Possible GPS software fix for fascinate

[wtherrell]

What Nick said. You have to dial the digits exactly as written, or it won't work.

I think if I have to do all that dialing just to start GPS I will stay with the GPS status method and wait the two minutes it sometimes takes to get SatLocks.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Just did this indoors, no direct line of sight to the sky...

 

[Cory Streater]

I think if I have to do all that dialing just to start GPS I will stay with the GPS status method and wait the two minutes it sometimes takes to get SatLocks.

I would too, however that didn't consistently work for me either. Really, dialing a code and hitting the start GPS button isn't any more involved than starting GPS Status.

Just did this indoors, no direct line of sight to the sky...

Cool!

 

[JaeKar99]

Wild Variability....

Without doing anything more than pulling off a couple of apps I did not like (Jorte and Launcher Pro) - Now I get a GPS lock within 20 seconds - even in doors. I have turned it on and off and pulled the battery.

Still works... Google maps on or off.. Still works...

Just weird.

 

[NickA]

Under Position Mode --> Operating Mode, should I select Standalone, MSAssisted or MSBased. Right now MSBased is selected.

 

[Cory Streater]

I have mine set to Standalone, but I've read in the Epic forum that MSBased is better.

 

[wtherrell]

I would too, however that didn't consistently work for me either. Really, dialing a code and hitting the start GPS button isn't any more involved than starting GPS Status
Cool!

Guys, isn't this the same screen reached by the shortcut you get by long pressing home screen >shortcuts > activities > GPSSetup > com.samsung.GPSSetup.command ?
Now the shortcut opens up the page of buttons for Start GPS, Stop GPS, TTFF Test, Enable Log, GPS results.
It doesn't actually start the GPS receiver tho, apparently but gives that page that is in Kevin Gossetts post above.

 

[wtherrell]

I'm going to add to the list of things to try, with no guarantees that it will work. It could have been a total fluke, but after sitting in my car for 10 minutes waiting to get a satellite connection this morning, I got a fairly quick Satellite lock (AGPS was turned off) after following the steps below. Before I did this, the Fascinate was viewing 0 satellites in both the GPS Status and GPS Test apps. Keep in mind that my purpose of using GPS is not for 3rd party apps, like weather and Yelp that work fairly well with general locations using AGPS, but instead getting a precise location for the purpose of navigation. With that in mind, go to settings then location & security:

1. VZW location services is off.
2. Standalone GPS services is on.
3. Google location services is off.
4. From the dialer pad: *#1472365#
5. Click start GPS

Note: a pre-requisite of being able to enter the dialer code above is that you had previously entered the following in the phone screen:

1. *#83786633 followed by a press of the Home key
2. After step 1, clear first code from the phone screen and enter *#22745927
3. When prompted for an a box will come up asking for the SPC code, type in 000000
4. Press the Hiddenmenu Enable radio button.

Note 2: The settings above, will NEVER work in doors. You need a clear view of the sky to use standalone GPS services.

Well, it just worked for me indoors. I am inside with a small east facing window and I am about 10 ft. from the window. After I ran the GPS Setup sequence above I went into GPSTest app and it locked onto 5 of 9 satellites in less than 15 seconds. I guess that window is well placed! I think I remember being able to access the hidden menu another way thru placing some shortcuts on a home screen. I know I got the GPS Setup buttons like that. Maybe just finding the right one under Activities.

 

[SteveC]

Well thanks to Nick and Cory for their replies. I knew I probably did something dumb. I wrote the numbers down on a pad so I could do this outside and, sure enough... I left a # out of one of them.

I did this inside and got 11 sattellites pretty much within a couple of seconds. So far, so good.

However, I might add before I could click start GPS there was a different selection menu where I had to press command to get to setup.

 

[NickA]

Guys, isn't this the same screen reached by the shortcut you get by long pressing home screen >shortcuts > activities > GPSSetup > com.samsung.GPSSetup.command ?

Yeah, that worked for me. I don't know if you have to enable hidden menus to get to this or not. I added a shortcut to one of my home screens so I don't have to remember the digits now.

