yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
That seems something generated by a randomizer. Maybe the BCM chipset is tracking passing cars' stereos, barking dogs and other assorted sources of energy.

A coworker of mine was showing me his HTC Magic today, running a fresh 2.2 mod and did some tracks yesterday.... I looked at it and you could weep. Old hardware and it was precise up to the point of being obvious which lane he was on on the street. It only seemed to lose a bit of accuracy while walking but even those parts were very, very acceptable. Not sharp geocaching maybe but enough for good navigation,

Ok I'll be reasonable. 2 weeks with this Korean toy. Then it's either my money back or perhaps I'll bring an HTC Desire instead. Ohh but the SAMOLED... so pretty.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
I've had Magic for a year. Tell me about it...;) On geocaching trips with some friends and family, I was always the one who got the most precise position for a cache, usually around 2m precision (yes, really - I was amazed by how good the GPS in Magic was). I'm not looking forward to the next trip when I show them my great new phone and then end up being tens of meters away from the actual cache... ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
At the moment, Im running in standard mode, not using Cell Towers/WiFi for Fix. Not that that should cause a problem if you got a solid lock, which is why I think if the Samsung could lock onto more lesser strength satellites, then we may actually see this problem evaporate as I think the system is thinking "I MUST SWITCH TO WIFI" even though NMEA says, I got a lock on 10.... Having said that, the NMEA tracks are abysmal too.

Well it was worth it for me to try and narrow down what the problem is. I hate lying faceless corporations. I don't care about marketing and corporate branding and identity. Be honest with me and give me a good product. If you stuff up, let me know.

I share your concern about the GPS. I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days but one thing Im beginning to wonder about is this... When I have problems with MyTracks, my phone suddenly can't see too many satellites in GPS Test and the ones it can see are pretty weak.

When I get good MyTracks, then I usually find in GPS Test, that I can lock onto 7 or 8 very good if not excellent signal strength satellites, and I think they're mainly overhead.

I hope Samsung can fix the signal reception issues/stability in firmware!

A friend gave me a track produced from his HTC Desire. Again, another flawless track. I'll give Samsung to October. Maybe I'll get the HTC Desire HD if this isn't fixed.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
My understanding of aGPS technology (not unique to this phone at all) is that under the setting labeled MS Based, the geographic coordinates are actually resolved by the GPS receiver, not the cellular or IP network. What MS Based mode does is accelerate the first fix by downloading cached almanac and ephemeris data from the network, instead of from satellites as under Standalone mode. This skips a time-consuming initialization phase to resolve the first fix by satellite alone. The GPS radio can know in advance which satellites to look for on which frequencies, without that slower bootstrapping download from the heavens. But the actual coordinates are then resolved by the GPS.

Without doubt the GPS receiver does lose its way sometimes, even under MS Based mode. I think at those times, when the phone must reacquire a lost lock, MS Based mode does mitigate the wandering track by reacquiring lock faster. But it never does provide the coordinates directly from the cellular network.

(MS Assisted mode is something else altogether.)

Running in Standalone mode may provide a more clear-cut example of the underlying problem with the GPS radio and the way its output is processed. But for daily use in real life, I see nothing wrong with setting the Galaxy S to MS Based. It just falls back to Standalone when a network assist is unavailable. I suspect that even my trusty T-Mobile G1, which performs excellently in tracking, runs in MS Based mode when it can, which is most of the time. (I know of no settings to tweak to toggle its mode.)

That's why, when I run my own comparative tests, I set the Samsung phone to MS Based. My tracking results are not as bad as when running Standalone, but still demonstrably worse than the G1's benchmark tracks.

An apples-to-apples test of pure Standalone mode would require me to go somewhere completely out of cell network range, and test both phones together. I could do that in West Texas if I had a couple a days to spare, which I don't have at the moment.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] rodh257:
Haven't read thee whole thread but mine often doesn't appear to try get a signal in g maps

Satellite icon doesn't even comer up. Does this 90 percent of the time. Other 10 it gets it in ten secs
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
App to explore GPS capabilities (Update)

I created a little app to explore some GPS data. The app will also keep track of the maximum sats seen and maximum sats used for a lock.

In contrast to other gps apps I've seen > 10 sats with it. I even saw 12 sats.

I didn't test the max locked satelites yet.

Unzip the zip file and install the contained .apk the usual way (that is: copy the apk file to sd card and run it).

(It's work in progress, I will add some features in the along the way. Suggestions are welcome!) BTW the app is mainly created as a "diagnostic utility" for the galaxy GPS problems.

