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Help test a quirk with the GPS chip. SIMPLE

There is this great Android app that displays the output from the device's GPSr chip, as well as the data from other sensors in the phone (compass, level, accelerometer, etc). I have used it on all of my android phones. When I used it on the skyrocket, I noticed something different.
Normally the app displays a compass wheel and plots the visible GPS satellites on it, indicating how strong the signal is from each, which are being used to plot your location and where they are in the sky. The US GPS constellation has 32 active satellites and a handful of inactive spares. They are numbered, simply enough, 1-32. However, since I started using the app on this phone I have additional satellites plotted on my display, numbered greater than 60. I contacted the app's developer and he was as surprised as I was.
My handset is a non-retail version of the phone. I can't get into too many details of what that means on a public forum, but suffice it to say, mine might be a bit different than yours. Until now I was under the impression that my device was identical to the retail version in every respect except for the "NOT FOR SALE" stenciled into the case and the lack of logo on the battery cover. Now I am not so sure.
So here is the help I need: download the app (it is free), go outside and fire it up. Within seconds it should start plotting satellites on the compass as little numbered dots. Do you see any with a number outside the range 1-32? There seems to pretty consistently be about 8 of them in the sky where I am, so if you can detect them at all you should see some of them.
Please let us know if you can see them or not. Here is a link to the app on the market: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2 If you can see them, we may have additional questions for you. Please post even if you cannot see any. If no-one can, that means it has to do with mine being non-retail. If some of you can and some can't, then we may have identified a variant of the Skyrocket. Or maybe the satellites are regional. This is all very confusing and exciting, please help!

Attached is a screenshot of the app detecting satellites numbered greater than 32.

Here is a screennshot of me using the app never shows more then 9 satalites for me

Thanks!
Your screenie is in line with what's expected, showing only US GPS satellites. Hmm, curiouser and curiouser.

I'm getting 9/20 sattelites. The ones on the screen above 32 are white and numbered: 82, 78, 88, 80, 65, 72, 79, 81. Interesting, every satelite in green is below 32, every satelite in white is above 32. Oops, I take that back. There's a white 28
If you tell me how to do the screenshot, I'll post it here.

There are a number of apps on the market that run in the background and take screenshots by shaking the phone, like this one: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.geeksoft.screenshot
So you see the mystery satellites, too! Cool! We don't know exactly what they are, but they might be GLONASS satellites - the Russian military GPS that opened to civilian use after the Iron Curtain fell. Or something else entirely!

If you press and hold home and power buttons then release it takes screenshots you do not need an app its a feature of samsung galaxy phones

Hi all,
I'm the author of GPS Status and I'm 99.99% sure that those dots are GLONASS satellites.
First about the coloring:
- gray: satellite without ephemeris or almanach data.
- blue: satellite with almanach, without ephemeris
- yellow: satellitw with almanach and ephemeris data, but not used in the GPS fix
I was more or less expecting that someone will spot this sooner or later. GPS Status was written to display all returned sat data. It is just that this phone receives also GLONASS data. There are several announced/shipping phones that officially provide GLONASS support. Galaxy Note and the latest Sony-Ericcson xperia phones. BTW iPhone4s also supports GLONASS.
We can expect most new phones will support this because Russia has implemented a 25% import tax on all phones that do not support GLONASS (from the beginning of next year). Manufacturers will obviously support this to avoid the tax. So we can expect new phones arriving with GLONASS support or even older phones to have firmware updates to enable it (if the hardware supports). Long story short, I'm happy to see this happening as this will give a much better service IF the phone can work in mixed mode.
In this particular case I guess the phone is using only the GPS stats and can be switched between GPS/GLONASS, but cannot use both of them at the same time.
Great find

Cool!
We have already found one person who is apparently without GLONASS support. There are probably others (by all means, post). I guess this is a point of variation. Smartphones all seem to have them: two "identical" phones, but this one has sound card A and that one has soundcard B, etc. It happens because of the way consumer electronics are manufactured. Some of us got a GPS/GLONASS receiver and some of us got a GPS-only receiver, for no other reason than the availability of the various components at the time the production batch our phone was in got fabricated.

