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GPS possible on droid without 3G service?
- Thread starter redss
- Start date
charles16214
New Member
Yes, it is possible to get a location fix, without 3G service. Go to location & security settings & enable use wireless networks. Tried it on my spare Droid, not registered with Verizon, and was able to get a location fix with no 3g service. To use the sat location service on maps, requires a clear view of the sky. GPS radio is low pwr, so it does not take much to block signal.
Something to point out here that I think a few of you are missing...
GPS, in and of itself, does not require a phone service. It uses the satellites in orbit to determine your location. All you need is a clear, unobstructed view of the sky for it to work properly.
The GPS the Droid uses is a combination of using Cell towers as well as GPS satellites. The Cell tower approximation is a rough guestimate, but 10m accuracy comes from the standard GPS.
Google Maps requires a Data Connection because of the design of the application. It downloads the map information directly and works with the GPS radio to determine your current position on map.
Other GPS based apps, depending on how they are designed, will either make use of or not use of the Data Connection. Generic GPS apps, like telling you coordinate information or compass information will NOT require a data connection, as it is purely reading from the basic GPS, like a hand-held GPS device does.
GPS, in and of itself, does not require a phone service. It uses the satellites in orbit to determine your location. All you need is a clear, unobstructed view of the sky for it to work properly.
The GPS the Droid uses is a combination of using Cell towers as well as GPS satellites. The Cell tower approximation is a rough guestimate, but 10m accuracy comes from the standard GPS.
Google Maps requires a Data Connection because of the design of the application. It downloads the map information directly and works with the GPS radio to determine your current position on map.
Other GPS based apps, depending on how they are designed, will either make use of or not use of the Data Connection. Generic GPS apps, like telling you coordinate information or compass information will NOT require a data connection, as it is purely reading from the basic GPS, like a hand-held GPS device does.
This thread is very interesting to me (and timely!) because I just did a lot of research to find a good solar charger to use my droid while away from civilization for a few days at at time. I wanted to be able to use something like MyTracks or Endomoto to keep track of where I've been in case I lose the trail and have to backtrack. Unfortunately I think I've got some bad news...
keiichi25: What you say sounds true... but doesn't match my testing.
If I set my phone to airplane mode (no CDMA nor 3G connection) and then start up MyTracks it cannot get a GPS position. I wait and wait, and the indicator keeps flashing. Endomoto has the same behavior, and their status bar says that it's searching for satellites. It never seems to find the GPS.
If I start the program with airplane mode turned off, get the GPS fix, then turn on airplane mode I get a position and can continue to track my location w/ no problem as long as I don't lose the sync.
The problem appears to be that you must have a cellular connection to get an initial location used to lock the satellites. If you don't have that you won't ever get a GPS lock. This makes the droid useless as a general purpose GPS device for hiking because if I ever lose my lock I no longer have the ability to use it to find my way back. This is bad news.
It's POSSIBLE that airplane mode does something that prevents the GPS from working, but if it's already in use doesn't disable it, so my test MIGHT be invalid. I'd have to go somewhere with no service to check that, but I'm not sure where I could go nearby to find out.
keiichi25: What you say sounds true... but doesn't match my testing.
If I set my phone to airplane mode (no CDMA nor 3G connection) and then start up MyTracks it cannot get a GPS position. I wait and wait, and the indicator keeps flashing. Endomoto has the same behavior, and their status bar says that it's searching for satellites. It never seems to find the GPS.
If I start the program with airplane mode turned off, get the GPS fix, then turn on airplane mode I get a position and can continue to track my location w/ no problem as long as I don't lose the sync.
The problem appears to be that you must have a cellular connection to get an initial location used to lock the satellites. If you don't have that you won't ever get a GPS lock. This makes the droid useless as a general purpose GPS device for hiking because if I ever lose my lock I no longer have the ability to use it to find my way back. This is bad news.
It's POSSIBLE that airplane mode does something that prevents the GPS from working, but if it's already in use doesn't disable it, so my test MIGHT be invalid. I'd have to go somewhere with no service to check that, but I'm not sure where I could go nearby to find out.
The funny but good thing is, that is almost impossible to do with Verizon Wireless. And even if Verizon isn't there another services CDMA might work for you.
So, Your job is to head deep into the mountains this weekend and give it a try.
Yeah, exactly why I use Verizon. I spend a lot of time way out deep on a bike, kayak, or on foot... when I give that reason, most people respond something like "well, I never do that..." Their loss. That said, I do find a dead spot almost every time I go, though unfortunately won't have time this weekend to go out and test the theory, though need to do it before I rely on the GPS!
PS: I find it ironic that I can't log in and respond to posts via my droid... I had to wait until I got home to respond to you!
I may have found my answer, though it's not what I wanted to hear:
Assisted GPS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
aGPS helps it get a fix faster. Some devices cannot fall back to pure GPS. Looks like the droid falls into that category, which makes it COMPLETELY USELESS for what I wanted to use it for! Damn. I wanted to go up in the mountains, put it in airplane mode so that it won't search non stop, and then just use the GPS, but it looks like that's not going to be possible.
From the Motorola global site:
DROID - GPS & AGPS
I'm not sure if this applies to the US Droid, but it says:
emphasis mine
This doesn't seem to match my testing though...
From the specs page: http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/U...ces/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DROID-US-EN.alt
Doesn't look promising... looks like it only does aGPS.
Assisted GPS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
aGPS helps it get a fix faster. Some devices cannot fall back to pure GPS. Looks like the droid falls into that category, which makes it COMPLETELY USELESS for what I wanted to use it for! Damn. I wanted to go up in the mountains, put it in airplane mode so that it won't search non stop, and then just use the GPS, but it looks like that's not going to be possible.
