Old Phone to GPS Converter
brucine Posted messages 24411 Registration date Status Membre Last intervention -
Hello, I would like to know if it is possible to improve its position. Indeed, I own a Samsung S3 GT-I9300, and I would like it to serve as a GPS for my bike. However, I realize that the location service is very poor and does not accurately locate my device. This may be explained by the fact that it does not have a SIM card. Yet I tried with a Samsung S10 + without removing the SIM card, and the location was spot on, the signal is perfect. But should I get a 4G dongle for my S3 to improve the signal or have special software?
4 réponses
Hello,
On a smartphone, location primarily works through the GPS chip. This location is independent of the phone network and does not consume data.
However, the position relative to cell towers can also be used. See this article: https://fr.organilog.com/454-fonctionnement-geolocalisation-mobile/
This is to inform you that even without a SIM card, you should have excellent location capability with the GPS system.
But there remains an essential problem: downloading maps. There are generally maps stored in memory that are more or less accurate. However, these maps must be regularly updated.
So if your smartphone does not have a subscription to a mobile phone service, you will need to have the maps pre-loaded, and the navigation service must know how to use them.
This may be possible with Visorando.
What is well conceived is clearly expressed,
And the words to say it come easily.
(Boileau)
Hello, I explained myself very, very poorly. My Samsung S3 is running Lineage OS 15.1 Android 8.1.0.
I'm trying to track on Strava. To start, the GPS signal works well, but during the tracking, the paths go off the roads and update every 5 seconds. Meanwhile, the S10+ tracked in real-time without going off the routes. Maybe the GPS chip is acting up. Any solutions?
Hello,
Even though it has been adapted to a more recent standard, the S3 is not exactly new; there is a logic to the fact that a model which is statistically 10 years younger, with a much larger screen and aimed at the "high-end" market, would be more performant.
Assuming that the comparison was made on the same route and with the same mapping, otherwise it doesn't make much sense, it is possible, as previously suggested, that the S3 can only connect to GPS and not to Galileo, which has much lower accuracy.
Or that the GPS coordinates received are not expressed with a sufficient number of significant characters, or indeed that the GPS chip is damaged.
In any case, I don't really see what can be done about it.
Good evening,
Your smartphone cannot connect to Galileo because it is too old and does not have the right chipset.
https://www.numerama.com/tech/412030-comment-savoir-si-son-smartphone-est-compatible-avec-galileo-le-gps-europeen.html
You can check which satellites are visible with the GPS Test app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chartcross.gpstest
Hello, the phone only connects to
A-GPS, GeoTagging, GLONASS.
So I think that connecting to these 3 services makes tracking complicated. I think it needs to access more services. There, I can only conclude that I can't turn it into a GPS Tracker.
Hello
The GPS service only connects to A-GPS, GeoTagging, GLONASS
So I think there's nothing I can do and therefore the phone will be used for something else.
Hello,
It's not the nature of the GPS network that prevents the smartphone from connecting to Glonass or Galileo, which are very precise.
However, depending on the area you're in, this reception can be poor, the location may show a delay in relation to speed, and the onboard mapping may not be up to par, poorly accounting for the profiles of roads or terrain.
Additionally, especially for mountain biking but also in mountainous areas in general, as mentioned in another thread, there is the absence of barometric altitude correction.
The GPS assumes, without correction algorithms, that the Earth's surface is perfectly spherical and at the same level.
In short, no matter how you look at it, even on a recent model, a smartphone is just an approximate positioning tool, and you need a dedicated hiking GPS for adequate precision.
Hello,
The contenders are the GPS chip, the application, and the mobile network.
Some phones do not have a GPS chip, which excludes certain applications that rely solely on GPS (I had an issue with this while hiking with my old phone and a specific application designed to identify a mountain on the horizon out of curiosity).
The application itself therefore needs to be able to interface with the GPS or the mobile network, to have a map of sufficient precision, and optionally, for that map to be usable offline (this is also the case with Maps.Me when the corresponding area has been downloaded previously).
In the absence of GPS, location is determined by triangulation with the mobile network, of course requiring a SIM card.
If the GPS chip exists, it is not certain that on a phone you can, as with a standalone GPS, choose the satellite network; ideally (satellite coverage area, absence of obstacles such as forests or buildings), GPS systems (or Glonass for Russian fans) have a precision of about 5 m at best compared to a few dozen cm for Galileo.
The triangulation of the mobile network depends on the quality of reception and the density of antennas, it can vary from roughly 200 m to several kilometers depending on the location.
In areas with mobile reception, Maps.Me offers, in my opinion, sufficient accuracy to get oriented on the road or in city streets on foot; by bike, I don't know, I don't have that article, what is then called into question is the refresh rate sufficient for the "speed".
If a high level of accuracy is needed (for example, mountain biking), and where one can also trace the route, the only solution combining both GPS accuracy and a suitable mapping is through a standalone hiking GPS (for example, Garmin, I have no shares).