Can I get my location with Wifi OFF 3g/LTE off and GPS off using only cell towers or does it need internet to get the info, my father says his Iphone 5 with apple maps doesn't need internet to get his location but what does my father know is this even possible and if so how do I do it on my nexus 5.
fleen said:
Can I get my location with Wifi OFF 3g/LTE off and GPS off using only cell towers or does it need internet to get the info, my father says his Iphone 5 with apple maps doesn't need internet to get his location but what does my father know is this even possible and if so how do I do it on my nexus 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings > Location
Click Mode
Select Battery Saving Mode
Disable Wifi and Mobile Data if you haven't already
Your approximate location will now be determined using cell tower triangulation. However, if you are trying to use Google Maps for example, you need to have previously made the area in which you are currently located available offline, or have it in your Google Maps cache. Otherwise it won't display anything of value to you without some sort of internet connection to download the map data.
You can also use Device mode which will use GPS to pinpoint your location. Same maps caveat applies as above, and obviously you need to be able to get GPS satellite locks (ie. outside or next to a window).
fleen said:
Can I get my location with Wifi OFF 3g/LTE off and GPS off using only cell towers or does it need internet to get the info, my father says his Iphone 5 with apple maps doesn't need internet to get his location but what does my father know is this even possible and if so how do I do it on my nexus 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need internet to locate yourself only GPS.
Apps like Tasker and Llama can use cell tower location without draining your battery and requires a network connection but not data.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
xda_fanboy said:
Settings > Location
Click Mode
Select Battery Saving Mode
Disable Wifi and Mobile Data if you haven't already
Your approximate location will now be determined using cell tower triangulation. However, if you are trying to use Google Maps for example, you need to have previously made the area in which you are currently located available offline, or have it in your Google Maps cache. Otherwise it won't display anything of value to you without some sort of internet connection to download the map data.
You can also use Device mode which will use GPS to pinpoint your location. Same maps caveat applies as above, and obviously you need to be able to get GPS satellite locks (ie. outside or next to a window).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't seem to get it to work I have downloaded google maps to view offline and it just stays there saying "waiting for location..."
And did the part "Settings > Location
Click Mode
Select Battery Saving Mode
Disable Wifi and Mobile Data if you haven't already"
Pretty sure the only way for that to work is if you have "WiFi always scanning" turned on.
You can set your locations to Device Only and it will just use the GPS and nothing else.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
fleen said:
I can't seem to get it to work I have downloaded google maps to view offline and it just stays there saying "waiting for location..."
And did the part "Settings > Location
Click Mode
Select Battery Saving Mode
Disable Wifi and Mobile Data if you haven't already"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need GPS on at least. Thats what gives you your location. You can get a location based off of three things: Your mobile data, WiFi networks or GPS itself. You said you turned it all off so yeah, you arent going to get a location that way.
jsgraphicart said:
You need GPS on at least. Thats what gives you your location. You can get a location based off of three things: Your mobile data, WiFi networks or GPS itself. You said you turned it all off so yeah, you arent going to get a location that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get my location with wifi and cell towers together. No GPS so I think its possible with Cell Tower Triangulation only in theory.
fleen said:
I can get my location with wifi and cell towers together. No GPS so I think its possible with Cell Tower Triangulation only in theory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well just from looking at the settings, you can either use GPS, WiFi and mobile networks....WiFi and mobile networks....or GPS only. So I guess, take your pick.
What are you trying to get out of this anyway? Just use your phone for calls and maps and thats it?
jsgraphicart said:
Well just from looking at the settings, you can either use GPS, WiFi and mobile networks....WiFi and mobile networks....or GPS only. So I guess, take your pick.
What are you trying to get out of this anyway? Just use your phone for calls and maps and thats it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know those fitness apps that track where you have been and stuff, well I want to use one but outdoors theres no wifi and GPS uses too much battery
fleen said:
You know those fitness apps that track where you have been and stuff, well I want to use one but outdoors theres no wifi and GPS uses too much battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to save some battery on the GPS side put your phone in airplane mode. That will shut down all but GPS. I use mine all the time with an app called Backcountry Navigation Pro. They have a free version so you can check out most of the features that way. You can set it to record a track from every 5 seconds to 30 minutes. I set it to 5 minutes and have pretty good accuracy as far as where I've been and the GPS use is only on for that time. You should be able to do that with any good mapping app.
theesotericone said:
If you want to save some battery on the GPS side put your phone in airplane mode. That will shut down all but GPS. I use mine all the time with an app called Backcountry Navigation Pro. They have a free version so you can check out most of the features that way. You can set it to record a track from every 5 seconds to 30 minutes. I set it to 5 minutes and have pretty good accuracy as far as where I've been and the GPS use is only on for that time. You should be able to do that with any good mapping app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an option but if I can get the cell tower location working I would prefer it.
fleen said:
This is an option but if I can get the cell tower location working I would prefer it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cell tower triangulation is not precise at all. It's only used to help your device catch GPS fix faster. If one would only use cell towers the accuracy would in most cases not got below 300-500m...
