yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
Yes it matters, because everyone can get good results for periods of time on their Galaxy S. However if it only locks to 8 and resolves to 16.4ft then you still have the broken driver, in other words you have the same as everyone else.

As such, there is then no need to un-necessarily upgrade because the GPS isnt actually fixed yet.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
What has the compass to do with GPS satellite lock? Anyway, no, my compass is/was working fine, as far as I can tell. Needs calibrating more often than I'm used to from the Magic, but that's about it.

(BTW, to you and also to all, upon re-reading my previous replies here and in other GPS threads - I'm sorry if I sometimes maybe come off as too angry or aggressive, that's usually not my intent, but I seem have this "problem" with written form of communication even in my native language, for some reason the people take me as more aggressive than I want to be, and I guess it might get "amplified" in English. Try to bear with me, thanks ;) )
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Yet, as I've said in the other thread, I've never before experienced (now) three days of consistent good results with the GPS, not even three hours, with any formware I tried (and I've tried a few and I've also done a LOT of testing). So while it's true I most likely still have "the broken driver", as you call it, something has definitely changed with JPJG8. I don't really care what it was, I'm just glad it did and I'm actually quite surprised by the reactions I get where people here seem to only care about the number of satellites I can get a lock to (and I simply don't get why is it so important to them when I have actual results in spite of the max lock not changing).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
And I understand why you are pleased with the improvement, and I hope it continues to work well for you. However, we have seen on a number of occasions where people have claimed its working, and it has continued to work for 2 weeks or more, and then gone wrong again. That's why we come back to the same old questions.

Many of us are tired of waiting, frustrated, and a little touchy :-)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Some screenshots: same location, almost same time. First Galaxy S, second HD2

As one can see there's no great difference in locked sats, sats in view and Snr values.... Only difference is the fact that the GPS engine of the HD2 has some path and location info of some satellites.

I say definitely a software problem and no hardware problem.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
Very good info. I found my unit can rarely get to a consistent 5-meter fix and never saw anything better than 5-meter accuracy. Most of the time it is 10-meter or 30-meter accuracy.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Tulips:
SGS have an average 29,5 in Snr HD2 have an average 34.11

But how can the accuracy be 1.5m. with 7 locked HD2 vs. 5m. with 8 locked SGS?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
It's also worth noting the accuracy value on the SGS is wrong anyway. If you go into Google maps, you sometimes drift outside the supposed accuracy (RAIM is the only way to guarentee that doesn't happen, but it shouldn't happen THAT regularly). Furthermore, screen locks cause serious positioning errors, which at least in that case, is obviously a software issue.

Anyway, we all know the GPS has issues. I think I'm done discussing GPS until Froyo comes out or there is evidence the situation has changed.

But it is interesting to see the comparison with the HD2. I'm still confident Samsung, but really, this discussion has been discussed to death, and everyone is still speculating (really, at this time we are simply debating if its more likely software or hardware, but none of us can tell).

I guess I'll be waiting to see how Froyo turns out..
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
That's a good question. I would say that the data the HD2 GPS engine has of every single satellite is of crucial importance. Because of this the HD2 generated almosted instantaneously a list of satelittes in view and had very quick lock on some of them... The lock was thereafter very stable. On the galaxy the satellites in view popped up 1 by 1 very slowly. After that when there was a list generated the fix was fairly fast. But, the lock was very instable. After a second or so the lock attached to other satellites and the following second the locked attached itself to again some other satellites.

For the importance of the ephemeris and almanac data of satellites see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals#Navigation_message

Maybe someone can shine a light on this. Are those data downloaded over data servers? Or are they passed via the satellite signals?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
i'm still sastify with the GPS performance, it's way better than my old Athena

Never played with a HTC HD2, so i have no clue what chipset it uses for GPS
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
I was also happy with the performance of the GPS in navigation applications. Just good enough. But I found it to unreliable for hicking. As compared to my HD2 the perfomance is very poor.

But for me this is definitely a proof that hanging the sammy upside down or put it in a freezer isn't the way to go. :) Samsung has some things to do here. Maybe they can consult the xda-dev member who created the gps driver for the HD2 (cotulla)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
holding the phone upside down is no problem at all, as the screen automatically rotates up right to where you are.

i do aknowledge it gets better reception when the antennae is facing up.

so if i want to be dead sure i'm standing on top of the X-mark, say from 5m to 1m, i'll simply flip over the phone to check.

i still can't see any real world situation where you need to be dead on spot on at 1m distance

we have a brain and eyes, it obvious by the time you are at 5m distance, one should know what one self is looking for even if you are in a foreign coountry looking for a >..................<

(fill in the blank with whatever you can imagine; except for a piece of crap, poodle of yellow liquid, or whatever that will dissolve and evaporate, not that you can enter a GPS address to look for that anyways)

this reminds me of the old news about people mindlessly following the GPS to the letter

gps says: TURN HERE! bang! fly off the bridge into the river... DUH!!!!!!!!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
I think it's quite obvious that SGS only gives accuracy info in certain increments, ie. 5m is most likely as low as it can go, next is 10m etc...

