Hi everyone
When I had the GB Arabic rom the gps signal was pretty good, and especially when i used the sports-tracker app for my bike tracking. When i updated to ICS the tracking was bad, the time interval of gps status opened to 3times longer, so the tracking is quite inaccurate, especially in highspeed bike routes.(<20km/h). So i trying to understand what's going on...i tried quite a few apps for tracking, and in different roms but the results are the same. I wonder what is the problem? is the kernel or the radio?
andrewschumi said:
Hi everyone
When I had the GB Arabic rom the gps signal was pretty good, and especially when i used the sports-tracker app for my bike tracking. When i updated to ICS the tracking was bad, the time interval of gps status opened to 3times longer, so the tracking is quite inaccurate, especially in highspeed bike routes.(<20km/h). So i trying to understand what's going on...i tried quite a few apps for tracking, and in different roms but the results are the same. I wonder what is the problem? is the kernel or the radio?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All signals (Data, WiFi and GPS...) are handled by the radio firmware. In your case, I would recommend that you downgrade your radio to the previous version and it will be back to normal, I guess, or at least back to the way it was.
That's what happens when you don't search - you get answers from people who don't know themselves and also mislead others.
For 100000th time:
The only thing that is governed by "radio" (baseband) - is cellular network, voice and data. All the rest is in the kernel. That includes WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, and what not.
Where am I misleading him ? Sorry, but if i'm mistaken, I was previously misled by this sticky thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=21856647
Of course, kernel has one responsibility in signal handling (even with baseband) but radio contains the firmware to the physical signal processing which is then handled to the kernel. In his case, it looked more like a radio problem but maybe I'm wrong as I'm pretty new to Android !
Sent from my HTC Saga using xda app-developers app
Indeed this thread is misleading, and it has probably mislead you among many others.
I've posted in this thread, hopefully this glossary will be updated.
Radio doesn't contain anything. The devices that aren't baseband-related aren't connected to it, they don't use the same HW, nothing. Their signals don't go through "radio", aren't processed by it, and aren't involved in its functionality. In fact, in most/all phones these devices (WiFi, GPS etc) are external modules that can be independent of the main chipset/SoC.
Related
I would like if someone could explain this phenomenon to me!
I tough that the radio only changes the "radio" performance in the device, like signal strength, bluetooth, wifi and so on!
I upgraded my radio from version 1.02.25.25 to 1.02.25.28 and my device is now actually performing much better/faster in all aplications!
Can someone please explain what is affected with a rom update?
branko.savic said:
I would like if someone could explain this phenomenon to me!
I tough that the radio only changes the "radio" performance in the device, like signal strength, bluetooth, wifi and so on!
I upgraded my radio from version 1.02.25.25 to 1.02.25.28 and my device is now actually performing much better/faster in all aplications!
Can someone please explain what is affected with a rom update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I do not cook my own roms or use custom ones, I have found from both research on here as well as first hand usage of updated roms from my carrier. The performance changes are mostly from things being tweaked or corrected. With custom roms that people here create you will find that they go into the data and gut out everything that is not needed as well as patch up bugs. They also make changes to different settings that they find are actually more efficient then the default ones.
With stock rom upgrades while they may or may not take items out but they do apply the same concepts as above. Modify settings to work better and correct known bugs. Bugs are where you lose performance. Poor coding can relate to a number of issues such as slower performance, memory leaks, device not functioning as intended and things running when they should not be which can lead to excessive battery loss.
mrkawphy said:
While I do not cook my own roms or use custom ones, I have found from both research on here as well as first hand usage of updated roms from my carrier. The performance changes are mostly from things being tweaked or corrected. With custom roms that people here create you will find that they go into the data and gut out everything that is not needed as well as patch up bugs. They also make changes to different settings that they find are actually more efficient then the default ones.
With stock rom upgrades while they may or may not take items out but they do apply the same concepts as above. Modify settings to work better and correct known bugs. Bugs are where you lose performance. Poor coding can relate to a number of issues such as slower performance, memory leaks, device not functioning as intended and things running when they should not be which can lead to excessive battery loss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That part I do understand, what I meant to ask was what the radio update changes to make the device faster?