Yeah it appears that is the case. I just pickd up my skyrocket traded my sgs2 for it to a guy who lives in Louisiana

rhornig said:
Hi all,
I'm the author of GPS Status and I'm 99.99% sure that those dots are GLONASS satellites.
First about the coloring:
- gray: satellite without ephemeris or almanach data.
- blue: satellite with almanach, without ephemeris
- yellow: satellitw with almanach and ephemeris data, but not used in the GPS fix
I was more or less expecting that someone will spot this sooner or later. GPS Status was written to display all returned sat data. It is just that this phone receives also GLONASS data. There are several announced/shipping phones that officially provide GLONASS support. Galaxy Note and the latest Sony-Ericcson xperia phones. BTW iPhone4s also supports GLONASS.
We can expect most new phones will support this because Russia has implemented a 25% import tax on all phones that do not support GLONASS (from the beginning of next year). Manufacturers will obviously support this to avoid the tax. So we can expect new phones arriving with GLONASS support or even older phones to have firmware updates to enable it (if the hardware supports). Long story short, I'm happy to see this happening as this will give a much better service IF the phone can work in mixed mode.
In this particular case I guess the phone is using only the GPS stats and can be switched between GPS/GLONASS, but cannot use both of them at the same time.
Great find
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow I had no idea that cell were incorporating GLONASS recievers too. Guess your going to have change your app name to GNSS Status now

Here's mine. Skyrocket purchased from an AT&T Store in Honolulu a couple of weeks ago.

GLONASS IS HERE!!!
I wonder how hard it would be to enable simultaneous GLONASS/GPS support

I have both models (production and pre-production) and yes they both show the same list of birds.

This is mine!
It is from Galaxy Note!
It seems that the GLONASS Sats are used with both GPS Sats!

The reason the skyrocket can pick up GLONASS satellites is because Qualcomm released a statement yesterday saying that the S3 has a built in chip for GLONASS, and the carriers should be activating it soon, since its more reliable then the current GPS system. Honestly, Im surprised the skyrocket can pick them up without a software update, unless it shipped with support.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

Cool beans! My skyrocket (also purchased from ATT in socal) is showing the GLONASS satellites in grey as well. I wonder if we will get the update that will allow it to work in mixed mode like the Note apparently does.

Mine shows the birds in grey too!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App

Yep, mine picks up GLONASS satellites.
I wonder if the 2.3.6 update (once it gets re-pushed) will be able to connect to those satellites... would be amazing honestly.
EDIT: here's the article. http://www.slashgear.com/qualcomm-a...-and-s3-support-for-gps-and-glonass-16202874/

BeiDou Support

As per available specs, Moto G 3rd edition/2015, supports BeiDou.
However, testing on two different devices (one running Lollipop and one Marshmallow) I have been unable to receive signals from any BeiDou satellite. Signal is received from Navstar GPS, GLONASS, MSAS, GAGAN satellites though.
Can anyone clarify?

Resolved
OK... The specs (from GSM Arena) were wrong!
No BeiDou support in Moto G3!

GPS of mate 9

anyone could find Galileo and Beidou satellite?
It is supposed to support Galileo.

Oops, seems like does not have glonass and Galileo. That's strange...

I can see Galileo, although not always and just one (at least the few times I tried). Galileo coverage is not very good yet.

Galileo is there, but it is not correctly labelled and is shown as
? Unknown.
I don't know if this a problem with the Mate, or because Galileo is not yet officially operational.

I have confirmed that the satellites in GPS Test Plus listed as ? and given numbers around 160 -170 are Galileo.
It looks like the lack of a proper label might be an error in the app.
Galileo needs four more satellites for the full service, they are due for orbit later this year. They might be delayed because they are having problems with the on-board clocks.
Edit: I've tried using another app - AndroiTS GPS Test - and that gives the same display as GPS Test Plus. So it looks like this is a Mate 9 problem.
Hopefully it will be fixed in a future firmware update.
Edit 2: I have not yet seen Glonass appear on my Mate 9. Has anyone else?. That is something else that needs checking out.
.

I have just brought a Mate 9 because it says in the Specs that it receives the Galileo GPS sats however testing it with the App called "GPS Test" it shows no flags for Galileo sats received, I know they are working because a friend also ran the app the same time on his Samsung 8+ and it showed 4 Galileo Sats, could someone please confirm with this app "GPS Test" that the Mate 9 does receive the Galileo GPS sats or is it just my new phones naff? Thanks

ash2008 said:
I have just brought a Mate 9 because it says in the Specs that it receives the Galileo GPS sats however testing it with the App called "GPS Test" it shows no flags for Galileo sats received, I know they are working because a friend also ran the app the same time on his Samsung 8+ and it showed 4 Galileo Sats, could someone please confirm with this app "GPS Test" that the Mate 9 does receive the Galileo GPS sats or is it just my new phones naff? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked well in previous rooms... On current ones it fixes more satellites but no Galileo it will be fixed.

