Glonass GPS available in Sensation

[Rubman]

It seems that the sensation already has functionality for the newly released Glonass satellites. According to a Dutch website the Qualcomm S2 and S3 chips already have support built in. Thus the phones already having support are HTC Desire HD, Incredible S and all Sony Ericsson Xperia phones from 2011, as well as recent BlackBerry's like the Bold 9900 and Torch 9860. Most importantly so do the HTC Sensation series and Evo 3D.

The Russian GPS alternative can only be used in conjunction with GPS
Manufacturers and operators must however enable Glonass. On which phones this already happened and how that will happen with updates is unclear.

What benefit can we get from this thinking about gps lock an accuracy since it's already in our sensation but probably not activated yet.

Here is a movie from Qualcomm explaining about Glonass and smartphones with their chipset.
Video
and a link to the site (it's in Dutch)

 

[nawoa]

This is interesting, certainly, but even if the functionality is "available" in a chipset it's not necessarily usable. It probably requires a different antenna design or something, similar to how you need a different antenna for LTE and GSM because they're on different frequencies.

 

[xdviper]

I've contacted @SnapDragon on Twitter, and they've said that it's indeed on our phones but it all depends on HTC on unlocking it for us to use. I'm guessing it's all in the radio, Devs gotta look it up and hopefully enable it?

 

[nawoa]

Usually if something's disabled on a hardware level it requires more than just clever rom hackers to enable it, and even then it's not perfect. HTC would need to release official drivers or something.

 

[aNYthing24]

I've contacted @SnapDragon on Twitter, and they've said that it's indeed on our phones but it all depends on HTC on unlocking it for us to use. I'm guessing it's all in the radio, Devs gotta look it up and hopefully enable it?

Haha, I just read your tweet. I don't think HTC will go out of their way to enable it, but we'll see.

Here's a link to Qualcomm enabling GLONASS in English.

http://androidandme.com/2011/12/news/qualcomm-enables-dual-core-location-on-snapdragon-phones/
http://www.qualcomm.com/blog/2011/12/15/gps-and-glonass-dual-core-location-your-phone

The official Qualcomm article on it says that the T-Mobile S2 has it enabled, maybe we can port their drivers to our phone?

 

[BLEK0TA]

qualcomm made best gps chpisets in mobile phone and im happy i have perfect position accuracy thanks qualcomm (my friend with sgs2 have poor accuracy and must wait every time few minutes to lock gps - with turned off data)

 

[krakout]

Any news on this? I bought an XE a couple of weeks back and I was just reading about GLONASS, ending up in this thread...

 

[FiddleGoose]

It seems that the sensation already has functionality for the newly released Glonass satellites. According to a Dutch website the Qualcomm S2 and S3 chips already have support built in. Thus the phones already having support are HTC Desire HD, Incredible S and all Sony Ericsson Xperia phones from 2011, as well as recent BlackBerry's like the Bold 9900 and Torch 9860. Most importantly so do the HTC Sensation series and Evo 3D.

The Russian GPS alternative can only be used in conjunction with GPS
Manufacturers and operators must however enable Glonass. On which phones this already happened and how that will happen with updates is unclear.

What benefit can we get from this thinking about gps lock an accuracy since it's already in our sensation but probably not activated yet.

Here is a movie from Qualcomm explaining about Glonass and smartphones with their chipset.
Video
and a link to the site (it's in Dutch)

I've contacted @SnapDragon on Twitter, and they've said that it's indeed on our phones but it all depends on HTC on unlocking it for us to use. I'm guessing it's all in the radio, Devs gotta look it up and hopefully enable it?

Usually if something's disabled on a hardware level it requires more than just clever rom hackers to enable it, and even then it's not perfect. HTC would need to release official drivers or something.

Great find Rubman. This is rather interesting.

I do hope HTC and our community can figure this out quickly!

GLONASS is very cool, the name alone is kickass. I love seeing new technology come out every day.

 

[lysergic]

Sony Ericsson is gonna enable GLONASS on a bunch of of Xperia phones

Samsung is gonna do the same for the Galaxy Note. Hopefully HTC will wake up and join the trend...

