguous instruction often enough in the past with other GPS system to have developped this quick peak habit ;-) )..but this lag is indeed anoying...
I'd like to try the TD2 using the external GPS through bluetooth, if I find time to do it this WE I will post my conclusions...
well0549 said:
Well i have a question.
When i use TomTom or IGO the position on the screen is always about 50 meters off to where I actually am.
So since IGO & TomTom Both have the same behaviour i guess i should look at the GPS module.
My old S730 was always spot on... when i looked at the screen and saw a turn on the left, there actually was a turn to the left.
Anybody knows how this can be solved ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use to have the same problem as you, so, I've tried the tweak referred in this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=514912 and it did the trick for me.
I use iGo8 and NDrive and the accuracy improved a lot, it's almost spot on, no matter what speed I'm driving.
Regards,
I was in my mates Audi TT the other day. He has the built in GPS in the dash board. I noticed there was as much lag as you see on an HTC device.
Also was in a car a few months asgo with someone who had a stand alone TomTom device and that too had lag.
Unless you're paying thousands of Dollars for millitary grade navigation equipment, i wouldn't spare the lag issue another thought.
Not long now ...
There's a bigger lag comming if the media are to be believed (and based on everything that comes from the tele, radio and newspapers these days - there're probably not - they can't even get the weather right)
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Technology/GPS-Network-Could-Fail-Next-Year-Leaving-Sat-Nav-Useless-US-Government-Accountability-Office-Warns/Article/200905315284843?lpos=Technology_Carousel_Region_4&lid=ARTICLE_15284843_GPS_Network_Could_Fail_Next_Year_Leaving_Sat_Nav_Useless%2C_US_Government_Accountability_Office_Warns
"
Unless you're paying thousands of Dollars for millitary grade navigation equipment, i wouldn't spare the lag issue another thought."
Diamond1 paid £150 was spot on. No Lag. The speed indicator on tomtom was very accurate, not like on the diamond2 where it takes over 2 seconds to show a speed change. I am surprised that not many people have noticed the slow and inaccurate GPS performance of the D2.
im considering buying this phone,but i hear there's problems with the GPS. my current phone has a great GPS receiver and i use it a lot for day to day navigation.How much will i be disappointed if i were to expect the same from the galaxy s?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php?searchid=42858169
Here in holland I have no problems with the GPS reception...
Personally, I found that straight out of the box the gps was dreadful, but an hour later after I did the simple gps fix, it navigated me on a hundred and fifty mile round trip with no problems at all.
The fix is simple and easy and takes literally no skill. When you take your sgs out of the box, see if the gps works for you, then try the fix. If there is still no joy then take it back and say the navigation is busted and you want a different handset.
I'd certainly say its worth trying at least. Chances are can get it working and everything else that you like about droid is better on the galaxy .
It's worth remembering that the gps is not battery friendly and you'll need a potent (2A output)car charger to keep you running on the move.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Basically, in summary:
1) In late firmware, the lock is quite quick, especially compared to car GPS units. Maybe not as fast as some other phones, but fast enough. Certainly faster than my Garmin Forerunner
2) The accuracy boundaries on this phone are wrong sometimes (at least in XXJM5), but this may be a bug in that specific pre-release.
3) With JM5, the unit seems to only lock onto 8 satellites max, but, some people are saying apparently newer firmware's are locking onto more
4) People are complaining of issues getting locks when moving with the unit. However, I've experienced this on ALL GPS units I've owned. AGPS should help with this though (but I've never tested initial lock whilst moving except in a firmware where GPS was 100% broken for me).
5) In some cases, the GPS goes skitzo, this might be fixed in later firmwares
6) Finally, sometimes the track is a bit off to the side, and doesn't handle cornering well.. This is likely related to (2). But this makes it useless for fitness at the moment
Anyway, the GPS is usable, but there are serious accuracy problems with it still. Samsung has said that they are working on optimising GPS for a September update. My best advice is wait until then, because if it isn't fixed in September, the possibility that it is due to poor hardware design seems to grow significantly..
thank you for your valuable input,this forum really is the best on the internet.I'm gunna be buying it next month anyway,so lets see if the update fixes the GPS or not.To be honest,theres no other phone that can match it,so theres no alternative to this phone even if the GPS IS dodgy
The GPS sucks so hard that I'd rather use a regular map for navigation.
