How to use GPS with no pain?

ygrex

This is the usual scenario of geolocating on my phone. I open maps in Morph, geolocation sign highlights in notification bar, and I wait for 15 minutes. in a while it either starts showing my position, or I give up.

Suppose it all went well and it found the geoposition. But in couple days when I need it again, I would expect it to have more or less up-to-date ephemerides, but what I see is the same waiting for 15 minutes with some success chances.

On the other hand it happens often that it does not show my position in 15 minutes. I understand it may take longer, but since the whole process is quite obscure, there are high chances it will never show anything for me (I tried waiting for >1 hour with no success).

Any tricks to have GPS less painful?

arubislander

@ygrex yes, use it daily.
UT does not use Assisted GPS and relies solely on satellites to get a position fix. That is why it a fix is quicker under unobstructed sky outside.

Once the first fix is done, if it is used regularly, it has been reported that subsequent fixes are quicker. When not used, the satellite info becomes stale and a new cold fix is initiated.

mihael

I don't know if you use waydroid or not but if you do, what I understand is that if waydroid is used after a phone start up then gps will not work unless you restart the phone.

Keneda

@ygrex
You really need to be in an open wide to the sky place to have a fix that works good.

ygrex

For sure, this is what I get without Waydroid. In fact I stopped using Waydroid primarily because it breaks GPS.

Tried GPS location two times today under apparently clear sky in wide open area. Both times it did not succeed in locating me in somewhat 30 minutes.

I know it will occasionally work, but would help if there is any trick to know in advance if it is going to work or not without the need of waiting that long.

Keneda

@ygrex
Do you experience the same with real GPS app like uNav or PureMap ?
Morph is outdated, so maybe your problems come from it.

Also, you can try GPS toolkit app to see GPS sensor status and data.

When I used my UT phone as my primary GPS in my old car that did not have some, I never had a "no fix at all" issue with uNav. (At that time there where not PureMap as other GPS app)

ygrex

@Keneda
yes, tried it a few times with unav with the same outcome

but today it found me in 3 (three) minutes, that makes me thinking that all ephemerides were quite uo-to-date and it did not work for some other obscure reason

the whole point of this thread is to say that geolocation is that obscure process with certain failure rate (quite high for me) and there is little one can observe about it

will check it next day to see what happens

ygrex

tried it today at the same spot it worked last time

gave it up after 15 minutes, as per my understanding I did exactly the same thing but it just did not work today

AppLee

There is no fool proof trick to get a faster first fix.
Just follow these rules :

Put your device in a well open location with clear line of sight from the sky in most directions.
Keep your device unlocked and screen lit up.
The active app should be using the GPS, meaning the GPS icon should be filled.

In good conditions it will be fast, but depending on your hardware and the constellations it can take some time.
An additional tip would be to set the device in flight mode to avoid disturbing the GPS signal with WIFI or the modem...