TL;DR version:
1)Start Google Navigation, pick destination, start driving. Result: Sporatic or no lock and definitely no turn by turn working.
2)Start Google Navigation, pick destination, start GPSTest, start driving. Result: Almost constant lock and turn by turn works astonishingly well.
What gives?
Alright, please read this whole post, try it out, then comment on whether there is something to this or maybe I'm just crazy (a very definitely possibility). I was playing around with the GPS today and tried the Vibrant GPS hardware fix (pulling up the contact so that the GPS antenna is making better contact with the metal back). There wasn't much of a difference, so I decided to take the back off and run the GPS without the metal backing. I found that interestingly enough I was getting a better SNR with the back off than with the back on it was 8/8 at about 25-30 with the back on (using GPSTest) while with the back off it was 8/8 with 30-35.
Now comes the really interesting bit. On my drive home today I decided to see how well I could hold a moving lock. I turned on Google Navigation, pointed to my house, and started driving. Needless to say I was not able to hold a lock for very long. However, if I left the navigation app running and started GPSTest, all of a sudden I was getting the turn by turn voice pretty accurately. I then exited GPSTest and probably 10 seconds later lost my lock again. Open GPSTest, BOOM lock back on and turn by turn working again. Am I just hitting a really lucky coincidence or is GPSTest doing something we're not aware of? Please post here if you can either a) replicate what I'm seeing or b)think I'm blowing smoke cuz you aren't seeing a lick of difference.
smoking blow/10
anyways I'll try it out
comdei said:
smoking blow/10
anyways I'll try it out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BTW... this is GPS Test by Chartcross Limited, NOT the one by Mike Lockwood. You're welcome to try both however.
Previous GPS threads have repeatedly documented the positive effect of moving your nav app to the background. Theories on it center around backlight, temperature, or CPU/GPU. My own myTracks tests seem to point towards CPU/GPU. Or, at least, they seemed to rule out temperature or backlight as a factor.
So did you have GPS Test in the foreground during this test? This will pretty consistently give you improved performance over having Navigation up. If you turn the screen OFF altogether, it almost works as well as a real GPS! Check out the difference by recording a few drives in MyTracks -- it's night and day, on my phone at least.
My personal, uninformed theory (guess) is that the CPU/GPU and screen during Navigation are starving the GPS subsystem of power, causing either reception issues or causing the clock to desync and lose the position of the satellites it's tracking.
Ah well, such is life.
Perception 10.2 | SpeedMod K13D | I9000XXJQ1
I noticed this as well with my old setup (phone bought in August 2010 running Cognition & JK4 radio firmware). I got one of the refurbs from the random power off fiasco and GPS seemed to be just as unreliable. I've recently flashed the JL2 radio firmware, and GPS locks on within seconds and stays locked around town - as it should. I think a lot of people's issue would be completely resolved if they played around with radio firmwares...
Ikonomi said:
So did you have GPS Test in the foreground during this test? This will pretty consistently give you improved performance over having Navigation up. If you turn the screen OFF altogether, it almost works as well as a real GPS! Check out the difference by recording a few drives in MyTracks -- it's night and day, on my phone at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, GPS Test was in the foreground, navigation in the background. I get the feeling however its more to do with the application than the hardware. I say this because having other apps in the foreground doesn't quite have the same effect for me. Is that the case for everyone else as well?
knyghtryda said:
TL;DR version:
1)Start Google Navigation, pick destination, start driving. Result: Sporatic or no lock and definitely no turn by turn working.
2)Start Google Navigation, pick destination, start GPSTest, start driving. Result: Almost constant lock and turn by turn works astonishingly well.
What gives?
Alright, please read this whole post, try it out, then comment on whether there is something to this or maybe I'm just crazy (a very definitely possibility). I was playing around with the GPS today and tried the Vibrant GPS hardware fix (pulling up the contact so that the GPS antenna is making better contact with the metal back). There wasn't much of a difference, so I decided to take the back off and run the GPS without the metal backing. I found that interestingly enough I was getting a better SNR with the back off than with the back on it was 8/8 at about 25-30 with the back on (using GPSTest) while with the back off it was 8/8 with 30-35.
Now comes the really interesting bit. On my drive home today I decided to see how well I could hold a moving lock. I turned on Google Navigation, pointed to my house, and started driving. Needless to say I was not able to hold a lock for very long. However, if I left the navigation app running and started GPSTest, all of a sudden I was getting the turn by turn voice pretty accurately. I then exited GPSTest and probably 10 seconds later lost my lock again. Open GPSTest, BOOM lock back on and turn by turn working again. Am I just hitting a really lucky coincidence or is GPSTest doing something we're not aware of? Please post here if you can either a) replicate what I'm seeing or b)think I'm blowing smoke cuz you aren't seeing a lick of difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this worked really well for me. am on andromeda 3. but was getting on locks without staying on continuously. with the approach. gps was spot on.!! a BIG Thanks
I've noticed this for some time when running the GPS Application Test in lbstestmode. Run the GPS test first and then move it to the background and launch your normal GPS program and you'll usually be better off. Needless to say, I'm doing another warranty exchange in hopes of getting one with better GPS hardware soon.
