Related
Just tried the new GMaps 2.0 and my location works flawlessly.
Called "My Location," the feature comes as part of the release of version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile. My Location uses cell tower ID information to determine (approximately) where you are. Google says that it uses special "Google-developed-algorithms" to determine this, which sounds like fancy talk for triangulation (a supported phone can determine how far it is from the three closest cell towers and then pinpoint the approximate spot of the caller).
Anybody else tried it?
Did you try while driving ??
(I'll still keep my GPS chip for a while)
It's better than nothing but not very accurate. On my Kaiser, I will continue to use my GPS.
sebbes said:
Did you try while driving ??
(I'll still keep my GPS chip for a while)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About to will update when I get back
Just tried it in the UK and the location thingy is temporarily unavailable.
kavi said:
Anybody else tried it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, though when I'm on 3G towers it gives the "temporarily unavailable" message, works when I get an EDGE tower - 1600meter granularity!
Great feature, very cool, will not replace GPS. Our 3G towers just came up last month so that may be why they're not in the Google database yet....though I recall other reports of 3G location not working.
Richard
Didn't work for me either, I'm in the UK (south wales)
Did notice the GPS location is a little more accurate with 2.0
Tended to jump a lot with the older version
I heard it was only good to a 3 mile (4.8km) radius. Not nearly good enough to give you turn by turn directions.
jgermuga said:
I heard it was only good to a 3 mile (4.8km) radius. Not nearly good enough to give you turn by turn directions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, even google's site says the accuracy is dependent on the cell tower spacing. In my case, at my desk at work it reports 1600m (1.6km) accuracy, so definitely not turn-by-turn. In a densely towered (urban?) area, I suppose it's vaguely possible to have sufficient accuracy for rough turn-by-turn though.
Richard
Still, GPS is obviously much better.
I would have appreciated this with my older non-gps phone though and I am hopeful that they will offer this as an iPhone update for my wife.
jgermuga said:
I heard it was only good to a 3 mile (4.8km) radius. Not nearly good enough to give you turn by turn directions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried the Navizon version and it can be a lot better in urban environments where the cells are far smaller. In most of central london, Navizon can get a fix to an accuracy of a hudred yards or so. I have seen it do better than GPS since it is less vulnerable to the "Urban Canyon" effect. In rural areas, the coverage of each cell is much larger and I would expect the accuracy to fall to half a mile or worse.
Martin
I live in Minneapolis. AT&T rolled out 3G here on 1 November. I loaded up GM2.0 and it was right on the money. I was even inside my house.
I don't see how the program could triangulate a device out in the suburb. In a metro, yes, it's possible. Satellite GPS navigation is not going to be replaced anytime soon; however, I can see the "traingulation" come in handy for emergency situations.
sherpa said:
I don't see how the program could triangulate a device out in the suburb. In a metro, yes, it's possible. Satellite GPS navigation is not going to be replaced anytime soon; however, I can see the "traingulation" come in handy for emergency situations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't matter where you are, suburbs or metro. If you have 3 antennas, you can use triangulation, period.
While it's not good for turn-by-turn navigation, it would be good enough to get a quick fix and be able to search for something in the immediate area.
Try thinking of it as a tool for people without gps. Imagine you're lost and you can get a general idea of where you are. Then drive a mile and do it again...now you have a bearing on where you are headed.
This won't replace gps or give you directions until it can get to that accuracy.
I just install it, and i was coming on here to create a thread but looks like someone beat me to it. gMAP just got a whole lot better, I was like oh sh*t it uses the cell phone towers to show my location. this the bomb. google stepping the game up.
Mine works great on the 3G but i do get that unavailable bar sometime.
so for those of us that like the way the old version works with 'track location' gps feature, is the new 2.0 version beter or just stick with the old ?
bobcho10 said:
so for those of us that like the way the old version works with 'track location' gps feature, is the new 2.0 version beter or just stick with the old ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It still works with GPS, but you can also get a quick location fix via cell towers like people have been discussing.
