GPS in a smartphone: what is it and how does it work? How to set up GPS satellite navigation on Android How to launch a navigator on Android

WATCH EVERYONE!

All modern Android smartphones and tablets are equipped with a GPS module. This allows these devices to be used as GPS navigators. In addition, the presence of a GPS module allows you to leave GPS tags on photos and use many other useful features. In this regard, many novice users are interested in how to enable GPS on Android. This article will guide you on how to enable Location Services (GPS) on your Samsung Galaxy.

Why do you need GPS?

GPS signal helps to understand where in the world you are now. This is useful for several reasons:

• Navigation application will help you not to get lost in the forest;

• With navigation, you can navigate even in an unfamiliar city;

• You can easily find the address you need;

• You are saved from traffic jams - the Traffic Jams service helps to avoid them;

• Various apps show you nearby eateries and malls;

• GPS helps determine the speed of movement.

WHAT IS THE ARTICLE ABOUT?

Two ways:

• Through the notification bar

• Via phone settings

Method 1: Use the notification bar

1. Open the notification panel

• To do this, swipe down from the top of the screen.

2. Swipe down again on the notification bar

• This will display several additional icons.

3. Swipe to the side on the icons

• The second page of icons will be displayed.

4. Click the Location icon

• The icon will turn blue, which means your GPS is on.

Method 2. Through the phone settings

1. Open "Settings"

2. Click "Connections"

3. Scroll down and tap Location

4. Move the switch to the "On" position

Today, all modern smartphones are equipped with a built-in GPS module that shows your location. You can use your smartphone as a navigator during sports or driving, and use it to get up-to-date news or weather information in your city. Now let's figure out how to check the GPS on Android, that is, whether the location module is working on your device or not.

There are 2 options to resolve this issue, simple using the application, and a little more difficult using the standard capabilities of your smartphone ( engineering menu).

Checking and configuring GPS using the app

Out of all the apps we've tried, the simplest and most effective one is. This app can quickly help you find all the satellites in your area, pre-configure them, and possibly use other features.

Features of GPS Test for Android

• Shows information about visible satellites;
• Shows the active satellites currently in use;
• Gives accurate data geopositioning;
• Shows exact coordinates;
• Gives the time zone data at the location;
• Indicates the position of the satellites in the sky;
• Can serve as an electronic compass;
• Provides a variety of data, ranging from time and date, ending with altitude;
• Gives information about sunrise and sunset times where the device is located.

How to check the status of a GPS navigator using GPS Test

We open the application, and if we see in the upper left corner the inscription " 3D Fix“It means that the navigator works correctly and performs all its functions without the slightest problem. Shows " no fix"? Unfortunately, there are problems with the device and its coordinated work is impossible.

Constant switching between the above modes may also be due to poor conditions for obtaining a GPS signal. This is caused not only by being indoors, even inappropriate weather conditions, such as rain or strong winds, can affect.

Shows " off"? Everything is easier here. The receiver is simply disabled. To enable it, we perform an easy procedure: open "Settings", go to the "Location" item. A new menu called "Location Services" opens. There are three modes in total:

1. "According to network coordinates"
2. "GPS satellites"
3. Auxiliary data.

For the most accurate determination of the location, for example, in a car, we recommend that you activate all the items at once. Of the networks, Wi-Fi works best, of course, but if the conditions do not allow it (being on the street, etc., as is usually the case), use the mobile Internet.

Using this program, you can find out a lot of useful information about your phone and its additional features.

Setting up and adjusting GPS through the engineering menu

This method will help to check the quality of the established standards, which show how well the GPS on the phone works.

1. To do this, you need to move to the engineering menu. Enter the code (where we usually write the subscriber number) *#*#3646633#*#*;
2. Next, you need to find the YGPS item (or something similar);
3. As a result, a map should appear, on which there will be many yellow dots. They may not appear immediately.

Just these points and talk about the number of satellites that have been found. If you measure the time from the beginning of the scan to the full load of all the satellites found, the quality of the installed GPS will become known. Later, this data can be compared with other devices, for example, by borrowing from a friend.

Video instruction

Poor performance of GPS satellites indoors

But do not forget that GPS may not pick up the signal well while you are standing indoors (especially in a high-rise building) or near electrical appliances. So it is better to use the location function in an open area (street) or, in the most extreme case, by the window.

It is worth remembering that it is better not to leave GPS on all the time, use it only when necessary. This will save battery power two or even three times longer. Using the widgets, you can put the inclusion and disabling of GPS on the desktop.

