GPS without cell connection?

[flibmeister]

Has anybody had any real world experience using the GPS in the Droid where there's no cell service? I'm not talking about the cell-tower triangulation part of aGPS, I mean the standalone GPS, using only satellite data.

Obviously, the mapping of Google Nav won't be available in such a circumstance (at least not for long; I guess it's possible it could work from cached data for awhile). But some of the other apps (such as CoPilot) store the map data locally, so it would seem that, as long as such as an app is being used, the Droid might work just fine as a standalone GPS, even in the wilds where there's no cell service-- anybody know for sure?

 

[KZIWarrior]

Yes the GPS will work w/o cell service (or in Airplane mode). It is stand alone but as you said you will not have access to data not stored locally on your device.

 

[darreno1]

This is a good question. I will be testing this in a month when I travel down to the Caribbean. I will be sure to report success or failure.

 

[milly555]

i haven't the driving experience,so i haven't answer to the question,but from your discussion,i have a little idea that the mobile phone signal effect the gps operation.

 

[Backnblack]

GPS does work without Cell coverage but you need to use an app to cache the maps for the area you will be in.

 

[christim]

We live in CT. In late november we took a cruise out of Spain that went to Italy and France. I encountered no wifi hotspots. GPS was of no use because I couldn't get maps and hadn't previously grabbed an offline map app like mapdroyd. Even apps that translate use the web. A lot of what our phones does is possible due to connections up in "the cloud". We had an app to tell us where we parked our car. It would tell you where it was with a giant arrow on the screen, how many miles away it was and how long it had been. All it would display was how long it had been so that app also needed to compute the distance via the web. Not sure if it stored that data up there or it just needed to connect to compute it.

 

[mrtrumpet]

I'm on St John right now. I am able to use the gps by turning on wireless networks. It's not all that accurate (says I'm in Tortola) but it does know basically where I am. I used it with Radar Now to see where the rain showers were heading and how long they'd last... worked fine

 

[takeshi]

But some of the other apps (such as CoPilot) store the map data locally, so it would seem that, as long as such as an app is being used, the Droid might work just fine as a standalone GPS, even in the wilds where there's no cell service-- anybody know for sure?

Yes, if you have a GPS app that doesn't have to pull maps you'll be fine. The GPS receiver just needs a satellite lock to get your latitude/longitude/elevation. The rest is up to your GPS app.

I'm on St John right now. I am able to use the gps by turning on wireless networks. It's not all that accurate (says I'm in Tortola) but it does know basically where I am.

If it's not that accurate (and requires you to turn on wireless) it's probably not using GPS.

 

[KZIWarrior]

I'm on St John right now. I am able to use the gps by turning on wireless networks. It's not all that accurate (says I'm in Tortola) but it does know basically where I am.

If it's not that accurate (and requires you to turn on wireless) it's probably not using GPS.

^+ yep, it's using the wi-fi to locate. This attempts to look at the ISP you're connected to for location and varies GREATLY according to ISPs (at home on cable ISP mine is very accurate, but at a friends house with DSL it's WAYYY off).