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+--- Forum: General Discussion on PinePhone (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=127)
+--- Thread: GPS is broken! Change wiki and page! And where is the antenna ? (/showthread.php?tid=12978)
GPS is broken! Change wiki and page! And where is the antenna ? - jack1 - 02-02-2021
After seeing other posts I can tell that the gps does not work. You should update the wiki, product page and shop page and change the gps status as 'broken' or 'partial working', to notify the clients.
I think its because of a bad gps antenna, can you tell me where is it ? and can i connect an external antenna ?
Thanks
RE: GPS is broken! Change wiki and page! And where is the antenna ? - wibble - 02-03-2021
Hardware worked fine with my Brave Heart last time I tried it. Performance was similar to other smartphones when using the AGPS data loader, but first fix was unreliable without AGPS. This is also true of most smartphones if you can force them not to use AGPS - a decent GPS antenna is even bigger than the headphone sockets many manufacturers think take up too much room. For most people the problem is that AGPS isn't used by any of the distros yet so it's not easy to use, much like the current state of MMS support. The mobian wiki has a fair amount of detail: https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=location
The number of people with a hardware fault seems to be small so far - at least I only remember one or two. That's not great but not (yet) an indicator of a wider problem.
You can find the antenna via the schematic and the component layout docs - IIRC it's the printed antenna on the top corner by the camera bump, with spring terminal connections on the main board. I don't think it has a connector that you could easily attach a different antenna to.
I hadn't realised this wasn't in the Pine64 wiki - I'll see about adding something. You should be able to edit the wiki using the same credentials as the forum, although I gather this broke for a bit so you may need to contact an admin if it doesn't work for you.
RE: GPS is broken! Change wiki and page! And where is the antenna ? - jack1 - 02-03-2021
(02-03-2021, 07:08 AM)wibble Wrote: Hardware...Thanks for the info.
1. One dont buy a experimental phone, suffer to instal experimental OS, waits 2 month for the delivery, to give your geolocation to google or chinese or another big tech ! I can buy a 70$ android phone for that.
2. agps is eventually used to reduce the fixing time from 10 min to 2 min, now from infinite to... idk.
3. I hope for pine that my case is rare but ive seen many posts about this, and a lot of people just havent tested. I'll see if the cable is disconnected.
RE: GPS is broken! Change wiki and page! And where is the antenna ? - wibble - 02-06-2021
1. I did my research before buying and knew software (and possibly hardware) was a work in progress. Having previous experience with the OpenMoko might have given me a better idea of what to expect. The AGPS data is fetched via a web request which you can run through a proxy or VPN if you don't want the remote server to be able to use GeoIP or similar. It doesn't need to know where you are because it's just providing the almanac and ephemeris data that the GPS sats broadcast slowly, and that's needed to get the first fix. Of course if you've got a SIM in any phone the provider has a pretty good idea of your location.
2. ??? In my experience it's comparable to GPS on other smartphones - they're almost useless without AGPS too, but similarly quick with it.
3. I don't think there is a cable to become disconnected. There are spring terminals that are meant to touch conductive paint.
RE: GPS is broken! Change wiki and page! And where is the antenna ? - jack1 - 03-23-2021
I had a look at the GPS antenna, at first i was shocked cos its a sticker! Then I noticed that also many other smartphones has a similar antenna.
Could the problem be that the antenna is bent around the edge ???
I dont think that that kind of antennas are supposed to be bent.