That is what puzzles me most!
well said!
to be a little more specific to the radio rom, its still all about the bugs, cleaning and optimizing code. for instance if there was some bug causing a communication error between your device and the carrier, the phone would have to wait for that to be resolved (if ever) to properly use the radio (be it 3g, edge, etc.)
in another sense, if the processor cannot properly communicate with its own devices (radios: gps,wifi,bluetooth,edge,3g) it may take a chunk of processor power to try and figure out whats going on or repeatedly ping each device, which could slow it down.
my philosiphy is that if you can get the latest and greatest rom/radio rom for your phone, without bricking it, then by all means, do so. you'll be a happy camper when its done.
m.carroll said:
well said!
to be a little more specific to the radio rom, its still all about the bugs, cleaning and optimizing code. for instance if there was some bug causing a communication error between your device and the carrier, the phone would have to wait for that to be resolved (if ever) to properly use the radio (be it 3g, edge, etc.)
in another sense, if the processor cannot properly communicate with its own devices (radios: gps,wifi,bluetooth,edge,3g) it may take a chunk of processor power to try and figure out whats going on or repeatedly ping each device, which could slow it down.
my philosiphy is that if you can get the latest and greatest rom/radio rom for your phone, without bricking it, then by all means, do so. you'll be a happy camper when its done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, things make much more sense to me now!
So I guess that a better radio will almost always improve the device performance!
Now the only question is, can I use a radio designed for the diamond in my touch pro, or do I have to wait for more touch pro radios?
do NOT use a diamond radio. different hardware calls for different radio. just be patient, as soon as the US 3g version is actually available there will be more roms.
In the past, on my wizard, some radios had improved performance, while others decreased it...it depends on each revision to the radio rom.
m.carroll said:
do NOT use a diamond radio. different hardware calls for different radio. just be patient, as soon as the US 3g version is actually available there will be more roms.
In the past, on my wizard, some radios had improved performance, while others decreased it...it depends on each revision to the radio rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually if you read the Hardspl thread and some of the others you'll find there is no problem flashing the Diamond radio on the Raphael with a couple of little tweaks
Hi
I have Coredroid ROM v6.5 installed on my inspire. The radio im using is:
12.48.60.23u_26.08.04.07_m3
The radio is real good when it come to GPS i mean my gps takes like 2-3 secs to lock any where and the accuracy is almost everytime 6 meters.
But the thing is like 30% of the time my network shifts to 3g and the reception bar drops to 1 (on a scale of 1-5) and sometimes even no bar at all. I have call drop issues too and sometime people calling me get the ring on there end but i dont get any calls.....
please recommend me any solution to that or any other radio with very good gps result as i use gps a lot. Thanks in advance.
Did you flash the appropriate RIL for the Radio?
Heres a list of the current Radios.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877295
Here are the RIL's
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1040986
I was using Radio_12.41.60.19_26.06.04.14_M_Test on coredroid and had no problems. I've actually used this radio on quite a few of the roms with no issues.
I also flashed the leedroid kernal and used in in conjunction with coredroid and it improved my battery life drastically.
The RIL list doesn't have my radio mentioned. What should I do ? Install new radio?
Didn't saw the thread completely so I flashed the compatible RIL. Will tell if it works or not.
What radio do you have?
I have been considering rooting my phone, but I'm still a little uneasy about it. I've just been wondering though, if I root it, then flash a new radio will I be able to get better signal? I've been checking the dBm readings on my Inspire, and it seems I'm lucky to see it in the -80 dBm range. It is usually in the -90 dBm range. I tried to do some research, and from what I gathered -90 to -99 dBm is getting on the poor side. I love this phone, just about the only thing that would make it better for me is better signal, and to remove the bloatware (I know I have to root for this). Thanks for any insight/suggestions.
It might and it might not. The only way to find out is to do it. Every radio works differently on every phone.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
like stated above, might, might not.
for me i went for it, i can now go to a town where i had no reception at all (i mean at all) and get full bars edge. for me it was as simple as a different rom and kernel with the stock radio.
whats even more impressive is that any phone on at&t gets no service in that area of the state...
ive found that using the most current at&t stock radio has result that are fine . ive flashed different radios with different roms but not really ever seen better or worse results
suprtrukr425 said:
I have been considering rooting my phone, but I'm still a little uneasy about it. I've just been wondering though, if I root it, then flash a new radio will I be able to get better signal? I've been checking the dBm readings on my Inspire, and it seems I'm lucky to see it in the -80 dBm range. It is usually in the -90 dBm range. I tried to do some research, and from what I gathered -90 to -99 dBm is getting on the poor side. I love this phone, just about the only thing that would make it better for me is better signal, and to remove the bloatware (I know I have to root for this). Thanks for any insight/suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe or maybe not. What you really need to do is use another phone with you to all places and compare what dBm readings that gets, take the average, and see if its just a coverage issue.