IN modern smartphones navigation modules are built in by default. In most cases, they work quite accurately. Just turn on GPS in settings, launch the Maps app, and the app will determine where you are in minutes. And if you did not turn off the GPS, then the definition will take a few seconds.

But what if the GPS is not working? How then to determine the route, speed, your location? Do not rush to carry your smartphone for repair: most often this is solved by properly setting up the phone.

Auxiliary services

In addition to the actual satellite receiver, auxiliary settings are sometimes very useful to determine your location. As a rule, they are easily enabled on the phone itself:

• A-GPS. This service downloads your location data from the Internet using data cellular networks to which you are connected. Of course, its accuracy is much lower, but it speeds up accurate satellite determination.
• WiFi. And you did not know that according to the data WiFi networks can you locate it too?
• EPO. However, more about him below.

When tuning is necessary: ​​Mediatek curiosity

Today, Mediatek (also known as MTK) is one of the leaders in the production of mobile processors. Even giants such as Sony, LG or HTC today create smartphones based on MTK processors. But there was a time when the processors of this Taiwanese company were used only in wretched iPhone clones or dual SIM dialers.

In 2012-2014, Mediatek released quite decent chipsets, but they constantly had a problem: incorrect GPS operation. Satellites with such devices behave according to the quote: "I'm hard to find, easy to lose ..."

It was all about the settings of the EPO auxiliary service. This service, developed by Mediatek, helps to calculate the orbits of navigation satellites in advance. But here's the problem: the EPO data pre-installed in Chinese phones is calculated for Asia and fails when used in Europe!

This is easily fixed in modern models. Recall that all these instructions are only suitable for smartphones on MTK processors:

• Open the menu android settings
• Go to the "Time" section and set your time zone manually. This is to opt out of network location for time.
• Go to the "My location" section, allow the system access to geodata, check the boxes "By GPS satellites" and "By network coordinates".
• Via file manager go to the root directory of the memory and delete the GPS.log file and other files with the GPS combination in the name. Not sure if they are there.
• Download and install the MTK Engineering Mode Start app that allows you to log into your smartphone (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.themonsterit.EngineerStarter&hl=ru).

• Move to an open area with good visibility. There should be no high-rise buildings or other objects that interfere with a direct view of the sky around. Internet must be enabled on the smartphone.
• Run the application, select the MTK Settings item, in it - the Location tab, in it - the EPO item. As you may have guessed, we are updating EPO data for YOUR time zone and time!
• Click the EPO (Download) button. The download should happen in seconds even with a weak connection.
• Return to the Location section, select the YGPS tab. In the Information tab, press the Cold, Warm, Hot and Full buttons in sequence. With their help, information about the location of the satellites in orbit is updated, so each time you have to wait for the data to load. Fortunately, it's a matter of seconds.

• In the same tab, click the AGPS Restart button. The AGPS auxiliary service will now take into account already downloaded data and determine the position of satellites more accurately.
• Switch to the adjacent NMEA LOG tab and click the Start button. After that go to the Satellites tab. You will see how the system detects satellites. This process should take 15-20 minutes, during which the satellite icons will turn from red to green. Make sure that the display does not turn off at this time, but rather disable sleep mode altogether. When all (or most) satellites turn green, return to the NMEA Log tab and click Stop.
• Restart your smartphone.

Yes, this is far from the easiest procedure. Depending on the version of the MTK processor (we described the steps for the MT6592 platform), the procedure may differ slightly, but essentially remains the same. But after these steps, GPS on your smartphone will work great.

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Navigation modules in today's Android smartphones are built in at the production assembly stage. As a rule, these useful additional devices not bad. It is enough to turn on gps using the settings menu and launch the downloaded "maps" application. After a couple of minutes, the device will determine the location.

With the constant gps turned on, determining the coordinates will not take even one minute. However, sometimes this function does not work in android gadget. Most often, the problem lies in incorrect or completely missing gps settings.

Required additional services

Data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EPO-Mediatek.png" alt="(!LANG:epo-mediatek" width="100" height="100" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EPO-Mediatek..png 150w, http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EPO-Mediatek-120x120.png 120w" sizes="(max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px"> !} In order to determine your location, you use a satellite receiver in your smartphone, but it is recommended to set up auxiliary services. They run without any problems on an android phone:

1. a-gps (a service that additionally downloads location data from the Internet, using the services mobile operators. The determination accuracy of this option is of course worse, but thanks to its operation, accurate satellite determination is accelerated);
2. wifi;
3. EPO (a service from Mediatek, which calculates in advance the movement of navigation satellites in orbits.

