GPS issues demystified

[gboari92]

I was going to try this, but I can't seem to get to the mesh. I have disassembled the PCB, but don't see how to get behind to the mesh. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi! I will try to help you. I don't see the point in disassembling the PCB.
Once opened the phone, just look at the mesh (as posted on the first post) and rip it off. It is glued to the back pannel so it will be very easy to remove it.
I think that they put there to fill the gap between the connector itself and the back pannel.

 

[ew]

Hi! I will try to help you. I don't see the point in disassembling the PCB.
Once opened the phone, just look at the mesh (as posted on the first post) and rip it off. It is glued to the back pannel so it will be very easy to remove it.
I think that they put there to fill the gap between the connector itself and the back pannel.

Thanks for the quick reply. I was just going to post that I mistakenly missed the obvious - the mesh is on the back case, not the part with the screen.

I took off the mesh, coated everything with a bit of stabelant, and actually took a small piece of thin copper wire, twisted it into a circle and put it behind the mesh. I will see how things go.

I appreciate the post and the help.

 

[giebeka]

Can someone post that tutorial with photos or a video? We would really appreciate it.

Wysłane z mojego LG-H850 przy użyciu Tapatalka

 

[Ultraman1966]

I put a small bit of aluminium foil instead of soldiering a small coil (I don't have the tools) and now I get 15 satellite lock indoors... how did LG screw up so badly?

I accidentally damaged my cheap replacement LCD (The glass and the display actually slightly came apart when I was prying the phone open...) when taking the phone apart but other that this fix works a treat!

 

[Kruzkal]

Not perfect, but much improved.

Thank you very much!

 

[ATZ-007]

Can someone post that tutorial with photos or a video? We would really appreciate it.

Wysłane z mojego LG-H850 przy użyciu Tapatalka[/QUOTE yes please. It would be great for those of us who aren't expert at soldering, etc.

 

[Ultraman1966]

Hi. This is my first post here on xda, sorry if my english isn't very good.

I was getting signal from GPS (weak / 15m máx) but it often got crazy. After spanking the phone on the back it actualy came back on track. I decided trying to improve it.

So....
The mesh itself is glued to the gps antenna wich is the back plate itself. If you use a multimeter to test the resistence between the mesh and any other contact in the backplate, you will get something around 3-5 ohms, and depending on the spot in the mesh it wont be conductive at all, and I think it is because of the glue itself. I took off the mesh and cleaned the glue in the contact beneath it. Cleaned the other contact mentioned in the first post too. Resistance dropped to 0.2 ohms.

I am getting very fast and precise fix for my GPS now. Tested for a week now.

I think that if you replace the mesh with something more conductive (at least without any glue) and clean the contacts it will work for everybody. For me just removing and cleaning got the job done.

And 1 more thing. If you test continuity on the 3 volume pins, you will get continuity on 2 pins when vol down is pressed and continuity on 2 pins when vol up is pressed. I had the vol down not working, and cleaning the contacts also got the job done.

Thanks.

Doesn't the mesh provide a little bit of material to bridge the gap from the contact to the backplate? I'm curious why LG did such a shoddy design...

Anyway, how much has everyone's signal accuracy improved? I forgot to do a before and after screen cap.

I had to replace the display (long story) so I had to disassemble everything and reassemble it again. Outdoor accuracy can be as good as 5 metre but I have an issue when driving; every so often I will lose gps lock. I am thinking that may be down to the car movements causing the internal contacts to briefly lose connection? I'm guessing I need a bit more material as soldiering a tiny spring is definitely not going to happen for me!

 

[nidjo83]

I put a small bit of aluminium foil instead of soldiering a small coil (I don't have the tools) and now I get 15 satellite lock indoors... how did LG screw up so badly?

I accidentally damaged my cheap replacement LCD (The glass and the display actually slightly came apart when I was prying the phone open...) when taking the phone apart but other that this fix works a treat!

do you have any pics of what you actually did? where did you put that foil exactly?

---------- Post added at 09:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 PM ----------

OMG THIS MAN DESERVES A REWARD, AND THIS MUST BE PINNED TO THE TOP!

This works and is the EASIEST fix without soldering, adding conductive materials or anything! Just open it up, rip the damn thing away and swab it with abit of alcohol. i previously did the stupid adding a card under the 3 pin thing and that fixed it for like a few days purely because of "random" re-seating.

THIS is the FINAL and ULTIMATE easy solution!

can you please explain step by step what you actually did?
even better if you have some pics?

 

[Ultraman1966]

do you have any pics of what you actually did? where did you put that foil exactly?

---------- Post added at 09:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 PM ----------



can you please explain step by step what you actually did?
even better if you have some pics?

Apologies, I forgot to take pics but the original post in the thread has already got that detail covered.

A further update, I am now able to get sat lock in fewer than 10 secs and outdoor accuracy of 5 metres. However, during my 30 mile commute to work I can see that GPS signal was lost at least 6 times and this was with a mostly clear sky. Likely due to some other contacts getting slightly loose when it bounces along in the car but I don't have this issue with the Xperia Z3 or my current Pixel 2.
I won't beat about the bush, this phone is a PITA and nothing short of a lucky new backplate/mobo will fix the GPS.

 

[ATZ-007]

I've bought a battery back from ebay and just replaced it. See the results :victory:

 

[hazeem89]

I put a small bit of aluminium foil instead of soldiering a small coil (I don't have the tools) and now I get 15 satellite lock indoors... how did LG screw up so badly?

