[Vibrant General] bendiy:
I had given up on my GPS. Never really needed it for anything in the city. I know where I am and where I'm going. I'd tried to use it in my living room some times, but turning it on and pulling up Google Maps, I would wait a minute, nothing, a few minutes later, a GIANT blue circle with a good 5 mile radius. Thinking to myself "I know Samsung Galaxy S phones have ****ting GPS. I can't expect much from my phone" and I'd turn it off and forget about it.

I installed Nero v3 with JL5 and Voodoo over the holidays. The first custom ROM that I've had on this phone. (Got it back in August and thought CM6 was just around the corner. HAHA f-you Samsung :mad: ....) I tried my GPS again last week. I thought, "I've got a custom ROM and it's supposed to fix the GPS software issue. Maybe GPS will work now". I went outside, stood in the middle of the street, blue sky all around, turned on my GPS and opened the GPS Test app. Nothing.... Two minutes later I had 3 birds in view, but no lock. So much for these custom Vibrant ROMS.... I gave up and went back in side.

Tonight, I read through this thread and was excited to see that maybe, just maybe there was hope for my GPS after all.

Before I tear my phone apart I wanted to see how the is GPS works now. I set my phone in the window (it's way too cold to be outside), turned on GPS and opened the GPS Test app. It took 5 minutes before I had more than 1 bird in view. 10 minutes later, I had 4 birds in view and the first lock I've ever seen on this phone. I was sitting there, playing with my G1's GPS in CM6 and keeping my Vibrant's screen on my swipping my finger across it every 30 seconds. With 4 birds at 10 minutes, I had 250 feet accuracy. :( I let it keep going, never letting the screen go black. 15 minutes into this test, I finally had 8 birds in view and 4 in use. Accuracy was around 150 feet. 20 minutes into this test, I had 10 birds in view and 5 in use. I started to see accuracy in the 110's feet. At 25 minutes, I had 11 in view, 6 in use and my accuracy was never below 90 feet. At least 3 of the satellites always reported "00" SNR for the last 15 minutes. Never was a bird's SNR over 40.

I closed GPS Test, turned off GPS and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I turned on GPS, and opened GPS Test. Within 15 seconds, I had 11 birds in view, 5 in use and an accuracy around 45 feet. This is the best I've ever seen. I fired up Google Maps and BOOM, blue arrow right where I'm at. This is a good sign. It's not a great accuracy, but at least it's working.

So now I try a cold boot as I write this post. Turn on GPS, open GPS Test, and it's the same thing all over again. But now it see 11 birds, but they are all "00" SNR. Two minutes in and I've got signal on 3 birds. It takes 12 MINUTES before I get a lock, never more than 4 in use and never more than 6 birds with a positive SNR. I'm sitting 6 feet from a window.

I tried again. Cold boot, by the window. It took 1 minute to get 1 bird, 3 minutes to get 3, at 4 minutes I had 4 birds, but still no lock. 5 minutes and I had 6 birds. 6 minutes and BOOM, 12 birds and a lock. At 8 minutes, my accuracy was down to 20 feet. I actually had 8 birds in use. This is the BEST I've ever seen. Sure it's taking EIGHT minutes, but it IS working.

I think a lot of people, myself included, have never giving their phone 20 minutes of GPS Test app ON and active time (no sleeping) to pull down GPS data to give the system something to work with. I think from a cold boot, you should expect a lock in 7 minutes on just about any phone once you've given it a good 25 minutes to pull down the data at some point.

I JUST walked back to the window, turned on GPS, opened GPS Test and 30 seconds later, I have 12 birds in view, 7 in use and 25 foot accuracy. This is WITHOUT the hardware fix. Then I tried a cold boot and tested again. It took about 4 minutes from boot and I had 12 in view and 7 in use with a 25 feet accuracy.

How many people have taken the time to let the GPS try and update for 25 minutes while keeping their phone awake and on GPS test?

I'm going to try this hardware fix over weekend and see how much it helps me. I've got a GOOD idea of how my phone performs without it. I'll report back and let you know how well it works afterward.