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Epic GPS - does yours work or not?

Epic GPS - does yours work or not?

  • Yes - works just fine

    Votes: 55 62.5%
  • No - I can't believe it

    Votes: 16 18.2%
  • Dunno - need more time to test it

    Votes: 17 19.3%

  • Total voters
    88
Mine seems to work. My Sprint Nav works, Google Nav beta and Google maps all seemed to work the way they should. Why was there rumors about it not working? (Just curious)

This is the first time I've ever even touched an Android phone as well so if mine works hopefully everyone elses will!

By the way hopefully everyone who wants one will get one, it seems there is enough. I didn't pre-order or anything... Sunday evening the sprint guy told me that on Tuesday they were getting in a new phone, I had a VZ BB out of contract and wanted to go on my wifes Sprint account. I walked in today at 8 and was the first to get an Epic. Lousy pre-orders... wake up early! :p But, a bit of bad news is that one of the reps at the store was trying to order one online for himself while I was there and he couldn't (unavailable). He said he still can't even get an Evo right now through the employee discount program.
 
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so far so good, runs like a champ. It took about 2 - 3 minutes to lock and then was very accurate the entire drive home from Sprint. Tested both Sprint Nav and Google Maps.

Yes!!!

BTW, I did go into Settings -> Location & Security and checked the Use Wireless Networks. I also went into Settings -> Privacy and checked Use my location. Not sure if I needed to do both, but GPS is working well.
 
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so far so good, runs like a champ. It took about 2 - 3 minutes to lock and then was very accurate the entire drive home from Sprint. Tested both Sprint Nav and Google Maps.

Yes!!!

BTW, I did go into Settings -> Location & Security and checked the Use Wireless Networks. I also went into Settings -> Privacy and checked Use my location. Not sure if I needed to do both, but GPS is working well.

Congrats on the new phone. 2-3 mins to lock is a long time.
Also the proper way to test the GPS to see if it is using satellites is to actually UNCHECK those options.

By Checking "use wireless networks" your location is determined by mobile networks. You will never know if the GPS function is using satellites properly or not, if you have that checked. Further, by checking that option, you are granting google to collect anonymous location data, even when no applications are running, although its anonymous or so they say.
 
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I did not seem to be getting a lock indoors until I selected to use wireless networks. That should be expected, so I imagine those getting a lock indoors had done that already (it was off by default for me). Location looks reasonably accurate (even though it only claims accuracy of ~2km).

yah that's because you were indoors lol :p
try outside like if you were in a car with "use wireless networks" unchecked and let us know if you don't mind.
 
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I tried it with a coworker's Epic4g a while ago. IMHO, it looks like it has a decent radio & antenna, but depends entirely on satellites for ephemera data. I'm basing that on the fact that I left the GPS trying to get a lock indoors for nearly a half hour, about 10 feet from a window, with zero success... but when I walked outside, it locked in about 10-15 seconds, and instantly went from zero satellites detected to 10 or 11. And when I went back inside, about half of the satellites remained usable. I did the test using "GPS Test" (free version) from Chartcross (in Market). More importantly, I noticed that after I went back inside, the thresholds dropped down to the level that I believe is high enough to get a reading, but too low to do a successful telemetry download.

The moral: as soon as someone figures out a way to grab ephemera data from a thirdparty server somewhere, and rewrites the kernel module to make use of that data, the Epic4g's GPS will work just fine. In the meantime, if you're planning to use GPS in an environment with poor signal quality, get a lock outside first, then go inside. As a caution, though, it appeared to lose the GPS lock after I exited the GPS test app, allowed the phone to go to sleep, then woke it up and relaunched the app ~30 minutes later. So... it looks like Samsung might not be doing a very good job of caching the ephemera data once it's downloaded, or at least gives up on it and writes it off as invalid more aggressively than it really NEEDS to.
 
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I tried it with a coworker's Epic4g a while ago. IMHO, it looks like it has a decent radio & antenna, but depends entirely on satellites for ephemera data. I'm basing that on the fact that I left the GPS trying to get a lock indoors for nearly a half hour, about 10 feet from a window, with zero success... but when I walked outside, it locked in about 10-15 seconds, and instantly went from zero satellites detected to 10 or 11. And when I went back inside, about half of the satellites remained usable. I did the test using "GPS Test" (free version) from Chartcross (in Market). More importantly, I noticed that after I went back inside, the thresholds dropped down to the level that I believe is high enough to get a reading, but too low to do a successful telemetry download.

The moral: as soon as someone figures out a way to grab ephemera data from a thirdparty server somewhere, and rewrites the kernel module to make use of that data, the Epic4g's GPS will work just fine. In the meantime, if you're planning to use GPS in an environment with poor signal quality, get a lock outside first, then go inside. As a caution, though, it appeared to lose the GPS lock after I exited the GPS test app, allowed the phone to go to sleep, then woke it up and relaunched the app ~30 minutes later. So... it looks like Samsung might not be doing a very good job of caching the ephemera data once it's downloaded, or at least gives up on it and writes it off as invalid more aggressively than it really NEEDS to.

very good explanation. c'mon custom kernel! :p
 
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I remember reading somewhere that there's a line you can't cross kernel-wise without breaking compatibility with paid protected market apps... does anyone know exactly where it lies (the real, "apps will break if you cross it" line, not "the EULA forbids it" line, if there's a distinction)? For example, if the kernel needs to be signed as non-development using a key from someone like Samsung, HTC, etc... how much can you rip out and change before it triggers? Alternatively, what's the criteria for being able to build a kernel that Google Market will accept as "legitimate"? I remember that was one of the big run-into-a-brick-wall issues with the Hero and Bluetooth HID... to make it work would require a new kernel, but a new kernel would exile you from being able to run paid market apps unless you cracked them (in which case you'd still lose easy access to updates).
 
