GPS Accuracy

Can i get some replies in here so i can determine if it's a problem with my handset or just bad GPS on the N97?

Hi

I use my gps and ovi maps beta and the unit works ok for me

Regards

Gary

I am on the ovi beta maps and a few days ago whilst at work, as the phone is still new to me I was playing with it and the gps told me that I was about a mile away from where I actually was.

Don't know if this was because I was in a field with no roads near/

dog-man

Gary1193 wrote:Hi

I use my gps and ovi maps beta and the unit works ok for me

Regards

Gary

Menu -> Apps -> Location -> GPS Data -> Position

Then it tells you the Accuracy of the current GPS Position.

Hi

Accuracy was 23m

Gary

Miles or metres? 😃

dog-man

I live at number 22 in my road, and the gps on my phone told me i was at number 14.

spiffing !!! 😃

I live at 11218 and my N97 RM-507 with Ovi Maps 3.0 beta and v12 firmware tells me that I'm at 11214 (2 doors down) about 40 yds away.

Of courses it also has me jumping to the street behind us every now and then too.

GPS is not very stabile at all.

Nokia is NEVER going to live this one down--even if v20 firmware manages to get all of the 3D transition effects, higher speed -AND- fix the lens scratches!!!

Yeah, you're right .... when i was "playing" with the gps, it was a clear day, the wind was blowing in the right direction, i had my fingers crossed, and clicked my "dorothy" red sparkly shoes together at the heels. :tongue:

Well on my window cill, the connection keeps dropping in and out every few seconds, and the accuracy ranges from
230 meters to
20 meters,
then back to 114 meters
then to 52 meters
to 13 meters

This is pointed at a clear sky, not in a built up area.
So i'm a bit worried about how it's going to work for navigation.
And i cant for the life of me get it calibrated (yes i've locked at the videos floating about)

Using Maps 3.03

I am on my third handset, first because of the GPS error and second because they send me a wrong replacement phone (wrong product number). On my first phone the accuracy would jump between 30 to 40 m and 100 to 150 m and behave in general erratically. On my current phone (and also the previous one) I get pretty consistent accuracy around 10 to 20 m standing still with a clear open sky, I get 5 to 7 satellite bars, some of them full, but I can occasionally see intermittent jumps to higher accuracy numbers.

Based on this and on my previous experience with n95 I would say that any fund that could not achieve accuracy would be lowered to 30 m in good conditions is faulty and needs to be repaired/replaced. I myself had to send it for repair three times before I got a replacement. The first time they justflashed it, the second time they exchanged the antenna circuitry, but I still experienced problems especially when connecting any sort of USB cable to the phone. The third time I finally got a replacement, but a non-European model.

Good luck with your accuracy quest.

I'm not even going to look at the accuracy. It's bad, much worse than muy N95 was, and since upgrading (if that word can be used) to V20 it's now totally useless. Tells me I'm on any road apart from the one I kow I'm driving on.

So how does one know for sure if they have a faulty GPS model?
I only got mine last week, so assumed it would be fine!

Hoping it's just a firmware issue like the N95 when it was new out.

angiepea wrote:I live at number 22 in my road, and the gps on my phone told me i was at number 14.

spiffing !!! 😃

when it comes down to accuracy in the loaction app, what accuracy reading are you getting, and does it say a number and stay there or keep going up and down?

Also when you look at the actual read dot representing your position and the address reported in the address bar, which is right?

I'm trying to find out if the maps are the real culprits in my case.

Cheers

riverboat wrote:Well on my window cill, the connection keeps dropping in and out every few seconds, and the accuracy ranges from
230 meters to
20 meters,
then back to 114 meters
then to 52 meters
to 13 meters

This is pointed at a clear sky, not in a built up area.
So i'm a bit worried about how it's going to work for navigation.
And i cant for the life of me get it calibrated (yes i've locked at the videos floating about)

Using Maps 3.03

I would not expect you to get a strong/accurate lock with your phone on a window sill as you are effectively blocking out at least 50%-75% of the sky with the building you are in.

