Help with GPS, accuracy and lock is really different between apps

[Xellz]

Hello, a bit of background. Currently living in Japan and few days ago i got my first android device and it's a asus nexus 7 2013. GPS is one of reasons why i got the tablet in the first place. Didn't expect to have so many problems with it.

I downloaded OSM Maps for android with offline map of Japan, before this app tried several others and osm turned out to be best, fast and lots of details. But then i tried to get a GPS lock and i quickly found out that i had to root my device to change NTP server. Took me a while, but once it was done at least i could get a lock within 3-15min with AGPS data not older than a day. Better than not getting lock at all.

When searching for an app to keep GPS alive when changing between apps i tried different GPS Status app, not which is provided by OSM Maps (link from osm menu to google play app)
This what i got from OSM Map app menu https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=en
and this what i tried by myself https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cochibo.gpsstatus
Accuracy and lock speed of second GPS Status app is far better, it can get a lock really quickly and accuracy not getting worse than 5-10m all the time. But once i change to OSM Maps or first GPS Status app accuracy starting to drop rather quickly and at best it stays around 25-30m, quite often going over 100-200m error. Or simply loosing lock time to time. Only what helps is change to second GPS Status app for 5-10 seconds to get good lock again.

Hope my description is not too confusing I really hope to make GPS on this tablet to work properly everything else on this tablet is simply amazing.

 

[electricpete]

I have noticed some apps don't track well (as you say) and I'm pretty sure the reason that those apps are not aggressive in polling the GPS. They poll only periodically. In between polling you can lose accuracy or lose lock... especially if it is a long interval between polling or if you switch out of the app and back in. There is a reason for this strategy... the app is trying to be help you conserve your battery. But since it's a tradeoff between battery and accuracy/reliability... I want to be able to make the decision myself when I'll spend that battery to get the best possible gps.

So I have built in Tasker profiles that will (when I activate the tast) turn GPS on full force continuously to give the best possible info at all time (regardless of whetehr you switch out of map app or not).

The heart of the profile is

Task GPS Maintain…
Get Location [ Source:GPS Timeout (Seconds):240 Continue Task Immediately:Off Keep Tracking:On ]
Wait Until GpsMaintainFlag ~ *0*

There is also another task which executes “Stop Task GPS Maintain” when I want the
deactivate the task and stop agressive tracking.

The bolded option is the one that makes the difference.

It works well to get the best and most reliable GPS info available from your device regardless of what map / nav app you are using at the time. The downside it uses a lot of battery and phone can get hot. So I keep a close eye on battery level and temperature when using this.

By the way, on my Android 2.3.6 phone (not sure if it applies to others), I can tell when GPS is being polled by the circle in the notification bar. It is solid when you have a lock and you're polling... it is blinking when you don't have a lock and you're polling. On some apps when you switch out of the app, that circle goes off immediately. That's a clue it's not trying to keep lock when you switched out. With the Tasker profile active, the circle remains always even after I switch out of all map apps (until I turn it off).