Built in GPS not working anymore
Lidberg said:
It still works with GPS, but you can also get a quick location fix via cell towers like people have been discussing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not appear to be able to use my built in gps in this new version of Google Maps. The settings are identical to my previous installation which worked flawlessly. The cell based location does appear accurate on my initial tests. But if I turn off the gprs or 3g radio and switch to wifi I am unable to get a fix at all.
I broke my own cardinal rule and overwrote my backup of cabs so I cant reinstall the previous version, Doh.
Does anyone have a copy of the previous version installation cab? Or is there a trick to using the Kaisers built in gps? as I said earlier my settings are setup the same way as worked previously.
wizzzard said:
Does anyone have a copy of the previous version installation cab? Or is there a trick to using the Kaisers built in gps? as I said earlier my settings are setup the same way as worked previously.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2.0.0 works fine on my Tilt, as did 1.7.1 - both with the GPS Options set to let Windows manage the GPS. Way back when I had to tell it COM4: to get Gmaps to work, IIRC.
In any case, 1.7.1 can be downloaded from Google here:
http://www.google.com/gmm/winm_apps/v1.7.1/L1/GoogleMaps_compressed.CAB
HTH,
Richard
Does your GPS give you an accurate reading? mine sure as hell doesn't.
When I'm at my home location which is house number 16, my GPS tells me im 4 houses up at number 20, of course I look around to make sure i'm not in somebody elses home. So thats not the issue.
Its also the same when driving on Route, I never get a "You have arrived at your destination" the destination is always 4 or 5 house blocks before.
Its been the same with all the major GPS softwares available, I've tried Tomtom6 & 7, Garmin XT and IG08.
Is my Diamonds GPS having issues? Is there away to fix this or reconfigure it.
Can someone please explain why this is happening!!!
Thanks in advance
saveferris said:
Does your GPS give you an accurate reading? mine sure as hell doesn't.
When I'm at my home location which is house number 16, my GPS tells me im 4 houses up at number 20, of course I look around to make sure i'm not in somebody elses home. so thats no issue.
Its also the same when driving on Route, I never get a "You have arrived at your destination" the destination is always 4 or 5 house blocks before.
Its been the same with all the major GPS softwares available, I've tried Tomtom6 & 7, Garmin XT and IG08.
Is my Diamonds GPS having issues? Is there away to fix this or reconfigure it.
Can someone please explain why this is happening!!!
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, you are not imagining things, yes, there is a problem that maybe future radios will solve and yes, please make a search before you post. there are at least two more threads about this. just search GPS (the search command is in the upper left corner of the forum, on the brown band).
thank you for yr cooperation in keeping this forum clean!
here you have one:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=402039
it is about GPS accuracy. you'll find more...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=406119
read!
My GPS so far seems to be working fine, always gives me accurate readings.
In google maps, the GPS when indoors reports me as being just 2-3ft away from where I am on a good day and on a bad day can put my GPS position in my back/front garden even though I'm in the house.
The only major problem I have is when I enable Assisted GPS, with this enabled the GPS works as normal, but after a couple of times using it doesn't work properly. If I try to use TomTom 7 or Google Maps, it says it sees 5-6 sats then gets a signal then instantly reports there is not GPS device, again acquires a perfect signal then looses it again, will do this in any GPS program.
Disabling assisted GPS fixes this issue. Most problems are just software issues and this is the first radio, so future releases should be a lot better.
Lets see if I understand this correctly....
on the samsung galaxy s GPS system, there are 2 options:
1)Use wireless networks: Set the device to use the
wireless networking to indicate your location
2)Use GPS satellites : Enable the GPS receiver to indicate your location
For now, we know that using the option 2 gives us crappy results (loosing signals, cannot lock sattelites, jumping around etc)
Now, for option 1: choosing option 1 means that launching the maps application should indicate where your location is currently by using some kind of triangulation method based on the availability of GSM signal, so it should even work when you are indoor or whenever there is a GSM signal......
But apparently on this phone, it only shows your initial location, then after that even if you have moved 1 km from your initial location, the location indicator arrow is stuck at your initial location, meaning that it doesnt track you and your movement, which means both options simply dont work on this phone....
On my wife's iphone, the GPS functionality works wonderfully even when i am inside a building and it keeps updating your location as you move continuosly.
