Is your GPS working?

[losttourist]

I finally got my a500 and the gps worked right out if the box while indoors just like my droid 2 and my tom tom for those that claim that their gamin won't work indoors.

Problem... Isn't working now that I'm outdoors so I some the first time was using the agps assisted gps taking the info out of my wifi, I have the tablet tethered to my droid 2 and still no fix location.

I decide to stop here and check the latest post on the issue but this forum seems more like a come post your problems but don't expect a solution.

So I google the issue and found this post Acer Iconia, GPS How to make it work 1st Time. | Old Time Blogger

Haven't tried yet but I'm a about to

Found that same blog and used his method and got my gps to work successfully. The gps essentials app found the satellites in about 15 minutes from basement window. now from the car it gets a fix in about 2 minutes or less. Like je suggests the more you use it the faster it gets to get a sat fix.

 

[johnhoward]

is there any way of getting tom tom onto the tablet?

 

[Icebike]

is there any way of getting tom tom onto the tablet?

There are apps for that.
Go to the market and search for Navigon.
Don't expect it to be free.


Sygic: GPS Navigation, in the market has the greatest Coverage, and stores Tom Tom maps on the device so you don't need internet coverage. Application is free, Maps cost about 23 to 29 Euros each, see their webpage.

 

[jseah]

While the paid apps do not require you to have a network connection to download maps while you are using it (like Google Maps), the maps themselves will take up a considerable amount of space. I don't know about the Android version, but the map updates for the standalone Garmin units usually run around 2.5 GB.

 

[hattrick1965]

After reading some of the posts, I do agree...it seems like the more one uses the GPS, the quicker it locks on. I was having all sorts of problems getting a lock, but after using for 5 days in a row, it seems a lot better. But I am now experiencing another problem. Google maps either force closes, or just shuts down without a force close. Anyone else having this issue? I have uninstalled all the Google map updates, so tomorrow I will see if that helps at all

 

[Icebike]

But I am now experiencing another problem. Google maps either force closes, or just shuts down without a force close. Anyone else having this issue? I have uninstalled all the Google map updates, so tomorrow I will see if that helps at all

Every once in a while GMaps gets its cache hozed.
Go to Settings / applications, and find Google maps. Erase data and cache. Then re-start it.
Un-install and re-install do not always (maybe never) erase these data locations and so it crashes each time.

 

[smartyz121]

My GPS was not working at all, wasn't finding any satellites at all. I then proceeded to remove the product sticker on the right side of the tablet and voilà, it found about 7 in about 30 seconds!

 

[ROKNDJ]

My GPS was not working at all, wasn't finding any satellites at all. I then proceeded to remove the product sticker on the right side of the tablet and voilà, it found about 7 in about 30 seconds!

I have heard this before. What product sticker are you referring to?

 

[sje3156]

Yea ive heard of this sticker thing too.? I just found an app that makes even the preloaded nav app work in about 10-20 seconds. Its sygic its only a 7 day trial but its not much to buy it and to have the GPS working its worth it. Inside the setting in the sygic app you can adj how much power is used to lock on to GPS if you set this to the highest setting it works just fine. Mine works now anyplace, anytime, anywhere even inside bldgs. it picks up 7 to 8 satelites now as before it could only see 2 and thats not enough to get a lock it locks on to like 3-5 of them. Try it the app is free for 7 days ive been using it for 3 days now and it has been working great i plan on buying the app as soon as the trial runs out. Hope this helps...

 

[sje3156]

Yea ive heard of this sticker thing too.? I just found an app that makes even the preloaded nav app work in about 10-20 seconds. Its sygic its only a 7 day trial but its not much to buy it and to have the GPS working its worth it. Inside the setting in the sygic app you can adj how much power is used to lock on to GPS if you set this to the highest setting it works just fine. Mine works now anyplace, anytime, anywhere even inside bldgs. it picks up 7 to 8 satelites now as before it could only see 2 and thats not enough to get a lock it locks on to like 3-5 of them. Try it the app is free for 7 days ive been using it for 3 days now and it has been working great i plan on buying the app as soon as the trial runs out. Hope this helps...

OK the sygic app 7 day trial has ran out and the gps is still working great idk if this is what done it but i know i read that the reason the gps wasnt working is because they didnt push enough power ti the gps chip and this app alows u to do that. I just wanted to update that it does still work good even after the apps 7 day trial ran out. note: i didnt uninstall the app though cause if this is what is making it work i dont want to anything to chance it stopping cause it is sure nice to have it.

 

[Icebike]

You don't "push " power to chips. Chips draw power as they need it, and usere software doesn't control this
The GPS doesn't draw more or less power when its tracking one satellite or tracking 7. Its a receiver, not a transmitter. It just listens and does a tiny bit of really easy math.

If it works better after you install some software its just because you played with it long enough for it to down load a complete almanac, which it needs to find satellites quickly. If you use the built in maps pp frequently it will work the same.

