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Took a 300 mile each way car trip over the last 2 days. I had my Captivate and 4 year old Tom Tom XLS with 9 month old update. We didnt need the Tom Tom until about 10 miles from our destination. Turned it on at the same time as opening Navigation on the Captivate. It took around 5 minutes for them to get a satellite lock. The interesting thing was they locked at EXACTLY the same time.
Now, the Tom Tom (TT) usually locks in 30 seconds or less if I turn it on near home. If I'm over say 100 miles from home it takes several minutes to lock on. I had heard this is due to the TT looking for the same satellites or number of satellites as when it was last locked on.
So that said, when we were leaving, I turned on the TT and Captivate and did the same thing. TT locked in about 30 seconds, Captivate in about 5 minutes. When we were 100 miles from home I turned off the TT and Captivate. Turned on again at home and they both took exactly the same time to lock on again - about 5 minutes.
I noticed a similar lag with my Tilt 1 if I didnt download the quicksat updates. If they were installed, the thing locked on very quick.
So could the Captivate have no historical data of the last lock and thus is always trying to track and locate satellites that are not visible, gives up then locks onto new ones?
Am I smoking something?
With everyone complaining about the gps, I have had absolutely no trouble with it. Being very inaccurate with the famous blue circle around it is only when it does not have a CLEAR view of the sky. I bought a holder that sticks on the windshield and it locks on in about 2-4 minutes, and it deadly accurate from there. I have the cheap tom tom and the captivate is just as accurate as the TT. Actually locks on faster than my TT if Im moving. I've tested it a lot to see if I can have trouble, but unless I block its view.... I have 100% reliable operation out if it.
klloyd said:
With everyone complaining about the gps, I have had absolutely no trouble with it. Being very inaccurate with the famous blue circle around it is only when it does not have a CLEAR view of the sky. I bought a holder that sticks on the windshield and it locks on in about 2-4 minutes, and it deadly accurate from there. I have the cheap tom tom and the captivate is just as accurate as the TT. Actually locks on faster than my TT if Im moving. I've tested it a lot to see if I can have trouble, but unless I block its view.... I have 100% reliable operation out if it.
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2-4 minutes sucks bad for locking and needing a 100% clear view of the sky is also bogus. What happens if you don't live in the flat rectangle known as Kansas? The GPS on these flat out sucks. I have a 10+ year old "cobra" handheld GPS that locks faster and holds lock / is more accurate.
I live in that flat rectangle, and it still would get lost.
OP
I think you are on the right track. In addition to othe issues with the gps, such as incorrectly intrpreting the time zone and having GMT 5 hours off, regardless what other people say, it seems to be starting in"cold" mode always, whic means it needs to download all the positional data first, determine the satellites positions and the attempt to get a fix. This takes about 5 min in any gps, simply because the transmission rate of the gps satellites is very low.
Your tomtom attempts to take a shortcut assuming it's not too far from where it was turned off last time. If true, it can get a fix in 20 secs or less, if false, it would take 5 min.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Mine always locks in within 20 seconds, whether I am moving on stationary, hot start or cold start. I've even tried turning it on 100s of miles from my usual location and still locks and holds while driving to 32ft accuracy. I am already on my second captivate, the first one liked to turn off randomly. The first one didn't have a gps problem either.
I did do the supl.google fix to both though. They were slow with factory settings.
Under LbsTestMode do you have it set to HotStart and MS Based?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
jmgelba said:
Took a 300 mile each way car trip over the last 2 days. I had my Captivate and 4 year old Tom Tom XLS with 9 month old update. We didnt need the Tom Tom until about 10 miles from our destination. Turned it on at the same time as opening Navigation on the Captivate. It took around 5 minutes for them to get a satellite lock. The interesting thing was they locked at EXACTLY the same time.
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Click to collapse
I did notice the same thing when I was on a trip in Wyoming two weeks ago. I hadn't turned on either GPS (in this case the car one was a Garmin) and when I did both locked at the exact same time (probably after about 3-4 minutes after turning them on). It was quite surprising because I thought the Garmin would go much faster than my Captivate, but this was not the case.
