iNew V3 homemade GPS antenna fix

[linr76]

guys, i personally think this is an interesting fix, but keep in mind that if you post such stuff in a battery thread, noone is ever going to find it again.
this is why i split off the discussion so in future others can find also.

[ahabec]

On the one hand, I know from my childhood that you can improvise an FM antenna from a fork or indeed any piece of metal. On the other hand, read this:
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And then, all antennas in the v3 are covered by insulating tape, except the antenna used for making calls (is that called GSM antenna?) which is a piece of wire running along the right side of the back, all the way down to the bottom of the battery (for pictures, search this thread for "How to open the phone").

So I don't know whether the sticker works. I get a very fast lock when not moving, but when moving the GPS keeps tracking me but puts me NEXT to where I am (e.g. 20 meters east of the road) but CONSISTENTLY. So I'm starting to think this may indeed be a software issue after all.

I did all I could with Engineer Mode, GPS.conf file etc.
Without any extra antenna or aluminum foil, I can get 3 meter accuracy, and after a warm lock (taking about 10-15 seconds) the phone is connected to 5-10 out of 10-15 satellites. So it's receives signal really well.

Using navigation apps with the phone can be done, but it;s not very satisfying.

Mediatek chips seem to consistently have problems in that area, and I think many apps rely too much on a lock more precise than what the chip can achieve while the phone is moving (e.g. in a car).
The Qualcomm products are still much better in this respect.

Also, it seems like Waze and other apps rely very heavily on the GPS and almost not at all on integration of other sensors (compass, gyrospcope etc.), which is a shame, because the V3 has the same number of sensors as flagship phones from Samsung and LG.

It has linear acceleration sensor, rotation vector sensor, and g-sensor, which most Chinese smartphones lack.

[linr76]

a good point you are making here.
i guess thats also why the inew was and still is such a buzz, it has all the bells and whistles you would expect from a flagship device for the price of an entry/midrange model.
unfortunately that also means it's not going to be the greatest quality - as we can see with lots of threads about some quirks and problems...
but still, if you don't actually expect flagship device quality for 170 USD i guess there's not too much wrong with it.
the gps problems of MTK chipsets have been even worse in the past - on this particular phone it seems to be quite a bit better, but still far from perfect.
from what i can see, the GPS performance of Dual-Sim phones is not great in the first place. same is true for WLAN and GSM/3G reception (and thats also true for eg. Samsung Galaxy Grand - pretty much all the same like iNew V3 except the GPS is better and also with GLONASS)

[ahabec]

the gps problems of MTK chipsets have been even worse in the past - on this particular phone it seems to be quite a bit better, but still far from perfect.
from what i can see, the GPS performance of Dual-Sim phones is not great in the first place. same is true for WLAN and GSM/3G reception (and thats also true for eg. Samsung Galaxy Grand - pretty much all the same like iNew V3 except the GPS is better and also with GLONASS)

Linr76, are you hinting that perhaps the need to be on standby for two sim cards compromises the GPS antenna reception?

For me the dual sim capability is just a feature I never use. I bought MTK based phones because the chip is cheap (haha) enough to make the whole device significantly cheaper, and also because I believe its power consumption is relatively low.

I only use one sim card in the phone, so I think the "other" sim antenna is idle. Would this still affect GPS reception?

[prilepa_mg]

i dont think the problem is on mtk chips.i have also tablet (freelander pd10)with mtk 6577 but the antenna is big and the gps work perfect with IGO .i have ZTE bladeIII with qualcomm and the gps need 4-5 min. to cach the signal.the battery keeps 1 day on the ZTE.

[NexusTrix]

i dont think the problem is on mtk chips.i have also tablet (freelander pd10)with mtk 6577 but the antenna is big and the gps work perfect with IGO .i have ZTE bladeIII with qualcomm and the gps need 4-5 min. to cach the signal.the battery keeps 1 day on the ZTE.

Big +1. This not limited to MTK as a problem. I also had Qualcomm based GPS. Constantly getting stuck every 30 seconds.

People love to hammer them 'stupid China GPS' 'stupid China camera'. Qualcomm and Samsung HTC etc are not so much better...if at all.

[vampirefo]

My GPS is great on my MTK6582 DK C30, dead on, never drops connection, very accurate turn by turn and speed.

[linr76]

well at least the WLAN and GSM/3G reception works that way - both the iNew as well as the Samsung Grand have considerably less reception than my S3 or Note. difference? dual-sim vs single sim. (and price of course...)
interesting in all this is though that the inew has far better call quality than the Samsung Grand. even better than the Note, about the same as the S3 but none get anywhere close to the old S1.
i guess the antenna size has to be smaller because you need more of them, so that has to affect also the GPS negatively.
by no means measured or technically proven, just by comparing dual-sim vs single sim phones.
Tablets usually are better off since there is more space to put a better antenna.
but the same is true for "real" Navigation units - built in vs. mobile.

[nikstar]

It is also known that dual sim somehow affects the GPS.
There are a lot of navigation SW's that do not work on dual sim phones.

[vampirefo]

My C30 is dual sim, I have an att in one slot and tmobile in other, only att is activated, I use straighttalk, had to buy $60 kit to get started, it included 4 sim cards, and a cdma card. So I thought I was insert both cards seeing I bought them.