yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] crypta:
different signal strength with different access to signal..mmhh. but while thinking 'bout it - I do have the same problems: if I transport my SGS in a lead box, it as nearly no receiption... even BT can't get through the 30mm strong lead box.

sorry for kiddin, but it is absolutely normal that signal strength varies from holding (or, with other words: "flesh blocking line of reception").

years ago, handy had antennas - with good reason. but all the antenna vanished for design matters - now on we have BT/WIFI/GSM antennas build into the devices - and more or less, the placement is the reason for suffering signal strength.

so there MAYBE a design flaw in this, e.g. by trying to get a very thin device. but it is absolutely different from the iphone4's. the i4 has a problem with "shortcutting" the antennas and maybe with the impetance of human body... they are external - the SGS has plastic all over.. theres no chance of touching the circuit... just blocking direkt line of reception by flesh.

that's maybe not a less worse behavior, but a much different one.

the "jumps" between positions could simply be solved by software. the software has to filter fast(est) acceleration (at least till beaming for everyone is invented and available). that is also the reason ehy some programms work better than other. e.g. moving with 6km/h and then jumping 30meters within a second or less... isn't possible.. and so just have to be filtered out. as you can assume, that nobdy is using the SGS for determine "how fast can I thow my SGS" there won't be any practical use for zero to 100 within a piece of a second. I hope, they will implent such filter near hardwarelevel driver - then: problem solved.

don't get me wrong - for a latest product, with gps available in handheld devices for many years, the flaw IS nearly unacceptable; but sadly it is there and samsung has to address it somehow.

and now, back to studying this interesting thread, if it is worth a try.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] henke2:
I've always used sportypal as my gps test and it always disconnects the gps as soon as it get's a fix... tried the epic and it got a fix faster and better but still disconencting, switched over to runkeeper and suddenly it worked great I think. Phone was in my pocket, wather was very grey and light rain if that has anything to do with the results...

(I marked in blue where I crossed the street)
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] CommanderROR:
@crypta

I did a test yesterday with my HTC Touch Pro (old phone) in the tram. I'm using Xandroid AOSP on it at the moment.

I sat at the window and used Google My Tracks to do the recording. aGPS was on.

The app recorded the track perfectly all the way, despite bad weather (thunderstorm and heavy rain), bad reception (sitting in a tram with the only sky-view available being through the window at the side) and holing the device in my hand. I had a few tiny glitches (maybe 5m off max) in town where there were high building on both sides of the road and the GPS had to rely on aGPS information mostly since there was very little chance for any GPS signal to get through. Walking along those streets is no problem since you have the open sky above, but in the tram all you could see was the walls left and right, so really difficult conditions.

Now, I'm asking myself...why can HTC put a perfectly working GPS system in an "ancient" phone like the Touch Pro (Raphael) and Samsung can't manage with a brand-new superphone?

And about the reception being worse with the antenna covered...that's just rubbish in my opinion. No sand person puts antennas at the bottom or sides of a device, any antenna that is going to be useful has to end at the top of the device, and there is NEVER going to be any hand or finger covering the top of my phone...so if they really put the GPS antenna at the bottom, then they're exeptionally incompetent...

My car has it's GPS antenna on the roof...I wonder why...^^

And about "smoothing" the glitches in software...that might be acceptable for a cheap and old device, but for a new phon eit's a joke. The GPS is accurate up to a few metres in good reception areas, if you start smoothing things by software you lose that advantage and have more or less "approximate" coordinates which makes no sense in a GPS device.

Also, the smoothing must be calculated by the processor, meaning you get more battery drain on top of worse tracking precision AND you also get more GPs lag which can be a problem if you are moving fast, e.g. in a car.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] aurelm:
secgps.lib exists in the official jm1 firmware for i9000. I had my hopes up when I installed it, thinking this might actualy fix the gps issues. No luck whatsover, from a car the cursors gous 300-400m off route or just stays behind with even 1km before it starts (sloooooowly) to try and catch up with me. It never gets there. On foot sometimes it's ok, sometimes it's not. It just goes 50-60 meters offroute with no reason. It still lags, but because of the speed you cannot tell that much.

So anyway, maybe someone who knows this stuff can start debuging and try to make it work ?
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] dakine:
I appreciate the efforts being put in by people but by the time you guys figure it out well have froyo and an official fix :) That or its hardware related and samsung will just keep stringing us along. In that case i feel a class action suit coming on.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] Case_:
The file you're talking about is libsecgps.so, located in /system/lib/, whereas the file I was pointing out is /system/etc/secgps.conf...

Wish I had your optimism.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] distortedloop:
Yeah, yeah, and blah, blah... ;)

Humor aside, it's obviously not iPhone antenna-gate in scope, but it's interesting that while my HTC EVO and my HTC Nexus One do not have GPS issues to begin with, holding either of those phones in my hand, or placing them in my cup holder do not impact the GPS reception in any noticeable negative way.

