How to: Get faster GPS locks and Get more from Navigation

[slitchfield]

In this beginners tutorial, I share a little of my sat-nav experience, hopefully of help to anybody suffering from slow GPS locks, especially under S60 and Nokia Maps, and frustrated by the apparent 'unreliability' of mobile navigation software. Here's how to make sure your GPS locks are faster and how to speed around Nokia Maps.

Read on in the full article.

> Find out where the GPS antenna is on your device

How on earth does the ordinary punter discover that exactly!? But perhaps you guys at AAS can fill us in.

Where then are the GPS antennas in the following devices please?

N82, N95 8GB, 6220 Classic, any other Nokia devices (NSeries or not) with GPS.

Aside from the N95, are they all in the top of the handset?

Thanks.

[bartmanekul]

One thing that should really be added to that list, is the positioning server.

I have found that quite often networks replace it with seemingly mumbo jumbo text, that appears to be completely ineffective.

So for the server address, make sure it has supl.nokia.com

I have done this to a number of phones, and it appears to make AGPS work.

[krisse]

How on earth does the ordinary punter discover that exactly!? But perhaps you guys at AAS can fill us in.

It does actually say in the phone's manual where the GPS receiver is located, at least it does in my N95's manual.

I don't have any of the phone's you've listed, but I'd imagine their manuals say where the receiver is too.

[snoyt]

For those people like 'unregistered' complaining about:

'How on earth does the ordinary punter discover that exactly!? But perhaps you guys at AAS can fill us in.'

The God of Smart Phones punishes those who don't read the holy smart phone bible. Or in other words: RTFM (Read The 'Flaming' Manual)! Though Nokia should put that 'GPS is under the keypad'-info in the quickstart guide.

[snoyt]

• Know that there are 24 GPS sattelites around the world. Thus at best there are 12 satelites visible on a clear horizon. You need at least signals of 3 satelites to get a position lock, meaning that when between buildings you need to see a quarter of the clear sky when getting a lock.
  
• For getting an altitude estimate you need at least signals from 4 sattelites. This should give you some idea of the concept 'clear reception'.
  
• Many windowshield of cars have a metal base sun-reflective coating absorbing GPS signals partially. Getting a lock before you get into the car can speed things up. Particular the C5 of Citroen seems very abosorbing.
  
• Maps 2.0 allows to set a driving destination without a GPS lock. Just start driving and when the GPS is locked and Maps plotted you a route it will start advising you. This is particular useful when you are parked in side a parking garage. ;^)
  
• When not relying on AGPS to accellerate a lock, a complete new lock requires at LEAST 60 seconds for all ephemeris data to be received. Often longer, particular if you have relocated more than an few hunderd kilometers between GPS=on locations. I.e. car, train or plane trip.

Steve, do you mind me asking how the hell you get that black screen with the icons, ie the last screenshot you posted? I have tried pressing everything on Nokia Maps and I can't seem to get it, lol, it's freaking me out :p

[krisse]

Steady on snoyt, I don't read phone manuals either, I think most people don't, so I do have some sympathy for unregistered's confusion. ;-)

I only looked it up in the manual just now because I wondered if the receiver position was in there, and indeed it was.

This is one of those rare occasions where it's actually worth consulting the manual. Maybe we should all do it more often?

Strangely the GPS receiver position wasn't mentioned in the "quick start" leaflet though, which is where people would be more likely to see it.

[snoyt]

The black screen appears when selecting options during voice navigation. The alternative is to select an icon directly by pressing the corresponding numeric key. The layout matches the numeric keypad.

[snoyt]

Originally Posted by krisse

Steady on snoyt, I don't read phone manuals either, I think most people don't, so I do have some sympathy for unregistered's confusion. ;-)

I rarely read manuals myself. I consider my self a tech-junky an logical reasoning solves most 'configuration riddles'. Still I do browse the manuals after a while for worthwhile tidbits like that. And the first place to look when having troubles is the manual. I'll just shut up now. As I said the info about the GPS should be in the quick start guide. Still it has also been well documented on the Nokia website here for quite some time now. Nokia seems to be aware of the forums. The 'slide open' for better reception was quite a topic a year a go.

[brrip]

n95 8gb the receiver is below the keypad. most guides tell you to keep the keypad open when using gps. most of the times i dont have a problem with they keypad closed though

[jamieladc]

LOL - the guide to getting a quicker lock seems to be basically a number of suggestions of what not to expect, ie:

1. Don't expect a lock in a built up area with tall buildings

2. Make sure there is 3G coverage in the area

3. Use 3G - really expensive.

I thought a guide was something that told you how to do something, not something that told you to lower your expectations!!

Obviously I was wrong!!

I could've written that article and a few more suggestions besides.

[slitchfield]

Jamie: you're being totally unfair. And the guide was aimed at a friend of mine. With a v11 firmware N95 on O2, she said that she basically never used the GPS 'because it never worked'. Getting the likes of her over the firmware/assisted-GPS/positioningserver/antenna location/lock-while-moving' hurdles was my aim. There must be lots of people in that boat.

If you think you can do better, feel free to submit articles to Rafe or myself.

[krisse]

On the locking time, it certainly put me off using GPS at all.

However, with the latest N95 firmware and latest version of Nokia Maps, it works so smoothly that I do actually use this feature now.

If there was just one bit of GPS-related advice that was most important, it would be: update your phone and map software!

I'd say that about the N95 in general actually, this is a totally different device to what I had last year even though the hardware hasn't changed, because the firmware is so much better.

[Rafe]

I could've written that article and a few more suggestions besides.

Please do mention these, its always good to get new suggestions / tips etc. As Steve noted this is more aimed at the novice user. We discussed including other stuff (e.g. creating your own .lmx files), but we'll probably do a more advanced user version at some point in the future.