Hi
I have been playing around with my new N95. Tonight I drove home with the GPS switched on.
The pointer showing where I was continually jumped all over the place. The phone simply didn't seem to know where I was. I was zoomed in fully and the pointer would for instance jump from the bottom to the top of the screen and back again while I was driving. Even when stopping at lights for about 10 seconds it still didn't bring it back to the target.
I switched it off, got home, got out of my car, switched it on and it got an exact fix.
Is this down to my car blocking the GPS signal and causing the phone to get confused? If so, it's lucky I already own a proper GPS that works.
I'm assuming Nokia don't have an external aerial for the N95 so if I really wanted to use it in the car a bluetooth SiRF III device is the best option.
Having said all this, it seems to work fine outside. So basically if this problem is common I guess it's a case of only using the internal GPS mapping on foot.
Nick
dont have a problem in the car using copilot its very accurate at all times
Hi there,
it very much depends on the kind of glass your car has. Sounds odd but is true 😊 You can easily see the same thing with trains:
- older ones have ordinary glass without coating against heat. You can get a signal through it quite easily
- in newer ones you might have no chance, IF they have coated glass.
Same for cars, if your windshield has a blueish shine from the outside, it will be a lot harder to get a signal, though not impossible.
Another idea: Does your provider support a-gps? I am trying to find out right now for T-Mobile Germany, but they do not seem to know either, as the answer to my (quite simple) question already takes them weeks 😉
Does anybody know anything about a-gps for TMO-Germany?
Regards!
PM
Hi
Thanks for your reply.
I know that my car has this new glass coating and that is the reason I can't get TMC from my proper SatNav using the included 1m naff cable.
However, my SatNav (which has SiRFIII) gets a signal lock okay from within the car.
It's the constant jumping around that surprised me. I thought that if the N95 lost the signal it would pause and then correct itself when it gets the signal back.
Do you think the glass coating could cause the N95 to read my location incorrectly?
Regards
Nick
n_s_simpson, I take it you where using the top down Maps view and not Navigation add-on?
If thats the case, it does not really surprise me that much and i would not worry about it, it not fully designed for in car use.
You would probably find that software like Copilot (and TomTom when it eventually supports the N95's internal GPS) works fine. They are programmed to account for these discrepancies by averaging out the changes in the positional data and 'snapping' you to the road. All GPS get more inaccurate the faster you move, they use clever tricks to make up for it. The N95's GPS is not as good as SirfIII, but you should find the right software work fine.
Also, ensure the slider is open when using in the car, it makes quite a difference due to where the GPS receiver is located in the N95.
autopilot wrote:Also, ensure the slider is open when using in the car, it makes quite a difference due to where the GPS receiver is located in the N95.
Make sure nothing is covering the 0 key as the GPS receiver is under it.
WHat does the satellite status show? there are supposed to be black horizontal bars, the more and the longer, the better 😊
I have tried using the live tracking with my N95's GPS and have found it to be fairly accurate once you get satellites locked on. I haven't experienced that erratic jumping that you experienced (touchwood) so it may be a glitch. One would expect that if it is related to gps signal that once signal is lost that it would stop moving and once it re established satellite connection it would move to current spot....so worse scenario for you would be that it would stop at last position on route (when satellite connection lost) and then jump to current position (when satellites re established) instead of jumping all over the place. Maybe your glitch was a once off ...you need to put your phone out for more testing to see if the problem repeats itself.
I also did other experiments whilst being a passenger in the car; such as running the Tools > GPS data > trip distance and it even was able to give me live data such as distance travelled, average speed and current speed car was travelling at .... granted by "live current speed" it wasnt live to the second, as the phone would have a lag of about 1 second for live speed. So if car travelled at constant speed, data on phone is very accurate. However if you are accelerating very fast, then the data is out by 1 second...i.e it will show you the speed you were doing 1 second ago. I guess if it was a dedicated GPS device and you wanted to improve on accuracy it would need to sample data at rate of once every 0.1- 0.2 sec...but that will propably use up alot of power.
For a phone, that is not a dedicated GPS device, I find it brilliant :icon14: that it can give me GPS route planning and guidance (free once map is downloaded onto phone; without network usage) and it can track me live and give me a trip computer....with distance covered, average and live current speed.
And the way the N95's GPS is; if you want to use it in the car and not pay for voice navigation; it's more designed as a navigation aid with a passenger on board. Instead of them looking at a map and remembering which streets to turn into, the N95 will help pre plan a route and track the car live to help them direct you... a bit like an intermediate step between the old days of using a street directory and having a full on in car sat nav.