My nexus one, I see 90 to 100 dBm just about all the time, everywhere I go no matter what. The only time I see better is when I go down to San Diego where I hit 850 MHz coverage, then dBm gets pegged at 50 to 60 dBm everywhere, in buildings, no matter what. Its truly wireless bliss and shows why 1900 MHz stinks and why 850 MHz is preferred.
Reply
suprtrukr425 said:
I have been considering rooting my phone, but I'm still a little uneasy about it. I've just been wondering though, if I root it, then flash a new radio will I be able to get better signal? I've been checking the dBm readings on my Inspire, and it seems I'm lucky to see it in the -80 dBm range. It is usually in the -90 dBm range. I tried to do some research, and from what I gathered -90 to -99 dBm is getting on the poor side. I love this phone, just about the only thing that would make it better for me is better signal, and to remove the bloatware (I know I have to root for this). Thanks for any insight/suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have flashed only a couple of roms to my inspire, but I'm not comfortable with flashing radios at this point. From my understanding, the radio's are simply a recommendation, and it may not work for you in your area. I stick what works for me. I get stronger wifi signals, speed increase, more battery life, and less bloatware. I will try the OTA radio update that ATT released on 4/29/11 eventually.
I've flashed a total of two radios post-rooting. The OTA, and now the 04.11_M2, with proper RILs.
It really is an individual thing, as others have been saying. My experience going from the OTA to the 04.11 has been improved signal.
After having run the OTA for several weeks, under normal circumstances, in places I would normally see jumpy signal bars, they now stay much more consistent with the 04.11. For me. So far.
So I'll venture to say that it is quite possible to improve your radio performance, though it may take testing out a few before you find the right match for your conditions.
As long as you download a no eng s-Off needed flashable zip, as can be found in the inspire radio thread in the dev section, and make sure you check the MD5 checksum of the downloaded radio prior to flashing, to make sure your download is complete and not corrupted, there's nothing to worry about.
Believe me, I held out a loooooong time before flashing a radio, due to my uneasiness about it.
Turns out I ended up shaking my head, asking myself "wtf were you so scared about? That was simple."
I agree was a lil bit scared at 1st, not anymore!
One of the biggest issues I've seen is getting the RIL to flash properly.
Pro-tip: mount /system in CWM before flashing the RIL zip file.
Scott_S said:
I've flashed a total of two radios post-rooting. The OTA, and now the 04.11_M2, with proper RILs.
It really is an individual thing, as others have been saying. My experience going from the OTA to the 04.11 has been improved signal.
After having run the OTA for several weeks, under normal circumstances, in places I would normally see jumpy signal bars, they now stay much more consistent with the 04.11. For me. So far.
So I'll venture to say that it is quite possible to improve your radio performance, though it may take testing out a few before you find the right match for your conditions.
As long as you download a no eng s-Off needed flashable zip, as can be found in the inspire radio thread in the dev section, and make sure you check the MD5 checksum of the downloaded radio prior to flashing, to make sure your download is complete and not corrupted, there's nothing to worry about.
Believe me, I held out a loooooong time before flashing a radio, due to my uneasiness about it.
Turns out I ended up shaking my head, asking myself "wtf were you so scared about? That was simple."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was going to do that m2 radio you mentioned but I keep getting an error when I try doing it thru the radio flasher that's recommended with Android Revolution 5.19 on my inspire. My signal is jumpy too. I have s-off but it still fails. Maybe when I can figure out what's stopping it then I'll try flashing a radio.
RoninChaos said:
I was going to do that m2 radio you mentioned but I keep getting an error when I try doing it thru the radio flasher that's recommended with Android Revolution 5.19 on my inspire. My signal is jumpy too. I have s-off but it still fails. Maybe when I can figure out what's stopping it then I'll try flashing a radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, why not do it the standard way that's recommended for all radios, irregardless of ROM?
