WTF is wrong with the Kaiser's GPS

[khaytsus]

Seriously, I've seen it be slow, mysteriously not work until after a soft reset, suck down all sorts of battery..... but this...... this is new.

Trust me, this picture is not doctored. And my desk is not moving at 117mph. And I live over 210 miles from where these coordinates are. You just gotta see the picture. It's been like this for 30 minutes so far, and right now I'm actually moving at 142mph. My desk would actually be CLEAN if it were moving that fast you'd think! ahem!

http://wally.unlimitedphoto.com/stuff/wtfgps.jpg

[gelf]

woah, must be picking up the earths rotation ! lol
and how did you get a foto of the mess on MY desk? :D

[jdwilson]

What GPS program are you running?

[khaytsus]

What GPS program are you running?

QuickGPS, same thing a lot of people use for sanity checking their GPS. GPSToday refused to get a fix, so I fired it up to let it run and I discovered the GPS was reporting that nonsense.

BTW, a soft reset fixed it interestingly..

[Mautana]

GPS not supposed to work inside...?

[MACkjam]

GPS not supposed to work inside...?

Sometimes it does. Also, if you get a fix outside and go inside, it contnues workng.

[khaytsus]

GPS not supposed to work inside...?

The Kaiser's GPS is crap, but generally if it's "warmed up" it will work fine inside. My house is all wood, so it is fine in that regard.

I've used GPSes for several years and had the Tilt almost a year, this was not a new experiment I was doing. :) At least, not intentionally!

[MACkjam]

The Kaiser's GPS is crap, but generally if it's "warmed up" it will work fine inside. My house is all wood, so it is fine in that regard.

I've used GPSes for several years and had the Tilt almost a year, this was not a new experiment I was doing. :) At least, not intentionally!

Mine isn't crap at all. It's better than most and certainly better than my wife's Xperia. The Tilt is somewhat different to the TyTN II and also depends on what rom you have etc etc etc. In fact the rom plays a huge difference in the gps and other apps.

[khaytsus]

Mine isn't crap at all. It's better than most and certainly better than my wife's Xperia. The Tilt is somewhat different to the TyTN II and also depends on what rom you have etc etc etc. In fact the rom plays a huge difference in the gps and other apps.

Nope, it's complete and utter crap. If you don't think so, you haven't used a decent GPS ;-)

[ADB100]

This has happened to me on two occasions in the past - seemingly completely at random. Stopping & starting the GPS didn't solve the problem on either occasion (actually just stopping TomTom and then restarting it a couple of minutes later). The only solution was to soft-reset it.
I think I was relatively near to the location the GPS thought I was, I also seem to remember it was only showing one satellite as sending valid data and it was this data that was erroneous (obviously the Kaiser was at fault). However a soft-reset solved the problem and I haven't seen this behaviour for about 4-months.
One soft reset every four months would be a blessing.... Other issues on the phone mean it gets a soft reset at least once a week anyway :rolleyes:

Andy

[Rudegar]

a gps only get positions
speed and the rest if calc from
when it gets new positions
if not moving speed and compas and all that
is based on absent data and if you have
a very poor signal like you get in doors
those calc's can act up

[khaytsus]

a gps only get positions
speed and the rest if calc from
when it gets new positions
if not moving speed and compas and all that
is based on absent data and if you have
a very poor signal like you get in doors
those calc's can act up

First time it's ever happened, but.. okay. :)

[Flying Kiwi]

Nope, it's complete and utter crap. If you don't think so, you haven't used a decent GPS ;-)What does your GPS do that my WM 6.0 ROM equipped TyTN II cant? Cold satellite locks in about 30 seconds, hot satellite locks nearly instataneously? You don't get that with your TyTN II? Ah but then you have a WM 6.1 ROM:eek: - say no more. Is it any coincidence that MACkjam also has a WM 6.0 ROM? The hardware is capable enough, as long as the right ROM is used and in this regard newer is not better.:cool:

[MACkjam]

What does your GPS do that my WM 6.0 ROM equipped TyTN II cant? Cold satellite locks in about 30 seconds, hot satellite locks nearly instataneously? You don't get that with your TyTN II? Ah but then you have a WM 6.1 ROM:eek: - say no more. Is it any coincidence that MACkjam also has a WM 6.0 ROM? The hardware is capable enough, as long as the right ROM is used and in this regard newer is not better.:cool:

Touche mon ami!!!

[Cerberus_tm]

What does your GPS do that my WM 6.0 ROM equipped TyTN II cant? Cold satellite locks in about 30 seconds, hot satellite locks nearly instataneously? You don't get that with your TyTN II? Ah but then you have a WM 6.1 ROM:eek: - say no more. Is it any coincidence that MACkjam also has a WM 6.0 ROM? The hardware is capable enough, as long as the right ROM is used and in this regard newer is not better.:cool:

Has this been confirmed? It does not really coincide with my experiences.

The history of my TyTn II:
- stock 6.0
- radio 1.65.14.06
- GPS worked fine
- stock 6.1 flashed
- GPS worked fine for a long time
- GPS started getting weaker and weaker, gradually over time
- PDA Corner Ultimate V21 ROM flashed
- radio 1.71.09.01 flashed
- GPS keeps getting weaker, nothing seems to help

Currently, it MAY connect on the highway after 5+ minutes, or it may not. Or even later. Never sooner. Once I have a lock, it is steady, though. Walking around town will never give me any lock anymore, not even after 30 minutes. Not even in the park, which is not very small. I have tried clear skies. Using TomTom, Google Maps, or GPS Test all at once or seperately makes no difference. My GPS is practically useless by now.

Is there anything that could be done to fix this? I should be much interested.