Come to think of it, my iPhone 4 (and prior models) aren't impacted by where I put them in the car, either.

We can argue how similar this problem is to the iPhone's antenna-gate, but that wasn't my point, it was someone I was responding to. I think it could be similar though, but not in a your-flesh-is-shorting-the-poor-antenna-location way, more like maybe they put the antenna in a bad spot internally, it's not the right size, and the drivers for the thing suck, or any combination of the above way. Who the heck knows?

The GPS system (combination of hardware/software) in the SGS is DEFECTIVE, end of story. Maybe they can fix it, maybe they can't. None of the proposed methods bantered about on these forums works consistently or even well, for a large number of participants.

The GPS isn't the biggest thing in the world for me, but it's just another little annoyance in the Galaxy S line that makes it difficult to remain enthusiastic about this device. :(
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] cba1986:
The GPS is the only "serious" problem in the SGS (not for me). Never experiece any problems with GPS, perhaps some innacuracy .

The lag OneClick fix take the lag problem away.

I don't why so much people has this problem with GPS. I hope that Samsung fix this problem.

Every day that pass i enjoy even more my SGS. Just love it.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] larryccf:
just noticed something i thought i'd throw out - something someone else mentioned in one of the other threads, that their GPS seemed more accurate when they ran a different mapping / nav app, i think it was CoPilot or sygic

i've got Trapster on my Vibrant (trapster is basically an app for alerting you to known speed traps, police radar etc - and it allows users to report police vehicles as / when / where they see them.

the past week whenever i've opened Googles maps, i get a blue circle showing about 700 ft accuracy, i say 700 feet as the circle is twice my yard, which is 355 ft deep, and the center of that circle is way off from the real location.

i open trapster and it's showing me exactly where i'm standing and i mean the exact spot. The one thing that is different is that trapster, while using google maps, is using an older version of them - and the only reason i know that, in the latest version of google maps finally showed one end of my street as a cul de sac (was just closed off about 2 years ago), and the google map trapster is using still shows the street connected to the street the cul de sac closed it off from.

could it be the latest version of google maps, which if iirc, came out not too long before the Vibrant/Captivate was released, could it be google maps is causing or contribute to the issues?

as this is a world wide issue, is it possible something in the coding format that google might have changed?

throwing it out there for what it's worth
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] andrewluecke:
700ft normally happens I think because it grabs an initial position off wireless networks. After a while, GPS lock happens and the position should get better (should, but some algorithms are probably still wrong).

With GPS recorders such as Mytracks, there will be no difference, BUT with car navigation, the quality of the "track" can depend on how well the software snaps your position to a road (some compensate for errors and dodgy accuracy better). Some GPS road software for instance might know that your car has to stay on the road, so if you jump onto a parallel road suddenly (without ever turned onto it), its obviously an error.

So yes, whilst changing software can help improve the quality of navigation and compensate for errors (and make up for when tracks are old, remember, some may also use openstreetmaps), the big issue we are seeing is that the actual locked position (and accuracy boundary) is wrong. In extremely dense cities with many roads, error correction can't solve every issue.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] larryccf:
i'm aware different nav programs use different buffering and "smoothing" calculations

let me add one comment to my original stmt - my GPS has been on all day

i just went outside and opened google maps, and it showed me about 300 ft to the rear of my house. I closed it, and trapster located me on the older google map exactly where i was - nearly to the side edge of my lot at the front of the house by the mailbox (i wanted open shot to the sky). I closed trapster, and re-opened google, and again the location was way off. Closed google, and re-opened trapster and it was on the button again

something in the way those two are interpreting the gps signal is vastly different. I know others have indicated the nmea data is also ****e, but this does not make sense

it would be interesting if someone had an older version of google maps

if you want to try using trapster, trapster or trapster.com is the name in android market
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] Bhonka:
I walked up and down the orange road starting at rockford st lol
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] andrej.marinic:
rofl
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] miki4242:
Gives a whole new meaning to the "Drunken Sailor's random walk" from Monte Carlo statistics :D
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] katsuru:
The fix doesnt work. I am on the road now inside a bus. I cant get no gps log neither does my mate woth his stock galaxy s. The gps is still bugged after applying this fix.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] boomerbubba:
@larrccf,

Others have also noted a discrepancy between the way two versions of the Google Maps app interprets the GPS output. My surmise is that is a property of the app, not of the underlying GPS listeners at the Android level.

