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All Things GPS

OfTheDamned

OfTheDamned

The Friendly Undead
This is a universal thread to discuss the GPS on the Samsung Fascinate. If you are having trouble, need help or simply want to discuss the GPS this is the thread for it.

Please keep in mind the rules as well as the zero tolerance policy when posting.

All new GPS threads will be merged into this one.
 
Hey, new here. I wanted to share how I fixed my gps.

Before I could never get a lock on my gps but now its almost instant. Here's how I did it.

I downloaded the gps status app and noticed that I still couldn't get a lock onto the satellites. So I went into settings and turned off google locations and left the standalone gps setting on. Then I went back to gps status and I was able to lock onto the the satellites instantly. I also confirmed this by going into google maps and getting/using the instant navigation.

You can switch google locations back on if you want.

BUT, I tested my theory out by restarting my phone and left google locations on and once the phone restarted I turned on the standalone gps setting. Guess what, I couldn't get a lock in gps status or google nav for some reason. software issue (?)

I had to turn off google locations to lock on. So I just repeated the steps and it worked out.

It worked for me, let me know if it works for you.
 
Those three labels in Settings -> Location & security are undefined, just terms that Verizon marketers made up. They also do not correspond to the corresponding labels in other Galaxy S phones.

So no one who turns these functions on or off really knows what they do in real technical terms.
 
Good idea OTD, the topic certainly merits a sticky. My only 2cents contribution is just make sure you try and sync up without significant overhead obstruction. I have accuracy to 2 meters in my car or outside. But in the lower levels of my house its off by hundreds of feet.
 
oddly enough, mine has been working fine the past two days and I've done nothing different. Took about 15 sec to start navigating from inside the house this morning. GPS Test shows accuracy of 20 feet sitting on the couch.
 
Lemme get this straight:

So in order to have "accurate" GPS per se... you need to perform the following?
-Turn on BOTH Standalone GPS and Google GPS
-Wait a few seconds
-Turn off Google GPS
-Navigate

And then you're golden? Thanks for the find OP.
 
I forget who posted it (I'll link if I find it), but what really helped me is to download GPS Status and clear the aGPS cache. I went from having to wait 5+ minutes for the GPS to lock on to less than five seconds. If it starts slowing down again, I can just clear the cache again. (Hm..maybe I should make a widget to do that..)
 
Moonfire said:
I can just clear the cache again. (Hm..maybe I should make a widget to do that..)
Click to expand...

You don't have to. I am pretty sure that the GPS Status app just released an update that does that. It checks the data and if it is old, it redownloads the data for you on startup of the app.

So all you have to do is launch the app get the lock and you are good to go.
 
xceebeex said:
You don't have to. I am pretty sure that the GPS Status app just released an update that does that. It checks the data and if it is old, it redownloads the data for you on startup of the app.

So all you have to do is launch the app get the lock and you are good to go.
Click to expand...

That's not the way I understand GPS Status. To use this new cache-refresh feature you have to expressly go to the app's Settings menu -> GPS & Sensors -> Manage A-GPS state. Once there, first tap Reset, then tap Download.

The effect of this new utility is still being tested on Galaxy S models.

If you are getting good results simply from opening the GPS Status app before you use some other app such as Google Maps or Navigation, that is probably just because you are giving the GPS chip a head start to get a lock. I actually have been in the habit of doing this for a couple of years to ensure that I have a good satellite lock before attempting navigation, etc. It also provides explicit evidence of failure.
 
boomerbubba said:
That's not the way I understand GPS Status. To use this new cache-refresh feature you have to expressly go to the app's Settings menu -> GPS & Sensors -> Manage A-GPS state. Once there, first tap Reset, then tap Download.
Click to expand...

Have you compared the difference between doing just a Reset, and doing a Reset then Download? I've only done the Resets so far.
 
saps said:
I always do the download after the reset, why wouldn't I?
Click to expand...

*shrugs* Just that doing the Reset alone helped, so mebbe you would think that it's good enough. Although maybe it'd help my accuracy - even outside I could only get as close as within 10 feet.
 
This makes no difference on my SF. Its obviously a software issue if somethings are working for some and not others....this is the ONLY thing I despise about this phone. ARRRRGH.

lucy-football1.jpg
 
Moonfire said:
*shrugs* Just that doing the Reset alone helped, so mebbe you would think that it's good enough. Although maybe it'd help my accuracy - even outside I could only get as close as within 10 feet.
Click to expand...
Yeah all in all 10ft accuracy puts you above/better than the SF average
 
saps said:
Yeah all in all 10ft accuracy puts you above/better than the SF average
Click to expand...

That's true, I certainly can't complain about that. Or anything on this phone, really, unless I wanted to get nit-picky. And I shall attempt that widget, perhaps, even if it's just for my own laziness (and getting more practice in coding, anyways).
 
Moonfire said:
That's true, I certainly can't complain about that. Or anything on this phone, really, unless I wanted to get nit-picky. And I shall attempt that widget, perhaps, even if it's just for my own laziness (and getting more practice in coding, anyways).
Click to expand...
Yeah Im a within 2m accuracy guy myself so I love the GPS on this thing; although Im very aware of the sizeable minority who are hundreds of feet off and take minutes rather than seconds to lock in.

BTW, good luck on the GPS widget ;)
 
boomerbubba said:
That's not the way I understand GPS Status. To use this new cache-refresh feature you have to expressly go to the app's Settings menu -> GPS & Sensors -> Manage A-GPS state. Once there, first tap Reset, then tap Download.

The effect of this new utility is still being tested on Galaxy S models.

If you are getting good results simply from opening the GPS Status app before you use some other app such as Google Maps or Navigation, that is probably just because you are giving the GPS chip a head start to get a lock. I actually have been in the habit of doing this for a couple of years to ensure that I have a good satellite lock before attempting navigation, etc. It also provides explicit evidence of failure.
Click to expand...

My point was that there is a new feature in the app that lets you auto-download A-GPS data on certain time intervals. In my case I have it set to download new data if the data is older than 6 hours.

Isn't that all that the manual approach is doing?
 
OK, I have tried all of these on my phone as well as my wifes. They don't work on either.

GPS status does allow you to change the GPS filters. I can get the SF to see more satellites by turning off the filters, but they don't work.
 
boomerbubba said:
That's not the way I understand GPS Status. To use this new cache-refresh feature you have to expressly go to the app's Settings menu -> GPS & Sensors -> Manage A-GPS state. Once there, first tap Reset, then tap Download. ....
Click to expand...

My bad. I did not know about the latest version of GPS Status, which does adverstised the abiltiy to refresh the cache automatically upon startup. This new feature is still being user-tested on the Galaxy S phones. So I don't have a settled opinion about its efficacy.
 
So glad I found this sticky. Hope someone can help. My navigation doesn't give me turn by turn voice navigation. Everything else works fine accept for the voice. I've download the latest version of google maps and google voice, not quite sure what the problem is. I read the sticky and surprise no one has had a problem with this. Please help.

And yes I checked the volume :)
 
Quick update, after playing around with it a while, it seem to be working now. Not sure if I did anything but it works fine, maybe it was just acting up that day who knows... thanks
 
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