I use this android device to run SkyDemon which I really like. However the device has developed a problen in getting location data and can take up to 30 minutes to aquire a fix. Any suggestions please anyone?
Thanks
Download current A-GPS data using something like “GPS Status & Toolbox” by “MobiWIA – EclipSim” and see if it helps.
Interesting…
I used to think the GPS in my Samsung T705 tablet was rock solid, as it has been for a few years running Oziexplorer.
Normally I fly with a Lenovo win8 tablet running Oziexplorer and the main reason I keep that device is because it can interface to the Thuraya XT satphone (which I use less and less, due to 4G being available just often enough, usually). This tablet uses an ancient Emtac bluetooth GPS
which has its antenna input wired to a rooftop antenna. Why this old unit? It works and it has an external antenna input and an external power input, which AFAIK nothing else on the market has anymore.
But I am now testing out PFMS (EasyVFR actually) on the android tablet (partly because the touch interface is way better than win8, and I can’t get it to shut down due to overheating) using its internal GPS for now. It has been working well but I found dropouts e.g.
which was in a very steep (about 50deg) turn. This shows that no matter how good you think the GPS is, it is still rather marginal. It has always been my belief that many people are flying without realising just how marginal theirs is. And my Ipad 2 will lose reception anytime it feels like it, in the same aircraft (TB20).
The T705 will use the Emtac GPS too but that unit will not support more than one bluetooth client at a time. There was a version of it which did four, shortly before they went bust.
So I would recommend you use an external GPS. Some past threads are here and here. As you see, I never found anything that does the job better than the old Emtac (Ebay, peanuts) but you need to fix up a power supply for it.
The 30 mins to a fix issue is probably more specific and is to do with the device losing the constellation data and having to do a cold start. Plenty of consumer GPSs will never start if turned on in flight, too…
Occasionally have the same issue on mine.
Regardless whether SD or SkyMap.
Can require restarting the device…
What has helped a little : going for GPS only instead of the default GPS + wlan (which I switch off inflight anyway).
Appears to be more likely, when the device was used in wlan mode w/o GPS (normal at home) but never, if switched off at airport and only switched on at same airport again.
I concluded that it is like the old Garmin handhelds : full new acquisition of position with sat identification. Pity, becaus eit otehrwise works very well.
ch.ess wrote:
going for GPS only instead of the default GPS + wlan (which I switch off inflight anyway
Sorry but I truly don’t understand. Would you please be kind enough to explain how etc. in a bit more detail.
Thanks
This may be relevant.
Unfortunately, a lot of consumer product GPS is really terrible in getting a GPS fix if you disable the “wifi assist” option… It’s all been designed to find the nearest Macdonalds 
My Samsung phone constantly tries to turn the wifi assist option on, whenever the camera Settings is used to control location info. The problem with that is that it will use the lat/long of the nearest wifi signal (yes there is a database of these!) even if it is not precise, which obviously it won’t be.
Maybe time has come to download “GPS status & toolbox” from the PlayStore (and put the McD OWT to rest – two birds, one stone).
Can you describe precisely how this helps Shorrick?
From the appstore description, it is just another GPS app which tells you about, ahem, the GPS in your phone…
@Fenland Flyer
When you go to settings, Samsung offers different options for location
- “High accuracy” = GPS & Wi-Fi
- “GPS only” = as the name implies
The latter seems to work better (just observation)…
Someone more tech-savvy may be able to confirm of explain why that is wrong ;-)
When I switch the GPS on via the button, the TAB4 by default goes to “High accuracy”. I have to manually go into the settings and switch it to “GPS only”.
The “high accuracy” bit is rubbish… it just gets you a faster fix because they scan nearby wifi signals (they don’t need to login to them; just harvesting IPs or MAC numbers of the device(s) is enough, AIUI) and via an internet lookup to some database they get a rough location from that, and then GPS gets the fix faster.
None of this will work while airborne.
