Guest tobor Posted December 17, 2007 Report Posted December 17, 2007 (edited) Could you post this in a form suitable for direct OTA download to the device. Apparently, I am too dense to get it onto my desktop and then sync it to my Q. Thanks very much! It is in a form for your device. I pulled the cab right off of his post using my Q. Edited December 17, 2007 by tobor
Guest Icer Mize Posted December 17, 2007 Report Posted December 17, 2007 Attached is a COM3 version of the activator (as a CAB), which should solve the problems with power drain. Let me know! :( P The COM3 version of the activator seems to work fine. Thank you so much for your dedication to solving this problem, it is very much appreciated. :D Icer
Guest tobor Posted December 17, 2007 Report Posted December 17, 2007 (edited) An update. Woke up this morning, phone still had a full charge. Seems that all is working well. Went outside today, took Google Maps about a minute to find 5 satellites. Closed Google, started up Live, found satellites instantly. SO far so good. I did have an unexplained reboot today, with the only programs running was intshare.exe. We'll see if the reboot is a recurring problem. A further update. It seems as though if the gps hasn't had a lock on satellites within the previous 12 hours, it can take as long as 3 minutes to lock. Once it does lock, then the last satellite position is probably stored in the gps, because it will easily lock on again in a few hours if attempted. We need to get some program that will automatically download satellite positions,(my HTC 7501 did that.) Edited December 18, 2007 by tobor
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted December 18, 2007 Report Posted December 18, 2007 It seems powering the device off/on forces a cold start. P
Guest s13gator Posted December 19, 2007 Report Posted December 19, 2007 I have been following the COM3 download threads and have (I think) successfully downloaded it...I still cannot get my GPS to work through Google Maps...in fact I keep getting "fatal error" messages when I try to click on "where am I?". Am I doing something wrong? I thought if I downloaded the COM3 CAB then I could use gmaps with ease... Any help is appreciated.
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted December 19, 2007 Report Posted December 19, 2007 Google Maps is somewhat impatient in waiting for a fix it seems... Using GPSTest to get a fix first is reported to help! P
Guest Tin Star Posted December 20, 2007 Report Posted December 20, 2007 were do you get gpstest? Google is your friend...look for ver 1.04.....it can be found in several places and is free
Guest papes510 Posted December 20, 2007 Report Posted December 20, 2007 I installed the COM3 cab and nothing seems to be working. I tested with GPS test and after a while it stops at GPS off, and both Live and Google Maps fail to initialize...Any ideas/suggestions.
Guest Tin Star Posted December 21, 2007 Report Posted December 21, 2007 (edited) I installed the COM3 cab and nothing seems to be working. I tested with GPS test and after a while it stops at GPS off, and both Live and Google Maps fail to initialize...Any ideas/suggestions. After the install did you power cycle the phone? Also, did you set the com port and baud rate for gps test? Will Google maps show position using the driver? Are you outside with a clear view of the sky? Edited December 23, 2007 by Tin Star
Guest dbhouston Posted December 21, 2007 Report Posted December 21, 2007 Thanks to all of you for working so hard on this problem. As a satisfied user of Google Maps (they have traffic in my city) and Windows Live (nice interface, easy look-up of information), I'm happy with the intermediate driver but wish the phone would get a first fix more quickly. My understanding is that adding a COM port will not speed that up when the GPS is making a cold start. I've been participating in similar discussions on the Moto support forum, where we got a definitive answer from Moto technicians that the GPS unit on the Q9h is fully autonomous - rather than aGPS which gets a head start on finding satellites from the nearest tower. Yesterday, wmexperts.com reported on a simple way to teach the Sprint version of the Q9 to use the assistance servers on the network: http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/howto/ha..._on_sprint.html I wonder if AT&T has implemented something similar and the Q9h could be taught to pull that data? All the carriers are doing so as part of the E911 requirement, so it should be on the way. I'm no techie myself, but it seems to me the only way to improve first fix without severe battery drain is to narrow the range of sats the device must search for - the "a" in aGPS.
