yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Desire HD General] AlvaK:
Before modding anything, people should really try cleaning the springs and contacts and maybe bending those contacts to make sure the make the connection is made.

This is the second time I had to do this and GPS went back from no reception at all to this:

12 satellites in view/in use

Minimum: 16

Maximum: 31

Avarage of 24.4

Sorry, no direct screenshot, but maybe this works when spaces are removed: i45.tiny pic.com /244tbtd.jpg
[Desire HD General] namhtc:
I confirm that bending and cleaning all GPS antenna contacts is just fine (I was in an hotel room during a business travel : that's all I have done with a little knife and it worked perfectly !)

Here the above screen shot :
[Desire HD General] waits:
FYI: On 19th November 2011, 01:30 PM, I wrote:

I decided to put some solder on the two contacts of the cover (not on the HD board: the cover can be replaced easily and cheap). Just for a better contact. I did not attach an antenna wire. This solved my GPS reception problem.

Now, one year later: still working just fine!
[Desire HD General] mollenvanger:
:good::good::good:

After having tried different apps (10 or so....), roms, Kernels, Radios, i almost threw my phone out of the window because of the lousy GPS signal (sometimes quick gps fix, other times no fix at all :( ). But then i realised i hadn't tried opening the phone and do the cleaning/ bending.

I made some plastic pieces from a blister package, opened the antenna cover, cleaned, bended a bit.......

.....O.M.G. :angel::D:D:D:good::good::good:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1101066

I wish i had done this MUCH earlier. Almost instant GPS fix (2-3 seconds), strong signal and very accurate location (8 metres instead of 30-100m).

:cool:

Mollenvanger
[Desire HD General] gl79:
Gps fixed #2

I tried bending yesterday, but lost connectivity today again. So today I prepared a 3-4 cm headphones cable and folded it around the connectors on the phone. Got 5-6 locks indoors (around 150m accurate), 8-9 sticking it out of the window. :D

Thanks!
[Desire HD General] h4mid:
Hi

can u show your work as pictuer?:good:
[Desire HD General] dinkydarko:
Skiing

As always i love trying new hacks/roms on my phone, i'm considering giving this a go. Since I've not really had many problems with GPS on my DHD, I've not tried it yet. Now time for travelling for Skiing is coming around again I'm going to be out tracking my runs.

I was wondering if anyone had used this hack with higher speed tracking? Does it improve this aspect of GPS?
[Desire HD General] DavidTiger:
Would this sort of idea work with other antenna? like the radio on the bottom cover or wifi on the battery cover?
[Desire HD General] xburian:
Thx for this. I have problem with my GPS. Going to try this.. :)

Sent from DHD - Tapatalk
[Desire HD General] Mgamerz:
I know this is an older thread and it may be a bit off topic, but on the back of my Gnex (under the battery cover), there is what looks like an antenna plug like my atrix had for wifi... or GPS. It's accessible without taking it off. I see it in the pictures of your phone in the first post... Been wondering for ages what it is since I don't even know how to search for components on the board and what they are.

Anyone know?
[Desire HD General] humzaahmed155:
Some guys over at the Galaxy SII forums experimented with the antenna socket and lost phone signals completely from the internal antenna, it switches sources and its a pain in the ass to revert it, so I wouldn't mess with it.
[Desire HD General] Dlog:
So i finally "fixed" my GPS....

i tried everything....

i changed the rom (to codefireX with android 4.1.2)....

i changed the radio (to the newest on the radio thread)....

i wiped the efs cache....

i bent those contacts up and cleaned them....

and what did happen? i got one satellite with a strength of ~20......

then i tried using a bit of cable like in the pictures on the first page on this thread.....

first i held it in place with my finger and it actually worked!....i had a singal!!

so i soldered the cable to the contacts......

and it didn't work....

i actually had to press my finger against the cable to make the GPS work!!

as soon as i took my finger away, every satellite was gone.....

interlude: the cover, that contains the gps antenna and the LED lenses actually shields any soldered cable and WILL make your reception worse compared to having no cover at all (which is barely an option)

after like a day of testing, i found an interesting explanation which said, that copper or aluminium tend to reflect the gps signal.

so i tried a piece of iron cable.

and that worked better.....but not good enough to be satisfying.....

and then i though "you know what? either it's not going to work or you can modify the hell out of it"....and i did this:

that's not pretty, but guess, what GPS Status says about this antenna?

so for everybody who has tried everything they could find to fix their gps:

just use an external (!) antenna and it will work again :)

btw:

i soldered while the phone was on! ;)
[Desire HD General] h-e-k:
Looks really ugly, but never have seen a signal strength like this :good:
[Desire HD General] RogerL:
Wow! I reckon you win the prize for best GPS reception on the dhd! Out of interest, which contact did you solder the wire to? And am I right in thinking that this is just a bag sealer twisty tie?
[Desire HD General] namhtc:
Hello,

Could you give us more details :

- what kind of cable have you used ?