However, the pre-installed EPO data in phones is designed for Asian countries and may only work intermittently in Europe. During 2012-2014, Mediatek began to produce chipsets with excellent characteristics, which are now used in their products by Sony, LG, HTC brands. Thus, in Android smartphones with an MTK processor, there is a problem with navigation, which consists in the malfunctioning of gps).

Smartphones based on the Android operating system have gained universal recognition. Mobile devices are used by both school-age children and elderly people who have retired. The main advantage of a smartphone over a conventional phone is its wide range of capabilities.

Firstly, the device has an operating system, which allows you to install additional software, replacing inconvenient pre-installed programs or even missing features. For example, using third party applications you can significantly improve the quality of photos and videos.

Secondly, any, even the cheapest smartphone has an impressive number of modules. Usually in mobile devices Android has several cameras, sensor, proximity, gyroscope, magnetic sensor, GPS navigator and much more. In addition, an Android device by default must have a productive filling in order for the operating system to start and function on it. Thus, a phone on the operating system 4.4 must have at least 1 gigabyte random access memory and quad-core processor.

Navigation function
One of the most interesting sensors is the so-called GPS module. This sensor is installed in almost all smartphones, because thanks to it, the following applications get access to the user's geodata:

Weather forecast - the application automatically shows the weather forecast for the region in which the person is located, while the user does not need to fill in the place of residence. Moreover, when a person moves, the application automatically changes the location.
-Browsers - if a person visits a particular resource, the browser knows its location in advance, offering up-to-date news, language settings and much more.
-Customers for social networks- much more convenient when the list of possible friends includes people from the same city or country as the user himself.
-Navigation - programs that directly track the location of a person on the map.

Before purchasing a smartphone, the buyer should pay special attention to the presence of a GPS module. Indeed, in some smartphones, only A-GPS navigation is used, which requires a constant connection to the Internet.

Comparison and choice of navigator
Since the smartphone has operating system, you can install any number of navigation applications on it. Nevertheless, the most popular and multifunctional of them are:

Google Maps - free app, the advantage of which is synchronization with Google services. The program allows you to view the map in normal mode and satellite mode. Unfortunately, the offline version has many limitations. In addition, the application interface is quite complicated for the average user.

Yandex Maps - for a long time, the application has been a favorite navigation tool for taxi drivers. The program shows traffic jams and traffic congestion, works both in normal and satellite mode. Unlike Google Maps, Yandex allows you to cache satellite images in your phone's memory. In other words, a person can download the site he needs in advance in order to use it later. Unfortunately, many functions are implemented exclusively in large cities of Russia, while in some other CIS countries, the application has partial restrictions.

Navitel - despite the fact that the application does not have satellite images and is paid, it is Navitel that comes closest to professional navigation tools. Among the tools of the navigator, there are many sensors that determine the speed of movement, the odometer, the time of sunrise and sunset, and much more. The application settings have several profiles for using the smartphone as a pedestrian, cyclist, motorist or when traveling by public transport.

Preset Navitel
Before starting the program, you must enable GPS navigation in the settings. The launched application will not immediately start working, because it may take a certain amount of time to search and connect to satellites. The speed of connection to satellites depends both on the smartphone itself and on weather conditions. In clear weather, the smartphone connects to satellites faster.

At the top of the application, there is a sign of a satellite dish, by clicking on which, the user enters the menu, in this menu, select the “Satellites” section. In the tab that opens, a person can see how many satellites the smartphone is connected to. Active satellites are indicated by green columns.

Another, most important setting is switching navigation modes, for this you need to call the menu, enter the settings and go to the "Navigation" section. In the navigation section, the first option allows you to select the type of navigation, such as "Pedestrian".

Create a route
As soon as the application connects to at least one satellite, Navitel will indicate the current location of the user on the map. To build a route, a person can move in any convenient way on the map, after which, tap the desired object. The next step, the person clicks on the "Cursor" parameter (at the bottom of the screen) and presses the "Let's go" button. If the path to the desired object is long enough, the application may take several minutes to plot the route.

Another way to create a route allows you to set the destination through the menu. To create a route, you need to call the menu, go to the "Route", "Create a route", "By address" section, where you indicate in turn the country, city, street, and house. After specifying all the parameters, Navitel will show the final result on the map and the user will only have to press the "Let's go" button.

Summing up, it can be noted that for users who do not want to pay for navigation, there are other applications similar to Navitel, only free. In addition, you can give one little advice, when working with Navitel, you can not use the Internet, and yet, if the user has the opportunity to use the Internet, it is better to do this, because when the Internet is on, the A-GPS function is activated, thanks to which, the search process satellites is greatly accelerated.