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted December 21, 2007 Report Posted December 21, 2007 The GPS is definitely independent of cell towers, since I had it working fresh from a hard reset, without a SIM in, in the UK :( GPS seems to be working fine, it's just a bit weak reception wise and a bit slow to first fix. It seems to cold start more often than it needs to, hence the slow first fix. Something like the HTC QuickGPS (which is for PPC so won't work) could be handy to feed it ephemeris data. P
Guest Tin Star Posted December 22, 2007 Report Posted December 22, 2007 (edited) Thanks to all of you for working so hard on this problem. As a satisfied user of Google Maps (they have traffic in my city) and Windows Live (nice interface, easy look-up of information), I'm happy with the intermediate driver but wish the phone would get a first fix more quickly. My understanding is that adding a COM port will not speed that up when the GPS is making a cold start. I've been participating in similar discussions on the Moto support forum, where we got a definitive answer from Moto technicians that the GPS unit on the Q9h is fully autonomous - rather than aGPS which gets a head start on finding satellites from the nearest tower. Yesterday, wmexperts.com reported on a simple way to teach the Sprint version of the Q9 to use the assistance servers on the network: http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/howto/ha..._on_sprint.html I wonder if AT&T has implemented something similar and the Q9h could be taught to pull that data? All the carriers are doing so as part of the E911 requirement, so it should be on the way. I'm no techie myself, but it seems to me the only way to improve first fix without severe battery drain is to narrow the range of sats the device must search for - the "a" in aGPS. I've been using GPS test to give me a head start on the gps fix on the days when I know I will be using the gps. If you leave it running in the background it will hold a fix and the battery drain doesn't seem excessive. Edited December 22, 2007 by Tin Star
Guest tobor Posted December 22, 2007 Report Posted December 22, 2007 (edited) I've been using GPS test to give me a head start on the gps fix on the days when I know I will be using the gps. If you leave it running in the background it will hold a fix and the battery drain doesn't seem excessive. I've installed GPStest. It will find 5 or 6 sattelites within 30 secs. Why is it so much faster to find sats than Google or Livesearch? Regarding GPStest left running, why not have GPStest automatically start a few times a day, and then shut down in a few minutes? I believe there is software available that will do that, and the program only needs to be started, no button clicks required in order for it to start locking on. p.s. Livesearch auto updated itself on my phone the other day (well, I had to click "okay"). Anyone know what the changes are to the new version? Edited December 22, 2007 by tobor
Guest romeo26 Posted December 22, 2007 Report Posted December 22, 2007 hmm...i use gpstest to start off the gps! it works fast even indoors!
Guest dwboston Posted December 23, 2007 Report Posted December 23, 2007 (edited) hmm...i use gpstest to start off the gps! it works fast even indoors! Thanks for all of the great info here. I downloaded the COM3 activator, GPS Test 1.04, Windows Live Search, and Google Maps, and got everything working (with no SIM card in!) from inside my family room in a few minutes. WLS seems a bit quicker to lock on and move around than GMM. Firing up GPS Test definitely allows the other programs to lock on quicker. Thanks to everyone here for sorting this out. Edited December 23, 2007 by dwboston
Guest RohanT Posted December 24, 2007 Report Posted December 24, 2007 (edited) I installed the COM3 cab and nothing seems to be working. I tested with GPS test and after a while it stops at GPS off, and both Live and Google Maps fail to initialize...Any ideas/suggestions. Same problem as above. I'm working with a Q9c & the registry values seem to match upto the Q9h. GPSTest gives "Looking for GPS Unit" for several minutes, then returns 'No GPS'. Similar situation with WLS. Any suggestions, holler. Edited January 3, 2008 by RohanT
