Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

I'm guessing you're referring to the discounted Navicore that can be found on ebay or Expansys on occasion. Unfortunately all I've found in that realm are the Europe maps. I've yet to find a discounted navigation kit or Navicore for the USA. Please direct me if you know of something else - and I don't care for the pseudo-crack that involves resetting the trial period.

I would say that the Wayfinder prices would be OK if this was a few years ago, but feel that they need to stay in touch with the existing market.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

I know this was asked a while ago but here goes:

You start up A-GPS after your initial install. It starts up with a map of the world and you click your location on the screen, or as close as you can get to it. This tells the software an approximate location and uses that to download GPS almanac and ephemeris data to decrease the lock time from the internal GPS. Part of this data is which satellites are visible to you given your location.

You only need to run A-GPS once to set your location. Whenever an app starts that utilizes the GPS it will automaticially start the A-GPS service to help lock times. The only time you need to rerun the A-GPS program is if you've moved your location more than ~150 miles from your last lock position.

I've taken a renewed interest in the tablet GPS capabilities since my Nokia Maps 6 month trial expired. With the new A-GPS 0.12 beta that's available I have been getting surprising lock times, even driving down the highway at 80-90mph. As mentioned before, the large screen really makes it nice. Nokia Maps works great on my N95-4 and E71 and the lock times are still quicker on my phones than the tablet and the sensitivity is so much better on my phones than on the tablet as well. It's the screen that makes it so nice on the tablet. I'd love to see Nokia port Nokia Maps to the tablet (current or next gen) as it works well.

With the improved lock times I'm seeing I'd say I'm somewhat satisfied though I need to spend more time with it and perhaps hack on the 7-day trial again to see if Wayfinder is something I'd like to invest in. A 3-year license is fairly reasonable considering what others charge for service and/or map updates.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

im happy...i read the satellite lock wasnt speedy. im in cancun on vacation, so i downloaded the mexico maps for the maps app. i busted it out and after 5-8 mins i got a lock. i was in the open of course. but worked well enough to show me what street i was on.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

You are right. I don't know about the US license. But you can search around on the Buy & Sell forum here, or eBay as well. You have to hunt; not merely search. Save the eBay search terms. Navicore 2007 was the product I bought. But, for Europe indeed.

(I bought mine for 20 GBP on the Buy & Sell forum here.)

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

Great, but... what did you do during those 5-8 minutes? In your car picking your nose? Or..?

Imagine it'd take you ~1 minute like with all other proper GPS devices...

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

just to verify because I'm having a less than optimal clear brain thinking day; does A-Gps initially rely on wi-fi to pull in the sat tracking data if you are say a long way from your location when starting up cold. In other words if wi-fi is off and I get off the plane in another location around the world and I start A-Gps to update my location, does wi-fi come into play at all with A-GPS or is the software running independently of going online to get satellite locations, because I could have sworn I get faster sat fixes with wi-fi on when I switch A-GPS to another location on the map.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

This has been always a bit of mystery to me. It says it prefers my telephone connection, but my telephone service wants to provide a proxy, and rumor has it that A-GPS doesn't like proxies. On a wifi link, A-GPS looks fat dumb and happy telling me that the "Cache is invalid". Today I got a "Cache is valid". Guess I'll throw a party, since that's the first I've ever seen it.

I think the theory is is that when you get to your vacation location, you start up A-GPS (praying like hell you don't need a proxy), then pretend it downloads ephemeral ephemeris information (aka "give the GPS a clue") when you tap on some general location in your current place on the planet. Then you spend the rest of your vacation merrily looking at where you are.

The reality, from my perspective, is that you tap on A-GPS, wondering what the hell it is doing, and pretending that what you're doing isn't pointless. Then you speed the next 2 weeks of your vacation wondering if you'll ever get a lock. Info happily tells you "Cache is invalid", and this can continue for weeks.