My Galaxy S has no gps problems. The first time i went out from house to check GPS accuracy I got GPS signal after 3 seconds. It's stable in 100% cases.
Acquiring signal is not the issue. I don't understand why people keep comparing signal to accuracy. it's not the same thing.
Exactly, there are people in other topics that are just inflating the whole issue, their claims are way exaggerated, and the original issues has already been fixed on newer firmwares, yet they refuse to accept it.
AllGamer said:
Exactly, there are people in other topics that are just inflating the whole issue, their claims are way exaggerated, and the original issues has already been fixed on newer firmwares, yet they refuse to accept it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go for a 20min jog then and show a track of your perfect GPS. I have a lower standard than many of them, but all tracks I saw lost lock excessively at some point or another..
I haven't tried it myself, but can on tuesday.
damn,so many different opinions on this issue.also not being able to track my runs is a BIG minus but still not a deal breaker.day-to-day city navigation is a must though.
It's just as simple as that - you don't check gps functionality just by its fix time. you put it in your car, and start driving - if it's accurate (highly unlikely), gewd. if not - go back here and whine.
kingofkings2603 said:
damn,so many different opinions on this issue.also not being able to track my runs is a BIG minus but still not a deal breaker.day-to-day city navigation is a must though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The big problem is that many of them seem to be testing quickly from their chair.. There is overwhelming evidence that the GPS doesn't work accurately, but barely any showing it does.. In fact, in one case, I saw someone claim the unit was working perfectly, but the track they showed was on a straight highway, and was fluctuating excessively between both sides of the highway. And the most vocal of those who claims it works perfectly don't seem to be posting logs..
There is also some confusion between whether it is "fitness grade" or "car grade". Car navigation GPS can snap to tracks, and has more room for accuracy errors, because it can assume you always exist on the closest road, and if you use directions, it can assume you took the correct turns when it told you to do so (and correct itself a bit later). That's what most car units seem to do, and it helps compensate for most inaccuracies. It can lead to a bit of pain though if you make lots of turns, some of which aren't correct. Some people are possibly happy because they have used dedicated car units before which suck (some navman's take at least 5 mins to get a basic lock, negating any benefits of having them), but, since some phones offer better directions apparently, people are complaining it should be better.
Fitness grade requires MUCH higher resolution to be usable, because the distance is shorter (generally), and if your GPS veers off course, it gives you a false indication of jogging distance. Garmin forerunners feel generally like they are within 1 or 2 meters a of the time (but occasionally veers off 3), but from what I've observed standing still, the flaws may be less visible when moving, but simply appear as slightly off course.
Then there are those people who stare at the SNR/locked satelites for hours at end without checking whether the long/lat is actually correct, or the accuracy boundary (they see 5m accuracy, but don't actually check if it is accurate within 5 meters). I was one of these, until I realised that the accuracy boundary was wrong..
Part of the issue also comes down to firmware though. People are using pre-release/leaked firmware (which might not even be complete) and are judging the GPS quality based on that. No comment needed except, don't assume that Samsung aren't working on fixes because there is no fix in pre-release firmware.
I haven't properly tested either though personally because I use a forerunner for jogging (waterproof), and since I fly, I prefer to use maps to understand locations better. I did notice though that leaving my phone on my desk for a long period of time sometimes allowed the signal accuracy boundary to not include me (ie, allow a position of 20m away from me, but show 5m accuracy) intermittently. And this might explain the fluctuations in position many others have gotten..
Either way, it is debatable. The biggest issue is that the assumption so far is that everyone got exactly the same hardware, and exactly the same revisions. But the other problem, is that GPS quality is open to opinion, because in some areas, roads are so far spread out that even inaccurate GPS works fine for driving. It really depends on your needs. But the facts are, the accuracy of the GPS isn't worth debating anyway currently, because Samsung have already told us they are "optimising" the GPS in Sept, which may make this unit as good as a garmin forerunner anyway. All any of us can tell you as that we'll know the TRUE potential of the unit after the september patch.