Try this:
Get a mobile hotspot (or someone who has wifi tethering enabled on their phone). Put your phone into flight mode, then turn WIFI on and connect to that mobile hotspot. Fire up navigation, and go for a drive. You'll be amazed at how accurate your GPS is.
That leads me to believe that there is an interference issue in the GSM/GPS antennas. Part of the reason why putting navigation in the background helps improve the GPS performance is because it stops refreshing the map, which means it's not trying to use the GSM radio. But if you fire up Pandora, even with Navigation in the background, the GPS will start going nuts again.
I'm pretty sure AT&T is aware of this, and I even think they have a... well, not a fix, but a way to mitigate the problem.
A friend of mine did a warranty exchange on his Captivate last Monday for a problem with his USB port. The Captivate he got in exchange has been getting much better performance with it's GPS. And since his worked just fine all week, I exchanged mine yesterday. Now, quite often after flashing a new ROM, the GPS will work fine for a day or three. So I'm not going to be convinced mine is working as well just yet. But there are some notable differences from what I've seen before... When I'm tracking my position on Google Maps, my actual position now stays within what the GPS reports as it's error, even when I'm driving around. Previously, my phone might report a 10m error, but my actual position might be 200m or more from where it thought I was. In addition to that, I'm seeing that my phone is locking into more satellites, and holding that lock even as the SNRs drop due to obstructions. And finally, my GPS works just as good while it's in the car dock, whereas before it would only intermittently get enough signal to fix a position. Overall, while my GPS still isn't as good as other phones I've had in the past, it is now actually good enough to use and trust.
I think that AT&T isn't advertising this because it's not something that they can push out over the air or through a Kies update. I'm guessing that either they modified the antennas slightly, or that they installed a new firmware to the GPS chip (at a lower level than the driver)... or maybe both.
Either way, my friend's GPS has been working great all week long, and mine appears to be doing so as well. I'll not say that it's permanently fixed yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic. We'll see how it's doing after another few days go by.
UPDATE 3/28:
Two more days of testing have passed. So far, the GPS is holding up nicely. The only issues are with the car dock. When the phone is in the car dock, the GPS will occasionally drift 5~10 meters off of my position. This doesn't really surprise me, as the electronics in the car dock are right up against the GPS antenna, and simply putting the phone in the dock will drop the reported SNRs by more than 25% - usually a lot more.
Still, even with the car dock, the GPS is perfectly usable. And without the car dock, the GPS is now exactly what it should have been from the get-go.
I've also found that if I run either gps status or gps test to get the fix, then start whatever app I need to use, the performance is much better. Recently I just use lbs test to get the fix, then proceed with whatever app i need to use. Seems to work better, as lbs test continues to work in the background
i have seen this in the past but trying to prove that it is not random has been a problem as i cant repeat the results.
also i dont thing i have ever observed the phenomenon while using control plane mode.
maybe another coincidence, i cant tell but i have been using the control plane version of da_g's fix for a couple months now in combination with the jl3 modem and have gps that many smart phones would envy. i find jl3 to have the most stable positioning and tracking, less blue circles ect. i also find agps settings to hinder tracking. i only set agps mode to standalone. not sure how supl works or if controlplane supl setting is actually doing anything because i was under the impression that supl was part of agps but it is a combination that started working for me and i am sticking to it.
GPS sucks and I think it's my phone.. GPS won't stay awake and keep the lock, needs wifi assistance and loses the lock as well. Google Maps navigation has been a nightmare.. dropped my phone too many times maybe?
With wifi assistance off:
GPS Status will get locks, up to 9 sats usually at best.
I have seen it lose locks.
When I close apps that use GPS the GPS icon disappears from the status bar.
I have seen this happen over multiple roms.
I have wiped my phone completely, no difference.
Google Maps navigation is terrible, often get "waiting on location" even before navigation and also get that my location is not available wifi on or off.
Any ideas?
I say maybe a equipment problem, I use my GPS daily for work and it works flawlessly everytime....
Sent from my MiuiSpeedy
+1 Going to have to agree with Rooster. If your having the same issue across multiple Roms, it's probably an equipment issue. Unless your changing the exact same thing on every Rom to affect GPS. Although this is unlikely. This is also based on that fact that I use my GPS daily. It locks in under 30 seconds everytime. I haven't touched a thing, having to do with it
Same Problem
I have the exact same problem across multiple roms (Cyanogen and Supreme Sense). I just re-loaded the entire phone. The gps still seems a bit fishy. Did you find a solution? It did work just fantastically when I first got it.