 

[emptycube]

Just this past weekend while traveling I was messing around with the GPS setup hidden menu and when I brought up that screen posted above with the timestamp, my timestamp was sometime in 1969. All other values were 0 whether I had a lock or not.

EDIT: just tried the 'Start GPS' mentioned itt and got a quick lock after not using GPS for 2 days, got non-zero values in the screen posted above, and the timestamp was correct.

 

[SteveC]

I feel kind of foolish, but someplace in the GPS settings, I came across one command which dealt with accuracy settings. On my phone, that was set at 1000 meters. I set that to 1 meter, and I now get acceptable accuracy. Now the reason I feel foolish, is that I can't find that setting again. But keep your eye out for that, it helped my phone GPS a lot. I also found that on the GPS Status menu, setting filtering to strong helps accuracy too. It adds a few seconds to lock time, but also helps with accuracy.

I still am somewhat slow in GPS fix after several hours between GPS Sessions, but, the GPS now seems to work reliably. It also has gone from as much as 15 minutes to cold start locks down to 3 minutes or so. I can live with that provided the accuracy is alright. It also is now almost instanteaneous if it had not been too long since I last started the GPS. Sorry, I don't know just how long that interval will be with this phone.

 

[crawlin352]

I feel kind of foolish, but someplace in the GPS settings, I came across one command which dealt with accuracy settings. On my phone, that was set at 1000 meters. I set that to 1 meter, and I now get acceptable accuracy. Now the reason I feel foolish, is that I can't find that setting again. But keep your eye out for that, it helped my phone GPS a lot. I also found that on the GPS Status menu, setting filtering to strong helps accuracy too. It adds a few seconds to lock time, but also helps with accuracy.

I still am somewhat slow in GPS fix after several hours between GPS Sessions, but, the GPS now seems to work reliably. It also has gone from as much as 15 minutes to cold start locks down to 3 minutes or so. I can live with that provided the accuracy is alright. It also is now almost instanteaneous if it had not been too long since I last started the GPS. Sorry, I don't know just how long that interval will be with this phone.

I found this menu in GpsSetup-->Setup-->Misc-->Set QoS-->Accuracy Threshold(in mtrs)

 

[SteveC]

crawlin352

Thanks for finding that. I'd gone right past is a couple of times. Anybody having funky accuracy issues should give that a look.

 

[skrach#AC]

Im confused. How do you access the gps meter settings? (im not the brightest crayon in the box)

Thanks,
Douglas Johnson
Aka "Skrach"

Blog: www.VividlyVintage.com

Shop: www.TheMustangGuys.com

 

[KKHYNES]

Sorry, I'm a Noob to the Android VZW Fascinate, but there is another thread that states to download "GPS Status". Get into settings, click on GPS & Sensors, click on "Auto-Download AGPS data" and check mark 1-day. Reset phone.

Once my phone was reset, the GPS is spot-on, as it has been with other fixes, but in the past, it has always gone away after about an hour or two. SO far, this is holding and it's much faster than my Droid or Droid 2 side by side (both have had great GPS thus far) and I am indoors, in a snow storm, in the bottom of a 3-level structure, where it has proved literally next to impossible to acquire signal. This is the FIX! thx to druaszomg, but can't find the forum I got it from inside this site!

Too bad Samsung is such a crap company and do not support their own mistakes. This should have been fixed before it even came to market, but like many of the other bugs, it has been ignored and official fixes have been held back!

 

[gunnermike53]

guys, dj05 fixed the gps problem months ago. dl09 should have this fix as well. there is no gps fix other than that.

 

[johnner1999]

anyone notice that the volume in navigation mode is about 2/3 less than the rest of the phone. example:

playing Napster with a volume setting of mostly green bar (maybe 5/8 full)
Google Navigation with volume setting at highest (full green bar) -

Music sounds loud and then when cuts to NAV you can hardly hear the spoken word (napster does duck and stops) - i tried this both with internal speaker and with my aux jack in the car.

for back story I used this same setup and settings on my evo with zero issues. And I just bought the Fascinate 2 days ago GPS didn't lock on so I i'm sure if its related to the dj09 update or was this always the case?

Really like the phone but this and now can't sync with my Mac to transfer music or photo's I'm thinking maybe DX?