One cell tower can provide signal for a very large area. It can not be used for precise tracking as you need.
When I drive away from my house it can take over 5 minutes to leave the area of my 3 "home" cell towers.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
So its not what I want ok guys thanks how can I close this thread now?
Related
Samsung just wrote that apparently the use wireless networks, which is the option above use gps satellites must be selected to get proper locks.
I was skeptical because i just assumed that when I went exploring I selected it, but it actually wasn't.
Put it on, and agreed to the disclaimer and then right away the maps got my location and the live wallpaper map got my location.
you'll get an email saying google knows where you are and yeah its pretty ****ty that you have to do this, but it does work. at least for me.
not a real fix, I've had that on forever and still dont get a proper lock
Confirming that this does seem to work. It might merit mentioning that I've also messed around with my GPS settings quite a bit as well.
Regardless, I got a lock within two seconds after opening Google Maps. Cheers!
-deuX`
The phone used networks to locate you. Not GPS.
PuffinNugz said:
The phone used networks to locate you. Not GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, good to know. Thanks for the info!
-deuX`
This is to assist in the GPS lock. This is not a fix.
True it isn't a real fix, hence the "quick" fix in the title.
it's just another way to help maps get a lock.
obviously this won't help in no service zones but if you're using the data anyways might as well use it to help.
plus it unlocks all the fun location based services, and that maps live wallpaper is pretty freakin sweet!
This will only give you the location of the nearby cell tower. Unless you live under the cell tower all the time, I don't think this is useful. It might be useful for things like check the nearby stores and attractions. But will not give you navigatable fixes and does not speed up your GPS lock. If you're using Google maps, try to zoom out, and you will notice a big circle. Your location is anywhere inside that circle.
That's Samsung tip is pure BS and Engadet should be ashamed to even believe in that BS.
I not only allowed the use of wireless networks for location, but also changing the GPS setting to MS Based to allow for simultaneous use of triangulation and assisted GPS... before this change I NEVER got a successful GPS lock...after I changed the settings I finally can get a GPS lock after about about 3 minutes with direct line of sight outdoors.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
foxbat121 said:
This will only give you the location of the nearby cell tower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite. its actually doing cell tower triangulation, using the signal of all nearby towers your phone sees. In the city, this can be pretty accurate and is rarely off by more than a couple blocks. To see the accuracy, turn off GPS and click 'locate me' in google maps. The blue circle around your location shows the margin of error. The more towers you are in range of, the more accurate the fix.
As far as helping GPS, all this location can really do today is help you grab the most appropriate gps almanac/ephemeris info - if youve got an internet connection. I suppose it could possibly also be used in conjunction with the gps error in some kind of a filter to improve accuracy, but as far as I know that is not being done.
I actually started getting quicker locks with just using the GPS and having the wireless networks unchecked
Just an update:
I changed the SUP/LCP setting to Auto-config and the Operation mode to MS Based. I tend to get a gps lock within a minute or two with it sitting on my dashboard. I also tried it with the"Use wireless networks" setting turned off and it worked the same.
Also, I did try out the MS Assisted SUP/LCP setting and I was able to get GPS signal while indoors, but it was less accurate all around.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I'm not saying it's completely 100% accurate, but much in the same vein that an iPod Touch can get a location using just the wi-fi this is using much the same.
it uses whatever a-gps it can and then it helps with the cellular data. triangulation. it's useful and if it keeps getting me a signal then its all good
Hello,
Is it possible to have location determined by cell towers but have WiFi disabled at the same time.
I'm trying to conserve battery power but still would like to know approximate location of my phone. Is there an option to disable WiFI but still use cell towers in this case?
G
artisticcheese said:
Hello,
Is it possible to have location determined by cell towers but have WiFi disabled at the same time.
I'm trying to conserve battery power but still would like to know approximate location of my phone. Is there an option to disable WiFI but still use cell towers in this case?