It just shows you how careless and hasty samsung is in launching this product that even the simplest form of GPS functionality, one that is based on GSM triangulation method, also doesnt work..... and they still went ahead with the launch.....
Absolutely no problems with GSM or GPS positioning now that I'm using I9000XWJG5. Locks on satellites within 22 seconds from switch on. Thats at 30m precision. After 10 seconds more gets to 5m precision.
This is from inside my building. (Using GPS Status to check)
Same here. Your wife's phone probably also uses the mobile network to keep location inside buildings, or wireless networks. Try enabling skyhook, that is all i did.
used skyhook, and assited mode, accuracy set to 50, changed supl/cp settings, but compared to my g1 or hd2 or e61 or 10 year old bt/gps mouse the gps quality is just rubbish. (XXJF3)
no problem even without skyhook, but using skyhook gets locking much faster
i'm comparing it to my old HTC Athena, which takes sometimes over 5min to lock to 1 satellite in the great white open sky.... sigh...
sometimes it wont even lock if the weather is poor, takes like 30min or more to lock, under those conditions.
simply insane.
so SGS i9000 is like a dream to use.
g1 / hd2 / e61 only take seconds to get a full lock with accuracy about 3m. in my opinion skyhook and gps plus are needless if you have a working cb a-gps.
From my experience its the rom. As my gps worked fine with default FE3 (optus au) rom even indoors but when i flashed G5 (latest euro) i could only lock onto one sat outdoors even with skyhooks setting. Then i installed Samset 1.2 update.zip the gps works again, thats just my 2cents
widjaja74_us said:
It just shows you how careless and hasty samsung is in launching this product that even the simplest form of GPS functionality, one that is based on GSM triangulation method, also doesnt work..... and they still went ahead with the launch.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the record I haven't had any issues with GPS other than it being fair slower than my Milestone.
Didn't you sell your Galaxy S anyway?
Unimaginative said:
For the record I haven't had any issues with GPS other than it being fair slower than my Milestone.
Didn't you sell your Galaxy S anyway?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mate, I think I've seen you around the WP forums.
Quick question for you - I have a Milestone and am currently contemplating throwing it on eBay and grabbing the Galaxy S. Is there anything you miss from the Milestone?
ShaggyDragon said:
Absolutely no problems with GSM or GPS positioning now that I'm using I9000XWJG5. Locks on satellites within 22 seconds from switch on. Thats at 30m precision. After 10 seconds more gets to 5m precision.
This is from inside my building. (Using GPS Status to check)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same here. The problems start when I go out and start to drive around in my car. My GPS is absolutely useless when you move around outdoors, but locks in a few seconds indoors.
widjaja74_us said:
Lets see if I understand this correctly....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me see if I understand this correctly. You have sold your SGS and you are still coming back here to crap on about the GPS and other small things which are only occurring on some people's phones and not others?
For the record, everything on my phone has been running silky smooth since day one. Lag only occurs with too many apps open and this is to be expected from an operating system that can multitask.
navmanyeah said:
Let me see if I understand this correctly. You have sold your SGS and you are still coming back here to crap on about the GPS and other small things which are only occurring on some people's phones and not others?
For the record, everything on my phone has been running silky smooth since day one. Lag only occurs with too many apps open and this is to be expected from an operating system that can multitask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sold my phone at a profit because currently i cannot afford to have unreliable phone in doing my job... then i searched for something better and can't find any.... so i'm still following the forum to see of all the problems i experience have been fixed .... if thats the case, i might buy another one....
and for the record, i didnt crap about the GPS, i'm just investigating it deeper, becase GPS is important for me...
Thats crap for you
My Streak 7 wifi, stock ROM- gps unable to lock. Other than that, device is great. Wifi connected. In settings, Wireless networks and GPS satellites in use. GPS Status & Toolbox app downloaded aGPS data but not helping, GpsFix app not helping to lock also. Any other suggestions? thanks in advance.
dang1970 said:
My Streak 7 wifi, stock ROM- gps unable to lock. Other than that, device is great. Wifi connected. In settings, Wireless networks and GPS satellites in use. GPS Status & Toolbox app downloaded aGPS data but not helping, GpsFix app not helping to lock also. Any other suggestions? thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to be too mundane, but have you tried a simple reboot, or going outside where you'd be more likely to get a GPS fix? My T-Mobile S7 has had trouble getting a GPS fix several times, but other times it locks right in.
