iNew V3 homemade GPS antenna fix

[ahabec]

I just yesterday sold my old (4 months old) Samsung Galaxy S2 plus (i9105p, not i9100) phone that the V3 now replaced.
The CPU on the Samsung is Broadcom BC28155 (unlike the Exynos 4210 in the i9100).

I don't know about all the other models you mentioned, but the GPS on the i9105p was precise all the time and had a quick lock every time, also indoors.

[junkpod]

Hello!
Your thread is very interesting, I would like to see thoes foil-antenne pictures, but they aren't int the thread yet, could you reattach?

I truly believe that the weak point of inew v3's GPS is the antenne. You can check it very easy, start gps-test app, wait for fix and try to touch the phones top-left edge by your finger (wet is better) and you can see the SNR of satellites' signal jump up by 20% instantly.
Of course the phone is very sensitive where you put in the car. In the dashboard holder it get weaker GPS signal, than you put as close as can to hthe windscreen.

I also thinking on a alu-foil or copper wire antenne addon. The first alu-foil attempt was shit, maybe made more shadow than improovment

[astrostar]

The aluminium foil is plausible and it works, just dont expect that the signal rises 10 snr points. Also it must me done with pacience, looking for the best spot to place the aluminium foil and do it by trial and error. If you use adesive aluminium tape dont forget to weaken the glue on some fabrics.
My expirience: in a place where I never got a snr of 40 now I can get it, or even 42. So, in my case an improvement of about 4 to 5 points. Some times can make the difference.

[ahabec]

The aluminium foil is plausible and it works, just dont expect that the signal rises 10 snr points. Also it must me done with pacience, looking for the best spot to place the aluminium foil and do it by trial and error. If you use adesive aluminium tape dont forget to weaken the glue on some fabrics.
My expirience: in a place where I never got a snr of 40 now I can get it, or even 42. So, in my case an improvement of about 4 to 5 points. Some times can make the difference.

With this device? if yes, can you post pictures?

[astrostar]

Here it is.
The small ribon gave me around 2 to 3 points on average and the big pieace plus 1...2.
I note the overall signal stronger.
As I said before, this is not an exact cience, you must try and see if signal boosts.
Maybe if we have direct access to antenna pins we could do something better, this way I belive the aluminium foil just acts like a reflector.

   

[prilepa_mg]

if you look at my pics ,you will see that i put the foil (the bigger part)outside.i tried like you but the signal wasnt good.outside is much better

[astrostar]

I tried the alu foil out from the phone just for testing proposes and indeed work well. The question is that I dont want something hanging outside the phone...
I belive a better antenna fix can be done even if it envolves some simple hardware mod.

[prilepa_mg]

i was thinking to conect the nfc antenna,but i dont have too much time now.but i will try

[ahabec]

I have applied Astrostar's foil mods and while I'm not sure they help, I am quite certain they don't do any bad.
I just hope if I decide to take off the foil it won't make a mess. (Glued with a UHU glue stick, I think it's relatively weak).

Something weird though, my gps.conf file reverted back to an older version after I modified it. I don't know whether this has anything to do with installing gravitybox and applying the location fix from there.

[ahabec]

I have tested and as far as I can tell the foil mod inside the case as Astrostar showed makes absolutely no difference for me.
I am really trying to think there is a software issue. When I navigate with google maps the little arrow showing my position keeps moving parallel to the route but not on it. It's almost as if some software conflict makes the GPS show the location off by 20-30 meters, but consistently.

No one has yet made any comment on the new software inew put on their site.