Update: added accuracy, fixed proper shutting down of GPS etc. (little less quick and dirty :) )
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Pika007:
Everyone manage to see more than 10 sattelites.

The thing is it never locks on more than 8.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] RyanZA:
Nice app :)

10 sats outdoors, 7 sats indoors in South Africa

20-30 snr
[Galaxy S I9000 General] RyanZA:
The app confirms that the 8 satellite limit is a software thing though, as the hardware can hold a signal on over 8 satellites.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
the gps works fine even inside a belt case with a big huge magnet next to it (the large magnet is part of the leather case)

i was testing it with my bike ride, and it recorded everything to the dot, even the little movements i made

i still don't know why people complains about the gps.

now i've tested it on 2 devices (UK / Bell), and they both works fine out of the box
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
People talked about proves, about screenshots from GPS Test etc. Screenshots that were never made. And everybody who said that it was so, was laughed at .. The locking thing will be investigated later.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
no no, this app only generates a list of sats seen by the gps and registers the maximal sats seen. Really nothing more (nothing can be infered yet about the locked sats). Again this is just the beginning. It is quick and dirty. I haven't even looked at the other stuff.

By the way this also confirms that the sats are also seen on a higher level and that the driver passes the right info (dean also showed in his logs that more than 10 were seen (never 12 though) but that still left open the hypothesis that on a higher application framework level the sats couldn't be seen)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] RyanZA:
Ah I see - http://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/GpsSatellite.html#usedInFix()

Want to add in the count of those? Or maybe I'll just do it, I want to play around with GPS anyway. :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
It obviously doesnt work for everyone though does it, have you missed the massive amount of threads and horrific tracks people have posted?

The fact that samsung have said a fix is being worked on kind of gives away the fact that something is wrong with it.

The fact that someone that works for broadcomm, the people that make the chip says it is broken also gives a hint.

Plus of course the horrific tracking people are getting.

I don't have it as bad as some people but there is no way this phone is as good as an htc phone when it comes to gps and considering it has one of the best gps chipsets out there its disappointing.

As for this app, well people have always been able to see more than 10 etc, its the locking onto more than 8 which was the issue and of course the accuracy, yesterday my phone said it was 5 metres accurate but i was at least 20 metres away from where it thought i was..
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Fatherboard:
Hmmm... just before I receive my SGS, is it probable that some units are faulty (gps-wise), or it's 99.9% firmware-related?...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
i never seen more than 10 in gps test or gps status. But do the test.. run gps test and run this app and compare.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
For crying out loud. Another gps thread. Yes we know the gps can see up to twelve satellites. We don't need proof of that.

What we don't see is the gps locking on to more than right satellites.

Nmea data shows something different, but don't let that stop you starting a new thread.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
the whole gps thing is kinda pointless, people with issues should just return the device and get it exchanged or repaired

both of mine are working straight out of the box
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Bynar010:
That's what we're all wondering bud. 3 of us at work with flaky gps, if it is hardware they are looking at one hell of a product recall....I'm hoping its fixable with a software update, but samsung are dragging this out.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] RyanZA:
Okay, here is yet another app for GPS testing! ;)

This app has a list of details for all of the sats that the GPS can see, as well as giving a time to lock in seconds, and an accuracy (well, accuracy according to the gps) of the last lock. Also has location and some other stuff for each sat. It also shows the number of sats used in the last lock - if the checkbox next to the satellite is checked, then that satellite was used in the last location.

As far as I can tell, this is every bit of information that can be pulled out of the java API.

I'd put this up on the market, but I'm not paying $25! ;)

P.S. No offense appelflap, but your app has to be force closed to stop the GPS from tracking! Nasty! ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Already have done. Same issue. It's not a hardware problem, it's a firmware problem. Some people are just prone to using their GPS at the most opportune time. :-)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
I've already exchanged mine. Mine has been perfect for a week before giving up the ghost and being decidedly intermittent.

Think there's something more at play to be honest, and countless more apps from appelflap aren't helping the situation.

We know the internal NMEA data can lock onto more than 8 satellites, but the internal samsung software can only lock upto 8, and no amount of his programs is going to show anything else.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
That has never been the issue. Why are you telling us this?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
As i said, I've never seen more than 10 sats myself with apps like GPS test or GPS status.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
can this and the earlier app be run on an unrooted phone, and if i may ask, what is the procedure to install?

tks in advance
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
no root needed. Just copy the .apk in the zip to a sd card and click on it to install.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
lol, I said that. I didn't care about that stuff for the moment. One can shut the GPS down by disable it from the drop down icon bar.

