yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xpcomputers:
Which side is the GPS antenna on?

If the antenna is small, on one side, and at the back, then running the phone in landscape with the aerial side facing up is bound to have the best chance of "seeing" the sky. Without knowing which side is "up" for the aerial, we have a 50/50 chance of getting it right or wrong.

So do you know which side it is on, and therefore whether we are better having landscape with the buttons to the right, or landscape with the buttons to the left?

Also does firmware version make a difference (other than the default config of these settings)? Or in other words, would all firmware versions have similar performance if set to these recommended settings, or do some firmware versions have better drivers or sensitivity too as well as different settings?

Thanks for the excellent info!

Mike
[Galaxy S I9000 General] neil85ae86:
I appreciate the effort here but this is a tad bogus. I have a 3+ year old dedicated GPS device, it's an extra-sensitive Garmin handheld and my puny little 3 year old HTC Touch rivals it's performance track for track. They both blow away the Galaxy S with their 3 year old technology. ...so no it is not expected to be inferior, maybe to the latest and greatest dedicated gps, however I can assure you their is no exscuse not to rival 3 year old technology.

sorry for yet more gps ranting.

Neil
[Galaxy S I9000 General] milsjg:
Well you are talking about the urban canyon effect. There are very few high end GPSes that can deal with that. So you can not judge the GPS in urban canyon environments because then nearly all GPSes has problems.

I thank the OP for a well written "guide". I think that it will enlighten lots of people how a GPS really works and we hopefully can skip the strangest advices on the forum. I still think you could optimize the code better because it seems to slow and imprecise in some aspects. However I have used it daily and are satisfied with it even if I wished for the military grade GPS that many seems to have in there old phones and GPS's.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] brunes:
You are wrong on the "Use Wireless Networks" setting not using WiFi. It *does* also use your WiFi to help triangulate. It says so right in the android UI for pete's sake. It really only works in large cities where Google has mapped APs and APs are dense.

The way the triangulation works is Google has mapped all the ESSIDs in a city and for all the road GPS positions recorded their strengths. Therefore in a city whenever you see 2 or more ESSIDs you can use that info along with your cell tower triangulation to compute a pretty OK estimate of your GPS coordinates - at the very least a much more accurate picture than you can get by the cell towers alone, because the range of a WiFi network is so much smaller.

Basically - if you are in a city and you have this checked and your wifi is enabled you may get more acccurate readings without GPS than you would otherwise.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Chaku01:
Great post, I changed the spirent-lcs to supl.google.com and a few other niceties. This is totally unscientific, but before changing (using gps test) I could only see 1 satellite and stayed like that forever. After applying the changes, I had a 30 m fix in about 3-5min. Have to say that my SGS has always been totally unpredictable, some days, it couldn't get a fix in under an hour, others it took 10min, all that while walking outside. I hope these setting will allow me to use the GPS a bit more reliably now. thanx!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] darkoroje:
Thank you for your guide, however the fact is that other phones that I had or currently have have perfectly functioning GPS. It is only the Galaxy that has problems.

Second "use wireless networks" does use Wi-Fi networks for positioning - an easy way to see that is to turn on "Flight Mode" and then turn on Wi-Fi only, Google Maps will still be able to find your position.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Brownstone:
Superb post Dan, one of the best I've read on here in a long time.

Cheers,

BS...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dangrayorg:
Thanks for all the comments, positive and negative.

I'm not arguing by by any stretch that the Galaxy S GPS is fine (if it were there would be no need for the original post). I am as ****** as the rest about its troublesome performance, that said there is more that can be done then just 'playing with settings'

If Google has mapped WiFi hotspots then I will correct the post. However, using a WiFi signal strength together with a triangulated hotspot location is a HORRIBLE way to locate yourself in a city - what if someone moves the router? Stands in front of the aerial? Moves shop fittings around? That said I guess it could locate you "You are near a starbucks",

However, I will alter the post because I want it to factually accurate. If anyone really does have better results in a city using the wireless locations please let everyone know.

I'll also add the codes to allow access to LbtTestMode in 2.1 and 2.2
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xpcomputers:
You don't say if you've tried any/all of these settings or not. We need to all work together to find the solution. I think the OP might be on to something here, although as he says, some of it is guess work, so there is probably room for improvement!

I would disagree with the OP about the hardware faults, as I'm sure there are bound to be at least some units that have a fault that needs returning to be fixed too. But everyone should at least try these settings to see if it helps at all, as there are bound to be multiple factors at work here.

Also which way up do you have your phone when in the car? That is something very tangible we can sort out to optimise the signal reception in these phones. I currently don't know which side has the GPS antenna, so which way up we should out our phone for optimal signal strength. Once we've found that, we might well find that many have their phones with the antenna pointing down which won't be helping either!

Apologies if you've tried these settings too, and they didn't work, but we need to ask, so that we build a fuller picture! Just disagreeing with the OP without saying what you've tried doesn't help anyone move this forwards.

We all want the GPS fixed, and I for one will try anything in that quest.

Here's hoping the next discovery by Samsung or the community fixes it for good for everyone!

Mike
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dangrayorg:
OP now contains info on GPS antenna position. Answer is straight upright on rotates clockwise (antenna on Left Hand Side 1/3 of way down).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dangrayorg:
I am on to something - unfortunately that 'thing' is that I think the settings given deliver the best performance the SGS is capable of because its teeny tiny antenna. It simply doesn't have the gain for those awesome feats of satellite lock that we see from other GPS units (either that or the internal wiring generates some huge losses along the signal path to the chip).

This also plays out the earlier comments about "three year old technology". Chipsets move on and Broadcom have clearly had to pour a load of research into optimizing signal strength for mobile devices. Unfortunately the laws of physics don't change. If there is not sufficient signal at an antenna with insufficient gain you will only keep a lock on the strongest satellites.

Once I get the tracks on the OP you'll see what I mean. Where I am with a good clear sky view there is no problem at all, excellent correlation with ground trace and no complaints with the SGS strapped onto my arm while running. Once you increase signal attenuation by adding trees and buildings things start to 'go south' rapidly.

Is this the price for that huge bright screen....?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xpcomputers:
Isn't that what the OP does with the "Standalone" setting (instead of one of the MS A-GPS options)?

Mike
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
Op: thanks for the info. To bad all settings accept for accuracy is default on froyo.

I also working on this issue.

Wifi is a bad thing to use.

This is often the main thing people do have on and they get very poor accuracy and blame the gps for it.

When i flash the phone i always put the accuracy to 150.

This is a strange setting and normal i would like it to be less the 5.

So i should use 5 on accuracy, but that don't work good. I have found that putting accuracy over 150 will make the phone use the satellites better. Strange...

I also use standalone made. That's works great for me.

A also think all people should try different settings and se if some works better for them.

There is other things you can tweak to help the navigation.

Also don't use Google map. Use a standalone navigation program.

They works alot better.

Sent from GT-I9000 jpo. My own kernel for z4mod and with 342MB Ram
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dangrayorg:
AGPS provides you with timing corrections and satellite position data to allow the GPS reciever to 'sync' with the signal transmitted by the satellites. The satellites still provide the location, the AGPS data helps it get there quicker.

MS Based would save 15 minutes month-to-month downloading almanac data, a minute or two day-to-day updating timing data but 'hotstart' will work just fine if you are turning on and off many times in a day.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xpcomputers:
So I am hearing you correct? That theoretically the GPS will work best with the phone in landscape, with the home button (and the bottom of the phone) on the left hand side.

If that is the case, then at a guess, I suspect that most right hand users are instinctively using the phone with the buttons on the right hand side, and therefore the GPS antenna at the bottom, which might not be optimal positioning. (this purely is based on an observation of only my own usage of using it the other way up as a right hander, so hardly a large observed sample! I could just be weird!!)

Now of course this is totally hypothetical anyway, and needs to be something that gets tested in the real world, but this alone could account for some of the difference noted by users in the real world, but before we jump to conclusions, we need to test if the theory bears out in the real world.

I am assuming that the phone will work best that left edge facing upwards, as close to the windscreen (and as close to the bonnet as possible). Ideally the phone will be vertical in that landscape orientation, (or even slightly tilted down at the front, so the back is pointing upwards ever so slightly?). But this is pure guess work. unfortunately, I haven't the time, skills or equipment to able to test this theory out. But hopefully someone here can run some meaningful real world tests to see if this position really does give the optimal signal to the antenna compared with other orientations of the phone.

Every little helps...

Mike
[Galaxy S I9000 General] madmack:
yea, 5m is better than 15m accuracy
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Sure thing. You always need to place it close to the windshild with a steady car holder.

Even my standalone gps devices work better that way
[Galaxy S I9000 General] thunderteaser:
I can see in the thread you posted that

So why would you advice to turn it off? :confused:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
I didnt advise to turn full agps(supl) off. I just posted that I dont use it.

Firstly, not every carrier is supporting a-gps. Or not supporting it properly.

And how well full a-gps is implemented on our devices?

Did you have a look at the gps.conf file? It looks quite incomplete in comparison to other android devices.

Anyway I dont even have a data account, I dont use full a-gps so i try to disable it, the best way I can, since I think Android misses proper connectivity control, location method etc etc....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Funkadelick:
My GPS works perfectly -- but it takes 10 mins (literally) to locate and start working

anyone know why it takes 10 mins to start working ?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
You have to wait 10 minutes even during a hot start?

Which gps programs do you use by the way?

Maybe we can blame it on the SUN FLARES phenomena:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=12097633&postcount=417
[Galaxy S I9000 General] apache86:
First, please forgive me for any spelling mistakes, english is not my mother lang :p

Now im not sure about you but i spent hours on reading about the GPS problem on our device. already tried almost every possible solution from changing multiple ROM's, kernels, software fixes, flashing diffrent GPS versions... and latly also the hardware fix suggested on one of the posts here ..after the first adjustment (for those of you who knows it) which didnt helped much i thought maybe i didnt adjusted it enough so i opend it again and did some more contact adjustment to try and improve the situation..and i did got some better locks but in real time test it is still the same as day one - very inacurate and useless. my final conclusion, if there will be any solution at all, is that samsung did it again, sold us a "cat in a bag". having a smartphone without GPS is actualy having a "notsosmartphone". i will definitly think twice before purchasing any Samsung mobile again.

i also thinks even if there will be any solid solution for it any time soon, as a customer who spent his good money on a top of the line smartphone, do i need to be the one who's chasing after it? this is abviously tells us how "good" Samsung customer srvice is..too bad.

But i do thank you all for trying to fix the issue and providing a good source of information for all related to the Galaxy S!

Thanks and good luck to all of you!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] szczeslaw:
Then go buy the HTC.

Oh no, wait - they also had problems with GPS and never even TRIED to do something about. In Touch Pro, GPS showed position few seconds to late, so sometimes you just passed the crossroad, and were notified, that you were supposed to turn there. And there was a fix for that. At XDA-Developers ;)

About SGS GPS. I recently did a "hardware fix", and now my GPS is great. Even when i put my phone near the gear stick.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Hardware fix?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] szczeslaw:
There was a link 2 pages back ;)

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=878970
[Galaxy S I9000 General] gtluis:
I used to have very poor GPS performance, signal took forever to lock and sometimes it didn't locked at all.

Just recently I found a way to fix this for me, might work for some of you too.

1. Get the modem files UGJL2 and XXJPY (Perka has a nice collection of modems).

2. Reboot into Recovery.

3. Flash the UGJL2 Modem from CWM.

4. Reboot phone (you can test GPS, you probly won't have any improvement).

5. Reboot into Recovery again.

6. Flash the XXJPY modem

7. Reboot.

You now should have a great working GPS. I found this combination to work in my phone everytime I flashed a different Rom.

Cheers.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Ok Tks.

Do you have a Vibrant or the innternational GT?

And... how do you test the gps?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Why flashing one modem and then the other? Why not flash JPY modem right away ? (which by the way is the modem used in all latest 2.2.1 firmwares for the GT international)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] marf3:
maybe because the older modem has some things which are important and which werde removed with the newer version? so you update the modem without losing the important stuff.

Would make sense
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Ok... but is there a related thread about this?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] marf3:
dont know. There are so many gps fixes out there.... but mine gps sucks hard, anyway :) Im goint to test this one
[Galaxy S I9000 General] szczeslaw:
I have international I9000.

I've tested it by driving around using Sygic Aura navigation and Google MyTracks.

With MyTracks you can see, that it's not perfect (sometimes it shows position about 10m-15m from the road), but it doesn't "float" around like it used to (especially when you're not moving), and is good enough for driving with navigation software (wich usually "pulls" your position to the road).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] JJEgan:
maybe because the older modem has some things which are important and which werde removed with the newer version? so you update the modem without losing the important stuff.

Would make sense

Not sense at all as one wipes the other .

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 General] JJEgan:
Do you know what is missing .???

Should be easy enough to change it .

My adapted to UK server gps.conf reads .

TP_SERVER=uk.pool.ntp.org

XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin

XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin

XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

HTC Desire posted as .

# cat /system/etc/gps.conf

NTP_SERVER=europe.pool.ntp.org

XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin

XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin

XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin

SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com

SUPL_PORT=7276

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Try iGo 8.4.2 ( 480x800)

Better accuracy, better filtering/stability and better approach to the maps...

And most important, excelent coverage !

2cents
[Galaxy S I9000 General] kojak2201:
Stick samsungs gingerbread rom on your phone. The GPS is fine. Everything else works too. Smooth as a whistle. :-)

Can't get CWM for it though.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] medzed:
Just try.the hardware fix.from the vibrant ,it change my world i trie many many roms und aoftware.fixes but nothing help only.the hardware fix.from.the vibrant all you need is.a small screwdriver and 10 minute ad time thats.it
[Galaxy S I9000 General] medzed:
Sorry for.my mistakes but swype.is new.for.me.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] szczeslaw:
Thanks for the tip. I used Igo before - with my Hero and then SGS, but before hardware fix. I know it's good. I just wanted to test Aura (and that was the only navi i had on my phone, after hardware fix ;) ).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Yep, my wife got a Desire HD and it got indeed 2 extra lines (Google as gps suppliant) and it's also quite incomplete, according to my research

I have been testing all kind of configurations for the gps.conf file like adding

debugging, Intermediate position report, accuracy treshold, wiper (wifi positioning), more gps suppliants etc etc

In time I'll start a new thread posting the results and my conclusions.

If any user is sure that his carrier supports full Agps and is willing to test some settings, just PM me.

In the meantime if anybody is willing, just try this:

NTP_SERVER=0.europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=1.europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=2.europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=3.europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=xtra1.gpsonextra.net
XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
SUPL_PORT=7276

« »
[Galaxy S I9000 General] phalanger:
+1

Sygic Aura looks great but gives terrible GPS performance on my phone. Inaccurate, slow to respond to corners, generally crappy.

With iGO 8.4.2 navigating works just fine.

Not sure why, but the difference is huge and unmistakable.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] JJEgan:
Apart from the extra

NTP_SERVER=1.europe.pool.ntp.org

NTP_SERVER=2.europe.pool.ntp.org

NTP_SERVER=3.europe.pool.ntp.org

My gps conf file has been set as you posted but using uk pool .

But even on stock its never had a gps problem .

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 General] carmelo3:
thank you verymuchh

the galaxy s is the best
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Jekkaman:
Here's a track i recorded today with my galaxy:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...050199937434268404.00049ed916c2ef16b6f9a&z=13

I'm currently using my vodafone stock rom JP7.

Do you guys think this can be improved by switching to another rom?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Your gps experience can certainly be improved if you switch to another gps program....

And... the new JS8 is looking good...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Jekkaman:
Gps works better on jp5 or jp8?

Thanks!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Auzy:
Possibly a bit.. But I honestly haven't found a ROM yet which produces tracks better than my Forerunner 305. It feels as though later roms seem more consistant (in early roms, tracks used to shoot randomly off into different cities in certain circumstances). They seem usable for fitness, but they aren't the best I've seen.

I posted tracks ages ago using different tracking apps, and it didn't help (probably because on Android, they probably all go through the same API anyway). I don't think I've tried the same comparison on newer firmwares though (last I probably tried was JPX or earlier).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] alsheron:
I've had MAJOR issues and dissapointment with my GPS on my Galaxy S and have been a prolific flasher(!)

It's been so bad that I simply was going to sell it and buy a Galaxy S II but I recently flashed Doc's JS8 with the JQ1 modem and FINALLY my car navigation is accurate enough to be useable. It's not perfect like on my previous HTC Hero - but it is definitely useable and surprisingly accurate considering how terrible it was before. Why couldn't they get this accuracy at launch!!???

I also did the hardware hack and bent up my gps connector inside the phone - which was simple enough to do - so that might have helped - but even after doing that on my previous rom and all before it, GPS was just as bad. So I think JS8 with the JQ1 modem has worked wonders.

The JV1 Gingerbread beta radio also seemed to bring better GPS performance - but it wasn't as consistent as the JS8 + JQ1 combo for me.

Hopefully the final Gingerbread build will improve on things further? That would be great - This is a great phone and the GPS let it down very very badly for me. Praise be to the Most High that my GPS car navigation is finally working!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mannorak:
jp8 does seem to give me the best GPS results - but it's very inconsistent. On some days I get a lock almost instantly and very accurate results. But, from the same location on another day, it may take several minutes to lock on - even with seven satellites visible.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] JJEgan:
What is your recommended GPS program .

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Jekkaman:
Just experienced that myself a few moments ago, comparing to the stock rom JP8 just sucks in GPS Experience.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
iGo 480x800 !!!

And I tested them all (I have a couple of standalone gps devices as well)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] kotsos44:
Some things i have noticed with help from the GPS Aids program.

I think people who get fast lock at cold start have data enabled. Only with AGps lock is very fast (5-10 seconds). So with data enabled you will always get fast lock (with satellites visible of course) except....

Well some people have been complaining that they don't get fast lock even with data enabled. I think that is happening because the system is unable to download the assistant data even with connection available. I have noticed that from the GPS Aids program that sometimes can't download the XTRA-data but with a reboot everything works fine.

Also i have noticed that if you get a lock with the help of AGPS the next time(some hours from the last lock) you use the GPS (Without assistant) the fix will be very slow even with satellites visible . I think the previous agps data mess up the current lock.

One thing is for sure. The GPS receiver on galaxy s is very weak and without connection sometimes it is very frustrating . You can tell that it is weak just by comparing it with other devices not only in lock time but also accuracy
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Auzy:
Fitness devices such as the Garmin Forerunner take AGES to lock.. I think there is WAY too much emphasis on that.. What matters to me is accuracy, and I have only ever seen 1 remotely accurate track
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Dilbert83:
How can LbsTestMode be accessed on 2.2.1 as the code for 2.2 doesn't work?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Marcenzeichen:
The Code *#*#3214789650#*#* works fine with my Galaxy S @ 2.2.1
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Dilbert83:
Cheers just retried it and it worked. Must of inputted the code incorrectly.