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Hey guys is there an application that allows to use your Droid on a plane as a GPS? Say like I want to use Google Maps to see where I'm at, but since the Maps are over the air it would not be possible so I would need to have the maps saved on my phone?
1. You will not get GPS to work on an airplane.
2. It will not be able to show the speed you will be travelling with.
Are you really sure about that? Air Canada has in flight positioning on a live map and I can only see it working via GPS. Certainly you don't have a topside view of the satellites that the plane has but I would think it might still be possible.
Anyone confirm on way or the other if this is possible?
I used the GPS on my N95 in 2007 on my flight to Nokiaworld. Takes a long time to get a fix given the speed you're travelling and not using A-GPS, but the results were quite impressively accurate compared to what was on the ships displays.
GPS will work on a flight. I used My Tracks on a flight from Baltimore to Providence and it logged the flight path and speed stats. Also, I was able to add pushpins to the track when I would see something of interest on the ground and I was able to later browse the track on Google Maps and find out what I was looking at.
GPS will work on a flight. I used My Tracks on a flight from Baltimore to Providence and it logged the flight path and speed stats. Also, I was able to add pushpins to the track when I would see something of interest on the ground and I was able to later browse the track on Google Maps and find out what I was looking at.
Baltimore eh? I live about 10 minutes NW of there. Small world. I'm flying out of BWI to Boston Logan this weekend, I'll try it and post results here.
So can I assume, for those using GPS on a plane, that you are keeping your phone on under 10,000 feet? Do you also have airplane mode turned on?
jp0469, that is an excellent use of technology!
I didn't do any tracking outside of the time when it is safe to operate electronic devices so there was no data for take off and landing. Also, phone stays in airplane mode the whole time.
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1. You will not get GPS to work on an airplane.
2. It will not be able to show the speed you will be travelling with.
Really? You do realize that there are aircraft fitted with GPS (for the pilot), right?
A lot of people seem to confuse "GPS app" and "GPS receiver". They're 2 separate things. The receiver will work just fine on an airplane. All it needs is the ability to get a fix from the GPS satellites. It's the app that may or may not need data (depending on the specific app in question).
If the receiver can get a fix in two or more locations then the app should be able to calculate speed. It's simple math. Speed = distance / time.
Last edited by takeshi; December 6th, 2010 at 08:25 AM.
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It will work, but I question it's legality. Yes, I know it has no effect on the plane, but it's still illegal. They made me turn off my wireless Kindle on the flight. I even had the wireless turned off, but they still made me turn it off. I have no clue how an e-reader with wireless turned off could possibly interfere with flight instruments even in a theoretical way, but apparently it can. Strangely enough, I was allowed to have my phone turned on as long as it was in airplane mode. Kindle must be off though.
It will work, but I question it's legality. Yes, I know it has no effect on the plane, but it's still illegal. They made me turn off my wireless Kindle on the flight. I even had the wireless turned off, but they still made me turn it off. I have no clue how an e-reader with wireless turned off could possibly interfere with flight instruments even in a theoretical way, but apparently it can. Strangely enough, I was allowed to have my phone turned on as long as it was in airplane mode. Kindle must be off though.
It's not illegal, turn off cellular data, but wifi is perfectly legal. A lot of airlines even have in flight wifi now...
RMaps (free, on the market) allows you to compile and download maps onto your phone so you can use them later without access to the network (ie airplane mode). It's a bit cumbersome and tedious, but if you really want FREE and you really want airplane mode, this is about it.
I haven't been able to actually use it tho because of the crummy GPS on Epic, but that should get worked out soon.
But would my standard Android Navigation app, which is excellent in the car, also work on a plane with in-flight Wifi? Or would the rate of change (speed) be too much for the phone's CPU/display to keep up with?
OK.. I am a pilot wont say for who but I hardly every turn my phone on airplane mode or off when im sitting in the cockpit flying the plane!!! As far as the GPS receiver your right GPS only receives. I once many years ago had a flight attendant tell me I had to turn off my (aviation hand held GPS) for whatever reason but it will not interfere with anything its made to be used in a cockpit lol They have several aviation type GPS/moving map apps now days for tablets/phones for U mac people there for-flight I think its called android has one called navigator which I just started trying out in flight today. I do however have a need for some kinda of external GPS antenna anyone know of one?