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I remember reading somewhere that there's a line you can't cross kernel-wise without breaking compatibility with paid protected market apps... does anyone know exactly where it lies (the real, "apps will break if you cross it" line, not "the EULA forbids it" line, if there's a distinction)? For example, if the kernel needs to be signed as non-development using a key from someone like Samsung, HTC, etc... how much can you rip out and change before it triggers? Alternatively, what's the criteria for being able to build a kernel that Google Market will accept as "legitimate"? I remember that was one of the big run-into-a-brick-wall issues with the Hero and Bluetooth HID... to make it work would require a new kernel, but a new kernel would exile you from being able to run paid market apps unless you cracked them (in which case you'd still lose easy access to updates).

wut :thinking: kernel that google market will accept?
i believe we are talking about rooting and flashing/pushing a custom kernel. wasn't even aware they were on the market as "official" ones.

but i wouldn't worry about that sort of stuff unless you are asking to develop one yourself. if that's the case, i'd like to kindly redirect you to xda developers where they can most likely answer your questions.
otherwise, those guys know what they're doing and it's only a matter of time. in one week we will probably see custom kernels and ROMs floating around.
 
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I tried it with a coworker's Epic4g a while ago. IMHO, it looks like it has a decent radio & antenna, but depends entirely on satellites for ephemera data.... The moral: as soon as someone figures out a way to grab ephemera data from a thirdparty server somewhere, and rewrites the kernel module to make use of that data, the Epic4g's GPS will work just fine.

There should be no need for such heroic hacking to reinvent that wheel. That is exactly what the built-in aGPS unit should do for itself when it is set to MS Based mode. (Not to be confused with MS Assisted mode, in which the ground servers are used entirely without satellite data.)

Of course, it is also useful to test the GPS in Standalone (aka Autonomous) mode, with the aGPS turned off. That is pure satellite methodology.
 
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I am not prejudging until I can test myself, as there are a lot of confusing (and confused) andecdotal impressions being posted right now as forum commentary. I don't get my Epic until tomorrow (new contract).

But if the GPS does not work on the Epic 4G as released, then Sprint and Samsung are in for some excoriating criticism, given Samsung's high-profile statement to Engadget that the GPS on the Epic had been "tested and validated."

I have already returned two Vibrants and cancelled a T-Mobile contract renewal over this issue, and had high hopes for the Epic because of that Samsung statement. If that turns out to be dissembling or spin, and the GPS is not fixed during the next 30 days, I certainly intend to return the Epic and cancel the Sprint contract. A reliable GPS is simply core functionality on a high-end Android phone, and it should just work. I will not commit to a contract if the GPS performance is unacceptable.

But for now, I withhold judgment.
 
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My GPS worked fine. Used Google Nav and managed to go from my home to a store about 15 minutes away. Worked like a charm. Locked quick to Sats, and was very accurate pinpointing my location. This was done with just GPS on and no wireless location.

that is exactly the kind of general anecdote that is not helpful. How many sats? and how do you even know you had sats?
 
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Mine seems to work. My Sprint Nav works, Google Nav beta and Google maps all seemed to work the way they should. Why was there rumors about it not working? (Just curious)
This is the first time I've ever even touched an Android phone as well so if mine works hopefully everyone elses will!

By the way hopefully everyone who wants one will get one, it seems there is enough. I didn't pre-order or anything... Sunday evening the sprint guy told me that on Tuesday they were getting in a new phone, I had a VZ BB out of contract and wanted to go on my wifes Sprint account. I walked in today at 8 and was the first to get an Epic. Lousy pre-orders... wake up early! :p But, a bit of bad news is that one of the reps at the store was trying to order one online for himself while I was there and he couldn't (unavailable). He said he still can't even get an Evo right now through the employee discount program.


Check out this forums thread.
http://androidforums.com/samsung-vibrant/132109-gps-doesnt-work.html

With the Vibrant(T-Mobile) and the Captivate(ATT) versions of this phone which released many months ago, their are numerous people having problems with the GPS working. Mine is the Vibrant and it works about 50% of the time.
 
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that is exactly the kind of general anecdote that is not helpful. How many sats? and how do you even know you had sats?

Yes. Testing the GPS is not a popularity contest, but a scientific exercise.

Also, street navigation apps are the least reliable tools for testing the device's basic GPS performance because they impose a snap-to-closest-street function on top of the underlying coordinate data, which may be fuzzy.

Much better to use My Tracks for capturing tracking to see accuracy, then posting uploaded tracks that we all can zoom in and examine. And don't just test driving, because even the underlying GPS software does some smoothing and predicting that is heavily influenced by vehicle motion. If you test a driving track, include some fast curves and turns, as well as long stops. Even better, use My Tracks to capture pedestrian courses, and include a benchmark device for comparison.

For testing satellite acquisition and locking, use GPS Test or GPS Status.
 
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