- where this "home made antenna" is connected to and how ? (on which contacts behind the cover ? with soldering ?)

Explanations and pictures will be appreciated.

I'm interested because I may use my HTC DHD as a '"permanent GPS" installed in my car.

best regards,
[Desire HD General] becks90:
This won´t actually work when i even get no GPS symbol in the top bar, right?

Im running the codefireX SR2, fresh install, tried agps patch.

GPS turned on, but still no symbol in top bar.
[Desire HD General] zla.mas:
Flash stock rom, and after you got there fix - install cfx
[Desire HD General] becks90:
Thank you

Installed stock rom, GPS worked perfect. (9/9 satelites, about 10 meter difference after 10 seconds)

So i did fresh install of CodefireX SR2, but again no GPS icon on the statusbar and no GPS signal at all. :confused:

EDIT:

Works now!

Went back to Stock -> rooted -> fresh install of latest testbuild (13.01.)

Thanks again zla.mas for the tip with going back to stock
[Desire HD General] zla.mas:
I have a problem, I broke 1 of my contacts on mother board - what is best&safe solution ? Is it possible to re-solder contact back or ?

And if I go with the wire, do I need to have it outside of my phone or it can be inside the cover ( like 1st post )

Thanks
[Desire HD General] Dr-Hack:
Yup works

I did this like a year ago works .. fine .. but i didnt solder i used silica gel ,cuz thats all good news nothing that goes bad with it .. i used a bit long cables with circling around the camera area , if the wires form a organized loop you will see better reception

good share
[Desire HD General] zla.mas:
This solder wire have to touch cover, to close circle, right?
[Desire HD General] mobilizedport:
Rinse and Repeat

As per OP, I did the basic cleaning and GPS became awesome. But over the past few days, I didnt get any fix. So, had to do it again today and its back to providing fast fixes.

Is there a permanent solution besides changing the cover (doesnt seem to be available in India)?

Thanks.
[Desire HD General] Uz4ever:
R: GPS Antenna Hardware Hack only 2 seconds to fix GPS status ;)

This is what I do for fix my gps:

I cut off the 2 contacts on the main board (blue) and put 2 wires (with soldier, of course) to connect the mainb with the cover. Works great and all remain into the phone :)

Here the original topic (in italian) with detailed instructions. If someone wants I can try to translate it :eek: :p

http://www.androidiani.com/forum/showthread.php?t=255912

Sent from HTC UzDesireHD... Apologize for my English :)
[Desire HD General] Dlog:
I used the contact that is closer to the camera. The other contact doesn't seem to have any affect on the signal strength.

And yes, that is a bread bag sealer ;)

---------- Post added at 08:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

I used a normal bread bag sealer. In the end it's just a piece of isolated iron wire.

The wire is connected to the contact closer to the camera....the other contact doesn't seem to have any effect on the signal strength.

And yes, it is soldered.

And yes, those spring-contacts aren't there any more.

And yes, i soldered while the phone was on! :)

For best signal strength i bend the wire so that it points away from the phone. And i get the most satellites if the display points up to the sky and thus the wire points down to the ground. But you only need like 8 satellites for a lock and after that 3-5 satellites are fine for positioning.

btw: as you can see, i also have the Evo 3D battery. I use a silicon case for protection and thus don't even notice that the battery is sticking out or that there is a long wire on the back of my phone.
[Desire HD General] davbarr:
Thanks for this mod
[Desire HD General] lolmachine:
Wow what a great idea!

I had those GPS problems for 3 months now, but with your mod, they are gone.