I was extremely lost last night in the city with buildings all over on a cloudy night. Gps found me and directed me in about 1 min coming from a car garage .
I've noticed it locks faster if you back out of Google maps while its finding your location and go back in. It seems to get a lock quicker. Same goes for navigation, I enter a destination and hit navigate, if it don't find a lock within say 10 seconds like it usually does for me ill hit back once and then navigate again. Then it usually finds a lock fast almost instantly ..
I do get the blue circle while navigating sometimes , but it moves along perfectly . Ill even just use google maps without the navigation and watch myself move on the map nicely...
I usually get from 4 to 7 satellites out of 12 or so.
Works for me, if it can be better cool, but its done me well so far can't complain too much.
I tried using it last night. Not sure how many satellites it locked on to, but it did give me the accurate to 5 meters message in Maps.
That said, it was ever so slightly off (probably 6 or 7 meters instead of 5) and my compass is blown. Even after calibrating it, its still a few degrees off (15 - 20 maybe?).
I was reading SlashGear's Nexus S Review and found something interesting.
Similarly frustrating can be GPS performance; we haven’t observed the dire positioning problems originally found on the Galaxy S, but at times the Nexus S proved simply incapable of getting a GPS lock: we drove for around 30 minutes of open, clear freeway and the handset continued to show “Searching for GPS.” The issue is intermittent, however, with the phone not liking it if you try to get a fix while moving.
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http://www.slashgear.com/nexus-s-review-14119387/
Now they probably have a preproduction unit, but what are the chances of GPS behaving similarly to the GPS in the Galaxy S/Captivate/Vibrant (all have the same standalone GPS chip as the Nexus S -- BCM 4751). Doesn't appear as severe, but somewhat problematic (from the review) nonetheless.
I'm interested to see how the GPS performs while the Nexus S is in user's hands
big suprise, the GPS dosn't get a fix while moving. this is a common issue on tons of phones.
Me and my girlfriend were driving around once and it took my phone almost 40 minutes to get a GPS lock, CM5 on a Nexus One.
Yet later that same day, standing still, it worked in under a minute.
Every phone can have GPS issues for a massive amount of reasons.
The Galaxy S issue was a software issue where it worked under 5% of the time, even if you were standing still ontop of a building.
Other ones sometimes randomly have the issue while moving, this is usually because the phone has issues connecting to the satelite. You gotta remember the GPS chips in these phones are not that great.
my mytouch4g gets a gps lock while driving, a bit longer then standing still but id say still under a few minutes
neok44 said:
big suprise, the GPS dosn't get a fix while moving. this is a common issue on tons of phones.
Me and my girlfriend were driving around once and it took my phone almost 40 minutes to get a GPS lock, CM5 on a Nexus One.
Yet later that same day, standing still, it worked in under a minute.
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This is also how my dedicated TomTom and Garmin GPS work. Stand still, lock in less than a minute. On the move, I usually give up after 10-15 minutes and stop for a minute.
Oh ok cool.
shrivelfig said:
This is also how my dedicated TomTom and Garmin GPS work. Stand still, lock in less than a minute. On the move, I usually give up after 10-15 minutes and stop for a minute.
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This is not correct TomTom devices do get a lock while moving and so does Nexus one and iphone 4. If this review is correct that means that Samsung has no fixed the GPS in Nexus S and that it may be suffering from the same problem as Galaxy S
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
darkoroje said:
This is not correct TomTom devices do get a lock while moving and so does Nexus one and iphone 4. If this review is correct that means that Samsung has no fixed the GPS in Nexus S and that it may be suffering from the same problem as Galaxy S
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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were not saying that they can't, it's that it CAN take longer. in some places you can be going 60MPH and get a lock within a minute, but in another place you can be walking at 5MPH and it'll take 20 minutes.
Sorry but our phones don't get priority on any gps satellite lol
darkoroje said:
This is not correct TomTom devices do get a lock while moving and so does Nexus one and iphone 4.
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Yes, TomTom devices get a lock while moving. They get a lock much, much faster standing still, though.
