Database Info

Something I noticed about the GPS.

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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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?).

GPS Accuracy

Has anyone given the GPS a good test yet? Mine locks really fast, but I haven't gotten a chance to take a drive with it yet.

My first one did that, locked but still had the radius circle. This second unit locks in within an acceptable 5-10 seconds and is locked in.
Sent from MyTouch 4g via XDA App

Mine's taking significantly longer to lock than the G2, and even then it updates position far less frequently (sometimes taking 15 seconds between updates) - on the same stretch(es) of road, with clear view of the skies. Might be a dud?
-Moorebid

ok, i got to test it today and i'm impressed coming from the vibrant. Accuracy ranged from 6-20 ft while moving along the highway. I never got below 30ft on my vibrant.

Galaxy gps fix?

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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....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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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

If you have GPS Issues with the Motorola Triumph, Try This:

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.

[Q] Any one having GPS issues?

Nexus is unlocked and rooted. I get slow or poor locks with GPS status. Does this happen to anyone else?
I've only had the phone for a day, so I can't say that it was working well before or not.

I just opened Maps to test...I'm on a moving train and it locked on to me in about 7 seconds
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

Compared to my Samsung S4, N5 gps lock is not as fast or strong in hardware only mode. It's workable but nothing remarkable.

My first lock (cold fix) took 23 seconds, Hot fixes are between 2 and 5 seconds. About 24 satellites in view, locks on to 11-13. I've done these "tests" at a window not outside... I can't say I'm not happy with it

update- I was able to get a lock this morning and it seems to lock a little faster. I know it's common with some phones that the first lock after reboot is the longest.
I'll keep an eye on it.