But for me anyway, I think the GPS is fine (I don't need perfect accuracy, even if I needed this as a fallback in a plane)
The GPS is bad to the point of being unusable for car navigation or fitness tracking. Yes you may get a lock in GGps test but when moving the reported location is all ov
er the place.
andrewluecke said:
Then there are those people who stare at the SNR/locked satelites for hours at end without checking whether the long/lat is actually correct, or the accuracy boundary (they see 5m accuracy, but don't actually check if it is accurate within 5 meters). I was one of these, until I realised that the accuracy boundary was wrong..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Case in point to illustrate what andrewluecke is trying to explain here about the accuracy not being exactly...well, accurate. Take a look at the attached screenshot. My GPS had a great fix with accuracy of 5m (the best it's able to report), stable for a few minutes, everything was working perfectly. Or so it seems. Except for the slight problem that I was actually standing where the red dot is... There's no scale on the screenshot, but it's a good 30-40 meters off. And that's quite common for me.
Case_ said:
Case in point to illustrate what andrewluecke is trying to explain here about the accuracy not being exactly...well, accurate. Take a look at the attached screenshot. My GPS had a great fix with accuracy of 5m (the best it's able to report), stable for a few minutes, everything was working perfectly. Or so it seems. Except for the slight problem that I was actually standing where the red dot is... There's no scale on the screenshot, but it's a good 30-40 meters off. And that's quite common for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly Case_. The point of the accuracy measurement is to say "you are somewhere within this range". But, with the Galaxy S, it isn't, and that shouldn't happen, at least not as often as it does (except maybe at the beginning whilst obtaining a lock"). Professional systems have something known as RAIM and FDE which detect when the accuracy may be incorrect due to external factors (such as shonky satelite, or serious atmospheric interference). But this happens a LOT, and I would have thought it affects GPS units equally (unless the Garmin forerunners in fact DO ship with fault detection, which could explain it, in which case, Samsung should implement fault detection and exclusion too, to make it usable).
Anyway.. What I am trying to say is summed up easiest with Case's post.
Fatherboard said:
Acquiring signal is not the issue. I don't understand why people keep comparing signal to accuracy. it's not the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It most certainly is an issue. It takes a minute or longer to acquire a lock in some cases despite stationary and clear line of sight.
The people who stomp their feet with "The GPS is fine" are no different than the iPhone4 users who claim there is no attenuation in their phones.
In my case with the DDJG4 update, I see some minor issues.
Once in a while when I am at home (indoors with no visible satelites) my location shifts from bangalore to toronto. All my stuff changes to that. It looks like AGPS is not turned on or buggy becuase 80% of the times it works well. Does anybody else face the same problem ?
So when my phone takes me to toronto, i restart the phone and everythng is back to normal
SOmetimes, the location service fails to find where I am and shows Toronto in Google website. Is there anyway to avoid this.
It's just like what most people say, you can get a fix, and GPS seems fine. Try to use it, and it's a whole different story.
Somebody on the forum posted a link of a run, where the SGS GPS went everywere but on the straight line, it even made a hilarious loop. Too bad i can't find it.
People need to stop saying "Firmware updates fixed it already" as that's just not true.
Hah, there it is, posted by sjdean.
Desire, and SGS GPS.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...52.48542,-1.742063&spn=0.014138,0.045319&z=15
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...=52.48082,-1.761761&spn=0.01414,0.045319&z=15
I have been hearing of numerous complaints about the GPS of the Galaxy S and was wondering if mine had an issue.
Having only GPS'd my location at a standstill with excellent (within 10 metre) results, I decided to use Google Navigation on a 15 kilometre trip from where I was to my home.
I can honestly say my GPS had pinpoint accuracy for the entire trip, not losing signal once. And when I mean pinpoint accuracy, I mean it felt like a satellite was right on top of me the entire way home.
Apart from Google Navigation using a weird route to get home (which I followed, only forcing the unit to reroute once), and speaking the street names like it didn't understand grammer, I'd say it was almost as perfect as my tried and true Garmin (which uses better routes).