Awesome work dude!
[Desire HD General] KirovAir:
I applied this mod in a slightly different way: I added a wire in the plastic case and applied solder to those pads. 10+ sats fixed within 10 seconds! :D
[Desire HD General] wietmie:
Just curious, why need wire? What i do is that i just solder the 4 pads without using wire. Logically it will joint the pads in the motherboard and the one in the cap by the cuprum. And its work well~
[Desire HD General] Rookie0840:
Thinking now, I should have taken pics. Oh well, words will have to do :)

Anyways made this today using copper tape, easy to apply and easy to remove if it turns out poor (I didn't feel too comfortable soldering anything to my phone). I used copper tape to make a U shape on the little cover piece, around the LED flash. So far so good at least, didn't kill my phone while opening it which was my greatest fear really. And everything stays nicely on the inside. Now some sleep, then maybe go out and really test how good it really is :)
[Desire HD General] Mazarin07:
No one is short-circuiting the + and - negative port here.

The GPS module in my phone has to pins that connect to the foil antenna mounted on the back cover.

When these 2 pins touch the antenna they are ”short-circuited” anyway.
[Desire HD General] ranger4740:
If you know how radio receiving and transmitting antennas actually work you would know that it is actually a coil/inductor/tuned stub (take your pick) across the 2 connectors & not a short circuit,however it would be a short circuit to DC voltage/current.
[Desire HD General] maikcrew:
Do not work correctly

I try this improvement, but GPS it will not start at all. I give back wire antenna and clean contact and spring for better contact and work normal not quickly not slowly and before.
[Desire HD General] Vict20:
A bit of SLR macro photography shows us what's going on here...

Here's the (dusty!) spring connectors for the GPS Antenna..

Note the two pips on the top of the springs. Ignore the MMCX connector bottom right.

Here's the pads that the connectors push on to.....

Lets take a closer look at the lower one...

You can clearly see that the pad and the whole antenna is simply a very thin gold layer painted onto the black plastic, and that the pip on the connector spring has worn its way through to the plastic, completely obliterating the gold. Tightening the springs simply makes it quickly worse. This is why the GPS can work sometimes and not others (when you need it most). It also explains why pressing on the cover can improve matters albeit temporarily. Eventually though, it will stop working completely. Attempting to solder a wire onto the gold pad will just melt the plastic below.

My non invasive solution...

I've used conductive silver paint, available from car accessory shops as heated windscreen repair paint. A small blob applied on each pad. Refit the cover while the paint is still tacky.

Vic
[Desire HD General] namhtc:
Very very instructive these macro shots :good: , I have no car conductive paint so I will try to put a little solder ... hope contacts are not too tiny (I already have opened the cover to clean them but I don't remember their exact size :confused: ).
[Desire HD General] BooBByy:
Thanks for this hack, my gps doesn't work anymore so I will test it!
[Desire HD General] namhtc:
Hi All,

I have decided to open the cover and do some work to improve my GPS signal.

I have taken a wire for freezer bag and soldered it ON the phone on the 2 little pins making a buckle. Unfortunately I have no signal at all :crying:.

I have checked: the wire is correctly soldered. Is there a particular length to respect ?

I will make a picture and post it, help :confused:.
[Desire HD General] namhtc:
Done with success!

see below...
[Desire HD General] namhtc:
Done with success!

Hi,

After several tests, here is what I've done => it's awfull but it works perfectly :good:.
[Desire HD General] mesman_DHD:
for a noob like me, i bought myself new gps/flash cover and it works!
[Desire HD General] will0w:
many thankx for this thread xD

worked perfectly for me ...but ive only done some soldering

points at the antenna pads & and made it flat again with a fine rasp !

the heating of the iron perhaps has cost more time than the hole mod inclusive

starting DHD again and testing ^^

since that i have ** in my room ** 8 sat´s _my navilock can stay at home

now while geocaching

:p
[Desire HD General] walent:
Urgent question :) You solder to the bottom contacts or the bending top part?

The man that soldered it for me soldered the wire on the spring, and it still doesn't get a reliable fix. He didn't want to solder it directly on the board...
[Desire HD General] Vict20:
Doesn't really matter as long as the connecting wires are as short as possibly possible so as to not alter the antenna characteristics too much.
[Desire HD General] walent:
It doesn't work for me.. Don't know what to try anymore..
[Desire HD General] coloured_chalk:
+ doesn't work for me. Tried after one "connector" became broken.