How long have you left in in clear line of sight of the sky to get a lock? I use mine as my primary in-car multimedia center/GPS and at first, to save battery, would turn it completely off when not in use. I found that when I'd get in my car to go home from work it could take up to 10 minutes to get a lock. Then I started just letting it sleep, have had no battery issues and GPS lock is nearly instant.
Long story short: Give it a good while to lock after a full shut down.And maybe you have, I just thought I'd share my experience.
Jeff
I have absolutely the same issue. After turning it off completely, the GPS does not lock for ages in any sky conditions, etc. Moreover, I put another two Android devices (Galaxy S and Optimus One) also after complete shut off juyst nearby and they are getting locked almest immediately. No doubts, there is a bug in the S7 GPS. But what is it ? Is it a hardware problem ? Can it be fixed ? Keeping it in a sleep mode for a long time is not a good solution for me, though it works indeed.
Does anybody know how to fix it ? At the moment I am using an external GPS. It works perfect, but it is also not that elegant solution.
Same thing here too. I downloaded "GPS test", and found that it will lock on pretty quick, then fire up GPS, and all is well.
margol1 said:
I have absolutely the same issue. After turning it off completely, the GPS does not lock for ages in any sky conditions, etc. Moreover, I put another two Android devices (Galaxy S and Optimus One) also after complete shut off juyst nearby and they are getting locked almest immediately. No doubts, there is a bug in the S7 GPS. But what is it ? Is it a hardware problem ? Can it be fixed ? Keeping it in a sleep mode for a long time is not a good solution for me, though it works indeed.
Does anybody know how to fix it ? At the moment I am using an external GPS. It works perfect, but it is also not that elegant solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS on android devices need the assistance of the cell tower or ISP location to get a quick lock. When you first boot up the ds7 and turn on GPS, make sure you are connected to wifi in order to get a quick lock. If you search this forum you will see a thread that give a fix for this, but I think its too much of a hassle. Just be on wifi for your first lock will do the trick. This is not bug on the ds7, its android.
otnos said:
GPS on android devices need the assistance of the cell tower or ISP location to get a quick lock. When you first boot up the ds7 and turn on GPS, make sure you are connected to wifi in order to get a quick lock. If you search this forum you will see a thread that give a fix for this, but I think its too much of a hassle. Just be on wifi for your first lock will do the trick. This is not bug on the ds7, its android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? More misinformation on this subject? No, Android devices do not need aGPS, in this case you're confusing aGPS (ie: download of ephemeris data) with Network location, which are quite different.
And it really doesn't matter if it's the first or the Nth time, if the DS7 is always offline for some reason, it would likely make that first fix take 5+ minutes but subsequent fixes (for 7 or so days) would be fine. However, as soon as he goes online, it's going to download the ephemeris data.
My guess is that his GPS conf is set to the wrong part of the world, so the ephemeris data is basically invalid. FasterFix in the market can help correct this mistake if you're rooted, or you can replace it manually.
khaytsus said:
Really? More misinformation on this subject? No, Android devices do not need aGPS, in this case you're confusing aGPS (ie: download of ephemeris data) with Network location, which are quite different.
And it really doesn't matter if it's the first or the Nth time, if the DS7 is always offline for some reason, it would likely make that first fix take 5+ minutes but subsequent fixes (for 7 or so days) would be fine. However, as soon as he goes online, it's going to download the ephemeris data.