So this isn't a gloating post, but I'm trying to understand what issues all of you have with the GPS, as I don't seem to be experiencing any.
P.S. I'm still on Bell's official 2.1 firmware (latest one, I believe its JH2).
Thanks
Go for a walk. Stop for a coffee somewhere. Walk again. Stop to enjoy something beautiful. Record your experience with My Tracks. Share you track. Then we can discuss GPS quality.
I hope it all works excellent for you.
Regards!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Nice story but why post it as a [Q] and in development forum
NetCopAD said:
Go for a walk. Stop for a coffee somewhere. Walk again. Stop to enjoy something beautiful. Record your experience with My Tracks. Share you track. Then we can discuss GPS quality.
I hope it all works excellent for you.
Regards!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto. 10 char.
NetCopAD said:
Go for a walk. Stop for a coffee somewhere. Walk again. Stop to enjoy something beautiful. Record your experience with My Tracks. Share you track. Then we can discuss GPS quality.
I hope it all works excellent for you.
Regards!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I never really use my GPS that way, but for experimental purposes I will. Downloading the program now (not factory software with Bell I guess). Is there a certain distance I should be walking? And what should I notice to report back? That my tracks were the exact route I took?
Having said that, if there is a problem, could it not be a specific problem with the way MyTracks itself cooperates with the GPS? I mean I find it strange the GPS works flawlessly with Navigation (stops and lights, stop signs etc) but not with My Tracks? I dunno.
gllu said:
Nice story but why post it as a [Q] and in development forum
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right.. didn't realize I posted it here until after I posted it. I leave the moderating for moderators, but my apologies just the same. Moderators, please move this to an area which is more suitable to avoid posts like these.
greeced said:
Ok, I never really use my GPS that way, but for experimental purposes I will. Downloading the program now (not factory software with Bell I guess). Is there a certain distance I should be walking? And what should I notice to report back? That my tracks were the exact route I took?
Having said that, if there is a problem, could it not be a specific problem with the way MyTracks itself cooperates with the GPS? I mean I find it strange the GPS works flawlessly with Navigation (stops and lights, stop signs etc) but not with My Tracks? I dunno.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not just My Tracks, you can try any other similar apps. That's just the most popular and widely used one.
The thing with Navigation is, it KNOWS you're supposed to be travelling on the road - so even if the actual GPS data suggests that you're 5 meters off the road, the navigation software "corrects" it and puts you back on the road.
Use My Tracks to record a small walk. Make a couple of stops. It ALWAYS puts me 15 feet off the road. And when standing still, it keeps moving around restlessly. Ugh
It's just that navigation software generally has the ability to use road information to supplement the raw GPS data and thus yields seemingly better results. It snaps to roads, approximates expected position etc.
My Tracks and other similar software just records your track without any awareness of roads so the resulting info (track) is pretty close to the raw GPS performance.
Standing still is when the GPS problem is most evident. Your reported position just jumps around, sometimes sending you a hundred meters away or more.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Ok,
Went for a short walk using my tracks... Around a rather large block and through a path in a park, where I sat down on a park bench for 5 minutes, got up, and continued the trail back to the main road, then back to my house.
I noticed when I started off, it showed me on the other side of the street, but quickly corrected itself as soon as I started walking to the right side of the street.
I then stopped at a communal mail box, I noticed the gps had 'bounced' to the other side of the street but as soon as I started walking again, it corrected itself.
The other side of the street on those two occasions was 15-20 feet away (Its a residential side-street), which to me has the GPS as being extremely accurate. Even Google's disclaimer on "My Tracks" states:
Under optimal conditions the location can be +/- 20 feet (6 meters).
And thats exactly what it was with mine.
After the communal mail box, it was extremely accurate to less than 2 metres the rest of the trip/way home. The circle around the orange arrow was extremely small most of the way, only getting larger when I entered my house.
NetCopAD said:
It's just that navigation software generally has the ability to use road information to supplement the raw GPS data and thus yields seemingly better results. It snaps to roads, approximates expected position etc.
My Tracks and other similar software just records your track without any awareness of roads so the resulting info (track) is pretty close to the raw GPS performance.