G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking for something similar. My antiquated Sharp & Nokia cell phones were far from feature rich but one useful thing they did was to list the suburb you were currently in based on data from the closest cell tower.
I've yet to find an Android app that will do the same thing witihout a wifi or mobile data connection and loading up Google Maps or the HTC sense weather/clock widget.
My service provider charges a $1 per Mb on my plan for mobile data and free wi-fi in NZ is hard to come by (and I live in the capital...).
There are the apps like Maverick and Rmaps that let you pre-cache Google maps and give you your location on the map using GPS which are good for navigation.
I'm just looking for a simple widget that gives the suburb you're in without draining the battery (and bank account) by using wifi/mobile data/GPS.
Google has so far failed me - not sure whether this is not possible with the Android OS or whether developers would rather create apps that use all the bells and whistles to determine your actual location.
Anyone out there know of such an app (or could write one)?
Ta.
normally this is possible with google maps but the only flaw is that your location is determined by the strength of the signal from the cell towers it's never accurate at lease not very accurate it will generally be off by maybe anywhere between 500 feet if i remember.
when i'm at home using the Trans hooked up to my home wifi. Is the locaton based off of the wifi or my android phone?
E46M3 said:
when i'm at home using the Trans hooked up to my home wifi. Is the locaton based off of the wifi or my android phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it's from your home wifi, at least mine is. I think I enabled the option within google.
Doesn't the tranny have GPS built in?
UKseagull said:
I believe it's from your home wifi, at least mine is. I think I enabled the option within google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm.. so what happens if your trans is at home idling and you're out with your phone and your friends have you on their latitude? which one does it pick up?
rehughe said:
Doesn't the tranny have GPS built in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does.
Funny thing, Viewsonic gtablet had neither GPS nor GSM positioning yet is was capable of getting exact location if tethered to Nexus One!
I will try if this still works with TF (positioning with GPS off).
E46M3 said:
hmm.. so what happens if your trans is at home idling and you're out with your phone and your friends have you on their latitude? which one does it pick up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point, this has happened to me before and latitude showed me as being at home when someone was using my pc. You'd expect latitude to use the location from whichever device used the service last, at least I would expect that
I forgot all about the gps, I don't usually enable it with latitude.
If I remember right, the GPS coordinates are actually embedded in the wifi signal on some GPS enabled wifi devices like the MiFi devices. So I won't be surprised if the phones are doing something similar when you tether to them too.
cl191 said:
If I remember right, the GPS coordinates are actually embedded in the wifi signal on some GPS enabled wifi devices like the MiFi devices. So I won't be surprised if the phones are doing something similar when you tether to them too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure my WiFi AP that I bought in 2003 doesn't have GPS or anything of the sort in it. Haven't tethered to my Droid X yet either. Yet when I pull up Maps at home or at work, Google knows where I am.
I believe they've gathered enough data from devices that have location services and WiFi enabled to have a bit of a database of what WiFi network is located where. That's not a bad thing, I'm just sayin that Google can generally know where you are based on what WiFi network you're connected to.
there is an online lookup service for gps coords for wifi routers. It is user modifiyable . Some how the coords of my router got corruptted and I had to go in and correct them when you location services based on router, the app goes to the lookup site and gets the coords. If not in database, wil not locate
cl191 said:
If I remember right, the GPS coordinates are actually embedded in the wifi signal on some GPS enabled wifi devices like the MiFi devices. So I won't be surprised if the phones are doing something similar when you tether to them too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is the case, I'd love to see some references.
Here's my understanding - Android devices generally have 3 ways of locating themselves.
One is cell tower triangulation. It is the least accurate, but has the best chance of providing a location so long as the device has cell signal.
Another is WiFi signal triangulation. Google devices (and Google streetview cars) collect data about nearby WiFi networks and send that data back to Google along with the coordinates where it was found (aka, all of the news story lately about apple and Google tracking people). If your device needs to know where it is, it can tell Google what WiFi SSIDs it detects and the Google servers tell the device where it thinks it is. This method is much more accurate than cell triangulation.
Lastly, there's GPS. It is the most accurate, but only works if your device has line of sight to the sky. It usually works near Windows as well.
If you go into settings>location on your device you can enable/disable cell, wifi, or GPS location. On my phone cell and wifi triangulation are lumped under "use wireless networks".
so tje navigation system is prety much useless on transfo when you are out on the road with no wifi? something dont sound right, or am i missing it altohether?
ipulaski said:
so tje navigation system is prety much useless on transfo when you are out on the road with no wifi? something dont sound right, or am i missing it altohether?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this has already been answered in another thread, but: if you have navigation software that loads maps locally (e.g., CoPilot), then you can use the TF without a wifi signal. Also, if you create a route using Google Navigation, it will cache your route and as long as you don't deviate from it too greatly (to where it would require update information) then you could also use that without wifi.