My guess is that his GPS conf is set to the wrong part of the world, so the ephemeris data is basically invalid. FasterFix in the market can help correct this mistake if you're rooted, or you can replace it manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I beg to differ with you. When I was on stock froyo, I had the same GPS lock problem on one of my trip. So I pulled into a McDonald and connected to their free wifi and got an instant lock. This morning I tested it again. I have been running honeycomb sine Oct 5th and have never turn on the GPS. I connected to my wifi, turned on GPS, and opened Google map and got an instant lock. I didn't have to wait 5+ min..
otnos said:
I beg to differ with you. When I was on stock froyo, I had the same GPS lock problem on one of my trip. So I pulled into a McDonald and connected to their free wifi and got an instant lock. This morning I tested it again. I have been running honeycomb sine Oct 5th and have never turn on the GPS. I connected to my wifi, turned on GPS, and opened Google map and got an instant lock. I didn't have to wait 5+ min..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And none of that has anything to do with what I said.......
This is a little FAQ I wrote up on how to fix this problem. Just a matter of replacing the file that runs the GPS, based off the area you live in.
http://tabletroms.com/forums/showwiki.php?title=DellStreakFAQ:GPS-FIX
giveen said:
This is a little FAQ I wrote up on how to fix this problem. Just a matter of replacing the file that runs the GPS, based off the area you live in.
http://tabletroms.com/forums/showwiki.php?title=DellStreakFAQ:GPS-FIX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good list, although not sure why you're specifying dozens of NTP servers vs the pool server, but I assume t-mobile lets anyone connect to its server to download the ephemeris data? Otherwise, probably better to use supl.google.com
Here's mine, for North America, with other regions commented out for NTP. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/334233/gps.conf
It'd be interesting to know if all of the other dozen or so configuration options are actually used, I've heard they aren't, just part of a spec.
I bought my DS7 in the US and I live in Israel. The above explanations perfectly fit my case. Unfortunately, the given link does not include my region (Israel or Middle East, etc). Can somebody help me ? My DS7 runs a stock HC 3.2. The device is unrooted, but I will root it just for solving the GPS problem. BTW, why my Galaxy S bought in Europe does not have such problem ? Is this gps.conf specific in tablets only or in the US devices ?
Another thoughts. Now it seems to me extremely unreasonable to run specific GPS files in different regions. GPS, by definition is supposed to be used in different regions. Should I replace the GPS file in my every trip? Sounds more than unreasonable. I used a Windows CE based PDA with GPS all around the globe without that issue. It does took me a while to fix satellites in a new region for the first time. But then it was getting fixed fast even after complete shut off.
I can't beleive Android is that imperfect. If this option would be included in the menu (e.g. in Regional settings), I would like it. But performing such complicated actions in each trip ???
margol1 said:
Another thoughts. Now it seems to me extremely unreasonable to run specific GPS files in different regions. GPS, by definition is supposed to be used in different regions. Should I replace the GPS file in my every trip? Sounds more than unreasonable. I used a Windows CE based PDA with GPS all around the globe without that issue. It does took me a while to fix satellites in a new region for the first time. But then it was getting fixed fast even after complete shut off.
I can't beleive Android is that imperfect. If this option would be included in the menu (e.g. in Regional settings), I would like it. But performing such complicated actions in each trip ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop your trolling, ephemeris data, ie: what's set up in gps.conf, is to speed up cold starts. it does nothing else, it's not Android specific, in fact all it's doing is downloaded a set of the data that your GPS would otherwise have to slowly acquire from the satellites, which takes 2-10 minutes, depending on conditions and how many sats are seen.
All GPS units do this, but GPS units that have a network available will potentially download ephemeris data to speed up satellite acquisition. Otherwise they just download it. Only time you'll really notice it going slow is if it's been more than 4-5 days (I believe 7 is the official data expiration, but the older it is, the less accurate it is) or you've changed areas since you last turned on the GPS.