Standing still is when the GPS problem is most evident. Your reported position just jumps around, sometimes sending you a hundred meters away or more.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, standing still with me is absolutely bang on within 10 metres. If you're talking about when you first fire up the GPS, then I'd agree with you, but the hundreds of metres away is not your GPS position. Its where your cell provider is reporting you to be, either by the tower, or triangulation.
The GPS then using that information, as per my guess, to hone on where you are. and it actually finds me within 5 to 10 seconds.
Oh and as for navigation, I'd have to disagree with your assertion about the GPS and the knowing your on a road statement. I live in an area where new roads are built all the time, and those roads are not on any mapping system including garmins, and the GPS will follow you anyway, just go into a constant cycle of
"Recalculating" or "Turn Around" or "Make a U-Turn". (At least that's what my garmin does when I test it), but it still follows me up to and including the road that is actually on the GPS, and I'm sure this GPS will do the same.
Either way, I'm happy that I don't have any issues with the GPS of this Galaxy S. Seems to work quite well.
same here, once i intentionally drove into this field of newly paved road, with no houses foundation even build on them, it was so funny to see myself on google map going into what seems like an empty space
but with the tracking enable, it was able to draw good lines of where i drove over for the missing streets on the map
greeced said:
Oh and as for navigation, I'd have to disagree with your assertion about the GPS and the knowing your on a road statement. I live in an area where new roads are built all the time, and those roads are not on any mapping system including garmins, and the GPS will follow you anyway, just go into a constant cycle of
"Recalculating" or "Turn Around" or "Make a U-Turn". (At least that's what my garmin does when I test it), but it still follows me up to and including the road that is actually on the GPS, and I'm sure this GPS will do the same.
Either way, I'm happy that I don't have any issues with the GPS of this Galaxy S. Seems to work quite well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had continuous issues with the Droid 3. One of my biggest issues is that the GPS seems completely unstable. I have tried turning on/off GPS options, etc...
Weather I try to use Google Maps or another application such as Endomondo, it cant maintain a lock. It seems to be able to locate me within 12 - 30 feet and then within a mile!!!
Using an application like Endomondo (running, cycling, etc), is completely useless. It can't track my location at all and when it does lock on, it only holds for a few seconds and then gone again.
I took the phone in to Verizon with a complaint about the GPs and screen issues (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1239980) and the rep said both were normal for this phone...
Has anyone figured out a way to resolve this problem?
I, too, have the same issue with GPS. I use SportyPal Pro, and cannot use my Droid 3 when running/walking. I can go for a 5 mile run, and SportyPal will show I had ran 6 miles. I can run north to south in a straight line, and when finished, SportyPal will show that I went east and west as much as 400-500 feet off of that straight line and because of that can add anywhere from .1 miles to .5 miles to that 1 mile run.
It is so unreliable that I will use my older decommisioned Droid2 to run with. It works perfectly with the same software.
If anybody has any suggestions, I'm all ears.
bishop0114 said:
I have had continuous issues with the Droid 3. One of my biggest issues is that the GPS seems completely unstable. I have tried turning on/off GPS options, etc...
Weather I try to use Google Maps or another application such as Endomondo, it cant maintain a lock. It seems to be able to locate me within 12 - 30 feet and then within a mile!!!
Using an application like Endomondo (running, cycling, etc), is completely useless. It can't track my location at all and when it does lock on, it only holds for a few seconds and then gone again.
I took the phone in to Verizon with a complaint about the GPs and screen issues (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1239980) and the rep said both were normal for this phone...
Has anyone figured out a way to resolve this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, I have the same issues.
Well with only 3 people chiming in, maybe it is bad hardware?
bishop0114 said:
Well with only 3 people chiming in, maybe it is bad hardware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
God, I hope not. I have enough problems with this phone as it is.
No problems with GPS for me
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
kshen1 said:
No problems with GPS for me
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using it for navigation only? Or a similar application for running/walking?
The reason I ask is because I do not notice a problem during navigation. It works great for that without any problems. Until I get to downtown Chicago. I almost expect problems there. Even with my Droid2.
i've only had issues with my gps in areas with lte. when im at college im in a city with lte support and my gps doesn't work (my friend who has an X also has issues with his gps when in areas with lte). when im home where there isnt lte support my gps works fine.