For any GPS to work, it needs to download the complete almanac from at least 3 different satellites. The almanac is sent every 30 seconds, so the GPS must have an uninterrupted view of each satellite for at least 30 seconds, possibly up to 60 seconds.
A-GPS can get the almanac data faster, and TomTom has something called QuickGPSfix that pre-downloads almanac data a week in advance.
But what if you don't have A-GPS or QuickGPSfix, and the GPS hasn't been used in a week, so all the almanac data is outdated?
If you are moving so much around that the GPS antenna never sees any satellites uninterrupted for the necessary 30-60 seconds, then the GPS will never get a lock. Never.
neok44 said:
Sorry but our phones don't get priority on any gps satellite lol
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There is no priority because there is no "connection". GPS receivers (sic!) don't send anything.
umbrella42 said:
There is no priority because there is no "connection". GPS receivers (sic!) don't send anything.
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lol true, was just trying to emphases the point that our phones aren't going to connect as fast as pure GPS devices.
neok44 said:
lol true, was just trying to emphases the point that our phones aren't going to connect as fast as pure GPS devices.
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Actually, with A-GPS the phones have an advantage to get first lock quicker. But the pure GPS devices have better antennas, so should give more accurate navigation.
I wander if they ever restarted the navigation app, because you know, sometimes restarting the app works. From my experience anyways.
shrivelfig said:
Actually, with A-GPS the phones have an advantage to get first lock quicker. But the pure GPS devices have better antennas, so should give more accurate navigation.
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yeah thats when the A-GPS works. both mine and my dads phone's A-GPS has been just terrible. usually showing us 20+ miles away from where we actually are
neok44 said:
yeah thats when the A-GPS works. both mine and my dads phone's A-GPS has been just terrible. usually showing us 20+ miles away from where we actually are
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Click to collapse
Are you sure that was actually GPS, and not location by cell tower or WiFi hotspot? A smartphone without GPS lock will try to find your location by other means.
All A-GPS does is to jumpstart the GPS, and when GPS has a lock, then the error should be way below 100 meters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-GPS
my GPS is working fine right now,but it does act up randomly with no reason :/
GPS work flawless
Rounding out this section is a note that the Nexus S suffers from none of the GPS issues that plague the Galaxy S. I tested thoroughly - fixes are fast and accurate over GPS and work like they should using Google location services with WiFi trilateration.
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link
Excellent!
The BB Bold I'm using right now has quick and accurate GPS fixes, usually within 0.2-0.3 meters.
shrivelfig said:
Are you sure that was actually GPS, and not location by cell tower or WiFi hotspot? A smartphone without GPS lock will try to find your location by other means.
All A-GPS does is to jumpstart the GPS, and when GPS has a lock, then the error should be way below 100 meters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-GPS
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yeah once i get an actual GPS lock it's perfect, but until then it's been terrible. Cell tower only has been really bad as well.
This, for me, was on CM6, haven't tested it on CM6.1. ANd for my dad on a stock vibrant, so i'm just gonna chock it up to the crappy gps in it (happened before fix)
It's apparently plagued by the same GPS bug as other Galaxy S phones; it took forever to get a GPS lock
gizmodo.com/5713986/samsung-nexus-s-review-how-to-build-an-android-phone-for-2011
So if we want to be scientific I believe thats more sources claiming there is an issue than not
Anandtech says there is no GPS issues:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4059/nexus-s-and-android-23-review-gingerbread-for-the-holidays/6
So my gps works and gets a lock, just a little slower than other phones (5-10 seconds). When navigating, it is also usually a few seconds behind (ie, I turn on road 1 and 2 seconds later, it tells me to turn on road 1).
Has anyone used the galaxy s gps fixes on the nexus?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
You may wanna try browsing this thread if you havent already, im sure they may have covered it
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=875342
I came from a Vibrant and the GPS is so good on this thing I don't want go make any changes.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
So has anyone tried?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
hah2110 said:
So has anyone tried?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
....the GPS fix isnt needed
Out-of-the-box GPS devices typically need 15 minutes to get a lock for the very first time. The whole point of A-GPS is to shorten that time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_first_fix
After acquiring a satellite signal, the receiver can begin to obtain approximate information on all the other satellites, called the almanac. This almanac is transmitted repeatedly over 12.5 minutes. Almanac data can be received from any of the GPS satellites and is considered valid for up to 180 days. Manufacturers typically claim the factory Time To First Fix to be 15 minutes.