Guest LuvrGirl Posted December 24, 2007 Report Posted December 24, 2007 Thanks for all of the great info here. I downloaded the COM3 activator, GPS Test 1.04, Windows Live Search, and Google Maps, and got everything working (with no SIM card in!) from inside my family room in a few minutes. WLS seems a bit quicker to lock on and move around than GMM. Firing up GPS Test definitely allows the other programs to lock on quicker. Thanks to everyone here for sorting this out. So... I've been following this thread and I think I'm about ready to do all these GPS customizations. Just a question though... if I'll only be running Windows Live Search and GoogleMaps do I really need to install this GPS COM3 activator CAB? Am I understanding this correct that you probably only need to install this CAB if you're going to be running something like CoPilot, right? If I'm wrong... then the steps I would take to start using my GPS to it's capacity is to load the COM3 activator CAB and then switch my LiveSearch and GoogleMaps to use COM3? And then run that GPSTest so try and start it up quicker on those days I'll be using it the most. Did I get all this right? Thanks guys! MaRiA :(
Guest Tin Star Posted December 25, 2007 Report Posted December 25, 2007 Am I understanding this correct that you probably only need to install this CAB if you're going to be running something like CoPilot, right? If I'm wrong... then the steps I would take to start using my GPS to it's capacity is to load the COM3 activator CAB and then switch my LiveSearch and GoogleMaps to use COM3? And then run that GPSTest so try and start it up quicker on those days I'll be using it the most. Did I get all this right? Thanks guys! MaRiA :( That about sums it up. Using GPSTest is like having an on off switch for the gps receiver. It also gives you a readout of speed over ground although it isn't as accurate as a full stand alone gps in that regard.
Guest supersha Posted December 26, 2007 Report Posted December 26, 2007 That about sums it up. Using GPSTest is like having an on off switch for the gps receiver. It also gives you a readout of speed over ground although it isn't as accurate as a full stand alone gps in that regard. well, i forgot about the gps on my Q9H for a week or so because I was getting frustrated with some of the phones limitations, but loaded GPS tester and now it works perfectly...it works just like Tin Star says. Now, if only I could get the LED indicator working...
Guest Willowz Posted December 28, 2007 Report Posted December 28, 2007 I find the GPSTest program was useless. It always asks for Bluetooth, then scans all ports and starts all over again. I never get this program to work. GPS works straight from Google and Live but the 1.5-2 minute wait to connect is terrible.
Guest Tin Star Posted December 28, 2007 Report Posted December 28, 2007 I find the GPSTest program was useless. It always asks for Bluetooth, then scans all ports and starts all over again. I never get this program to work. GPS works straight from Google and Live but the 1.5-2 minute wait to connect is terrible. Start GPStest open menu (right softkey)......GPS settings.....set to com3....set baud rate 38400............click save
Guest LuvrGirl Posted December 28, 2007 Report Posted December 28, 2007 Start GPStest open menu (right softkey)......GPS settings.....set to com3....set baud rate 38400............click save Hey Tin Star, if I'm not running the COM3 activator cab and I just leave my GPS setting as is (I think it's on the intermediate driver or something like that) 'cause I'm just running Google and Live Search, when I run GPSTest to give my GPS a kick start is there a setting for the intermediate driver as well? MaRiA
Guest Tin Star Posted December 29, 2007 Report Posted December 29, 2007 Hey Tin Star, if I'm not running the COM3 activator cab and I just leave my GPS setting as is (I think it's on the intermediate driver or something like that) 'cause I'm just running Google and Live Search, when I run GPSTest to give my GPS a kick start is there a setting for the intermediate driver as well? MaRiA I don't think there is and without being able to set it to find the gps on a com port (3 in my case) it will just continut to hunt for the gps.
Guest ericmhhui Posted December 31, 2007 Report Posted December 31, 2007 Hi, I am using Rogers in Toronto. After I installed the COM activator, both GPS Test and GPS Utilities work without any problem. However, when I try to use Mobile Gmaps from www.mgmaps.com, it complains about "Serial Ports N/A No serial ports are available on this phone" Am I still missing something?
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