Just for clarification, are you running one of these "fixes" such as the Epic-derived hack, or are you running a stock phone? In any case, your Vibrant may well be behaving differently than the I9000 phones.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] Case_:
Please, let's keep this thread only for things related to the fix or possible development of better fix. There's lots of GPS threads in General section where tracklogs can be discussed...

katsuru: Not getting a lock inside a bus isn't all that unusual, though. Don't forget cars and buses especially are basically Faraday's cages and GPS signal is quite weak as it is.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] bradycl_84043:
I still feel pretty strongly that any fix that does not address the GPS "clock" is not going to fully solve the problem.

Run "GPS Test" from the market and see if the clock (fourth button on the bottom) shows the correct local and UTC time after you get a fix.

The local and UTC time for the GPS on my Vibrant is 7 hours ahead, and I typically get one or two satellities to lock out of the 13 or so that I can see. My wife's G1, right next to it, has the correct local and UTC time, and locks on every sattelite it sees.

So far, NO fix that I have seen has corrected this discrepency.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] larryccf:
Totally stock Vibrant

and it showed similiar results this morning - ie spot on with the trapster, way off with google 4414
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] distortedloop:
Yes, and no. That statement totally ignores the fact that an iPhone (any model with GPS - I have them all) and a Nexus One can grab and hold and track properly while in my car, even down in the cup holder area beneath the dash. The SGS cannot.

None of this tells us if the hardware is buggered or just the software. It's nauseating at times.

I appreciate all your efforts on this for the rest of us, but it's starting to seem like a lost cause. I hope I'm wrong!
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] cba1986:
Today i used it all day,and the phone never lost track inside my car . In fact the phone managed to get fix under 20 sec going at 100 KM per hour and no jumpiness. Sometimes it was more accurate that my N96 with Garmin Mobile XT. Using Ndrive 10.

So i think there is no serious problems with the GPS. Maybe some accurate issues but nothing to serious.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] CommanderROR:
@bradycl_84043

This clock issue sounds interesting...can anyone reproduce this phenomenon? Maybe the GPS clock synchronizes wrong and the GPS is then confused because the satellites are not where they should be at that time for the given location? Just a wild idea, but maybe worht looking into?
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] sp991:
I could not say if the time was ok before i did the fix but for now (epic fix) it is perfect. The time is not offset and i can connect with 9 out of the 11 sat. in view in abouts 30 sec and an accuracy of 10m.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] cba1986:
I think that the GPS problems is exaggerated. I have no doubt that there is problem with accuracy but is not that serious.

Today i retested with JM6 and Oneclick Fixlag. There was no situation in what i didn't get a fix. And the accuracy was good not impressive but good for a phone. I even get a fix going at 100 KM/H.

So i think that the problem is exagerated(at least for me). But the accuracy a sensitive could be much better.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] Kilack:
The iphones all have bcm4750's, even some of the latest standalone tomtoms have bcm4750's.

So in theory, the bcm4751 is meant to be even better than the bcm4750.

So either they just need to sort the driver out a bit and all it really does need is some optimising, its a new chip and perhaps broadcom havent quite ironed it out yet... seems the most likely or broadcom butchered the upgrade of the bcm4750 to the bcm4751 :)

Perhaps that is why apple & the iphone stuck with the 4750 and the new tomtoms are also using the 4750? maybe they wanted to go with the tried and tested?

The truth will come out in september I guess, not long to wait.....
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] distortedloop:
Dude, it's not exaggerated to say the GPS sucks when it shows you several blocks away on the map from where you really are. Might as well be on WiFi triangulation only for that level of accuracy.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] cba1986:
I'm only saying that never happened to me. I tried everywhere to replicate the things that are say here. But no.

The GPS on JM6 Show correctly where am i. Perhaps with an error between 5 and 10 meters(tops).

What i noticed that tyhe GPS is very sensitive where is sorrounded by buildings but nothing serious. The error goes between 10 and 20 meters.

But nothing extreme like an error of 50 or 80 meters.

I'm not saying that the GPS doesn´t have any problems (who have) what i'm saying that the errors in accuracy are fine for a phone. And doesn't interfeare with every day use.

I repeat, my opinions are based on MY experiences and MY testing.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] katsuru:
we compared with a Milestone, gets a lock in 3 seconds, SGS only locks if i raise it in the air... as soon as i lower its position, bang lock gone!

I also noticed something..

Using the app GPS status in both devices, Milestone and SGS. The SGS compass is slow, struggles alot seems exactly like it has low FPS's, Milestone does not do that :confused: it shows a fluid compass....

And BTW, the SGS gets no locks when moving i only got locks when the bus was stopped as soon as we started moving, i lost my satellites, Milestone never lost all satellites always had a lock :(
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] Kilack:
No offense but even Samsung are saying that it needs fixing or "optimised". The internet is full of people complaining about it. Even tech sites now are starting to test it properly and are saying it has issues. Tracks have been posted that are horrific. Yes some people apparently have ok GPS but consider this.. its all the same hardware so there is obviously a problem somewhere, perhaps based on your location, satellites, whatever.. but there is definitely a problem.