ash2008 said:
I have just brought a Mate 9 because it says in the Specs that it receives the Galileo GPS sats however testing it with the App called "GPS Test" it shows no flags for Galileo sats received, I know they are working because a friend also ran the app the same time on his Samsung 8+ and it showed 4 Galileo Sats, could someone please confirm with this app "GPS Test" that the Mate 9 does receive the Galileo GPS sats or is it just my new phones naff? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There were some investigations in other thread: https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-9/help/gps-problems-stats-reports-t3508213/post71183475
In two words - it's all about GPS priority.
GPS > Glonass > Beidou, Galileo

Thanks for your quick reply.
Oh well I really liked the phone looks like its not working well on the GPS side of things I have tried every thing to make it better than my old LG G3 GPS guess I will take it back and get a Samsung S8/+ as I know that works properly

ash2008 said:
Thanks for your quick reply.
Oh well I really liked the phone looks like its not working well on the GPS side of things I have tried every thing to make it better than my old LG G3 GPS guess I will take it back and get a Samsung S8/+ as I know that works properly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait. Why do you want return phone?
Mate 9 still very good when driving and using navigation software.
Huawei fixed abnormal behavior when hiking or cycling, so you can record your track.
What case of concern?

I went on a bike ride last night. Used Google fit, covered 26 miles and it tracked the ride accurately. I was impressed.

I have also bought a Mate 9 (primarily to get better GNSS accuracy!), and can't see any Galileo satellites in GPS test and GPS status apps, despite checking that they are orbiting close to my location. Very disappointing not to get the added accuracy of Galileo. Surely Huawei could just add an option in "developer options" to enable Galileo if they are worried about battery life etc?

message from Huawei
Here's what Huawei (Australia) told me about Galileo on the Mate 9:
"Pertaining to your inquiry, the Galileo satellite navigation system is supported on the HUAWEI P10, P10 Plus, MATE 9, and HONOR 8 Pro. However, recent instabilities in the Galileo system have resulted in some smartphones being unable to locate a signal from Galileo satellites. Huawei is working actively with relevant parities to resolve this issue. Check regularly for system updates which may provide a fix for the problem. This issue does not affect the normal use of GPS, BeiDou and GLONASS positioning systems on your phone"
I don't believe them!? : )

Mobile Platform Specs - Wifi Note

It seams clear that Nokia's website and user manual is somewhat lacking. Since the Nokia 6.1 (2018) edition uses the Snapdragon 630 at 2.2 Ghz with the X12 modem, this phone should also support 802.11ac. It's not listed on their website. I tested it with my router and it is working with 802.11ac. For those interested, here is Qualcom's 630 Mobile Platform.
https://www.qualcomm.com/documents/qualcomm-snapdragon-630-mobile-platform-product-brief
I should note, I am using the 6.1 TA-1045 variant with dual sims, 3gb ram, and 32 gb storage.

The phone doesn't support AC. The highest you'll get is 433Mbps on 5GHz N.

Berzerker7 said:
The phone doesn't support AC. The highest you'll get is 433Mbps on 5GHz N.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the 433 Mbps data rate only exists in 802.11ac (1x1). You can confirm this by checking mcsindex.com.
Nokia's product specifications have now been corrected to include 802.11ac support for this phone.
I was also able to perform the same test: I set my Wi-Fi access point to 802.11ac-only mode (instead of 802.11n/ac mode) on the 5 GHz band, and disabled the 2.4 GHz band, and this phone was still able to connect to Wi-Fi.

mmWave

Hi, Everyone,
I'm considering Find X2 PRO as my next phone, and it's is time to be 5G-ready after all!
I've tried to seek trough the whole internet including this forum and tech spec., but couldn't really find clear information.
So my question is: Does this phone support mmWave or not?
If no: Is it strictly sub6Ghz on hardware level? Or is it matter of firmware?
If yes: How would phone purchased in EU work in US and vice-versa? Asian phone? Are the frequency ranges any different?
Thanks for your answers.

