PPCGeeks Forums HTC Arrive HTC HD2 HTC Thunderbolt HTC Touch Pro 2 HTC Evo 4G HTC Evo 3D Samsung Galaxy S II Motorola Droid X Apple iPhone Blackberry
Go Back   PPCGeeks > Windows Mobile > WM Other Manufacturers > Palm Treo Pro

Notices


Closed Thread
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 09-19-2009, 08:56 AM
yuan_you's Avatar
Lurker
Offline
Pocket PC: Treo Pro
Carrier: Orange
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5
Reputation: 0
yuan_you is a n00b
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Questions about GPS

I've a few questions about Treo pro's GPS:
1) It's a "traditional" GPS getting data from satellites or it works with GSM towers ?
2) it's always on and consumes battery ? if yes, how can I turn it off. or it's off automatically when the navigation software is closed ?
3) How does QuickGPS work ? it retrieves what kind of information from Internet ? How it can know where I am if I'm at a location where there are no satellite signals ?

Thanks.

Yuan
  #2 (permalink)  
Old 09-19-2009, 09:39 PM
acidhax's Avatar
Regular 'Geeker
Offline
Pocket PC: Palm Treo Pro, Palm Pre
Carrier: Bell
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 452
Reputation: 575
acidhax knows their stuffacidhax knows their stuffacidhax knows their stuffacidhax knows their stuffacidhax knows their stuffacidhax knows their stuff
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Send a message via MSN to acidhax
Re: Questions about GPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by yuan_you View Post
I've a few questions about Treo pro's GPS:
1) It's a "traditional" GPS getting data from satellites or it works with GSM towers ?
2) it's always on and consumes battery ? if yes, how can I turn it off. or it's off automatically when the navigation software is closed ?
3) How does QuickGPS work ? it retrieves what kind of information from Internet ? How it can know where I am if I'm at a location where there are no satellite signals ?

Thanks.

Yuan
1) Depending on the application -- It can be both.

2) It is not always on. Thanks to the .NET platform.

3) All GPS applications do is grab your coordinants according to the relative positions between multiple satellites. If you can't get a signal, well, you don't get a signal.
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 09-20-2009, 08:46 PM
yuan_you's Avatar
Lurker
Offline
Pocket PC: Treo Pro
Carrier: Orange
Threadstarter
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5
Reputation: 0
yuan_you is a n00b
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Re: Questions about GPS

Thanks for your kind answer.
For 3), I know how usually a GPS works, but QuickGPS seems not a "usual" GPS, it doesn't use satellites, but connects only to Internet. Because it runs and retrieves data from Internet even before I use GPS for the first time (phone stopped, wifi enabled), so my location is unknown for him yet, and when I ran it, I'm at home without satellite signals, because when I then tried to launch the "real" navigation program, I had to hand my Tro pro out of windows to get signals. Because I stopped phone reception, it couldn't use GSM towers neither.
So my question remains: what does it retrieve from Internet?
  #4 (permalink)  
Old 09-26-2009, 08:17 PM
rdm's Avatar
rdm
PPCGeeks Regular
Offline
Pocket PC: Touch Pro, Treo Pro
Carrier: Sprint
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 50
Reputation: 15
rdm is a n00b
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Re: Questions about GPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by yuan_you View Post
Thanks for your kind answer.
For 3), I know how usually a GPS works, but QuickGPS seems not a "usual" GPS, it doesn't use satellites, but connects only to Internet. Because it runs and retrieves data from Internet even before I use GPS for the first time (phone stopped, wifi enabled), so my location is unknown for him yet, and when I ran it, I'm at home without satellite signals, because when I then tried to launch the "real" navigation program, I had to hand my Tro pro out of windows to get signals. Because I stopped phone reception, it couldn't use GSM towers neither.
So my question remains: what does it retrieve from Internet?
almost no home gets satellite signals which require line of sight to the sky. so unless your home has got not roof at all no "traditional GPS" on any device is going to work .

To your question of what and why why the Pro is attempting a connection to the internet, it is because it will first try "assisted GPS", which is a combination of using information available through the network and the satellites, most usually the information from the networks is used to get a better initial fix on the satellites.

So what your Pro is trying to do with the internet connection is get some combination of current "ephemeris", "almanac", and or atomic time. It can get all these from the satellites alone, but this can take longer depending on when you last used the GPS. If you last used the GPS 15 minutes ago, all the information is fresh and current, if you last used it a week ago or flew across the country all the startup information is gone.

If you are in clear line of sight to the sky (outside!) and blocking internet connection you would find that the first time using the GPS could take 15 minutes to get a location and subsequent times would be between a couple of minutes to instant, with an average of less than a minute.

Adding the internet connection, through your carrier's data service or wifi would reduce, again when outside, the times to on average less than 15 seconds.

If the Pro cant get any four satellites, which generally produce a resolution of <10 meters, can also get a fix within 600 meters using mobile towers if set up correctly.
Closed Thread

  PPCGeeks > Windows Mobile > WM Other Manufacturers > Palm Treo Pro

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:27 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
©2012 - PPCGeeks.com