Thanks in advance.
VICODAN said:
GPS sucks and I think it's my phone.. GPS won't stay awake and keep the lock, needs wifi assistance and loses the lock as well. Google Maps navigation has been a nightmare.. dropped my phone too many times maybe?
With wifi assistance off:
GPS Status will get locks, up to 9 sats usually at best.
I have seen it lose locks.
When I close apps that use GPS the GPS icon disappears from the status bar.
I have seen this happen over multiple roms.
I have wiped my phone completely, no difference.
Google Maps navigation is terrible, often get "waiting on location" even before navigation and also get that my location is not available wifi on or off.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure whether to post this in the question or the app area.
So I'm constantly losing gps signal in google's Navigation app. GPS status and angry gps will maintain a lock indefinitely but navigation will lose the lock often and takes a long time to regain the lock.
I saw http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=997647 but don't know if it'll work due to it being for another phone.
I'd also like to avoid buying a gps app as I don't use gps a great deal, it is just nice to have to find another route through traffic or to find the occasional new place.
Any tips on this?
Anyone?
Sent from my Samsung Infuse
Still having issue. Tried different apn values. Did odin to stock and a factory reset from there. Navigation constantly drops gps lock even after trying multiple modems.
Download faster fix, and select your region,
or try using waze, its better than maps.
Thanks for the advice on the waze app. Ill try it soon. Ive used faster fix but unfortunately it didn't help. My GPS locks within 10 seconds ussually, the problem is that when navigation is loaded it screws it up. I can even load GPS test lock on the GPS and navigation will then update to the correct spot but will soon lose it's lock
Sent from my Samsung Infuse
Waze worked great. Locked onto my spot within 20 secs and never lost gps lock. It was surprising that it asked for a traffic update within 5 seconds of stopping behind a school bus picking up some kids this morning.
Hello.
I want to report on all technical forums, an issue that I have encountered in MTK6753. It's about the GPS module of the chipset in some navi apps.
I own a VOYO Q101 Phablet (chipset MTK6753, 2GB RAM, 32GB Flash-Memory), with Android 7.0.
Despite the fact that the chipset model is MTK6753, when reading the prop.file I can see that the GPS module is based on MTK6735.
Scenario:
Firstly, we need to get the "GPS Locker" app from Store, in order to get our "real-time" no. of satellites in the notification bar.
Secondly, we need to install Waze and Google Maps (two navi apps, well known in Europe ans US) - in order to do the test.
1. We are turning on the Location. We can choose any option from "Device only (GPS module only)", "High accuracy". The following problem occurs in both situations. Let's choose Device only.
2. Open GPS Locker and get a lock. Very fast, I get a lock in 3-5 seconds (outside) and 10-15 seconds (inside a building).
No. of satellites: 15/17, 16/17, sometimes 18/20. So, no problem with the antenna or other stuff ... Okaaay.
Now, 3. Open Waze or Google Maps and, in the next second (immediately) slide down the notification bar (in order to see the GPS Locker status).
We can see that the no. of satellites decreases drastically, sometimes till 0/20 satelittes ! So, we have no GPS in navi apps. This is the problem I want to emphasize.
Very good reception in GPS status apps (like GPS Locker, GPS test, etc.), but when opening Waze or Google Maps we have a huge drop in the number of satellites available.
Sometimes, it goes down till 0, and after 10-15 seconds fluctuates between 3-4-5-6 satellites, then suddenly back to 0, etc., etc.
We can exclude:
- a problem in GPS antenna (than, I shouldn't have 18-19/20 satts in GPS Locker)
- a hardware problem
I have tried some settings from MTK 65xx GPS tutorial (settings in Developer Mode, Engineering Mode), but everything is okay (outside of a navi software .... )
Where is the problem? Have you encountered this problem?
Up
Hello all.
first of all I would like to make sure is this problem is only on my device. What kind of problem? My character is not accurately following my movements. When I walk slowly it is almost ok but sometimes it is auto rotating in wrong direction as I was walking from side point of view. When I am in the buss it is going totally crazy. When bus speeds up screen stops moving as I was standing and sometimes refreshes in different place than I am at the moment. GPS status app shows no problem with connection to satellites and car navigation on google maps works very well. One thing that I have noticed is that when I left the bus and started Google Maps it pointed bad my localisation(200 - 300 meters away from my real position)
I have turned on localisation and all rights are given to both Harry an GMaps. Wifi scanning in localisation menu is also turned on.
Any ideas?
It seemed to be tracking me okay, but when I get to the point where it uses the camera it crashes.
Are you on the 9.5.8 update? I don't play that game, but have been seeing some odd GPS activity in Strava and Google Maps since I took the last update.
I have the same problem with Harry Potter but it seems to work well with Pokémon. Maybe the problem is from the game ?