Keep in mind that phone-based GPS's suck. They're inaccurate, they're not sensitive, their antennas are not optimal. This is true for nearly all PDA's or Phones, Tablets, etc.. Some may be better than others. They're optimized for space, price, and somewhat for battery life. Not accuracy, precision, or cold starts (beyond A-GPS data downloads, which is an OS function that makes the data available to the GPS)
This means my unit is faulty (apparently it is a common problem for DS7). Otherwise I would have similar cold starts for all three devices I have tested (DS7, Galaxy S and Optimus One). On the other hand, in the light of your explanataion, my tests are, probably, wrong. DS7 is WiFi only, while another two are GSM (no data plans though). In other forums, I read that changing gps.conf file in WiFi only devices dramatically improves cold starts. Apparently they all have been connected to WiFi while starting. I have prepared the appropriate file for my region, but don't know how to root my DS7 with stock HC 3.2. The thread I found here is not sufficiently detail for noobs like me. So, in the mean time I will continue using the external GPS. It is indeed much better than the internal one besides the cold start problem (though much less convinient). If you know a link to the step-by-step instructions for rooting DS7 running stock HC 3.2, I will greatly appreciate it.
margol1 said:
The thread I found here is not sufficiently detail for noobs like me. So, in the mean time I will continue using the external GPS. It is indeed much better than the internal one besides the cold start problem (though much less convinient). If you know a link to the step-by-step instructions for rooting DS7 running stock HC 3.2, I will greatly appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Always possible there's a problem with the GPS, maybe the antenna is defective or connected badly. Hope you figure it out.
I have two bluetooth GPS, one Holux 236 I've had about 6 years, another Columbus V900 I was going to replace the Holux with, as it's newer, should have better sensitivity, and has built-in track logging. Except that its accuracy is off, it's precise.... precisely wrong. It's always about 9 meters off. And my primarily use for it is Geocaching, and my Holux 236 is always dead on.. So my new BT GPS is basically used as a track logger. Ah well All that said, I primarily use the BT GPS with my phone while geocaching or hiking or such, but I have used it on the tablet a few times, but most often I just use the built-in GPS on my DS7 because I don't need high precision with it the way I use it.
khaytsus said:
Stop your trolling, ephemeris data, ie: what's set up in gps.conf, is to speed up cold starts. it does nothing else, it's not Android specific, in fact all it's doing is downloaded a set of the data that your GPS would otherwise have to slowly acquire from the satellites, which takes 2-10 minutes, depending on conditions and how many sats are seen.
All GPS units do this, but GPS units that have a network available will potentially download ephemeris data to speed up satellite acquisition. Otherwise they just download it. Only time you'll really notice it going slow is if it's been more than 4-5 days (I believe 7 is the official data expiration, but the older it is, the less accurate it is) or you've changed areas since you last turned on the GPS.
Keep in mind that phone-based GPS's suck. They're inaccurate, they're not sensitive, their antennas are not optimal. This is true for nearly all PDA's or Phones, Tablets, etc.. Some may be better than others. They're optimized for space, price, and somewhat for battery life. Not accuracy, precision, or cold starts (beyond A-GPS data downloads, which is an OS function that makes the data available to the GPS)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, khaytsus.
All this fix does is speed up the initial contact to the GPS satellites for your region. You don't have to use this, you can wait till the GPS in the DS7 makes contact if you want.
khaytsus said:
Always possible there's a problem with the GPS, maybe the antenna is defective or connected badly. Hope you figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The most strange is that the GPS is fine after getting fixed . At least, no difference with Galaxy S, i.e. roughly the same number of satellites, SNR, accuracy. So, the only problem is unreasonably long cold start. I am not sure how it could be caused by a defective antenna. Anyway, in the mean time I decided to use an external GPS. I have three units, two BT and one mouse, which I used to use with my nettop in the pre-tablet era. Yesterday I connected my Hollux 236 to 12 V using a concealed cable and switch. So, now the procedure is reasonably simple: switch on 236, a few clicks on BluetoothGPS and, when the connection is established, I am clicking iGO8. It works like a charm, besides several additional actions I have to perform. When I will sicceed to root my DS7, I will try to play with the gps.conf file anyway.
P.S. I got an idea to connect my mouse GPS using the DS7 docking unit. I have a simple one with two microUSB I/O. Not sure it will work, but, if yes, it can simplify everything dramatically. I will try it on the weekend and let you know about the results.
Thanks.
OK, after two weeks of testing I still don't have a reasonable solution:
1. The USB mouse GPS connected the cradle does not work at all.
2. My greatest disapointment is with the external GPS. It works perfect... when it works. I am using the Bluetooth GPS application to get connected. After several successful connections, without any visible reason, the GPS is not getting connected to DS7, although the application shows many satellites with large SNR (>30-35). However accuracy = 0 and no GPS signal message in iGO8. This happens only from time to time and as I have already mentioned without any visible reason.