Again, I just did it real quick and dirty. BTW what parameters did you use for minimal time and minimal distance? I think those parameters can be critical for the galaxy.

EDIT: updated the app. Taken care of shutting down the gps and proper reinistalization when the user sends it to the background.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
Mine let me down again today when I got lost after taking a friend home. The navigation instructions were just pathetic no matter what I tried (ndrive, navigon, google, etc).

GPSTest showed the usual hopping and loss of signal.

During the afternoon I did this track: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...8.761446,-9.173219&spn=0.010625,0.023217&z=16

Not so bad, compared to the rest I've seen. But still lousy. Jumped around wildly.. 200+ meters away from reality at some points. Losing lock all the time.

When using the navigation apps (and I tried many) the voice instructions were always a mess obviously. Lagged, contradicting itself, etc.

I will be returning my SGS Monday, a pity since I loved the rest of the unit.

Would definitely keep it if Samsung would release some official info about a fix for this. Since they aren't saying much there is the possibility that the matter won't get better with time and will just be ignored. Maybe it's even bad hardware and there would be no recalls. Too risky to keep it at 600€ cost.

On the market again for something well balanced, perhaps not as impressive as the SGS in general but decent and with a functional GPS.

Maybe the Desire HD when it comes out later this year. Or the normal Desire right now.

I could mess with the settings in the test menu or even flash something else (using a plain 16GB unit with JM2 with no changes) but it probably won't help at all. If anyone has any final suggestion, let me know.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
We'll get other units with problems. I'm returning mine but keeping the €€ and going for a different model. No trust in the SGS anymore.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nicoloco:
but again .... who care if you see 1 , 8 or 12 satellites ???

Answer : nobody because that's totally useless to see 12 satellites

So that's why people are asking you why do you open this thread ? It's useless to count the number of satellites.

By design it's 12 anyway
[Galaxy S I9000 General] RyanZA:
I went with 1 and 1 for minimal time and distance, which is meant to keep android from filtering anything. Which values work better?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] alovell83:
@OP

In GPS test, I can see 13 satellites when I have "use assisted GPS" left unticked. When I use "use assisted GPS" I can only see 10 satellites, but I can keep 8 satellites used much more reliably, I have no clue what this is about.

I don't know squat about the software, and know only slightly more about GPS, but if you only see 1 and you lose it, then you have no satellites to bounce to, if you see 10 and are connected to 8 and lose one it'll be faster to get one if it's already in view.

@ anyone else curious about a more current, but official firmware, I'm on #4 in Korea (all updated through Kies).

Quick test on GPS test. Today, onan 8 minute walk, I connected to 9 satellites on 3 occasions, however, the 9th satellite was dropped within 3 seconds every time. I'm not sure if this is because a 9th satellite is essentially, at least in Samsung's logic, unhelpful but might use unnecessary resources or if this was simply a lag/glitch in GPS test, I stayed within 20 feet accuracy the entire time and on Google Maps (sorry, I should've used my tracks) I never was on the wrong street.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dakine:
I'm not disputing the gps problems with the sgs but for those having issues with car navigation not being accurate enough: How are you mounting your phone? I've noticed a significant improvement in gps reception since I mounted it on a vent closer to my windscreen. I think the gps antenna is in the bottom of the phone and holding it there can really affect it's performance. If possible, mount it so the bottom is not blocked (turning it to landscape may help here as well.) Try mounting it closer to your windscreen and see if this makes it more usable. The tracks I recorded with mytracks are not good enough but also not nearly as bad as those that I see posted here.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
I am just curious as you are from korea if there is much talk about the gps quality on the galaxy over there?

Google just brings back so many hits now on this issue from so many different forums and tech sites etc that its obvious it is a pretty widespread problem.

I went down to vodafone tonight and showed them the phone, they dont have it here in NZ yet, no idea if they will carry it either, they liked it but I was telling them about the gps issues and we compared the gps to several phones they had and the galaxy was shocking really. Hope I didnt ruin the chances of them bringing it in hehe.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Fatherboard:
Sigh... and to think that I abandoned HTC just because of their poor Q.C...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
I understand though, that the hardware - especially the GPS chip, is completely different in Korea.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] pharaohdk:
I´ve used the gps to track my route many times by now, and it seems to be fairly accurate heres just one of my recordings http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=da&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117979238948366344655.00048d400bdcc10da7b4d This is tracking while im on my bike, with the phone in my pants pocket. it lost signal befor I was at the place I were heading to ( 6 roads further a head)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] alovell83:
Did some searching just now, probably should've already, but then again I rarely use GPS (part of the reason I did a test today, but my firmware is like 3-5 days old so my last test was outdated).