 

[McDemon]

I have the A500 and the GPS never worked. I tired everything. Like most posts I have read, I thought that I had a hardware issue. As a last ditch effort I rooted it with the CWM-Rooted_Acer_A500_7.006.01_COM_GEN2 ROM. With the GPS still not working in this ROM, I upgraded to ICS with the AcerCream126b2 ROM. My GPS started working and locked on to a signal in about 15 seconds. AWESOME! The only problem is that this ROM had a problem with a transparent green overlay appearing every time an action was executed. I reflashed to a different ICS ROM (KJY_2010_Icylicious_REV_12). I no longer have the green overlay but my GPS no longer works! I tried reflashing to the Lightspeed 4.1 ROM, as it claimed to have working GPS but it didn't fix anything. As a noob to android, I thought maybe copying the gps.conf and the gpsconfig.xml from the AcerCream126b2 ROM might fix the problem but to no avail. I now have two questions:

1) Can someone tell me how to manually update my current files with all the gps related files from the ROM which fixed the GPS but left me with other problems?
2) If not, can anyone point me to a ROM which has fixed what appeared to be a hardware related gps issue?

Thanks

 

[epbiggs]

I just got a refurb A500 and the GPS works perfectly. It took a few to get the first lock, but now it connects very quickly, even inside (top floor condo). I'm pretty happy with the purchase so far. Having a tablet with GPS capabilities for Off Road adventures was one of my main reasons for buying a tablet in the first place, so I'm glad the GPS works after reading so many horror stories on this forum.

 

[pacificwing]

I've been fighting with my GPS since the day I got my A500. I've discovered that it is not a hardware issue, as much as it is a driver issue.

As most users are reporting, the ROM's based on the Asus stock tend to be infinantly better. (eg: Thor's HC 3.2.1, or the ROM mentioned above). The reason for this is that Asus produced a much better driver for the same chipset (Broadcom BCM4751). Because both tablets have similar chipsets overall, it is possible to run an Asus based ROM on the Acer A500 with minimal adjustments.

There is some debate as to the difference between aGPS and GPS. Let me try and clear that up. It all has to do with where the device gets it's GPS almanac from. The almanac is the database which is stored on the device that will tell the GPS chip where to look for satellites. A plain GPS device can get this information directly from the satellite. As such, plain GPS devices tend to have stronger receivers to acquire a faster initial lock. Assisted GPS on the other hand, uses WiFi to download the almanac before trying to establish a lock. This is why being connected to WiFi usually gives a faster lock time with devices which use GPS as periphials (like tablets).

The problem with the A500 is that it is programmed to only act as a GPS (as it was originally marketed). It is not, in its stock form, able to utilize wifi for its almanac updates. As such, it is fully dependant on its initial satellite lock in order to download this information. This is why it can take 20 minutes for your initial lock, but start getting locks in 10-15 seconds after that initial connection is established. Unfortunately, the almanac expires after a few days, so if you've let your GPS sit unused for a week or so, you have to start again. This is referred to as a "cold start". Once you have an updated almanac, you can perform "warm starts" which fix much faster.

This leads to several points of confusion. Many people will get frustrated with the time it takes for their "cold start". They will fiddle and tinker, but eventually they will fix on a satellite for long enough to gather all the needed almanac data. After this, they be able to "warm start" and get much faster connections. They will often erroneously attribute this to the last action they've taken to resolve their GPS woes (usually updating their gps.conf file). The fact is, their problems with GPS will become noticeable again after a week or so of not using the GPS.

There is one more factor at play. The A500 is capable of determining your location purely based on your WiFi signal through on-line WPS services (most notably Skyhook). This is NOT GPS. It is important to note that just because you can see your location in google maps, does not mean your GPS is working. Many people look up thier locations on thier device and think that their GPS works fine, when in fact they are unknowingly having the same troubles as the rest of us. They will notice this the moment they try to take their tablet away from a WiFi connection and suddenly are unable to use their location services.

In order to actually test your GPS, you need to download an app that does this for you ("GPS test", and "GPS status & toolbox" are good ones).

Updating your gps.conf (which is what most of these "miracle" patches are doing) will help you somewhat (there are a couple of values in the gps.conf which are applicable to the A500), but it will not help you establish a faster "cold start", since the A500 does not actually have aGPS. It can appear this way though, since many people apply these patches after a while of trying to connect to GPS.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do aside from waiting for Acer to enable aGPS support (not going to happen), or using a custom rom which has enabled this option in the kernel.

Cheers,
-PW

 

[pacificwing]

Further to my post above, it would appear that the A500 stock GPS driver does not download the correct assistance files (alminac). The portion that it is missing is the Long Term Orbital Data, or the lto.dat file.

Without this file, you will still see satellites, but it will take forever to lock onto them. I am currently unable to say if this is Acer's intentional functionality, or simply an oversight.

There is a work around for A500 users. You can download the data directly from the server and place it on your tablet manually. This will have to be done manually every 7 days, until someone develops a script to automate the process, or until Acer fixes their crap drivers.

You will need root access:

Download the latest file from here:
http://gllto.glpals.com/7day/latest/lto.dat

Place the file in "/data/gps/", resulting in:

/data/gps/lto.dat

Now restart the tablet and you will start getting faster locks. For extra tuning, try the following patch:
AGPS Patch Iconia 3.1 & 2.2 | GET BACK TO RAPID GPS LOCK, CAN LOCK ONTO MORE SATS - xda-developers

Hope that helps,
-PW