No it's not hardware mine works flawlessly and almost instantly fixes position, tho i have modded the gps.conf found in the etc folder. Details for tweaking this for your region can be found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13537801&postcount=1
Many thanx to 75markus for this.
Since we don't have a recovery yet to flash a zip you will need to edit the gps.conf file manually.
Oceanic region can be found in my sig below apart of my camera mod.
-smc
The problem I was having with the GPS from Day 1 is that I would occasionally notice that it would not start up at all when openning a GPS-dependant app (such as Maps or Weatherbug, etc). Whenever that happened, I would have to restart the phone, and then the GPS would be able to initialize again... at least, for a while.
Eventually, I was digging around in the setting and found the "VZW location services" option under "Location & security settings". I unchecked that option and, ever since, I've had no problem with the GPS. It seems that th VZW-based location services were causing the problem. Of course, since then, I've rooted and frozen all of the VZW bloat, so I might be able to turn that option back on with no ill effect. Still, it was as simple enough fix.
My issue might not sound exactly the same as yours, but you could give this a try and see if it helps.
-SR-
I'm not having any GPS issues on my phone. Perhaps it's based on the area your in?
I know it's satellite but.. just a guess.
WarER4X said:
The problem I was having with the GPS from Day 1 is that I would occasionally notice that it would not start up at all when openning a GPS-dependant app (such as Maps or Weatherbug, etc). Whenever that happened, I would have to restart the phone, and then the GPS would be able to initialize again... at least, for a while.
Eventually, I was digging around in the setting and found the "VZW location services" option under "Location & security settings". I unchecked that option and, ever since, I've had no problem with the GPS. It seems that th VZW-based location services were causing the problem. Of course, since then, I've rooted and frozen all of the VZW bloat, so I might be able to turn that option back on with no ill effect. Still, it was as simple enough fix.
My issue might not sound exactly the same as yours, but you could give this a try and see if it helps.
-SR-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been experiencing the exact same problem and temporary solution (restarting) since day 1, on both my first and second droid 3's. Difference is, I've had VZW location services unchecked since around the time I first got the phones, and I am still experiencing the problem... even as recently as last night. I just double-checked the setting, and indeed, VZW location services is stil unchecked.
Once I have lock I usually have no problem continuously using GPS. Last night, I tracked a two and a half hour walk using the My Tracks app, including a 45 minute stop for dinner indoors. For the first 10 minutes, it couldnt find a signal, so I restarted. It got a lock almost instantly following the restart and never lost it after that. I had the app running for the whole excursion. As expected, it got a little confused while I was inside, but automatically picked the signal right back up when I got back outside and tracked my entire walk back home.
a_lazy_dude said:
I have been experiencing the exact same problem and temporary solution (restarting) since day 1, on both my first and second droid 3's. Difference is, I've had VZW location services unchecked since around the time I first got the phones, and I am still experiencing the problem... even as recently as last night. I just double-checked the setting, and indeed, VZW location services is stil unchecked.
Once I have lock I usually have no problem continuously using GPS. Last night, I tracked a two and a half hour walk using the My Tracks app, including a 45 minute stop for dinner indoors. For the first 10 minutes, it couldnt find a signal, so I restarted. It got a lock almost instantly following the restart and never lost it after that. I had the app running for the whole excursion. As expected, it got a little confused while I was inside, but automatically picked the signal right back up when I got back outside and tracked my entire walk back home.
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When you look at your walk on the map, is it true to where you actually walked? If I do that same walk on my phone, it will show me deviating off course as much as a 1/2 block and then back. I can tolerate that deviation once and maybe twice during my runs/walks. However, mine does it the majority of the time, adding bogus mileage to my walks/runs. In an hour's time, it will deviate approximately 20-30 times.
eallison978 said:
When you look at your walk on the map, is it true to where you actually walked? If I do that same walk on my phone, it will show me deviating off course as much as a 1/2 block and then back. I can tolerate that deviation once and maybe twice during my runs/walks. However, mine does it the majority of the time, adding bogus mileage to my walks/runs. In an hour's time, it will deviate approximately 20-30 times.