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I do however have a need for some kinda of external GPS antenna anyone know of one?
as the "normal" Android phones" do not have a HW input you need to use an external antenna, which can communicate to your phone. There are plenty of Bluetooth GPS Mouse out there in the market. Price range from 10 to 100 US dollars. My experience is that even the cheaper ones are good enough. But if you want to make sure you will always be linked to at least 6 SAT then you need a mid to high price one.
Just set in your android gps options the external gps receiver on and link your bluetooth gps to your phone. that's it. then you can use it with all applications, which can read the gps link in android.
I even found out, that this way of gps use doesn't drain the battery that much as the use of the internal gps receiver does. It seems that the bluetooth connection is more power efficient than the use of the internal gps receiver.
one remark to switching the phones on or off during the flight.
I have reliable technical data that the so called normal use of telephone does not interfere with the plane's electronic or navigation at all.
However, there is still the possibility of impacting the electronic of the plane, if for example during the landing procedure 200 people switch all at the same time their phones on in order to communicate that they are approaching the airport.
This kind of peak, especially during the "switch on" and first communication to the GSM tower is quite dangerous. We have tested this with about 250 phones logging in at the same time and all the navigation electronic around 50 meters just dropped off for about 3 -5 seconds. However this is not enough to create malfunctions for example during an ILS approach or the navigation system of the plane. The systems error tollerance is much higher.
that's at the moment the situation. With other words, it is quite safe, but there are still open questions.
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there are USB GPS modules out there, however, I am not aware of any android driver or app for a UBS GPS module.
The ant question is depending on two things: 1)a passive antenna (like a wire extension). those are only useful if your Hardware wires the antenna signal through on to your gps module. I think that's not the case. Think about it, if you give any signal to a USB port, how can the Hardware (phone pc tablet) know what to do with this signal. So you need drivers or a fixed wired passthrough to your gps. again, I am not aware of any functionality like this.
2) active antenna as described above, those antennas take the signal and amplify it and then send it via bluetooth to the final destination (phone , pc , tablet etc....) using a certain protocol ( GPS transfer protocols), your Hardware picks it up as it knows those GPS transfer protocols (implemented in your GPS software, if there is an option in settings for external GPS modules, otherwise even this is not possible).
hope this made it clearer
Just set in your android gps options the external gps receiver on and link your bluetooth gps to your phone. that's it. then you can use it with all applications, which can read the gps link in android.
Where is the android GPS options? On my phone (Samsung Epic 4G) there's no configuration setting for GPS. Just the ability to turn it on or off.
Where is the android GPS options? On my phone (Samsung Epic 4G) there's no configuration setting for GPS. Just the ability to turn it on or off.
well, that's what i mentioned above. IF..... there is an option to support external GPS devices..................
sometimes you can find it in GPS settings, or in Location services, or even under the resp. MAPs application.
it really depends on the mobile (tablet etc..) it is not a specific Android standard.
please read your mobile's manual in order to find out, if your phone does support external GPS devices....
PS: I called a friend who is using this option, he said, sometimes the GPS mouse ( or other external GPS tool) has a software included which gives the Android phone the capability to catch the signal via bluetooth( seems to be a driver software).
Last edited by RanRuobin; May 18th, 2012 at 11:08 AM.
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there are USB GPS modules out there, however, I am not aware of any android driver or app for a UBS GPS module.
The ant question is depending on two things: 1)a passive antenna (like a wire extension). those are only useful if your Hardware wires the antenna signal through on to your gps module. I think that's not the case. Think about it, if you give any signal to a USB port, how can the Hardware (phone pc tablet) know what to do with this signal. So you need drivers or a fixed wired passthrough to your gps. again, I am not aware of any functionality like this.
2) active antenna as described above, those antennas take the signal and amplify it and then send it via bluetooth to the final destination (phone , pc , tablet etc....) using a certain protocol ( GPS transfer protocols), your Hardware picks it up as it knows those GPS transfer protocols (implemented in your GPS software, if there is an option in settings for external GPS modules, otherwise even this is not possible).
hope this made it clearer
GPS during a Flight?
