where did all the GPS threads go? No GPS lock

[boomerbubba]

I use GPS test and and Goggle navigate itself to test GPS.

News articles i have read:

Verizon Fascinate known issues list leaks out, it's not pretty

...

For the record, here is what that leaked document reportedly said about the GPS:

GPS

Known Issues

Google and Bing Maps Latency:
It has been reported that it takes longer then other devices to get GPS location information when using Google and Bing maps

Short term work around: There is no short term work around for this issue

Planned Resolution: A fix for this issue is under review for inclusion in a future MR.

That sounds like something is on the radar screen, but there is not a definite fix scheduled yet.

I find it hard to believe, given the established and documented problems with the other Galaxy phones and the updates announced for this month on those platforms, that Verizon would have released this phone without believing that the fixes long in the pipeline from Samsung, and its GPS supplier, Broadcom, were not already incorporated. That does not mean that there could not still be new issues on the Fascinate.

As a veteran of investigating and testing the GPS problems on other Galaxy platforms, I think it is obvious that the Verizon Fascinate implementation is new and different from the older variants. And the symptoms being reported are not the same.

(BTW, there are at least two new GPS issues specific to the Sprint Epic, the Galaxy variant I am now using.)

But none of that explains the OP's reported situation, which is that of two units he owns, the GPS locks fine on one but not the other.

 

[boomerbubba]

@ Archerdude and others with problems getting a GPS lock:

Have you tried rebooting your phones? There is a known bug on the Sprint Epic, a sibling of the Fascinate, in which the GPS fails to lock after some period of not being used. Rebooting is a successful workaround there. This workaround has also been reported to work for at least one Fascinate user in another forum.

Also, my guess is that the three options under Settings -> Location and Security ("VZW location services,"Standalone GPS services" and "Google location services") should all be checked as enabled. I say this is a guess because Verizon made up these labels without explaining what they do, even in the user manual.

 

[MikeIndiaKiloEcho]

The reason some of you are getting a faster lock is because you are using tower triangulation. Basically until your phone gets a GPS lock (Should be around 10 meters or less) your phone tries to find your location by using the towers its connected to and then triangulating those 2-3 towers to get your very rough location (anywhere between 100 to 200 meters maybe even more).

 

[boomerbubba]

The reason some of you are getting a faster lock is because you are using tower triangulation. Basically until your phone gets a GPS lock (Should be around 10 meters or less) your phone tries to find your location by using the towers its connected to and then triangulating those 2-3 towers to get your very rough location (anywhere between 100 to 200 meters maybe even more).

If the users are only using a mapping or navigation app, tower-based location methods might fool them that way. But if they also use a utility app such as GPS Test or GPS Status, which deals only with actual GPS satellite locks, the difference should be apparent. Those utility apps read the low-level GPS outputs, such as number of satellites seen and used, direct from the Android API.

 

[xliderider]

@ Archerdude and others with problems getting a GPS lock:

Have you tried rebooting your phones? There is a known bug on the Sprint Epic, a sibling of the Fascinate, in which the GPS fails to lock after some period of not being used. Rebooting is a successful workaround there. This workaround has also been reported to work for at least one Fascinate user in another forum.

Also, my guess is that the three options under Settings -> Location and Security ("VZW location services,"Standalone GPS services" and "Google location services") should all be checked as enabled. I say this is a guess because Verizon made up these labels without explaining what they do, even in the user manual.

Today, I tested my GPS with only the GPS option checked off. The GPS locked on the satellites in both GPS test and Google Navigation. I admit I did reboot the Fascinate though, so I'm not sure if that everything with it working on GPS alone.

 

[boomerbubba]

Today, I tested my GPS with only the GPS option checked off. The GPS locked on the satellites in both GPS test and Google Navigation. I admit I did reboot the Fascinate though, so I'm not sure if that everything with it working on GPS alone.

Thanks. At least that helps confirm the part of the theory about rebooting as a workaround. That is consistent with behavior on the Sprint Epic.

[EDIT: I assume, since your answered my post, that you were having problems with GPS locking before. Right?]

Understanding the three settings is problematical, because some marketing dweeb at Verizon just made up what those three labels are, and they never told us what those settings actually do. So maybe the lock would be accelerated, maybe not. Right now, having obtained a lock and with the GPS working, the cached data is probably up to date and subsequent fixes will probably happen quickly (I think).

I may even be wrong in my guess about what the Verizon settings do. It may be that MS Based A-GPS is just enabled by default and the settings don't affect it.

It would be hard to test the workaround again with different settings until the locking fails again. If the pattern holds, that might not be until sometime tomorrow -- assuming no intervening reboot and without using the GPS in the interim. Meanwhile, I doubt that it would hurt anything to turn those other two settings on.

 

[xliderider]

Yes, I was getting really annoyed at how long the GPS took to lock. Sometimes I was a few miles into my trip before the lock was achieved.

I'm testing something else. Instead of a reboot, I'm just going into Airplane mode to turn off all radios, then exiting Airplane mode to see if that is all the reset that is needed to enable a faster GPS lock.

 

[xliderider]

On my drive home I couldn't get a GPS lock. Had to reboot and check off the 3 location options before I could get a GPS lock.