From the Motorola global site:
DROID - GPS & AGPS
I'm not sure if this applies to the US Droid, but it says:
emphasis mine
This doesn't seem to match my testing though...
From the specs page: http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/U...ces/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DROID-US-EN.alt
Doesn't look promising... looks like it only does aGPS.
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willamtarker
New Member
Giving an answer to your question I wish to state that since you want to acquire the GPS service on your android phone hence in that case it becomes really essential to have the 3G feature because only with its support you can receive the exact live information via GPS.
I believe putting the phone into Airplane turns everything signal related off, including GPS. the Droid has aGPS, but I believe it has regular GPS as well so a cell signal is not needed. But apparently once you get a GPS lock, you can switch to AP mode and it'll stay.
If you were to go into the mountains and no longer get a cell signal, but w/ your phone is in regular mode you should be able to still get a GPS lock. It may drain your battery though because you will still search for a cell signal, so once you get that lock, switch to AP mode and you should be good. If you do lose the lock, switch back on to acquire it again.
I can't speak specifically to the Droid for this, but I did do this with my older phone the Omnia and it works that way. If Droid specs indeed does have GPS as well as aGPS, this method should work as well.
If you were to go into the mountains and no longer get a cell signal, but w/ your phone is in regular mode you should be able to still get a GPS lock. It may drain your battery though because you will still search for a cell signal, so once you get that lock, switch to AP mode and you should be good. If you do lose the lock, switch back on to acquire it again.
I can't speak specifically to the Droid for this, but I did do this with my older phone the Omnia and it works that way. If Droid specs indeed does have GPS as well as aGPS, this method should work as well.
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it takes 3G to downolad the program google maps or at least wi-fi to do this , and once the program is on the phone you do not need a signal with 3G to use google map, the GPS works from signals from Satellites not the network of cell towers.
and has it's own antenna for GPS to function,
Does this help, I was surprised at all the wild answers
I beleve your saying you think the GPs works off cell towers it does not!
Red also you can't really use the phone without 3G service, you have to get it
and has it's own antenna for GPS to function,
Does this help, I was surprised at all the wild answers
I beleve your saying you think the GPs works off cell towers it does not!
Red also you can't really use the phone without 3G service, you have to get it
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Not sure who you're replying to, and I'm not sure if you saw my post a few posts back, but according to the Droid specs it has aGPS support, standalone GPS isn't listed. The 'a' in aGPS is "assisted", meaning that it uses information from the cell tower for its initial lock. According to Wikipedia some aGPS devices cannot fall back to standalone GPS mode (using just GPS satellites). From all of my testing it looks like the Droid falls into that category, it must have a cell signal (with a hint of the general location) to get its initial location locked in. Unfortunately I've been unable to confirm this for sure as it's really hard to find a place with no coverage anywhere near here. I even tried going to a spot that a few years ago was guaranteed to give me no coverage and now I get a full power signal there.
I usually only remark to the orginal OP to try and keep it simple, but
A lot of the areas here in Va. have no service , a real lot in the mountains, where I am, and GPS still functions. it may need to get an inital fix on a basic location to get started (3G that is) but yes it has it's own GPS antenna and does not work off cell towers as a lot thinks it does, it works off satellite signals
A lot of the areas here in Va. have no service , a real lot in the mountains, where I am, and GPS still functions. it may need to get an inital fix on a basic location to get started (3G that is) but yes it has it's own GPS antenna and does not work off cell towers as a lot thinks it does, it works off satellite signals
Have you tried getting an initial lock without a cell signal? It seems to keep its initial lock for quite some time, but I've noticed that a reboot forces it to try again, and if you don't have cellular service then it won't be able to lock into your location at all.
Like I said in my first post on this thread, I want to use mine while hiking with something like mytracks to keep track of where I've been (to backtrack, if needed), but if it can lose the lock and be unable to get it back then there's no way that I'm going to trust it for that!!
Like I said in my first post on this thread, I want to use mine while hiking with something like mytracks to keep track of where I've been (to backtrack, if needed), but if it can lose the lock and be unable to get it back then there's no way that I'm going to trust it for that!!
Thanks all for the replies. I am thinking it would make sense that since I don't have 3g or cell service, but DO have wifi, that I should be able to enter my general location in (on googlemaps or somewhere), so that the GPS can use that to pinpoint me. Then as a travel out of range of wifi, that the GPS should keep tracking me...but I haven't been able to get the initial location lock at all. Still wondering if I have a bad GPS transmitter in my phone.
Well I tried to get a GPS fix in airplane mode down in the Caribbean this past week and was unable to get a lock without turning off airplane mode. With CDMA roaming, it was able to get a lock and subsequently download the map at a hefty $20 a mb:icon_eek:
So......
According to my own experience, with airplane mode on the GPS doesn't seem to get a GPS lock which as a result, raises a couple questions:
1. Does airplane mode disable the standalone capability along with the other signals or is the Droid aGPS only and absolutely requires an initial lock from the cell network?
2. Since it seems the GPS can still track data from the sats after an initial cell-based lock (airplane mode off), can someone make an app that eliminates the need for cell network assistance by activating the standalone GPS? And can this app function with airplane mode off?
This would really be helpful and would make the Droid totally on par with other standalone units.
So......
According to my own experience, with airplane mode on the GPS doesn't seem to get a GPS lock which as a result, raises a couple questions:
1. Does airplane mode disable the standalone capability along with the other signals or is the Droid aGPS only and absolutely requires an initial lock from the cell network?
2. Since it seems the GPS can still track data from the sats after an initial cell-based lock (airplane mode off), can someone make an app that eliminates the need for cell network assistance by activating the standalone GPS? And can this app function with airplane mode off?
This would really be helpful and would make the Droid totally on par with other standalone units.
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