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Just took a closer look at the track it recorded. I definitely do see these kinds of deviations, but they seem to only be in areas where I think it'd be reasonable to expect them. I live in a suburb, so I don't have any tall building to mess with the GPS reception, instead, I have somewhat steep hillsides. It seems I get a fair amount of deviation in the (significantly) hilly areas (it looks like I was walking down people's driveways, then across their front yards, when in reality I was just walking more or less straight down the sidewalk), but in the flat areas the line has almost no significant deviations, just some minor noise. Next time, at the risk of my fiance calling me a geek, I'll take my Droid 1 along for the trip, and see how the two records compare.
a_lazy_dude said:
Just took a closer look at the track it recorded. I definitely do see these kinds of deviations, but they seem to only be in areas where I think it'd be reasonable to expect them. I live in a suburb, so I don't have any tall building to mess with the GPS reception, instead, I have somewhat steep hillsides. It seems I get a fair amount of deviation in the (significantly) hilly areas (it looks like I was walking down people's driveways, then across their front yards, when in reality I was just walking more or less straight down the sidewalk), but in the flat areas the line has almost no significant deviations, just some minor noise. Next time, at the risk of my fiance calling me a geek, I'll take my Droid 1 along for the trip, and see how the two records compare.
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I've attached screenshots from two runs. D2 is this morning's run with my Droid 2. It's flawless. D3 is the last run I did with my Droid 3. Looking at it you can understand my disgust with it. Ignore the big missing section from both shots. I wouldn't want anyone knowing the exact location of where I live. Someone might come steal my Droid 3.
eallison978 said:
I've attached screenshots from two runs. D2 is this morning's run with my Droid 2. It's flawless. D3 is the last run I did with my Droid 3. Looking at it you can understand my disgust with it. Ignore the big missing section from both shots. I wouldn't want anyone knowing the exact location of where I live. Someone might come steal my Droid 3.
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WOW... That is awful but a great example of the concern with this phone. You are actually doing much better than me. Mine is only able to triangulate down to about 20 feet and then it bounces between 20 and 300 feet!!!
I am going to call VZW today and see about a replacement phone but I doubt it will resolve the problem.
I just called VZW and once again, they said the accuracy was normal... They said none of their phones can lock on with the accuracy I described and if it has, I have been lucky. He said their phones are only accurate within 500 feet!
I explained to him that with that accuracy, it would be totally useless to use as a navigation device...
He looked through their documentation and said he has no record of other people having issues with the GPS... He also said he has no record of the blue tint when taking pictures.....
Oh well. I hope the replacement fixes it...
bishop0114 said:
WOW... That is awful but a great example of the concern with this phone. You are actually doing much better than me. Mine is only able to triangulate down to about 20 feet and then it bounces between 20 and 300 feet!!!
I am going to call VZW today and see about a replacement phone but I doubt it will resolve the problem.
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With that kind of change in accuracy, it seems like it isn't using the GPS as all, but just the cell towers. Is the GPS logo showing in the notification bar when that is happening? If it's there, is it blinking or solid?
-SR-
bishop0114 said:
I just called VZW and once again, they said the accuracy was normal... They said none of their phones can lock on with the accuracy I described and if it has, I have been lucky. He said their phones are only accurate within 500 feet!
I explained to him that with that accuracy, it would be totally useless to use as a navigation device...
He looked through their documentation and said he has no record of other people having issues with the GPS... He also said he has no record of the blue tint when taking pictures.....
Oh well. I hope the replacement fixes it...
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My humble opinion of VZW representatives...they're all full of BS. They're going to tell you what they need to tell you to get your out of the store or off of the phone if you're not buying anything. A representative's main concern is sales. Sell him another phone, renew his contract, add a line, add a feature.
This issue may be better addressed to Motorola directly. I may make that phone call today.
I just got off the phone with Motorola tech support. Same story as VZW gives. There are NO known issues with the Droid 3. I asked about the GPS, the bluish pics the cam takes and battery life. The only thing the tech would say is the phone "needs to be evaluated"
Guys,
I spent 2 weeks of holidays (my wife almost left me for that) mostly trying to find out why GPS performance on my P970 is so poor, losing satellites fixes every so often and sometimes no fix at all although 'seeing' satellites. I did not find a 'real' solution, even after tests on both mostly Huexxx 7 and lately boype's 0909, too.