Will try another applications and GPS devices.
Hello everybody,
i would like to get some estimations regarding the quality of the GPS.
Please on the hardware- and the software end.
Last years i used a samsung I9300 and the GPS was fine.
Then i switched to an Elephone P9000. I think from the hardware end GPS was fine, but
it didn't work very well, maybe due to bad software? And it seems to be a common mediatek problem?
I didn't find anything in the internet, what do you think, does the GPS in p9 plus work well?
THX a lot,
Henning
As per my experience my P9 Plus has one of the best GPS I've ever experienced and it even works in the airplane pretty much accurately when comparing to airplane instruments. I'm based in SE Asia and have reception of American, Russian and few Chinese satellites and fix is pretty fast. No complaints here whatsoever.
Yes. GPS is great...
Hi,
in the meantime i also bought this phone.
I can confirm now that the GPS is very good.
It is even possible to see the two tracks on the road next by next if you drive
to a destination and come back the same way.
Also, had never this accurate GPS before...
lg
Henning
Model number?
Great to hear that you all have a good gps signal. I just bought the p9 plus too. But strangely the gps signal seems like "not so good" , in my opinion. The story has to begin with my previous Huawei's phone.
I had previously owned the mate 7, which it was came with KitKat version and the GPS worked flawlessly. I updated it to lollipop then and the GPS still work perfectly, once turn on the gps, it takes only seconds (yes, it's really seconds, less than 5 seconds to be more appropriate...) to locate where I am. Those day I enjoyed using the gps as it was super fast and accurate. But things changed after I updated it to marshmallow recently. It became very unstable, very inaccurate. So I install the app "GPS test" and found that the accuracy is upto 150 feets which is very inaccurate (I can assure that the accuracy on KitKat and lollipop were only few feets or the most 10 plus feets, It was really super fast and accurate previously....). I know that weather, such as cloudy situation will affect the accuracy, numbers of satellites working etc so I tried to find out if that's the case but nope, I compared it with my cheap Elephone gps and under the same time same condition, I open the app and tested the gps, Elephone gave me the accuracy of 12 feets !
Sometimes when I try to use maps, it even can't detect where I am and if it does, it shows a wrong location. So I thought it is the problem of marshmallow as I searched on other forum and discovered that people also facing gps issue on Nexus phone with marshmallow version. I tried fixing it with another app "gps status & toolbox" , and also found out that "use wifi to improve accuracy" had to be turned on but the accuracy still only about 50 plus feets.
Then I bought the p9 plus, and hope that everything shall be very good just like the mate 7 KitKat and lollipop version, but it is not! The accuracy is also 50 plus feets after doing all the improvement work as above. So dear fellows I would like to ask what is your version of marshmallow and what is the accuracy of your p9 plus? Mine is VIE-L29C20B100. I am thinking if my version is not updated to the latest? And if there is a latest version , does the gps work good?
Hey guys!
I´m not really pleased with the performance of the GPS on my P9 plus ... but the app itself could be to blame. I was traveling on the highway and the navigation got confused and thought i´m traveling on the road parallel to the highway (surely minimum 100m distance between them). I´m using OSMand+ for navigation and it worked fine with other phones so far. Which app are you using?
I use Google maps, it works great imho, I came from a Galaxy S5
Try to create a new user profile on the phone. Switch to the new user and check if the GPS still behaves as you mentioned.
Hi all,
just to give some updates on my findings. Recently I went through a youtube video comparing mate 9 and p 9 plus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0impUegGO0&t=2s), at time 10:32 it showed exactly the GPS app that I use to test the GPS signal and it also showed exactly the same results as my p9 plus. This being said, I believe there is no way we can further improve the GPS accuracy and I suspect it is due to mashmallow problem (as I had said KitKat and lollipop run very well in accuracy and Nexus user with mashmallow also complain their GPS accuracy is not good), not because phone GPS not good. So maybe we will have to wait till Huawei release firmware update for android Nougat and see if it improves the GPS accuracy.
