[Q] GPS max altitude? - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I have been using my phone to record my flights, and I have to say that I am impressed with the capabilities of the Galaxy S2 GPS receiver, it manages to keep tracking during the complete flight!
One problem though, the altitude reported by the GPS "saturates" around 6000m (20000 feet), it doesn't go any higher.
As anyone experienced the same behavior?
Wasca

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I guess the altitude is set using setGpsAltitude function in Camera.Parameters Class used by our cam.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.Parameters.html

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I don't understand your answer, I am not trying to take a photo!
What I am saying is that, when tracking my position during a flight, the altitude reported by applications like GPS test and GPS status never exceeds 6000m!
Hope I made my myself understood.
Wasca

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Ok. I don't know why i thought of camera
Afaik, GPS system has an altitude limit of 60,000 feet. Don't know why is it limited to 20,000 feet in your case.
Since GPS system uses a rough spherical model of earth to calculate our position, it works best when we are on the ground. But altitude calculation is a different story, since there is no surface as a base of calculation.
Altitude is calculated by measuring the distance from the centre of the earth and the radius of surface model (spherical model of earth). This way, it calculates distance/altitude from the surface of the earth. This calculation is affected by factors such as density of earth crust (relates to gravity), distance from GPS satellites, (~12,500 miles) etc.
For safety reasons, and to try and make calculation more accurate, GPS system uses an error bias towards the direction of earth. This way, on higher altitudes, GPS will tell you, you're lower than your actual position. That is why it says you are at 6000 m even when your altitude is higher than that.
If you notice the accuracy reading of your location at higher altitudes, error in altitude is roughly 3 times that figure.
Hope this helps.

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Thanks for this information, it was also new for me.

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I wouldn't say it is an accuracy problem. In this case, measured altitude seems to be ok until the plane reach 20,000 feet, then the altitude just stops increasing.
I think that google has flown the nexus up to 10km altitude, and the GPS kept measuring altitude.
It looks to me it's a bug of the GPS of our phone.
Wasca

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Hello,
I have recently used my galaxy SII on several flights. Initially I had a Locus Pro tracking running, switched the Galaxy to flight mode but forgot to turn the power off during start. I noticed this during the cruise at an altitude of >10000m. At this time the GPS was still on, but the track had stopped at 5487m at a speed of 832 km/h.
During the cruise the GPS seemed to be still working, 10 sats were received (could also watch the varying signal strength). However, position and altitude didn't update.
Now turned off the unit completely and starting it up. After some time a plausible (current) position was shown, however, with a wrong altitude (<6000m) This position froze again. I used several other GPS Apps, all with the same result.
My conclusion from this is:
The Sirf GPS chip seems to works well at this altitude and speed.
Either the Android 4.0.3 and/or the Samsung SW must have a setting to limit the use above 6000m .
I have contacted Samsung several times to get information about the maximum Height and Speed spec. of the Galaxy SII. The answer was always that they will contact the specialists - but never came back.
What I would like to do is to find this limiting setting, modify it to be able to track the flight with my Galaxy.
Any similar experiences?
Same problem with other smartphones?
Any suggestion?
Thanks
Dietrich