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Click to collapse
Of course old devices get a quicker lock than factory-new devices. The old device already has the necessary data, the new device has to start from scratch.
GPS lock in less than 30 seconds is actually impressively good. If you feel that this is too long, then you don't need GPS, you need magic.
And don't even think about returning the phone (or even complaining) before you have tried to get a fix for 30 minutes without any success. Standing still, outdoors, with a good, unobstructed view of the sky.
You guys can say what you want. I have had 10+ Android phones and [besides the Vibrant] have never had this bad of a GPS experience. It is slow to lock on (~10 seconds) and is constantly behind during navigation.
hah2110 said:
You guys can say what you want. I have had 10+ Android phones and [besides the Vibrant] have never had this bad of a GPS experience. It is slow to lock on (~10 seconds) and is constantly behind during navigation.
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Seems you're the exception rather than the rule. My Euro Galaxy S and vibrant sucked regardless. NS is immediate and accurate to single digits typically. Could not be happier with the GPS on this device.
hah2110 said:
You guys can say what you want. I have had 10+ Android phones and [besides the Vibrant] have never had this bad of a GPS experience. It is slow to lock on (~10 seconds) and is constantly behind during navigation.
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This post reminds me of Louis CK's bit on impatient people.
What kind of navigation software?
I found this kind of lag is the navigation software issue.
I am using Sygic Aura on HTC Desire, it is also sometimes behind few seconds than the actual situation. Then I turned off the POI display (it is useless anyway on Sygic Aura), and now it is OK (much better).
In the past, certain version of TomTom also has this kind of lag on my HTC Kaiser WM.
hah2110 said:
You guys can say what you want. I have had 10+ Android phones and [besides the Vibrant] have never had this bad of a GPS experience. It is slow to lock on (~10 seconds) and is constantly behind during navigation.
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Click to collapse
From the android market, install THIS. Run it OUTSIDE.
If this gives you 5 satellites and a Green light, your GPS radio works!!!
Now, while you are still outside, go to
Settings
Location & Security
Make Sure the Green Check is on "Use GPS Satellites"
CLICK IT OFF
then CLICK IT BACK ON!
Start Google Navigation and type in another address that's at least one mile from your current location.
Within 30 seconds, you should be golden. If not, return your phone. Hopefully you bought it from Radio Shack!
Not found 404 error... :-[
What's the name if the app you're trying to link to? I'm interested to try this out.
Sent from my Moto Triumph
It's called GPS Test. Search the market for it.
This process worked for me! Found 7 satellites. Thanks for the tip.
The GPS is now locking on instantly.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA Premium App
Thanks!
Sent from my Moto Triumph
Brilliant. Works great!! :-]
Sent from my Moto Triumph
I hate to be negative here, but I have been using GPS Status and GPS Test for quite some time on all my phones. GPS Status will actually time how long it takes to connect. Using either one, it's still typically 30-60 seconds for me. However, once I have connected, reconnecting shortly there after is fairly quick (<30 sec). Of course, this fails to address the 3G/1x issue when GPS is active. Until a ROM is available, I am just ignoring the GPS for now.
Just tested it. It took 90 seconds to connect, despite telling me that it had found and connected to anywhere from 6 to 9 satellites while 'searching'. This leads me to believe that it is in fact the phone's SOFTWARE that is the issue (it can see and track the sats, but it is taking forever to process the information and determine a location), not the GPS itself.
And now, after connecting once, when I try to search an address it locates me within 10 seconds. However, the next time I attempt to do this (at a later date), I will have to go through this process all over again.
I see 7-9 sats and my accuracy is 18 feet. Navigation locked on and gave me my directions quickly. Still goes to 1x but returns to 3x after a while. Like the previous poster said I'll probably have to do this again because I won't need GPS for a couple weeks.
I've had GPS Test on my phone for a while now but never knew what it really does other than give you your status. Does this actually boost the time it takes get the sat signals?