A-GPS is supposed to give the underpowered GPS chip a clue as to "look over there for satellites". Since it gives no feedback, you'll never really know.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

AGPS should work with tethering as well. You can set that part up in AGPS GUI application. The cache is (in)valid informative feature is new in the latest AGPS beta

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

AGPS relies on a data connection to pull down the ephemeris data, wifi will work as well as a cellular connection. Actually when I pull up the AGPS app it only allows me to use my tethered cellular connection and doesn't give the WiFi AP as an option. Either way a data connection is necessary.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

It won't ask to use WiFi. It just uses that. Because there are no expensive data fees on WiFi AP usage whereas this is common on cellular connection (ie. international roaming).

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

The software is good, particularly with Google's maps, but I'm definitely getting a Holux M1200 for Christmas.
The built-in GPS sucks. when I'm on the streets trying to find a building, I'm not willing to wait more than 2 minutes for getting the lock.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

I took my n810 out for a drive today and the GPS was working great! Nothing fancy, just using the regular maps program. I'm not sure how long it took to get a lock, but it was within five minutes I was connected to 9 satellites. I'm not sure what I did to make it run better, but it definitely seems usable now. I don't need a GPS for getting around, but it's kinda fun to see the curve coming up, just before you come up to it. :)

My only complaints would be that when in the map app the screen never turns off. And whenever I open the map it always seems to default to Calgary which is really annoying.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

After cleaning up my N810, reflashed, updated and cloned to 2gb internal sd, Maemo Mapper can't get a gps lock anymore. I downloaded maps of my area but, that's about it. Maybe I haven't left it on enough. The last time when I was able to get a lock, I had the device on with MM running all night. Though, I am not sure if that is the reason why. I have a-gps installed and all.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

Well let me tell you my story. After a while I gave up on the n810, but Im a seasons kind of guy, and I started too look again for a solution to 1) useless gps software such as Mmapper(pretty and all but doesnt help at all when your lost) or Wayfinder (wayfinder is uslees because I live in Latin america and you have to fork over money) 2) the ridiculous time it takes to lock or the little time it takes to loose signal.

Solution #1

NAVIT!!!! cool new software that reads vector maps and its FREE!!!(its still a little buggy and requires a little time to config but whats even better, IT READS GARMIN MAPS!! GAAARMIIIN!!!!

Solution #2

I downloaded the so called A-gps even though I didnt know what tha **** was for, until I read about it and how it works on the nokia site (yes nokia actually did help with the device they sold and manufactured and put in a package to let others do the fixing for them). Let me explain the steps I took to see if they work for you

1. Open A-gps settings, Click all of the options. (if you have cell phone internet I recomend something with Edge).Then used my Davinci painting precision hand, to click on the nearest i could get to my previously known coordinates EXIT
2. Shutdown the device, turned it back on
3. Go outside of my house, clear sky, open the application called Maps (It started trying to connect to my cel phone via Btooth)
4. I took the gps 30-50 seconds to get a lock on the sattelites
5. Shutdown, and restarted the device again
6. Opened Maemo Crapper. (it didnt try to conect to my cell phone) 30-50 seconds to lock AGAIN!!!!
7. Shutdown, restart the device again!again!
8. Opend Control panel, went into GPs location>location, clicked refresh. It took again 30-50s to LOCK. AGAIN after 3 cold starts.

So Im not going to say im happy, Ill say Im finally happy, and waiting to be even more when Navit gets out of alfa state

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

I have found that the weather matters too much.
When it is sunny, I usually get a lock in about 1 minute (from cold start), but if the weather is bad, raining or snowing, I can't get a lock, not unless I can use internet to let it download the ephemeris.
It is clear that the chipset has low sensivity.

Re: Are you happy with your GPS(N810)?
 

I've played around with this a little more and if there's one thing Nokia can improve it's the time for the GPS to actually start collecting data. From the time that Mapper is started it takes 30-40 seconds for the program to actually see the GPS and collect data. I think this is the major issue with lock times is the initiation time of the GPS module. Once it sees the GPS it locks pretty quickly, 10 seconds or so. At least that's been my experience.