Just tried the app on VF845 side by side with SGS and whereas SGS was telling me 10m accuracy most of the time and sometimes 5m, on VF845 this changed constantly within 3 to 10 meters giving exact values, I think I even saw a decimal.

Note that this might not be a problem for SGS, simply a driver design decision not to have it report more precise values.

BTW, no Eph reporting on VF845 either. And personally, I wouldn't read too much into it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Tulips:
Is ok to use brain and eyes, but when you get tracking like this

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...8504,17.256206&spn=0.005851,0.013937&t=h&z=17

And

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=e...2.492397,-1.742792&spn=0.014136,0.045447&z=15

then Samsung should just sell the phone with none gps built in.

I hope you are not happy with this results.

It had been fun to listen to CoPilot on that tracking LOL :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Did you use the app I posted in the GPS poll thread to test this? Earlier versions didn't track these variables.

But a difference in range between 3 - 10 and 5 - 10 isn't that big. Between 1,5 - 2,3 and 5 - 10 is. I agree with you though that the lack of decimal values doesn't mean a thing. (not with those deviations :) )
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dis169:
Nice wiki link. So the almanac and ephemeris both come down off the gps network, that'd explain the resolution differences.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
My understanding is that in Standalone mode, the almanac and ephemeris data come from satellites. In MS Based mode, this is the data that is bootstrapped from the servers, which takes much less time than receiving it over the GPS radio. Thus, the time to lock is reduced. But the final coordinates are calculated by the GPS from the satellites themselves. (MS Assisted mode is another matter.)

So are you running your Galaxy S in Standalone mode or MS Based mode? I believe Standalone is the factory default, but MS Based in set by most of the "fixes" recommended in the LbsTest menu.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Yes, used your app, downloaded from that thread just before I went out to both phones.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Hi,

Not that Im in the habbit of reinventing the wheel, and not that I've ripped off anybodies work, but I wanted to write something for Android, and I wanted to write a GPS monitor, and Appelflap has inspired me to get started and do something sooner rather than later.

Im uploading a preliminary version today, it shouldn't break anything, but use at your own risk.

Im tracking a lot more values, lowest SnR, highest SnR, lowest SnR with a fix, highest SnR with a fix, total satellites seen over a period, even if they're no longer visible by the system etc.

Satellites that have disappeared are marked grey, less than 20 marked red, over 20 and not used in a fix are blue, and anything used in a fix green.

Cya

Simon
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Yep, but how is it possible that when I query the GPS engine of the Galaxy S it is saying that it doesn't have that data? That part I don't get. It's even more confusing when I read that the GPS needs that data (first part of the wiki)

That's why I thought that it is maybe something that is downloaded from a data network. The good old WM HTC devices have something like "Quick GPS" with which these kind of satellite data are downloaded once in a while. Maybe it are these data that are investigated by the android api?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Interesting, someone in the developers forum also tested the app on his android device. And he also didn't get any affirmation that the satellites had eph and alm data. (BTW he also did have huge problems with the GPS :) ). I'm still interested what the Nexus One will report (The HD2 Android version that I was running was based on the Desire Froyo version, so I will assume that the Desire will also "pass the test")
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
i've seen many of this tracks several people have posted, definitely there are something weird with those.

but personally both of my devices (Uk version + Bell version), the GPS are working great out of the box.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
You should use my app on the original GPS thread. It's better than yours. :p
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
i assume you have to be rooted to use this app?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Which one?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Good question.

I have no idea. I would have thought not, it doesn't really do anything much differently than any other GPS monitor. It doesn't do anything that would require root access.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
Is it just distributed as an APK file? Any non-rooted user, assuming they have side-loading enabled on their phone, should be able to install an APK.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
LoL! I told myself the same thing over and over after I owned couple Samsung WM phones and a few DVD players and Blu Ray players. But in the end, I still get sucked in and bought another Samsung product and hope for the best.

IMO, Samsung's entire business model is to pump out new fantastic products as fast as possible so that you will always be attracted to buy the new toy instead of try to work all the bugs out of existing toys :0
[Galaxy S I9000 General] gedefims:
I have been following this thread since I also have big problems with the GPS in my Galaxy S, my problem is that I during a run using Runkeeper or other runtrackers loose contact with the satelites.