Search Results

Here's a link from a guy who has a similar track to what I've recorded on a bus:

http://www.zenez.org/297

During my search I found:

I'm not the only the only one here with miserable indoor performance in my apt, 2nd floor of 5 Level building. Testing now to see if firmware has helped...I'll edit here.

Buses do hinder performance, something I've experienced myself

At least a few hits come up from bloggers talking about North American (they might have been unintentially including I9000s in one case) GPS problems and them being worse. No attribution to hardware/software.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] alovell83:
Their is DMB and a different radio, I used to think that the GPS chips were different and then I started to think they were the same...I haven't read anything to indicate either, please post a link.

Also, I originally thought that because that was one of the main things holding back the original iPhone, something about it being illegal for cell phones to track a user's location. They amended the law and now GPS chips are being included. Their might still be a software limitation in place to keep them from being too accurate, which would be a difference, but not what you refer to. Please advise.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
It keeps track of the maximum number of satelites seen and the maximum number of sats locked into. For me it was a suprise to see that I saw 11/12 sats with the first test, while I never has saw them in other gps progs. I'm really curious though about the other number: the max. sats locked into. I didn't test that feature yet.

Again it is just a little "diagnostic utility" to monitor the behavior of the gps. I want to monitor some more parameters and look how it responds to different settings. I also want to use it to send some NMEA comands to the GPS and look how the GPS responds when I (for example) reset it when it goes astray.

If there are suggestions as to what to test etc. let me know.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
I used 0 for both variables. According to the doc. this value will trigger the most notification updates as possible. Link
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
Yeah I am in the same boat as you, mine aren't the worst but definitely not as good as they should be or at least as good as other phones ive had. Usually I get ok tracks not perfect but ok.. ocasionally they do go a bit nuts.. but even on my best tracks its still not as good as I had on my htc phone..

Did a track today, wasnt too bad but maybe im just getting more used to it going over a few peoples houses now and then... as long as the houses are on the same road etc..:)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Interesting, I will try to add an option to switch aGPS on and off ... to monitor the influence of that feature on the galaxy GPS.

@sjdean

can you post the propriatary NMEA comands specific for the BCM4751 chip? The ones you've seen in the NMEA log.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Chaku01:
I have XXJF5, skyhook OFF. Use wireless network ON

The few times I tried the GPS, lock was very slow (15min) and i woud loose signal now and then. I can understand the need for time to lock on satellites, but what happened last time is just plain disastrous.

I turned GPS on while taking the bus from the airport just to test. 40min drive and still no GPS position found. I get out at my stop, 25 min walk later and still no position found. a staggering 1h05min and no position found at all. Granted, it was very cloudy, I use copilot,and saw about 5 satellites tracked at once, but never could it lock on and find my position. I tried all the grips you could possibly think of, upside down inside out, nothing worked. So far, it seems to me this handset is half baked, hopefully with froyo most of its issues will be ironed out (lags, memory issues, gps issues)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
Actually, I just noticed the JG5 firmware on samsung firmware ships with JG1 baseband.. Neither XXJG1 or JG5 locked properly for me.. How many people who can't connect at all are using JG1?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] THUDUK:
Just got my Samsung Galaxy S yesterday, my first try out with the GPS has been today.

Running : 16.78 KM

Location : South Downs East Sussex

Duration :1 hour 30 mins

Firmware: version 2.1-update1

Baseband: I9000ADJF1

GPS software : RunGPS with music player running also.

Having been using an Iphone 3GS to track my running for a while, I have now changed to the Android world and the Galaxy S. The Iphones GPS was terrible compared to the log I recorded this morning on RunGPS, initially the track was a little irregular as usual with GPS, but after about 200 yards it smoothed out and actually recorded pretty much spot on within a few feet for 90% of the run, a few blips when I run through a deep forest area, but only loosing track by a few yards or so. Now the same recording on my Iphone admittedly on a different running application, would have a staggered track practically 80% of the route and the recordings were always a bit hit and miss.

Battery usage: from full and this in on a 1 day old Galaxy for the 1.5hr run and the 0.5hr walk after with music all the way, the device was on 61%, this compared to a four month old Iphone 3GS after the same run was always around 40% battery life left.

These are my first tests with my new Android phone and so far it completely knocks the Iphone for six, I can't complain about the GPS at all.