//lys

 

[youR.Fate]

This maybe due to the fact, that Russia is planning on forcing a increased tax on navstar GPS devices which are not capable of using GLONASS GPS:

To improve development of the user segment, on August 11, 2010, Sergei Ivanov announced a plan to introduce a 25% import duty on all GPS-capable devices, including mobile phones, unless they are compatible with GLONASS. As well, the government is planning to force all car manufacturers in Russia to make cars with GLONASS starting from 2011. This will affect all car makers, including foreign brands like Ford and Toyota, which have car assembly facilities in Russia.

via "Сотовые и навигаторы без ГЛОНАСС обложат пошлиной в 25% [Non-GLONASS-capable mobiles and satnavs will incur 25% duty]" (in Russian). RBC. 2010-10-27. Retrieved 2010-10-27.

(Coppied that section from Wikipedia, would provide the source link, but don't have enough posts yet.)

The company I work for includes GLONASS GPS receivers in their devices (no phones) for this reason.

 

[mrbkkt1]

GPS is super accurate on my sensation, and Lock is within a few seconds. Way better than my n1 . Why would I want to further drain my phone? It would be cool as a hack, but nothing more to me.

 

[krakout]

GPS is super accurate on my sensation, and Lock is within a few seconds. Way better than my n1 . Why would I want to further drain my phone? It would be cool as a hack, but nothing more to me.

GPS reception had improved significantly from my Diamond HD to my Desire HD and then took another leap forward when I got me my Sensation XE (and my wife's Wildfire S, for that matter!). Much faster locking and quite accurate. Even locks from within the appartment!

That said, there are times where it shows some deficiencies, especially when I'm stopped. GLONASS is supposed to offer much higher accuracy - and let's face it, more is better

Who knows, maybe you can disable GPS and switch to GLONASS altogether...?

 

[omar302]

Although the Sensation id better than the Desire S & Desire HD. The HD2 is still WAY BETTER than the Sensation, even with all the GPS tweaks, the HD2 running old Windows Mobile can get a lock in a few seconds even if GPS has not been running for weeks, even without a SIM card & without wifi (no aGPS).

 

[krakout]

Although the Sensation id better than the Desire S & Desire HD. The HD2 is still WAY BETTER than the Sensation, even with all the GPS tweaks, the HD2 running old Windows Mobile can get a lock in a few seconds even if GPS has not been running for weeks, even without a SIM card & without wifi (no aGPS).

HD2? Better? Aw, come on, maybe if you live on a satellite

 

[The Whistler]

HD2? Better? Aw, come on, maybe if you live on a satellite

Yes, also my good old HD (without 2 ) has a better GPS reception than my Sensation now. Sees on average 1-2 satellites more and the satellites it sees have on average a 10% better S/N.

So indeed, it would be highly appreciated from my side to also have GLONASS support on the Sensation. And as GLONASS is only "turned on" when GPS reception is poor, this would not mean too much additional battery drain...

As it seems that HTC will be forced to support GLONASS by the Russian government, I hope that it will only be a matter of time before this comes true...

The Whistler

 

[krakout]

+1 about HTC and Russia.

Who knows, maybe it was just me, with all my WinMo devices the experience sucked pretty often, with total blackouts. Even my wife's Wildfire S is able to lock in a couple of seconds and without having to hold it against a window as was the case with my older devices. Maybe it's geography-related? I'm in Greece...

 

[omar302]

+1 about HTC and Russia.

Who knows, maybe it was just me, with all my WinMo devices the experience sucked pretty often, with total blackouts. Even my wife's Wildfire S is able to lock in a couple of seconds and without having to hold it against a window as was the case with my older devices. Maybe it's geography-related? I'm in Greece...

Based on your experience, I would say its "aGPS" related. As in "assisted GPS that is supposed to be enabled/featured by your operator. As I remeber, Windows Mobile never had "aGPS", so it would make sense that you Android devices are taking advantage of aGPS compared to the WM devices.

Try this, remove SIM cards & turn off wifi to make sure aGPS is not used, then try to get a cold lock.

 

[krakout]

WinMo did have aGPS. I remember actually downloading and updating the ephemeris manually in desperation to try and get something to show up...

Nice idea, just tried it; got 9 satelites within 4 seconds!

 

[stevocz]

hi. nothing new about sensation and glonass?

 

[masondoctorjt]

Although the Sensation id better than the Desire S & Desire HD. The HD2 is still WAY BETTER than the Sensation, even with all the GPS tweaks, the HD2 running old Windows Mobile can get a lock in a few seconds even if GPS has not been running for weeks, even without a SIM card & without wifi (no aGPS).

The Hd2 GPS really is phenomenal. I pulled out my old hd2 the other day. Or hasn't been powered up since October, and GPS locked within seconds. (And I was inside)I was thinking there was something wrong with my sensation, but now that I see this it makes me feel better. Hd2 just had awesome gps.


Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App