In short, the TF has a GPS capable of standalone use, but requires mapping data to perform navigation.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Not to mention every other tablet or cellphone is equally useless without a data connection unless you have, as noted above, locally stored mapping software installed or a cached GM route. It's not a Transformer issue, it's a non-dedicated GPS device issue.
Hi guys! New to the forum and the Android OS. I've just purchased the Nexus S a couple of weeks ago and the phone is great except for a couple of minor details, but one thing really bothers me is the GPS. When I'm connected to wi-fi, Google maps is able to tell me my location fairly accurately. However, outdoors with no wi-fi, I try to have the settings to locate me based on satellite, but that always give me a "your current location is temporarily unavailable" message. I'm basically completely outdoors with view of the clear blue sky and it will always give me this message. Is something wrong
I've searched on the forum but nothing that answers my question. Anyone?
Hi,
Based on your question I am not shure if you are aware of the following:
GPS is only one of several location detection methods used by your phone. Another one is based on WIFI hotspots in range. Basically the phone scans the wifi frequencies to look for ALL hotspots in range and then sends this list of hotspots to google (only if some kind of internet access is available to the phone!). When this combination of hotspots is known to google, your phone gets an estimated location back from the google server. So from what you write, it is possible that you never had a gps fix, even when you got a (fairly good) location based on wifi.
I suggest you install some gps software other than google maps to check the functionality of your device. I use "GPS test", should be on the market. All it does, is scanning for satellites and displaying the list of discovered satelites. When the signal is good enough, you get a "U" in the column "flags" for the locked satellites.
Attention! You must start the scan manually from the apps context menu.
cheers
Yeah you gotta turn on your GPS for a more accurate reading if you're using maps or other navigational app
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
Just an update. I haven't needed to use the GPS lately, but this week I decided to try again, and before, I have gotten a GPS fix with the GPS Test app. But that signal never lasts very long and it also takes a really long time for the app to use the satellite to lock on to my location. The GPS indicator on the top left of the app is usually yellow and only after a long time does it turn green, but sometimes it never turns green even with 7 or 8 satellites in view. Is this just a limitation of mobile GPS in cell phones?
I don't have a data plan so I can't connect to the internet while on the road, hence the need for GPS without having internet access.
As long as you have the SIM inserted, not on airplane mode and gps is turned on, and nothing is wrong with your phone hardware I don't see why it shouldn't get location fix outdoor.
There are some good offline maps like Osmand and MapDroyd.
I'm not sure what the Device only function does in the location settings. Can someone explain? How is this different from using Data/WiFi to determine your location?
Extreme112 said:
I'm not sure what the Device only function does in the location settings. Can someone explain? How is this different from using Data/WiFi to determine your location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Device only" per the description in Settings->Location->Mode only uses your device GPS receiver to determine your location from the signal from GPS satellites. It does not use nearby cell towers (Data) or nearby wifi networks (Wifi).
Having a choice lets you turn off various radios if you want. People used to do that a lot to try and save battery. Nowadays I just leave everything turned on - batteries are better, processors and radios are more efficient, and I'd rather have all the smartphone features working.
alistairs1 said:
"Device only" per the description in Settings->Location->Mode only uses your device GPS receiver to determine your location from the signal from GPS satellites. It does not use nearby cell towers (Data) or nearby wifi networks (Wifi).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So in theory I should be able to use Google maps without Data/WiFi?
Extreme112 said:
So in theory I should be able to use Google maps without Data/WiFi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and I believe this worked fine on older versions of Maps provided you cached the map first (obviously you can't get the map without data access otherwise).
With the current version of Maps there's some debate whether offline navigation still works. To give it a try: to save the map, have the area you want showing, then press search and then scroll to the bottom card "Make this map available offline".
alistairs1 said:
Yes, and I believe this worked fine on older versions of Maps provided you cached the map first (obviously you can't get the map without data access otherwise).
With the current version of Maps there's some debate whether offline navigation still works. To give it a try: to save the map, have the area you want showing, then press search and then scroll to the bottom card "Make this map available offline".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I get the function of this mode now. I'm gonna go ahead and try Maps and other navigation apps as well.
Thanks for explaining this stuff to me. You've been great help