Possible to use Internal GPS in no coverage area?

[stifiling]

i used garmin XT in an airplane and watched the speedometer hit 600/mph.

[skfny]

The GPS will work in standalone mode, but not all apps will recognize it correctly. Apps like GPSTuner and BeeLineGPS do recognize the standalone GPS signal.

I just came back from a trip. The GPS works great in standalone mode. I turned it on at times during a flight (in airplane mode so all the radios were off) to identify towns and cities as we p***** them.

[gof]

I'll add my 2 cents to this.

I have used my Touch Pro in Europe (both Belgium and Germany, using several different apps, but mainly TomTom for actual road use) on two different trips. Obviously I didn't have cell signal while there! But I did notice a few things that might help people.

1. I updated the "QuickGPS app that comes with the phone just before leaving. It comes with the TP stock, and is supposed to speed locks by having the most recent sat position data on the phone (rather than the GPS having to aquire the data from the sats directly once it finds one). The data is good for about a week which will cover most folks, plus you can update it if you can get a wi-fi connection.

2. (most important IMHO) Try to get an initial lock WHILE NOT MOVING. I found that the GPS seems to lock much much faster if I take a minute to get an initial lock.

3. If you're having issues, try an app like GPSViewer or BeelineGPS to monitor the lock progress. Get a lock there, then launch your preferred app. It's not necessary, but can alleviate some of the stress. Note that GPSViewer won't show that final lock from the "GPS Status" screen. Seems like a glitch, but if you saw it get 4-5 sats, then shift to the setup tab, then back to the GPS Status tab and you'll see the final lock.

All in all it does pretty well. The big challenge is the initial lock (cold start). I think the driver is probably optimized to assume a USA location, so if you're in a area with poor sky visability (e.g. buildings, mountains, lots of trees, remember, the phone has an antenna to receive VERY weak signals from sats) you will take a lot longer to lock.

Hope that helps someone get this working.

[phunzoid]

Gof's comments sound promising for having success using the TP's GPS outside the US….i recently got a Touch Pro, prior to that I had a Mogul for a couple of years….i go down to the caribbean a couple of times per year (St. Maarten), and I was never able to get a GPS lock on the Mogul while down there

also, I would try to keep the GPS on during the plane flights, and for the domestic portion of the trip (houston to miami) i would keep the GPS connection for about 5-10 minutes after take-off, then lose it….i would then re-acquire the GPS lock when we got close to landing, and I was able to pick up a cell signal again

one time, as we were approaching St. Maarten, I did briefly aquire a GPS lock, but I turned the phone off after we landed, and when I turned the phone back on later I was never able to get a GPS lock again for the remainder of the trip

attached is a Google Maps screen cap with GPS tracking points, from the one trip where I did get a GPS lock in the caribbean, using the TrackMe app….(I forgot to turn on the GPS when leaving Miami, the one point in the screen cap is from inside the airport)