To get an accurate GPS lock you need to be in the open with a clear, all round view of the sky as, ideally, you need to connect to 4 satellites. This is why accuracy goes down in built up areas and cities with tall buildings and narrow streets. See here:-

http://gps.about.com/od/glossary/g/A-GPS.htm

http://www.maptoaster.com/maptoaster-topo-nz/articles/how-gps-works/how-gps-works.html

Using my N97 (manufactured in Finland) and on v20, Ovi maps beta 3.03 and assissted GPS (with Access point set and server address = "supl.nokia.com"😉 I can get to within 5 metres of my position at home. This changes in the city to about 25-100 metres depending on the surrounding buildings.

Also it must be borne in mind that some countries (I live in the UK) limit their GPS accuracy (most notably the United States, I believe, for security purposes).

I have used my N95 8GB side-by-side with the N97 and both are showing identical accuracy.

Hiya, cheers for your reply, tried it in the rather chilly garde this moring, and same thing red dot appears to be fairly accurate, but address is inaccurate.......Found a very interesting post on Nokia Support Disscusions which i have cut and pasted here.
Ps i too am in the Uk, Watford, just outside London.

" On the subject of the GPS / Nokia Maps etc. There is also the fact that the digital maps themselves are not 100% accurate. I.E. the Navteq digital maps are not 100% accurate. Even when the GPS shows my position correctly, with the arrow hovering over my bedroom, my address is misreported. My house is quoted as Number 14, when I live in number 6. Number 14 is 20 to 30 yards away.

I understand what you're saying about the co-ordinates. I used to be a land surveyor, and was involved in early digital mapping (using programmable calculators - no PCs then, only mainframes

I have input my address as number 6, and defined this as "Home". When I'm away from home, and I tell it to take me home, it always wants me to travel on to number 14, and I have 20 yards left to my destination.

Sometimes when I arrive at my destination away from my home, I AM told "You have reached your destination", sometimes there is a residual distance to travel.

I've left it till the end to say that I've tested this, and come to this conclusion using external GPS's, as well as the internal GPS.

So the Navteq maps are not 100% reliable.

This is probably due to the use of geocoding of addresses, rather than the data providers actually identifing the exact location of each address (which would be an extremely intensive activity) they divide the road segments evenly and allocate each address this way."

So. there you have it then riverboat... I would say that your GPS accuracy is pretty good (I don't know if you live in a built-up area or not) if you are getting, in the UK, the location red dot within 5-10 metres, regardless of the address shown at the top of the screen which I would treat as guidance only, as stated in your post, due to geocoding of addresses.

This means that you could drive the length of the UK and (providing it's not in a city surrounded by tall buildings) arrive within 10 metres of where you want to be. Not bad going I would say. 😃

I have a stand alone car GPS and it is super accurate and detects position within 10meters even with US security measures. N97 GPS is truly faulty if you get high accuracy variance and its above 33 meters. Request your GPS tested before they send the repaired unit to you.

Just as a matter of interest MonarchX and riverboat, where are your handsets manufactured, this is shown on the white label underneath the battery.

Mine is Finland.

[email protected] wrote:So. there you have it then riverboat... I would say that your GPS accuracy is pretty good (I don't know if you live in a built-up area or not) if you are getting, in the UK, the location red dot within 5-10 metres, regardless of the address shown at the top of the screen which I would treat as guidance only, as stated in your post, due to geocoding of addresses.

This means that you could drive the length of the UK and (providing it's not in a city surrounded by tall buildings) arrive within 10 metres of where you want to be. Not bad going I would say. 😃

Countryside loaction, garden backs onto golf course.
Device made in Finland too.

Think i have just proved it for myself. i changed the made mode to "Satellite" and it is spot on, quite clearly even shows me at the back of the house. so i really do think my issue is down to the roads being cut up into chunks and each chunk getting just one house number.

Hence my Address showning either Number 6 (next door) and number 7, about 100 meters down the road and on the opposite side of the steet!

All this is done using my wifi connection, really just need my car holder to see how it keeps up whilst driving, and wether it gets a nice good lock on 3g connection.