I soldered the wires GPS connector on motherboard and connectors at cover. And then GPS+GLONASS are working fine!

I consider it's an nice trick :). If somebody want some photos, just PM me.
[Desire HD General] coloured_chalk:
Sorry for doublepost.

Here are the shots.

Wires are very shortso you need some skill to solder like that.

Sorry for photos quality :(
[Desire HD General] walent:
It's soldered and everything but my gps doesn't fix. I officially now tried EVERYTHING.

I am probably the only person that NOTHING worked to fix the gps.
[Desire HD General] RogerL:
GPS coaxial cable to mainboard

I was just wondering how you got on with the new cable?

With your mod above, did you basically unplug the light grey coax cable from underneath the GPS/LED cover, cut the cable and attach an antenna to the cable?

I was thinking of cutting the tiny IPX plug off the end of the grey coax cable and soldering the cable directly to the GPS antenna contacts on the cover, but I'm not sure if there are any components on the PCB between where the GPS coax cable plugs in and the antenna contacts which form part of the antenna system. Anyone know? Or has anyone tried this?

I've tried a continuity check between the IPX socket and the antenna contacts, and there's a contact between the outer sleeve of the socket and both contacts, but nothing between the centre pin and the contacts, which I was a little surprised about, as I'd imagine the centre pin would carry the main RF signal. Maybe that's because there are components on the PCB between the two. I'm not an electronics expert so know little about this, but am certainly a keen experimenter! I've ordered a replacement GPS coax cable (£3 on Ebay) and will give it a go either way.
[Desire HD General] Vict20:
That connector and coax is not gps, its something else, don't touch it!
[Desire HD General] RogerL:
You sure? There's lots of references on various sites which say it is the GPS cable to the main board. If they're wrong fair enough. I have tried disconnecting it and GPS functionality stops. I know that doesn't necessarily mean it's the GPS signal - could be power or something - but it is an RF cable so suggests it could be. Also, the replacement I've ordered was sold as a GPS cable. Anyway, I'll fit it & find out & post again.
[Desire HD General] randunel:
only this worked

Hi,

I tried everything on this forum, connector paint on the antenna, solder blob on the antenna, cables connecting to the antenna (spring bypass), 4.7cm copper/aluminum cables connecting between the two springs and none of these worked (the last one showed 1 gps satellite from time to time - very weak signal).

I applied your solution (and the other guys before with wires coming out) and now I have a 8cm aluminum cable coming out of the phone similar to your picture, but a bit more estetic (I drilled a hole through the ex-antenna next to the flash lens) and it works. I just got a GPS fix inside the apartment (~10 minutes). I get GPS fixes in 30 seconds after cold reboot and 2 seconds after 1h of gps offline.

For everyone else: you don't need to connect the two springs together. All you need to do is solder a long-ish cable to the spring closest to the camera lens. I tried with several sizes (4cm, 6cm, 8cm, 10cm) and the best was the 10cm one. I am currently using an 8cm cable because it fits perfectly in my holder and you cannot see it. You can bend the cable that's coming out to hide it somewhere :)

(i would take a picture but i only have this phone :D)
[Desire HD General] ammo12:
Perfect

Thanks for the instruction here, it worked perfectly for me.

I took a 4cm isolated braided wire, de-isolated on both ends 5mm and bended it over the 2 connectors on the phone, so there is a "effective length" of 3cm. I routed the wire arround the both LED

GPS fix indoor ~10sec!! Never had a fix IN my house before!

:D
[Desire HD General] redmingo:
I have also a fast fix with TopNTP
[Desire HD General] AlexSTB:
What is best way to open the cover, to make this tip, without scratch the paint?
[Desire HD General] Steam.:
you can push it from the battery slot, and then carefully lift it upwards
[Desire HD General] RogerL:
Just to say that I tried cutting off the IPX plug from the end of the GPS coax cable as I described above. I've since tried various things, including soldering the cable directly to the GPS antenna/cover connectors. It certainly worked and I was able to pick up a GPS signal, but really no better/worse than connecting to the existing PCB contacts. So not much point really and may just as well use the existing contacts. I had to give this a go just in case it improved things, but at least now I know!

I'll replace the GPS coax and keep trying alternative solutions. I have bought some 0.2mm self-adhesive steel tape which should work well as an alternative antenna. I'll re-post when I've tried it.
[Desire HD General] MiikO:
For me this it not working. I don't know what i do wrong. Help me please.