I accidentally damaged my cheap replacement LCD (The glass and the display actually slightly came apart when I was prying the phone open...) when taking the phone apart but other that this fix works a treat!

First of all, thanks OP, for opening this thread and clarify to us what's really happening to our device's GPS. So far, I 'fix' my GPS device by following Ultraman1966 method, by putting aluminium foil in between the motherboard and back panel. I simply fold it into small pieces, not so thin, but not so bold enough BUT able to made both point contact each other. So far, in a week testing, my GPS lock in less than 10seconds.

Thank you all!:good: Until time will tell, that it will deteriorate the quality of GPS lock through wear and tear.

 

[wurz]

So this has done the trick for me. Tested this morning inside a train and I get a lock in about 30s. 20m accuracy in GPS test. It didn't work at all before! Yet to test in a vehicle but I expect it will work fine now.
Outside it has a fix in about 10s. All I did was take the mesh off and put a bit of folded tin foil in its place. I put a multimeter on it and I got about .9 ohm between the foil and back plate. With the mesh it was 1.5 at best. So not a huge difference but seemingly enough to affect the GPS antenna.

Kudos to OP and others! There's a bit of life in my G5 yet..

 

[RobertPirainoBR]

Every time I install Fulmics on my phones, the GPS stops working. It see the satellites (0/28 ~ 0/30), but does not fix any, I've tried everything (apps, A-GPS update, clean metal contacts, copper foil, change gps.conf, etc...). I've tried Google and Nokia servers, I'm from South America. What could I do? The same goes for my LG G3. GPS fully work on stock rom.

 

[ritrelo]

First post here too! thanks for your description it really helped a lot!
I basically did the same and it worked
I used electrical cleaner on the mesh (the one on the backing plate, not the screen, it looks like a silver square with a square hole in the middle) it came off but I put it back and pressed down on it until it sticked again.

I also bent very slightly and carefully a little upwards the pins that touch it hoping it would make better contact and sprayed electrical cleaner on them too (they look like little metal loops held by a silver square)

Now the phone has 15/20 locked satellites and 3m accuracy and im INSIDE !!!
(it used to be 0 !)
I dont think bending the pins helped at all and I could have broke them, I would probably just try the contact cleaner if i was doing it again.
thanks to everyone! :highfive: :good:

Hi. This is my first post here on xda, sorry if my english isn't very good.

I was getting signal from GPS (weak / 15m máx) but it often got crazy. After spanking the phone on the back it actualy came back on track. I decided trying to improve it.

So....
The mesh itself is glued to the gps antenna wich is the back plate itself. If you use a multimeter to test the resistence between the mesh and any other contact in the backplate, you will get something around 3-5 ohms, and depending on the spot in the mesh it wont be conductive at all, and I think it is because of the glue itself. I took off the mesh and cleaned the glue in the contact beneath it. Cleaned the other contact mentioned in the first post too. Resistance dropped to 0.2 ohms.

I am getting very fast and precise fix for my GPS now. Tested for a week now.

I think that if you replace the mesh with something more conductive (at least without any glue) and clean the contacts it will work for everybody. For me just removing and cleaning got the job done.

And 1 more thing. If you test continuity on the 3 volume pins, you will get continuity on 2 pins when vol down is pressed and continuity on 2 pins when vol up is pressed. I had the vol down not working, and cleaning the contacts also got the job done.

Thanks.

 

[RickPJ]

I think I can say I've found the ultimate solution to the G5 GPS problems. I've posted all the details on iFixit here:

Hope it helps!

 

[hazeem89]

I think I can say I've found the ultimate solution to the G5 GPS problems. I've posted all the details on iFixit here:

Hope it helps!

Thank you @RickPJ for your thorough testing and experimenting the G5 GPS. I have read through your new-solution from the link attached, but still, I am not getting a clear picture on how to "...cut through the flexible track leading from the corner spring contact round to the hidden front antenna". Can you attach a picture after you have done that solution? at least show us how a "cut-through" looks like. its a great pleasure to get your response pertaining the above. Thanks in advance.

 

[RickPJ]

Thank you @RickPJ for your thorough testing and experimenting the G5 GPS. I have read through your new-solution from the link attached, but still, I am not getting a clear picture on how to "...cut through the flexible track leading from the corner spring contact round to the hidden front antenna". Can you attach a picture after you have done that solution? at least show us how a "cut-through" looks like. its a great pleasure to get your response pertaining the above. Thanks in advance.

Sorry about the lack of pic, I was sure I had a photo but it had disappeared when I came to write the post Anyway, I opened the phone up again and took another pic, I've updated the post over on iFixit with the photo, hope it's clear enough.

 

[ram365]

No... Seriously?

 

[cheeze.keyk]

I'm sorry, im slow here. but you need to cut certain part of the antenna? Sorry to ask coz I never tried opening the device so I don't have any idea.

 

[Selva123]

I think I can say I've found the ultimate solution to the G5 GPS problems. I've posted all the details on iFixit [
Hope it helps!

I just tried this and my GPS improved a lot! Now I get a lock in seconds, even indoors near a window. Let's hope it doesn't go back to normal in a few days like with other methods that I tested.
This seems promising, thank you very much

I'm sorry, im slow here. but you need to cut certain part of the antenna? Sorry to ask coz I never tried opening the device so I don't have any idea.

Check the image in iFixit, it's that white thing that seems broken, on your device you'll see that it's connected, I would mark it but I'm kinda new here and it doesn't allow me to insert images.