However, having said that, I didn't really find the GPS signal "not good" in real life. I mean, when u use the GPS app test the GPS it gives "not good" accuracy, but when I open the map for navigation, what I experience so far is EXTRAORDINARY GOOD. I turn on the GPS and immediately switch on the map app, it instantly locate where I am, not even trying to "looking for GPS signal", really really fast, really instantly locate where I am. And it is super accurate. So I think maybe the GPS app is not something that we should use to gauge whether the phone GPS quality good or not, the real life performance will tell more truth. Just like Antutu does not always really reflect the real performance of the phone.
So for those who are having GPS problems when using map, I will suggest u all try to use another map app, maybe the problems really came from the map itself but not phone GPS problem. So for this moment I will stop looking for solution to improve the GPS accuracy (on the GPS app wise), and enjoy using my p9 plus, hope u guys too
Hi, as you say, forget tests, how does it actually work in real life.
Bought my wife one a few days ago and last 2 days testing gps driving around was only seconds to fix and no dropouts in about 1 hour driving. Thats my test.
Great phone by the way, and top quality finish.
If only it had an FM radio...
Sent from my HTC One_M8 dual sim using XDA-Developers mobile app
I find it's slow to lock or find a location, compared to my previous phone (Z Ultra).
If I'm somewhere (even outside, away from buildings, with clear view of the sky) it will take a good few seconds to lock onto my location. Old phone, and even my tablet, are almost instant, taking no more than 1-2 seconds.
This is using Google Maps.
Just a minor niggle, but can be annoying when in the car and needing to find directions quickly.
djyoshii said:
I find it's slow to lock or find a location, compared to my previous phone (Z Ultra).
If I'm somewhere (even outside, away from buildings, with clear view of the sky) it will take a good few seconds to lock onto my location. Old phone, and even my tablet, are almost instant, taking no more than 1-2 seconds.
This is using Google Maps.
Just a minor niggle, but can be annoying when in the car and needing to find directions quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Staying outside, especially without any buildings around or an empty land, could be harder for the gps to locate you. I am guessing... This sounds not logic but let me tell what I found again...
Recently I use an app which provide public transport info. This app needs gps in order to locate where are you and provide the info for the public transport at the area you are standing at. Just when I switch on the app and yet to switch on gps, my gf helped me to press the "locate me" button and I was telling her don't do silly things as I haven't turn on gps. But right after that the phone located where I was! I was like ehhh...... how come.... I double check and confirmed that I didn't switch on gps!
So again, recently I am adjusting the phone settings hoping to lengthen the phone battery (even though it's already very good. I can use it for 2 days per charge ). I found something very annoying in one of the setting - location services. Numeral time I have chose the 1st option "use gps, wifi and mobile networks (high accuracy)" and it keeps set it back to the 2nd option " use wifi and mobile networks ". I thought it was a bug of the phone but then later when I relate it to the event happened earlier (the public transport event mentioned above), I was thinking could it because I never turn on gps? then I turned on gps and yes, it automatically switch to the 1st option, and when I switch off gps, it auto switch to 2nd option again.
I then realized that other day when the phone located me without turning on gps, I was close to the MRT station which provide free wifi. And I am not sure do you guys ever experience that sometimes when you switch on the map app without turning on gps, the map itself locate where u r (maybe not very accurate but it's at the bearby area), just that when u try to use the map it will ask u to switch on gps.
That being said, I suspect the phone continuously locate where we are by using the wifi router(if any, at the nearby place) because wifi router is location specific? (not sure, maybe expert know this...) and that's why when u don't switch on gps, it is already "pre-locate" where u r and only if u switch on gps it will immediately give u the accurate position. And that also means if u stay outside without any buildings (and so without wifi too), the phone could not pre-locate u and it will solely rely on gps and that's why take some time to locate where u r?
Anyway this weekend I will be going for a long distance trip and will test the gps to see if the phone give good gps signal
just back from the long journey vacation. The phone gps works flawlessly without dropping off at all. And time to locate also excellent within 2 seconds