Wysłane z mojego HTC Desire HD za pomocą Tapatalk 2
[Desire HD General] Wekkel:
It's working

I applied this mod and I have much faster fix now (10-15 seconds). I cannot tell whether it is the piece of soldiered wire or the original antenna which I touched with some soldier and now makes better contact. Anyway, I am happy.
[Desire HD General] davidelc1:
So this Mod is really better than the original Phone?

(Sent from my Shuttle with XDA Android App)
[Desire HD General] StefanTG:
good solution, i am happy .
[Desire HD General] nassershah:
GPS

does wire makes a difference?
[Desire HD General] Joe Baliu:
Hi,

I also had a weak GPS signal and a long lock, so recently tried few options i found in this thread:

1. Adjusting springs on mother board and swapping GPS antena (another old) improved signal slightly.

2. adding and holding about 5cm of copper wire - not much difference comparing to new antenna

3. Adding and holding about 10 cm steel wire - not much difference.

After I found a post here saying that steel wire of ~4.7 cm should be best, i decided to drill a small hole in a GPS cap and solder a steel wire (0.6cm diameter, 10 cm length). I put GPS cap back and quickly got ~6-8 satellites indoors and accuracy of ~15 meters.

This was much better than my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 which had much better signal before (I used it for comparison).

I went outside to check the signal. I got accuracy of ~8 meters. I shortened the wire step by step until approximately 5cm. I got accuracy of 2 meters with GPS test app!!! And ~ 12 meters inside. Never saw that before.

So the next thing was to nicely bend the new antenna and hide it under the silicon case. And here I ran into issues. However I bend it (vertically, horizontally in any shape) - I loose signal strength and accuracy. Up to 30-50 meters accuracy inside (without adding case).

So the signal is superb with such antenna if I leave it sticking 90 degrees to phone surface.

Any ideas why it is so and possible ways to hide it?

Cheers
[Desire HD General] Joe Baliu:
Hi,

such antenna works great. With similar antenna (0.5-0.6 mm diameter, ~5cm length non isolated steel wire soldered to cap) I get perfect signal.

Only one issue - as far as antenna stick out as in image signal is perfect. But when I try to bend it towards phone back - signal quality decreases a lot even if I do not touch phone with it (to ~30meters accuracy and each satellite signal almost twice weaker). Seems like phone itself is blocking signal...

Do you have the same issue? Have you found solution for that?

Cheers,

Jonas
[Desire HD General] Dlog:
That's because your phone's shell consists of aluminium. Aluminium blocks the wavelengths used by GPS. That's why all the antennas of the DHD are located on plastic pieces.
[Desire HD General] Joe Baliu:
Hi,

do you know what the purpose of that MMCX connector?

Could it be designed for external GPS antenna? E.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MMCX-3-Me...S_Accessories_Software_ET&hash=item3cd4e61e06

Cheers
[Desire HD General] RogerL:
After having tried loads of ways to fix GPS on my DHD, I've just fitted brass spring connectors from a BlackBerry battery connector. I soldered these to the PCB in place of the original connectors. Works perfectly. Original antenna is great, provided there's a decent connection to the PCB.

Oh and just to add, I added solder to the 2 connections on the antenna. Definitely improves the connection, but do it carefully as its easy to melt the connections away. I've destroyed 2 covers this way, but at least they're cheap on eBay. I've also managed to destroy one if the LEDs due to careless soldering, so go carefully!
[Desire HD General] DirkTas67:
By how much is the signal improved this way?
[Desire HD General] maltazar1:
Wow, that's pretty amazing....
[Desire HD General] RogerL:
SNR was mostly under 20 before, and now they're all over 20, usually with a couple of sats over 30, and a fix in under 15 secs. Big improvement! It's great to be able to get good reliable performance from the standard antenna. As I say, it's all about getting a good connection to the PCB.
[Desire HD General] fiaskow:
I've previously tried the same technique with a piece of bare copper wire,tied to the antenna contacts (but didnt have the guts to solder it yet). It worked good enough. Of course, it is not the best shape and length for optimal GSM reception.
[Desire HD General] htctouchelfin:
This was the last solution for me... and the only one that worked :)
[Desire HD General] gparis:
Thanks for sharing :good: