yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] barmanham:
I live in the US and I have a Vibrant using JI6.Copilot for some reason costs $5 here so I bought it.Paying 40-60 dollars for a GPS App is...... Anyways I deliver pizza google maps I think screwed up or it is different from the standard GPS.I used to have a TomTom it got stolen.It used to take me right to the house it was pretty damn good.Anyways my result with Copilot and Tracker booster looks really promising the arrow doesnt jump around anywhere etc and it brought me right to the address I put in I tried 5 different houses all is well.My accuracy is usually 25-30 feet im guessing thats normal? I see some people with 5-10.

Also I opened Google maps and the arrow was already drifting alot and I switched to copolit and it was happening there to.Maybe Google Maps is truely ****ed up I dunno
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ~gtw:
Having used my bluetooth gps a few times now, I can confidently state that the gps in the galaxy s is "poor". Its not googles apps, its the hardware or driver software.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
The logic is flaw when you use other gps to show this.

You can't say all sgs is flaw like he just did. Mine still working.

Does that means all sgs working?

I have told time after time that some sgs has hardware error and should be repaired.

I get more and more proof that this is correct.

Yes you should pack your bags and head to a repair center and get your faulty sgs repaired.

No i was employed on different company. One for 5 years.

I was a programmer and i also did build computer systems.

Sent from GT-I9000 jpo. My own kernel for z4mod and with 342MB Ram
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrej.marinic:
<Thread Hijack>

There's a nifty little thing called Ignore List on your User CP. A friendly advice: use it.

</Thread Hijack>

I still haven't had the time to compare my device to that of my gf, but I will try and do it during the weekend. Thing is, I am in Reading now and she is in Belgrade, I don't want to mess with her phone until she has at least unpacked it :)

I am travelling back on Friday, will give her a few hours to play with it and then on Saturday I'll do some tests and make pictures and stuff.

I am also eagerly waiting for Aery to throw out another build of his CM port, I understand he's been playing heavily around with the GPS so maybe that will bring something new. However, even he thinks that it is a hardware issue as his phone never had problems with the GPS. We'll see...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] zehunter:
Hi,

just a little participation from my side.

i tryied this week end on a road trip to mountain 3 android phone, all with the same Google map version, and when my Acer liquid, and X10 mini pro find me without any trouble, my Galaxy S definitly see me near the road, flying in the air :-(

I think if we don't have everyone having problem is probably liked to hardware issue, and hardware may be not the same version in all SGS... hardware may have been upgraded to more stable product into new SGS but not other ...

maybe we can start a "database" of serial number and people having issue, to see if so "version of the phone can be detected as "with bad hardware inside" ???
[Galaxy S I9000 General] t1mman:
As it was explained MANY TIMES, the goal of this thread is to post our findings in troubleshooting the issue.

THIS IS NOT TO DISCUSS IF IT WORKS OR NOT...so, please, stop arguing over pointless crapp that'll get us nowhere. If you want to argue that all/none/some GPS are flawed, it's not the right f*cking place... So Beat it!

My latest finding: If I try getting a fix in my GF's car, it takes forever and doesn't realy work... However, when I'm in MY car, it's almost instantly get its fix. Is pretty accurate and can track me pretty close.

So, it seems to affect the way the GPS act... weird eh! Maybe the insulation of the car or the way it reflects the signals?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrej.marinic:
could be, but i have observed many times very distinct results when trying to get a fix from the very same place. i even went as far as repeatedly trying to get a fix by holding the phone in a same way. sometimes it gets a fix, sometimes it doesn't. it's like there is a loose contact or something like that, i don't know how to explain it differently.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
Yes my gps works.

I don't use program that i know don't work.

You still don't answered why i got copilot to be spot on froyo, but Google map is not.

They can use same data.

Its not only copilot that works.

All offline real navigation program works for me.

Fine. Use a external gps. Then you solved the issues you had with the sgs. Its working for you now.

The rest should still go to a repair center and get it fixed.

Sent from GT-I9000 jpo. My own kernel for z4mod and with 342MB Ram
[Galaxy S I9000 General] t1mman:
It Seems almost like the antena was "over sensitive" and would catch interferances from other antenna of the phone itself. People have reported that WiFi/3G signal would seems to affect the GPS (as far as my testing went, doesn't seem to be my case) and I seems to be greatly affected by the suroundings. Altough I can get a fix from about everywhere @ home... (even windowless room)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] pau1200:
I have been comparing 2 sgs for the last week using google tracks, every day same route, same results. My gps is weaker than my friends, now what i have found and im sure other people can do the same and confirm this. If i have the phone on the passanger seat screen down the good phone produces good tracks but the bad phone produces crap. Now when there both face down on the dashboard (good view of the sky) they both produce good tracks. Now some peoples phones are going to be worse than my bad phone im sure but these rsults have been conclusive for me. What helped my phone alot was upgrading the kernal to speedmod and changing the rom to doc froyo. dont know why but i saw an improvement, my phone is usable as a sat nav(sort of). But there is an underlying problem, defect, marginality with the gps antenna.

It would be nice if someone else could do some similar testing.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
I do have 2 sgs with different manufactur date and both work flawless with copilot and other real offline navigation program.

Both work bad with Google map.

I start to wonder if Google map works different on different regions in the world.

Sent from GT-I9000 jpo. My own kernel for z4mod and with 342MB Ram
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dangrayorg:
Are you absolutely sure your GPS is operating in 'Standalone' mode or 'MS Based'? This behaviour is typical of a GPS working in 'MS Assisted' mode, getting a position from Cell towers and not actually using the GPS satellites at all.

I'm not saying that you don't have a problem, but this is exactly the behaviour that I observe in MS Assisted mode.

A GPS Lock is a GPS Lock. A poor antenna can't put you consistently ten meters to the left, GPS just does not work that way. Yes, it can make the precision of the fix poor but in that case it will jump around in a random manner. A consistent offset has to be caused by something else.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dangrayorg:
The GPS signal used by the SGS is at 1575.42 MHz. Wifi operates in the 2.4GHz range. In addition GPS uses a 'chip code' (like CDMA) which spreads the signal and makes it tolerant to RFI.

WiFi will not interfere with the GPS signal. Don't believe me? Take a GPS and a Microwave outside. Turn on the Microwave and put the GPS receiver beside it. It will still get a lock and that's a ton more RF then a mobile phone radio puts out over a far wider frequency range.

Mobile Phone Signals? Well there are some at 1.7Ghz but the total GPS signal bandwidth is 24MHz, so the range is from 1565 - 1585 MHz. There are no GSM signals to compete with GPS.

Again, I know there is a lot of disappointment with the GPS, and I know there are people here who have decided that Samsungs RF guys are idiots for some reason, but trust me, they've using a tuned antenna! I'm just not about to rip my phone apart and get my callipers out to prove it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] barmanham:
So I tested the G1's GPS I can get down to 10 and below with it I was using copolit with it has no data or sim card in it.I drove to about 6 houses with it.I also had a Vibrant to compare it wouldnt really go below 20-30 was the norm.As far as taking me to the place I needed to go they both were basically the same with G1 being better.I will say Copilot is better for what I need to do so far no jumping arrows or anything crazy.When I go to work I will do more testing.

As long as the damn arrow doesnt jump around like a crackhead or puts me on roads im really not on I can live with that and I hated this damn GPS before.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dangrayorg:
These figures are all based around what is called the Dilution of Precision (DOP). The factor which has the greatest effect on the DOP is the number of satellites in view.

I think the only real reason for the difference can be the fact that the Galaxy's antenna is poorly positioned, or perhaps has a lossy signal path. Did you try putting the Galaxy right to the front of the windscreen rotated clockwise so that the antenna had the best possible view of the sky?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dreamtheater39:
really pissed off with the GPS performance :( I went out on a long trip and i lost all my battery trying to get the damn device to get a lock....absolutely annoying :|

With MS-based mode, the tracked position flies all over the place....i make a 90 degree turn, it reports as if its moving straight ahead....and slowly corrects over time getting back to my actual location.... :(
[Galaxy S I9000 General] slc334:
Read the original post for 2.2 input. You were using 2.1 settings.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] darkoroje:
Of course there is no frequency overlap between GPS, WiFi and Phone frequency spectrum. However any electrical system, especially one designed to transmit RF, will generate RF noise through harmonics and other issues outside of its frequency. You could even have power regulation issues etc - there are many reasons why one system may affect another especially when they as closely packed as they are in a phone.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] barmanham:
I lifted up the phone I don't think that makes a big difference g1 was on my seat and getting 10.

As far as the GPS being good for walking I don't know I doubt it but for car using copilot its good for now I will see in a few days
[Galaxy S I9000 General] t1mman:
I've used it many time to keep track of my jogs (faster than walking, but still...) and most of the time it was pretty accurate. Enough to consider the speed and route used. Some times (2 occurance) I've had an accuracy issue where it was "all over the place" but most of the time it was accurate. All with "sportypal" (wich I assume is based on google maps)

I've recorded also numerous track with My tracks (also based on google maps) and it was pretty accurate, shows exactly when I crossed the street and following quite precissely where I was.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Oletros:
If you have problems with car navigation, you will have problems with walk navigation
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ~gtw:
Are you serious? I used a bluetooth gps with my phones gps disabled. and got excellent results. I then used the inbuilt gps and got terrible results with the same applications used, in the same area on a trip of about 8 kms by bike.

How does that not lend support for the case that it is NOT application related? (In conjunction with the fact that other people indicate other devices work fine with them too).

Let me know what else I should have done.:confused:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ~gtw:
I can do this, I will try and grab some more tracks. The ones I made to test the BT GPS I deleted. I do have a BT Runkeeper track for yesterday and I can probably make a new one again tomorrow following the exact route for 90% of the trip.

A better test would be to ride a shorter, but frequently direction changing route twice. The good thing about a street ride is the stop start and direction change seems to really bring out the problem.

I will be using the BT GPS in an adventure race this weekend. Looking forward to finally having a good track to review afterwards... Ive noticed that the phone is a lot less stable when running with the BT GPS enabled though, and apps have been hanging, such as Runkeeper.

Also, Google Maps refuses to use the BT GPS, telling me GPS is not enabled. Yet in the background it 'speaks' the route as I drive! Neat, but I really want to see the turns too...! Have to have a fiddle with that to see if I can change settings. Using 'Bluetooth GPS Mouse. to pair the BT GPS.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
Not usefull for me

These are exactly the settings that I already had on my Froyo. And I did a full wipe before upgrading to guarantee nothing got dirty in the process.

This weekend I did a 300Km trip and boy what a crap. I didn't know the route to my destination and I managed to arrive almost by miracle. I was constantly in panic because I never knew what was going to happen in the next crossroad.

Unless you use it in a desert whit a single road...

When you enter in an area with lots of roads and crossroads you enter a "drive by guessing" mode.

My trip was in a non to very small populated area. The sky has some temporary clouds. That could hurt a bit the reception but nothing close to a loaded dark rainy day.

I quit on this useless GPS. I will rehab my flawless Globalsat BT antenna to use in my car.

I guess those guys that use it static in house and after 3 minutes have a 10 meters error can still brag about the great GPS. But in the end it's just crap. Forget it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] zenkinz:
interesting observation/writeup.

I have been using GPS-enabled mobile-phone since the first GPS mobile phone (HP iPAQ 6515) and I would only say most if not all (since I don't have access to all GPS phones, so I can't be definitively claim so) are using GPS chip with Assisted-GPS technology. Different manufacturers have different terminology for the Assisted-GPS techology (some called it quick GPS, A-gps, etc) but they all function the same. i.e. they all rely on pre-downloaded gps almanac (the state of the entire GPS satellite constellation, and coarse data on every satellite's orbit, therefore could last for weeks/months) and ephemeris (detail information of the orbit path of the satellite which the data is sent from the corresponding satellite). Downloading of Almanac data takes 12.5min, whereas ephemeris data can takes 1 min 30 sec. However, because GPS signal could be weak by the time it reaches the earth (especially if your GPS receiver is behind a tinted windscreen or indoor), any interruption of the ephemeris download process from satellite due to poor signal reception (just imagine if your poor WIFI reception interrupts your internet download, except that this is a download via RF with satellite broadcast the data and receiver receiving the data) requires a re-download of the data so a 1min 30 sec download process could take minutes or even hour, if the process keeps being interrupted.

The whole assisted GPS technology is to avoid this tedious process of 'initialisation'. Most of the teething TTFF (time to first fix) is due to ephemeris because almanac data has a longer lifespan than ephemeris, which is only 4 hours if you get it from the satellite). Not only that, ephemeris data provided through GPS technology is pre-calculated via a sophiscated algorithm so that you don't really need to get ephemeris data every 4 hour (which you need for any standalone GPS), and I believe these days, the algorithm is sophiscated enough to be able to predict the orbit path of the satellite up to 7-10 days.

The accuracy of the (projected) ephemeris data would definitely be a factor to the accuracy of the position acquired, but in all my previous experiences with GPS phone, I never have a problem with accuracy, so I rule out assisted GPS for the poor GPS in Galaxy, if there's any.

So I don't know what settings is being offered here to improve on the GPS accuracy, I would say the best (and most effective) solution is to have an unobstructed view of the sky (not possible for car drivers) or install a gps re-radiator to ensure the GPS signal remains strong by the time it 'penetrates' your highly tinted windscreen.

I did a write up of the A-GPS stuff 2 years ago, you can read the layman view of the GPS acquisition process fro this blog http://journal.zenyee.com/2008/04/19/agps-not-a-real-gps-myth-or-fact/
[Galaxy S I9000 General] s.m.knipe:
@dangrayorg thank you for the concise layman's termed overview. One thing you didn't mention that I have noticed is that my GPS performance is heavily based on processor-load. I noticed this on several occasions, but it was taking forever to lock, seeing no satellites, then notifications for 3-4 different apps came in all at once, and when I hit "clear" all of a sudden I saw 10 satellites and locked onto 5 in an instant. Like I said this haas happened several times, and to test it, I once tried endingall non-necessary tasks with a task manager (i know, tsk tsk), but the lock was nearly instantaneous. I also notices that Broadcom has said that this chip saves power consumption by relying on the phone's processor. Could it also be that the GPS process/service was not assigned a high enough priority, and is getting "bumped" off the processor resources by higher priority items (like notifications)?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] russell@huntingdon-house.:
My experience with following this thread

Have had Galaxy S for a few months, currently running JP0. GPS has always been awful but having followed everything in this thread it is now way better - in fact now usable for the first time.

Which bits fixed it? Not 100% sure but think it may have been changing to standalone and then resetting A-GPS data using GPS Status, but I can confirm that before I rarely got lock and never held lock long enough to actually use as a navigation device. Now 2 days running I am getting lock within a minute and held lock for 30mile+ journeys. If I am feeling brave I might go back to MS-Based and see if it stops it working again.

My contribution to whether the problem was anything to do with GoogleMaps? - I would say not. Reasons: 1) Still using GoogleMaps and it now works 2) When it was losing tracking in GoogleMaps before if I ran up another app (GPSView, etc) they had also lost lock 3) Now it is working I have run GoogleMaps and other applications simultaneously (AcornTracker, GPSStatus) and when (due to an obstruction) GoogleMaps still jumps to the wrong location if I flip into one of the other apps they are also showing the wrong location. Not conclusive but certainly indicating that GoogleMaps itself is not a factor?

Glad to get it working anyway, thanks to everyone who contributed positively to this thread and hope others get it working too.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] darkoroje:
Yes I have noticed this as well and I think it is reasonable assumption. This would also explain why GPS performance is so variable.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] upp3rd0g:
Some cars have some kind of UV blocking layer in the front windshield. If this layer is there then usually near the rearview mirror there is an area which doesn't have this blocking layer (which is integrated in the glass so you don't see it).

(I found out in practice when installing a radar detector, which suffers from the same blocking layer.)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xpcomputers:
Some windscreens also have a fine mesh electric demisting technology built-in to the screen which also impede the signal (along with the heat reflective ones you mention).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] s.m.knipe:
Yes, exactly! Thanks, so I am not going crazy! I sent this theory (expanded out and with examples/data/screenshots/logcats) to Samsung's Customer Service people, who then forwarded it to the development team (so they said, they put a lot of effort and had me re-format some stuff, so I believe them) so here's to hoping it will be fixed...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] drew071:
I have stock Froyo from kies and all my settings are as you said except my accuracy is set to 50m!!! I am in the UK where Samsung took a little longer to release 2.2 due to testing.

Drew
[Galaxy S I9000 General] HYE_TECH:
Just some thoughts;

My first Samsung Vibrant's (Mid-Aug) GPS worked but took long and never found my location inside my house. It took multiple tries before it worked. Didn't bother me 'cause I rather have it take long, work and accurate than not having it work at all. I even tried all the kernels and etc but it didn't do anything for my GPS. My screen got messed up so I got a replacement (Nov). First thing I did was test out the GPS. Lo and behold, it got my exact location, INDOORS! I was truly amazed. My GPS now works flawlessly even with different ROMS. I love this phone and the screen.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lunasea:
g8 post

Thks for your explanation.

My 2 cents of experience, don't think it's hardware related because already had lousy gps reception and good reception with the same device when trying different roms and modems. So I still think software as an huge impact on gps performance. Now I have good gps performance on JPO using JPM modem, although others have different experiences.

I've had two winmo HTC devices before SGS, and on both had to try several radios (modem) to achieve best accuracy and lower battery consumption on them. On winmo (6.5 at least) different radios had different performance depending on your location. Of course, never had erratic readings like I had on SGS, was more like optimizing fix and making it constant.

Another thing is, have you googled "android gps problem"? One thing I note is that several android devices have reports with gps problems (motorola, htc, g1...). Although SGS is the king of complains, other devices have similar problems reported. I confess my poor knowledge about android internals, but could this gps problems be also related to some android stack?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] JaGuR:
How many of those other Androids phones have sold 10 million units too :/
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Greg767:
I have the impression that when I was on JPM7 the GPS was usable, but now that I am on JPO it really is a mess.

I have a fix in a couple of seconds, thats all OK, but accuracy is seriously lacking.

It jumps around like crazy.

My car doesn't have any special layer on the windshield and I've also tried it turned clockwise (portrait) and also with the paid gps boost software from the market that makes it jump around less, but adds a serious lag.

So at the moment I am planning to try out other roms (Doc's) and in the worst case revert back to JPM7....

So this is my feedback on SGS gps problems..

Greg
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrej.marinic:
erm... i don't want to jinx anything, but ... it seems that the gps is much more usable on doc's version of BUJP8 firmware (haven't tried the original). maybe someone can give it a go and confirm or deny.

can be found here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=817703

thanks.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
CoPilot is the best!

Just for reference I'm using Copilot as my main GPS app, but there are some areas that are too new, and i use Google maps for backup for places that don't show up on Copilot.

I wouldn't use Google Maps outside my service area, as it can't be used offline. I got Copilot both for Offline GPS and its feature.

Copilot is Exact! speed/place/lane/and side of the street

even when i'm in the boring rush hour traffic, where you inch bit by bit, it register in Copilot

but if I use Google Maps those minor bumper to bumper movement are not registered, until i'm several meter away from my last position.