nwrust said:
Hi, Everyone,
I'm considering Find X2 PRO as my next phone, and it's is time to be 5G-ready after all!
I've tried to seek trough the whole internet including this forum and tech spec., but couldn't really find clear information.
So my question is: Does this phone support mmWave or not?
If no: Is it strictly sub6Ghz on hardware level? Or is it matter of firmware?
If yes: How would phone purchased in EU work in US and vice-versa? Asian phone? Are the frequency ranges any different?
Thanks for your answers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5G Coverage on OPPO Find X2
OPPO Find X2 Pro supports SA/NA dual mode 5G with global roaming capability in 6 modes and 36 frequencies – effectively enabling global 5G multi-frequency coverage.
In 5G mode, Find X2 devices receive multiple channels of 5G and 4G signals simultaneously in order to establish the fastest and most stable connection. With Find X2 in hand, you’ll never need to worry about receiving any less than blazing fast 5G network speeds.
Experience 5G in full speed thanks to multi-dimensional network speed optimization – Find X2 series adopts 4*4 MIMO and HPUE technology across the full 5G bandwidth.
Antennas Designed for Optimal Reception
OPPO Find X2’s 360-degree surround antenna design intelligently matches the device’s physical position with the best antenna grouping. No more blocked signals – Find X2 delivers ideal reception at all times.
OPPO Find X2 series supports dual-antenna and dual-frequency WiFi so that priority is given to network connection when multiple users are simultaneously using the same WiFi connection, conveniently avoiding network congestion and maintaining optimal connectivity.
4 Find X2 Smart Functions
1. Power consumption optimization: To optimize power consumption, OPPO Find X2 automatically shifts between 4G and 5G networks, according to the smartphone’s temperature, battery, average network speed and application scenarios.
2. DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing): OPPO is the world’s first mobile phone brand to incorporate DSS. By utilizing parts of the 4G network spectrum, users around the world are able to access 5G network at a faster rate and lower cost than other devices.
3. 5G + 5G Wi-Fi: OPPO Find X2 can download two applications at the same time – one using 5G WiFi and the other using 5G network, which theoretically brings the peak download speed up to a whopping 5.9Gbps.
4. NSA/SA Dual Mode: The ability to automatically shift between SA and NSA enables OPPO Find X2 to function at a faster and smoother rate.

Pascal536 said:
5G Coverage on OPPO Find X2
OPPO Find X2 Pro supports SA/NA dual mode 5G with global roaming capability in 6 modes and 36 frequencies – effectively enabling global 5G multi-frequency coverage.
In 5G mode, Find X2 devices receive multiple channels of 5G and 4G signals simultaneously in order to establish the fastest and most stable connection. With Find X2 in hand, you’ll never need to worry about receiving any less than blazing fast 5G network speeds.
Experience 5G in full speed thanks to multi-dimensional network speed optimization – Find X2 series adopts 4*4 MIMO and HPUE technology across the full 5G bandwidth.
Antennas Designed for Optimal Reception
OPPO Find X2’s 360-degree surround antenna design intelligently matches the device’s physical position with the best antenna grouping. No more blocked signals – Find X2 delivers ideal reception at all times.
OPPO Find X2 series supports dual-antenna and dual-frequency WiFi so that priority is given to network connection when multiple users are simultaneously using the same WiFi connection, conveniently avoiding network congestion and maintaining optimal connectivity.
4 Find X2 Smart Functions
1. Power consumption optimization: To optimize power consumption, OPPO Find X2 automatically shifts between 4G and 5G networks, according to the smartphone’s temperature, battery, average network speed and application scenarios.
2. DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing): OPPO is the world’s first mobile phone brand to incorporate DSS. By utilizing parts of the 4G network spectrum, users around the world are able to access 5G network at a faster rate and lower cost than other devices.
3. 5G + 5G Wi-Fi: OPPO Find X2 can download two applications at the same time – one using 5G WiFi and the other using 5G network, which theoretically brings the peak download speed up to a whopping 5.9Gbps.
4. NSA/SA Dual Mode: The ability to automatically shift between SA and NSA enables OPPO Find X2 to function at a faster and smoother rate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi! Thanks, but I don't think this answers my initial question. This looks more like marketing copy-paste to me. AFAIK, the ability to work on SA doesn't automatically mean it can handle mmWave.

Announced with considerably less fanfare than the handsets, the Oppo 5G CPE (customer premises equipment) Omni, is a 5G router which gives allows people who have poor internet access, but good 5G coverage, fast Wi-Fi. A domestic hotspot. It also supports low power Bluetooth 4.1 and Zigbee 3.0. Like the handset, it uses a Qualcomm X55 modem supporting mmWave and sub GHz frequencies. This will work in both non-standalone and standalone 5G systems and with enough mmWave bandwidth can deliver 7.5Gbps, with the Wi-Fi running at up to 6 Gbps. There are two sets of antennas to haul in the best possible 5G signal. There are eight sub-6 GHz antennas set up to use the best four to work with 4x4 MIMO and an antenna gain of an impressive 6.7dBi. The mmWave antenna will rotate to get the best signal, ideally with beamforming, assuming the local network infrastructure supports this.