Outside mine just gets 3 satelites and when it works accuracy is down to 100 meters ...thats if I can even lock on..
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA Premium App
If that's the case, return your phone. Hopefully you purchased from radio shack,;-)
Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk
This third Triumph has the best GPS I've received of the 3 (first Triumph had USB port defects, and the second triumph had a random sudden death). On this third Triumph, standing outside I'm able to hit 9 satellites and get accuracy down to 7 feet.
That still isn't as good as my Thunderbolt, but I think thats an unfair comparison since the Thunderbolt has its GPS antenna mounted in the battery cover. Side by Side the Thunderbolt was able to get 11 satellites and an accuracy of 3 feet.
Not Bad
I was able to lock on to 10 sats and 5 feet so I believe my Triumph is good to go.
As I'm waiting for my Nexus 5 I'm interested on GPS performance of this new phone. Anyone can take a screenshot showing GPS signal and how much does it take to lock in?
GPS Test on Play Store
Anyone?
No one? I'm guessing it uses, glonass gps.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Mine took 10 seconds to get a lock on (19 in view, 11 in use) after clearing aGPS history in the app. This was done indoors about 5m from a window.
Hardly scientific, but hope this helps!
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Is anyone experiencing long delays (2+ minutes) while waiting to get a lock (subsequent locks are faster)? And once a lock is achieved, the accuracy is about 30 meters? Lock should only take a couple seconds, accuracy should be 10-20 meters, right?
GLONASS
Does Nexus 5 has GLONASS sensor?
Aerowinder said:
Is anyone experiencing long delays (2+ minutes) while waiting to get a lock (subsequent locks are faster)? And once a lock is achieved, the accuracy is about 30 meters? Lock should only take a couple seconds, accuracy should be 10-20 meters, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem here.
indoor lock (near a window) takes less than 30 second, 23 sats in view, 14 locked, 5-10 meters precision.
Aerowinder said:
Is anyone experiencing long delays (2+ minutes) while waiting to get a lock (subsequent locks are faster)? And once a lock is achieved, the accuracy is about 30 meters? Lock should only take a couple seconds, accuracy should be 10-20 meters, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get long delays, and sometimes it doesn't lock at all.
Same here. Very long lock delays every time.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Same Problem here.. Sometimes it only locks to five and the accuracy is bad.. Notably while playing ingress today
i went out running with mine last night, the gps was terrible, had it on high accuracy as well, nowhere near as good as the N4 or S3
I find it locks on very quickly. Fat far quicker than my old galaxy nexus
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
What is the difference?
So some of us are getting poor GPS on the N5 and others are getting great response as you would hope.
What is the difference? I got mine early out of Hong Kong and I am getting the slow variable quality lock.
In case it is relevant my build no is KRT16M, Baseband vers os M8974A-1.0.25.0.17 and Kernal vers is 3.4.0-g9eb14ba.
Happy to provide anything else if relevant.
Of course it might be something mis configured at my end, but there seems to be a group with poor experience.
Not as fast or stable as my Samsung s4
Very fast. About 10 secs or less.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
I noticed that mine is very slow indoors, but works faster outdoors. It still take a few seconds to lock.
I was driving in Salem, MA last night and constantly losing GPS signal. It was a clear night, and I'm not aware of anything that should have interrupted signal. I was streaming some music and connected to my car's head unit via bluetooth, neither of which should have affected it.
I used it the other day to find a hobby shop. It connected in about 10 seconds, I only had to go about 3 miles but it was perfect.
As long as I'm not hiding it under my desk of electronics, it gets a lock indoors in about 3 seconds, and resolves all the way down to about 10 feet of accuracy in less than 10 seconds. I haven't had it lose GPS once since I've gotten it on Tuesday, and I've used it every single day several times.
Vincent Law said:
As long as I'm not hiding it under my desk of electronics, it gets a lock indoors in about 3 seconds, and resolves all the way down to about 10 feet of accuracy in less than 10 seconds. I haven't had it lose GPS once since I've gotten it on Tuesday, and I've used it every single day several times.
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Good to know I rely on gps n wifi tether on att ... cant wait for ups to deliver it already