I just noticed using GPS test that I have constantly 8-10 satelites in sight and constantly 5-8 of them are being used and are kept used as long as i keep the program alive (no timeout). But as soon as the screen goes idle and I restart the screen by pressing home, then the GPS starts reconnecting. Shouldn't contact be maintained even though the screen times out. I noticed a similar thing happens if I switch applications, where the GPS application are still running in the backgrounf or if I in GPS test goes to the setting screen and then back the main screen.

It seems to me that GPS locks fine, but something makes it start reconnecting to often, it should just stay connected.

If this is the problem, then software should be able to fix it? or maybe even a setting somewhere?

This is a long thread so excuse me if this has allready been discussed :-)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dark_sith:
JF3 stock - everything perfect

JG5 - problem start
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sanktnelson:
how do I flash JPJG8?

sorry for OT, but the only mentions of the arabic JPJG8 are in this thread: How do I actually flash that mythical JPJG8? The download from samsung-firmwares seems to contain only a single file, presumably the PDA part. which are the correct CSC and modem?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Yup, the App Im doing, like Appelflap, is just an APK in a ZIP file.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Well, I wouldn't say I have no GPS issues at all, and if it did come out like that, then I'm sorry. The problems are still there, I can see them manifesting, it's just that with this firmware, they're within acceptable limits of what I'm used to regarding GPS accuracy so as not to bother me they're there.

But otherwise very interesting theory about the phone speed affecting the GPS. Will probably test it with some other firmware and the lagfix.

The CSC and modem are contained within that single file, they don't necessary have to be separated. Just set that one tar file as PDA and flash the phone. Be prepared that on the first start, you'll get arabic language, but you can navigate to Settings just fine and change it to English :) Also, once you do, just head over to Privacy settings and do a factory reset. You'll get Arabic again on the next start, but you'll also get Android Market back (it was missing before the factory reset, since it's disabled in Arabic countries).

There's some info on JPJG8 to be found in the development section.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sanktnelson:
Thanks for the help. tried it, no magic improvement in GPS accuracy to be seen.

And I would gladly settle for "accuracy within acceptable limits" btw.

just for kicks, here's two possible refinements to my theory: baseband activity/lag and GPS can be related in two different ways as I see it:

- either the lagging (for whatever reason that in itself is happening) results in scheduling problems for the GPS driver. This would be good, because it would be fixable in software with proper priority settings and scheduling for the GPS part in the baseband. And even if Samsung does not have the expertise to do so, there should be plenty of talented Linux hackers out there who do. Has anybody seen Linux kernel dev jobs posted on Samsungs site lately? ;-)

- or increased load on the bus or baseband or possibly 3G or Wifi traffic actually causes electric interference for the GPS part. This would be very bad, because it would be close to impossible to fix in software. I think this is somewhat unlikely, since that should just look like bad SNR to the GPS, not result in a supposed <5m fix 100m away from your actual position. Then again, who knows what part that broadcom chip is offloading and how. However, it would go some way of explaining how this got through QA. If they did most of their testing on early revisions of the broadcom chips, or some other supplier changed a stepping or something that created this problem very late in the whole process, and it manifests to a different degree on different chips due to manufacturing variations, the outcome might very well be the widespread but also widely varying reports of this problem that we are seeing. And no, chip suppliers do not neccessarily tell their customers about changes in chip revisions as long as they _think_ it makes no difference for them.

Anyhow, as much as I enjoy speculating about other people's messed up hardware designs, I have some of my own to do and don't plan on spending any more time on this piece o'crap.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] phoenixdigital:
My test with Runkeeper on and iPhone 3G and Samsung Galaxy S. Both phones were taken on the same route at the same time.

The iPhone was running IOS 4.0.1

The Galaxy S was running Optus I9000DTJG3

(Apologies for the stuffed up links. My user is still unable to post them to these forums. Just remove the space after www)

iPhone 3G

www .turboimagehost.com/p/3902671/Screen_shot_2010-08-08_at_5.50.22_PM.png.html

Samsung Galaxy S

www .turboimagehost.com/p/3902672/Screen_shot_2010-08-08_at_5.51.11_PM.png.html
[Galaxy S I9000 General] atomas7:
my xperience

im from portugal and my operator is tmn.

When samsung omnia was new, i buy one and i have lots of problems with the GPS,

First doesnt work, after i change the phone, doesnet work again and after local samsung support, works very baddly (more than 2 minutes to capture satelites signal).

At that time i back te phone to the seller and i have my money back...

with samsung galaxy s, the experience can be the same and i dont want to see that moovie again :).

I like the mobile specifications and i try a demo in a tmn shop , but i didnt try the gps.

The seller tells me it works well... :).