If you follow the instructions provided in the inspire radio thread over in the dev section, using the radio/ril files provided in the op of that thread, you won't have any problems.
I don't know anything about this radio flasher of which you speak, but it sounds like it's just introducing confusion into what otherwise is a very straightforward process.
I flashed the new radio on Virtuous' OP. However, I feel little or no difference in performance... Does anyone know what exactly this new radio accomplishes? I did do my reading but no one seems to have a definite answer. They say better wifi and data connection but that only seems like a speculation.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA
Sure is a speculation, also lesser battery drain...
Tapatalked from a Desire S waiting for Kernel 3 sources. WAKE UP HTC!!!!!!
Radio benefits are bound to be subjective depending on where in the world you are, what types of connectivity you use and and what you do with your phone.
So far over the last year I've found that with each subsequent Radio release/leak battery consumption has improved and wifi/GSM signal strength has been better.
But that is certainly not guaranteed. If you're S-OFF'd you should be able to rollback Radio releases if you find that the new radio is worse.
Tired to write this...
WiFi has nothing to do with baseband ("radio"). Most, if not all, of the "improvements" in WiFi reception after baseband build change are placebo.
Jack_R1 said:
Tired to write this...
WiFi has nothing to do with baseband ("radio"). Most, if not all, of the "improvements" in WiFi reception after baseband build change are placebo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're suggesting that wifi has nothing to do with the radio? Just checking? As I've always believed it did...
I thought it had to do with bt, wifi, along with all types of mobile and data connections (ie gsm, edge,3g hspda etc)
Swyped from my DesireS
Hi all,
Having updated two over to the new baseband (June 2011 to March 2012) and sticking with stock on one while using cm7 on the other, my experience has been as follows:
* battery life is the same. Cm7 much better than stock but then it's cm7. I went from Weapon to stock 2.3.4 and did not see a noticeable difference.
* GPS fix is a function of well written GPS.conf. I see a slight improvement in lock from cold start but nothing outside of normal variance.
So what was the purpose of the new baseband? To me it is now appearing to be just a date change in a field . (Obviously there are differences otherwise call audio would work without any changes).
Thoughts? Note that I had to subtract wishful thinking to reach my conclusions.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda app-developers app
Huge signal strength boost on my end. My dorm I used to get no signal. Now I get two to three.
Sent from my paranoid Nexus 7.
At least for me, the GPS was massively improved. GPS fix is not purely a function of well written GPS.conf.
On stock 21e/2.3.3 - my GPS barely worked. It was intermittently better on cm7.x - but it was still a POS.. rather .. GPOS (global piece of.. )
On stock 21y/2.3.4 - my gps was massively better, but over all it was like a whole new phone.
On 21y baseband + CM7.2 it works really well, and WIPER/A-GPS works as long as I have data connection.
mansa_noob said:
Hi all,
* GPS fix is a function of well written GPS.conf. I see a slight improvement in lock from cold start but nothing outside of normal variance.
So what was the purpose of the new baseband? To me it is now appearing to be just a date change in a field . (Obviously there are differences otherwise call audio would work without any changes).
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are also supposed to be battery life improvements - but this only affected Stock Rom, CM7 was not noticeably affected.
Furthermore, I find that the newer SIM.. TM9177 works .. whereas with 21e.. only the TM9073 SIM worked..
I have also found that my HSPA+ connections are slower - but more reliable.. e.g. now I get a solid 5 mbps down, between 1 and 2 mbps up - with 21e - I occasionally has 10 mbps down - but it was very inconsistent - it would connect/drop all the time - and not necessarily a function of signal strength (e.g. standing in one place the signal would vary a lot) . 21y just plain works better.
One other change - I used to be able to use Faux123 kernels on CM7, but now I can only use Stock CM7 or Trinity - the Faux123 drain battery among other problems. No idea.. it isn't a bad flash, but my phone went from tolerating Faux123 to absolutely refusing to use his kernels.
That being said, it is widely reported (without citations!) that there was poor quality control on the LG manufacturing of G2x.. so the phones apparently vary quite a bit as to what does/doesn't work. I would say my phone never ran 'right' on 21e.. but it feels 'right' on 21y.
I wish I could use the new baseband, I get less disconnects with it.
However I can't live without bluetooth calling, and cm 7.2 for some ??!?!?!? reason still has not fixed the bluetooth bug.