[Flying Kiwi]

Has this been confirmed? It does not really coincide with my experiences.What would you accept as confirmation? Is a long thread here at xda-dev about *Hopeless* GPS after 6.1 Update? (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=397728) sufficient for you? Is the fact that while you had WM 6.0 on your Tilt, your GPS was fine (the whole time) good enough? I've had my TyTN II since 1 October 2007 and the GPS performance has not deteriorated under the signature ROM to any noticeable degree (although when it had WM6.1 on it, the difference was very noticeable).

The history of my TyTN II:
- stock 6.0
- radio 1.65.14.06
- GPS worked fineAre you sure about that radio at that stage? 1.65.xx.xx series radios are meant for WM 6.1
- stock 6.1 flashed
- GPS worked fine for a long time
- GPS started getting weaker and weaker, gradually over time
- PDA Corner Ultimate V21 ROM flashed
- radio 1.71.09.01 flashed
- GPS keeps getting weaker, nothing seems to helpWhat, nothing at all?

Is there anything that could be done to fix this? I should be much interested.Not sure if it's related but one of the causes of deterioration over time with regard to battery reliability, is that the contacts get dirty. If the battery isn't transferring all its power to the GPS circuitry of the phone (GPS is very power hungry) then this would explain poor GPS performance. If you have some contact cleaner or Iso Propyl Alcohol and Q Tips, use them to give the battery terminals and spring contacts a careful but thorough clean (making sure not to bend the spring terminals). You'll also need to be careful not to get the cleaner anywhere other than on the cotton bud and connectors as there are moisture sensor stickers on the phone which could be triggered if they get wet. You could also try cleaning the 4 corner gold connectors and plate on the back of the battery. This connection (along with the antenna sticker) seems to have some effect on RF signals.

FWIW I've had occasional glitches as originally referred to in this thread. I've put it down to radio interference as in each case I was in an area where I imagine there were strong amounts of residual/stray? RF in combination with tall surrounding buildings. My GPS also said I was travelling at about 120 mph at the time. Powering off then straight on again didn't fix it and I actually couldn't get it to work properly again until I got home and after I synched with my PC (maybe something to do with a QuickGPS update).

[nerdtaco]

I flashed to hard SPL 3.56 from 3.29 and now I get a GPS fix consistently in under a minute.

[Cerberus_tm]

Kiwi, thank you very much for your elaborate reply!
What would you accept as confirmation? Is a long thread here at xda-dev about *Hopeless* GPS after 6.1 Update? (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=397728) sufficient for you?
Yes, thank you for that thread, it comes pretty close to confirmation.

Is the fact that while you had WM 6.0 on your Tilt, your GPS was fine (the whole time) good enough?
In fact, it was my brother's phone then, and he said he never had any trouble with his GPS under 6.1, so that I did not expect the critical change to have happened at the switch from 6.0 to 6.1. I rather thought it was some hardware gradually deteriorating.

I've had my TyTN II since 1 October 2007 and the GPS performance has not deteriorated under the signature ROM to any noticeable degree (although when it had WM6.1 on it, the difference was very noticeable).
That counts towards confirmation.

Are you sure about that radio at that stage? 1.65.xx.xx series radios are meant for WM 6.1
I apologize, my brother flashed to 6.1: I hadn't thought of his flashing the radio as well, which seems obvious in hindsight. I don't know what radio he had at the time.

According to your advice I tried the stock 6.0 ROM including radio 1.27.12.11, and it worked! Thank you very much! I remember searching for GPS fix threads a while ago, but somehow I never found these useful threads. With this ROM+radio my GPS always connected within 1-2 minutes from the window sill, excellent.

But then it gets interesting. I flashed PDA Corner Ultimate X2 V5 (WM 6.5) while keeping the old radio. GPS still worked like sunshine! So I guess in my case it is this old radio that does the trick. I got no sound, of course, so I changed to 1.71.09.11 as recommended by the ROM's chef. Then GPS worked as badly as before, though perhaps a trifle better (not sure). In any case it was not workable.

I think I should try some other old radios as well, to see whether one of those is compatible with both WM 6.5 (or 6.1) and my GPS.

About your advice of cleaning the battery's contacts: good to know, but I suspect that this is not my problem at the moment. Because 1.) I often get seven green bars in GPS Test and still 15+ minutes before a fix, and 2.) my GPS worked like a charm with the old 1.27... radio.

Now I think I must switch back to 6.0 again. I hope I will not be put off too much by the disdvantages, I have never used 6.0 before. I don't care about the menus, I never use them anyway (rather SPB Mobile Shell and Ultimate Launcher). What other disadvantages are there to 6.0? Can you recommend a good custom 6.0 ROM + radio?

[Cerberus_tm]

I flashed to hard SPL 3.56 from 3.29 and now I get a GPS fix consistently in under a minute.

I had tried the flash to 3.56, too, but I didn't notice any difference, alas.

[Cerberus_tm]

I just tried the NIKI radio 1.58.11.07: it works very well! My GPS gets a cold fix as fast as with 1.27.12.11, usually under 1 minute. Unfortunately, no sound either (using WM 6.5).

[Flying Kiwi]

Now I think I must switch back to 6.0 again. I hope I will not be put off too much by the disdvantages, I have never used 6.0 before. I don't care about the menus, I never use them anyway (rather SPB Mobile Shell and Ultimate Launcher). What other disadvantages are there to 6.0?The menu is almost identical as far as HTC official ROMs go. There are just a couple of extras in WM 6.1 and it's faster, especially on screen redraws associated with keyboard sliding.

Can you recommend a good custom 6.0 ROM + radio?Whenever a 'can you recommend a...' post comes up, often the mods dissaprove because one persons good ROM is often rubbish to another. They normally suggest a 'try them and see' approach.