If you don't have an issue with it then I don't really see why you are in a thread about a gps fix.

We have no idea what kind of tests you have done, many people come into these forums after having tested the gps for 5 minutes and then claim its perfect only to return a week later saying it sucks.. but yeah if you won the samsung galaxy s gps lottery, congrats :), it seems some people did but we have no idea why.

sorry its offtopic a bit but this thread is pretty much over anyway... nothing new on the epic that works yet here.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] milsjg:
GPS again

Well I thought that I would not need to give you one more evidence that the GPS is working for some of us (lucky guys), but below you have one example using My Tracks. I have noticed that a lagfix enhance the GPS (Google maps - tracks) slightly because of less lag in the applications. Google maps and My Tracks seems to be way slower than for example Cardiotrainer. This points us in the direction that it is due to some software interface error if you have a problem.

I also do not want to read that I am an ignorant user that has no clue of what happens because of the good tracks that I am getting. I do not suggest that the owners that have problems with the GPS to be ignorant or stupid. For the record I have worked both with computers, data collection, satellite telemetri, research and GPS, so at least I know roughly what to expect from our GPS.

If you get tracks like mine, do not complain, you just make a fool of yourself (you still not using WAAS, EGNOS etc). If you get jumping tracks well complain and say that you have a problem (not that I have a problem) and hope that some will figure it out. I am pretty sure this GPS problem will have an ending soon and as I told you before, I think that it has to do with prioritizing and the chips interface with android software.

http://maps.google.se/maps/ms?ie=UT...09137413725907.00048eb5461d6a5a0c7e7&t=h&z=11

To all that will find errors in my tracks here is some explanations.

The beginning is always a bit off, because the first fix has often a rather big error.

The small bumps is roundabouts that is newly constructed = do not show on map.

The errors is within 5-10 meters and thats what you have to expect from a GPS without enhancements (WAAS, Egnos DGPS etc).

The GPS is standing horizontal (on the side) on the key shelf on the console (http://i39.tinypic.com/2nld3md.jpg Volvo 245 -90) and has no direct sky above, but of course on the sides there are some glimpses of the heaven. It is also under rainy conditions and the speed is varying between 100 and 40 km/h. There are no "metal impregnated" windows.

This was done with JM1, JH2 GPS-fix, and one click lag-fix. However I have equally good tracks with other firmwares. I am just a mobile nerd that want to test things.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] cba1986:
OK. Sorry.. I just want to express my opinion. I won't post here anymore.

Good testing. And good results.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] Case_:
Just done some testing with the new leaked XFJM6 firmware (don't confuse it with XWJM6 as I did, initally, that's entirely different fw with GPS related files exactly the same as in JM5). So far so good. GPS can lock to more than 8 satellites and to signals lower than 20dBHz again with this firmware. Took it for a walk in some below average conditions (under the trees, narrow streets and so on) along with an HTC Wildfire I'm reviewing right now and the track recording from Galaxy was even more accurate than that from Wildfire in some places (and pretty much the same in other). Of course this can be just a coincidence, but it looks good. I'll try to make testing update.zip packages for those not willing to flash the whole firmware as soon as possible.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] CommanderROR:
Sounds good.

Where did you find this firmware? It's not on samfirmwares...
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] enigmameusa:
I think it's this thread

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=765032
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] astralmind:
that would be awesome and immensely appreciated by many, I am sure ! I have a Bell "No 3 button recovery phone" so I'm wary about flashing anything at this point but I guess just running a partial update like that wouldn't be a problem right ?
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] stema84:
I'm waiting for that update.zip as well, I'm sick of this gps problem, hopes that this solves it finally, I'm going geocaching next week :) When I updated to the jm1 fw via kies, I got very good locks, re-locks, and it saw many satellites instantly, so it can't be the hw if it did this once. The next day It was back where it was before... :S hope this is a permanent fix :)
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] TravUK:
Waiting to hear your findings. The timing is right for the Broadcom changes to start appearing.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] aurelm:
yes yes yes, please do :)

Thank you.
[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] Case_:
I'm not holding my breath, I'm still wary that I might've just caught it on a good day, but you never know.

Anyway, somebody mentioned some bug with UTC time in GPS Test - I never even looked at that, so I don't know how did it behave before, but gave it a try during another walk about half an hour ago and UTC time (as well as local) was fine. I've also made another track recording on a more famililar path I tried before a few times, always with very bad results, and the results this time were quite satisfying - average error from the actual path was about 3 meters, I'd say, and very steady, only in one place it went off and the track recording was off by about 5 meters. Before, on the very same path, it was almost always 20+. AND I had the phone in thick leather case in my pocket, before I've always held it without the case and in my hand to get better reception.