Mate 10 GPS antenna location

[BramEPC]

Hi,

A while ago my battery started swelling and I had to replace it, but now I have to impression it takes a much longer time to get a gps lock (I have to wait minutes now so I keep the phone active while hiking unclear paths while I used to have a near instantanious lock in the past ... I don't remember exactly how long it took but I was never bothered by it ).

So I am wondering if maybe my GPS antenna got damaged by the battery.

I tried to find info on the location of this antenna and options to replace it before I open up my phone again, but I am not getting much useful results (only the location of the the GPS chip (BCM47531) itself). Or is the antenna a trace on the pcb ? Where ?

Also if there are other insights in reduced GPS operation I'd be interested to know what I can check ....

Thanks
Bram

 

[smvim]

I have no clue as whether there is a separate GPS antenna in your phone or not. Most have one antenna for the WiFi and cellular radios, some more than one. In your Mate 10, that antenna appears to be a white wire, partially shown here (steps 14 and 15):
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Huawei+Mate+10+Daughterboard+Replacement/125167
You might want to try just re-seating that antenna connector to see if that makes any difference. Otherwise, if it is just a trace on the logic board, what would probably involve replacing the motherboard itself.
But since this is hardware related, have you already looked into if this is just a software glitch matter? This GPS Status & Toolbox app includes some calibration and repair functions:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=en_US&gl=US
or if you install this AIDA64 app, it just polls and checks your devices hardware.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.finalwire.aida64&hl=en_US
If you look in its Sensors category, it should show you real-time result of the various sensors in your device. The numbers for various orientation and motion based sensors should be active as you move your phone around.

 

[mustang7757]

Hi,

A while ago my battery started swelling and I had to replace it, but now I have to impression it takes a much longer time to get a gps lock (I have to wait minutes now so I keep the phone active while hiking unclear paths while I used to have a near instantanious lock in the past ... I don't remember exactly how long it took but I was never bothered by it ).

So I am wondering if maybe my GPS antenna got damaged by the battery.

I tried to find info on the location of this antenna and options to replace it before I open up my phone again, but I am not getting much useful results (only the location of the the GPS chip (BCM47531) itself). Or is the antenna a trace on the pcb ? Where ?

Also if there are other insights in reduced GPS operation I'd be interested to know what I can check ....

Thanks
Bram

Hi, welcome to AC!
Who did the battery replacement?

 

[BramEPC]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the replies.

I decided yesterday evening to replace the worn out USB C connector so I actually had unplug/reconnect the white cable anyway to replace that board where it is connected to. Afterwards I did a quick test and he was able to get a fix in about a minute or so outside, but this is in a city so I am guessing it goes much faster there with the approximate location of wifi networks (and maybe cell towers, I am not sure cell tower data can be used by the device to get an approximate location to speed up gps localization). I tried with airplane mode too in the hope that this would prevent 'cheating' but I am not sure how well that works in preventing usage of extra data since it did not make much of a difference. I installed the "GPS Test" app which gave me signal strengths in the 30-35 db range for most of the viewable satellites, which is light green but the scale goes up to 90 for dark green so i am not sure 30-35 is something to be happy about. I expect it is not actually, but I would have to have a "good" mate 10 to compare.
Since the white cable is routed besides the battery and not over it, i also don't immediately see how it could have been dislodged by the swelling battery.
I guess to be sure I will have to retest next time when I am in the middle of nowhere (but with the cold weather and corona situation I have not immediately planned any adventures ).

I also found a P9 thread (https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/454534/GPS+not+working+or+not+accurate) where they mention the gps has a connection to the back cover (but it is a bit confusing because initially he says it works better without the back cover than with it). I checked my cover but I cannot see any metal connection points except maybe in the framing around the 2 lenses (see the metalic gray small block thingie sticking out in the middle left of the figure accompanying step 8 in the mate10 ifixit guide svmim linked too) , not sure what that is about.

Who did the battery replacement?

Lol, I did, so not much use in complaining to that guy if that is why you are asking . It was during a road trip (best time ever to have a swelling battery problem) after searching for 5 days in nearby cities for a repair shop that had the battery in stock (most had a delivery time of a few days by which i was already long gone). Finally found one in a tiny but super busy shop in Torino (Italy) that could have it available the next day, but if I bought it in the shop I had to pay 3 times as much than if I ordered it online from them (which I could not because I had not address there). Some stuff is just beyond comprehension , but I was in no position to bargain and more than happy when i finally had the new battery.
But the GPS locking problem was already happening before I replaced it, so it is not that something was badly plugged in after replacing the battery.
To give you an idea of the forces involved, the swelling was so bad (especially with 5 extra days of having to use it for navigation/communication after it was already bad enough to notice it) that the back already had popped open for the most part. Made further opening it really easy though

 

[mustang7757]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the replies.

I decided yesterday evening to replace the worn out USB C connector so I actually had unplug/reconnect the white cable anyway to replace that board where it is connected to. Afterwards I did a quick test and he was able to get a fix in about a minute or so outside, but this is in a city so I am guessing it goes much faster there with the approximate location of wifi networks (and maybe cell towers, I am not sure cell tower data can be used by the device to get an approximate location to speed up gps localization). I tried with airplane mode too in the hope that this would prevent 'cheating' but I am not sure how well that works in preventing usage of extra data since it did not make much of a difference. I installed the "GPS Test" app which gave me signal strengths in the 30-35 db range for most of the viewable satellites, which is light green but the scale goes up to 90 for dark green so i am not sure 30-35 is something to be happy about. I expect it is not actually, but I would have to have a "good" mate 10 to compare.
Since the white cable is routed besides the battery and not over it, i also don't immediately see how it could have been dislodged by the swelling battery.
I guess to be sure I will have to retest next time when I am in the middle of nowhere (but with the cold weather and corona situation I have not immediately planned any adventures ).

I also found a P9 thread (https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/454534/GPS+not+working+or+not+accurate) where they mention the gps has a connection to the back cover (but it is a bit confusing because initially he says it works better without the back cover than with it). I checked my cover but I cannot see any metal connection points except maybe in the framing around the 2 lenses (see the metalic gray small block thingie sticking out in the middle left of the figure accompanying step 8 in the mate10 ifixit guide svmim linked too) , not sure what that is about.


Lol, I did, so not much use in complaining to that guy if that is why you are asking . It was during a road trip (best time ever to have a swelling battery problem) after searching for 5 days in nearby cities for a repair shop that had the battery in stock (most had a delivery time of a few days by which i was already long gone). Finally found one in a tiny but super busy shop in Torino (Italy) that could have it available the next day, but if I bought it in the shop I had to pay 3 times as much than if I ordered it online from them (which I could not because I had not address there). Some stuff is just beyond comprehension , but I was in no position to bargain and more than happy when i finally had the new battery.
But the GPS locking problem was already happening before I replaced it, so it is not that something was badly plugged in after replacing the battery.
To give you an idea of the forces involved, the swelling was so bad (especially with 5 extra days of having to use it for navigation/communication after it was already bad enough to notice it) that the back already had popped open for the most part. Made further opening it really easy though

Yeah, had that happen to my Samsung s8+ , almost pop the back glass completely off .