My advice to the people:

before you buy, try the phone with that pick list:

1. g-sensor - in internet, put it in landscape and in portrait position and verify it works;

2. stay out the shop and try the gps experience: enter in google maps and if after 30 seconds it does not capture satelites, you have a problem.

Be a Smart Guy, not a Funny Boy!!!!!!!!!!!

Just wait and just buy after samsung solve that problems...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] eaglesteve:
This is exactly the main problem for me too. I have the google map telling me that the accuracy is 100meters, yet the blue dot is out kilometers away. So, please don't take the distance accuracy seriously, its a false information in itself.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
The newly leaked AT&T i897 Captivate firmware JH2 now reportedly can lock on to 9 satellites. So it looks like the new driver is rolling out.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
Looks promising.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
looks like TravUK got his > 8 sat lock'

now let's see if the improvements are permanent
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
For my part, I would like to see some actual field tests with tracking. Both driving and walking. There has been no report yet about accuracy, just about locking.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
Actually I think I saw someone saying that it was still bouncing around a bit...... but yeah probably too early to get too excited.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Well done. It would be nice to compare the results with other devices. (Also what is worth checking is how long the GPS is keeping its lock on the same subset of satellites. I have the feeling that the GPS is trashing its own lock result by continuously finding a lock "from scratch")

BTW setting in the jupiter.xml file are only for logging, right? They don't have any impact on the behavior of the satelittes on API level? Setting things like "enhanced-assisted" "TISEnabled" etc. probably don't have any influence on a higher level, or...?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nicoloco:
I think you didn't get the problem ... that's your device which are the weird one as they are part of the 0.1% ( not a real figur ...) which are working well

So it's maybe not necessary to be sarcastic and ask people to use their eyes and brain.

When you see the track that the phone give you need more than a brain and two eyes to reach your destination. Most of the time you need to be able to fly over couple of building

Now for the reason why someone could need to be spot on ... I have always used my phone to track my run and my ride. So yes I want to know what distance precisely I did and if I could also download the track on mapmyrun to get the elevation it's even better.

I never had problem before with my several HTC and iphone.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] milsjg:
Well, it may be 0.1% which is faulty, because as I pointed out earlier, you or anybody else (me included) do not have any clue. Maybe Samsung has more accurate numbers, so I would suggest we refer to our own device or somebody in this thread and not just guess how many has a fault or not.

Use Cardiotrainer as a workout tool. It is very accurate even in difficult conditions and you can try different sampling rates etc. You should know that Google maps and My tracker is in some way not reading the Samsung GPS correct. It take a longer time to fix get bigger errors, do not correlate shown error with position etc.

I understand that you and some others have problems with the GPS, but try to analyse it with your intellect and not so much with your heart. It will speed up the process and nail done the problem much faster that way.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nicoloco:
yeah of course ... there is 0.0001% of faulty gps . That's why Samsung is writing everywhere that there are trying to fix the non exisiting issue.

And of course they write that this is occuring on a very small % of the device ( ah .. no actually they don't ... strange isn't it ??)

But I will try cardiotrainer in case it's better than mapmyrun , mytrack, googlemaps ....

But you are suggesnting that this is googlemap and mytracks which are bugged and are not smart enough to read samsung gps data ( but they are smart enough to read any other data of course). I was not aware of this

PS : did you see that I mentioned the fact that the figure was not real ??? I meant that it was just a guess to stress the fact that it seems to be well known that the samsung SGS has a problem. The different poll done showed that most of the device have issues.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] magicdroid:
My Track & Google Maps read my Magic's GPS perfectly.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] milsjg:
Well I was referring to the SGS and not the Magic so yet an invalid comment. On my SGS the GoogleMap and MyTrack is considerable less accurate than for example CardioTrainer. If you use programs that give you long and lat ex appleflaps program, I normally get a much better and quicker fix than with GoogleMaps or MyTracks. I also get a much better track with CardioTrainer. I therefore conclude that the Googles interface mess things up for my SGS. I do not know who to blame (Samsung or Google or Broadcom or...), but thats how it works for me.

Nicoloco I not trying to convince anyone how widespread the problem is. I just point out that we should stick to facts, not guesswork to solve the problem. Many of the people visiting this forum are probably people that have some issue so you cant make any statistically truth about the problem from the poll other than some people have problem.

And try not to be sarcastic, it only undermine your reputation and may be interpreted as lack of knowledge.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
The driver decision is the problem. Accuracy is supposed to reflect the area where you could be. The problem is though, you can be outside the bounds of that position.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dakine:
I have 2 of these phones and both are faulty, if it was 0.01% then that would be quite a coincidence. Its more like 90% of people dont use gps enough to notice its broken.