Best results now on boype's 0909 CM7 but with adapted gps.conf and gps_brcm_conf.xml. Nevertheless, the result is still disappointing, far away from satisfying.
However, during all these checks, I found that satellite's receiption is depending on the way I hold the device in my hands, at least on MY device. Whenever I hold a finger on the top left of the chassis (just above the location where the GPS chip is located, see pictures), then receiption improves by 0 up to 14 db (!!!).
Also the number of 'seen' and 'used' birds increases from 6 to 10 easily!!! However, the fix did not become more stable through that.
Pls check on your devices if you can verify the same behaviour.
If so, what could be the reason (i do not put any pressure on the device)? And is there anything that we can do to make this improvement permanent, i.e. put a piece of 'aluminium foil' between the back lid and the device or something similiar?
Let me know your remarks, guys.
No problem at all. Riding on the tram right now. Fix on 12 in few seconds. Sure it's not because of your position? And 6 is enough to fix the position.
@eighty-four
I appreciate your info, and you are surely right it is depending on my position. My question was a different one though: Do you observe the same reaction as soon as you put the finger on top of the device; i.e. increase of signal strength?
BTW You attached an impressive picture, would like to aks you are you still on AOKP beta 1.1 ICS 4.0.4 and how do your files gps.conf and gps_brcm_conf.xml look like? Can you share them?
AOKP 1.1, no any GPS fixes
Hard to say about reaction while on move. But didn't noticed any noticeable changes.
Can't check now - I'm in home.
I've been using Marvel v9 since released, with the GPS "Tweaks" installed too.
I'm getting GPS signal, sometimes really fast, some others i need to wait for a couple of minutes (maximum 3 minutes).
There are certain times though, that it doesnt lock no matter what, just like in your situation. It manages to find many sattelites (7+) with an average decent signal strength but it refuses to get a gps fix location.
I believe it has to do with the temperature of the chip (i couldnt get easy GPS fix at winter) because now that summer passed by and used my GPS a lot, i had no issues... might be the clouds, might be the stars alignment and zodiacs ... i really dont know.
It's not that accurate and fast though for city driving. Some turns are being announced way too late (Sygic Aura) and the error treshold is about 10meters mostly, rarely goes down at 5meters.
I guess it's a chip manufacturing bull**** rather than a "case construction" or antenna problem.
@morx
I just wanted to check if others can verify better receiption when holding finger on top.
I agree it seems a hw or engineering defect, nevertheless I am trying to optimize the settings in order to compaensate at least partially.
Interesting you mention the temperature: In my research I came across a relationship between temperature and gps accuracy. Our (and any other gps chip) uses a oscillator hw module for precision timing. These oscillators' accuracies depend on the temperature and are measuered in PPM. There is also a setting in the gps_brcm_conf.xml that refers to this, it is "FrqPlan". The usual value in CM7 is "FRQ_PLAN_26MHZ_2PPM_26MHZ_300PPB". However, other values do also work, like "FRQ_PLAN_26MHZ_2PPM_26MHZ_100PPB".
You can check details in THIS post.
Would be interesting to determine if different values lead to better results.
I had no clue that chip temperature had a side effect on GPS fix !!
When i was writing my concern about that, i was feeling stupid until i saw your redirection to that post...
hmmm there are many factors which can be put on the table about optimization and troubleshooting.
Later on, i'll give a try keeping the cellphone with both hands, different angles, one handed on top/bottom etc...
Interesting thoughts.
I'm on CM10 nightly and always had blazing fast fixes until yesterday. I activated GPS in my car and after 3 minutes it fixed (in Osmand), after some more minutes the fix got currently lost.
Due to my big custom 3500 mAh battery I couldn't place my phone in the cradle therefore I simply laid it onto my dashboard. Maybe because of this the signals were harder to receive.
I will switch back to the normal battery today and try to test your variant.
Sent from my LG-P970 using xda app-developers app