[Q] External GPS - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a Samsung Galaxy TAB 7, the original. I now use it as my SAT NAV in my work vehicle. Its a great size but the GPS is a little flitty. It seems to drop out when I reckon it just shouldn't
Is there an external GPS unit that I can install in my vehicle that has an external Antenna connection that could be mounted on the outside, or windscreen?
In fact, I have a windscreen mounted antenna from a previous Kenwood fail.
I would assume that the connection would be via Bluetooth, or perhaps USB, assuming I am using a ROM that supports OTG.

Related

GPS Antenna?

I noticed this item for sale and was suprised because I was under the impression that it was determined that GPS didn't work on the Hermes due to technical limitations even when using a Trinity radio. Go figure.
http://cnn.cn/shop/8525tytnhermes-antenna-p-1615.html
pof has been alreayd pmed about this yesturday. waiting for a reply from him to see if he is willing to buy to see if it'll work. if you read more closely you would find the gps is missing the antenna and it requires lost of work to get one in there. this might be able to go in where u put a gsm antenna but lets wait for pof to see what he says.
aha... thanks for the update.
jakirkla said:
I noticed this item for sale and was suprised because I was under the impression that it was determined that GPS didn't work on the Hermes due to technical limitations even when using a Trinity radio. Go figure.
http://cnn.cn/shop/8525tytnhermes-antenna-p-1615.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would be excellent although the Hermes GPS is not Sirf III....
Anyone tried this one?
got pm from pof. the antenna will only help bluetooth gps and not the internal gps. oh well. thanx to pof for saving us the trouble of buying then finding it wont work.
damn man, i bought that antenna as soon as i saw it up!! soooo... like..... theres nothing i can do with this??
ok, it doesnt seem to work.
but it has to help the internal gps, the way it seems SHOULD function wouldnt make sense to help the bluetooth gps. ive seen many other cable GPS like this one on the internet. anyone else buy this?
I'm not sure I follow the function of the antenna....if it is just helping the bluetooth gps, is it then more of a bluetooth antenna, or does it just do nothing for the 8525?
I thought the bluetooth gps was its own antenna, otherwise what would the purpose of it be? Thanks!
I know this sounds sketchy... I read a post a while back about this port where you can attach antenna. A person working with the GPS project for the Hermes TyTN device discovered this port and connected a different model of antenna from Radio Shack. He went on stating that this port is for GPS. NOT Bluetooth When he connected the other style antenna he noticed both his reception (data,voice) increased along with the number of satellites he could acquire.
This is in one of the threads realated to the GPS. He has pictures and stuff too.
I stand corrected.. This was not found in the development thread of GPS with the HTC TyTN device.. This was in a thread where the person took apart their device and showed different pictures of the ""guts"" I'm trying to find the link for the thread now..
any updates on if this worked or not?
I do remember reading somewhere about how people were trying to physically build in a small GPS device into there 8525.
Although nothing about this antena though.
Makes me wonder if there is an actual built in GPS reciever inside the phone.
xtinxkanx said:
Makes me wonder if there is an actual built in GPS reciever inside the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No but I think *some* of the hardware necessary is present. Why not just use a bloutooth GPS rather than having one tethered?
if anyone could post an update it would be appreciated...
what i have learned is that the gps antenna posted on cnn.cn is a type that is supposed to amplify and intensify the signal for your bluetooth gps... but this still confuses me. im guessing it boosts the signal for that the bluetooth attempts to pick up, but why am i plugging it into my 8525 then??
i hope there is some sort of use for this paper weight... besides the paper weight.
Theres no way that thing would fit inside a hermes is there?? It looks huge.. the kind of antenna youd need in a hermes is a tiny one shaped to fit into the top of the phone...
That anteanna is simply that.. a gps external antenna.. theres thousands of those available..
you can use it on a gps navigation system with an antenna connector in order to position the antenna for better reception.. like if you have a coated windscreen that gps cant get through you can use that lead round to the sunroof or back window to allow it to gwet signal while still having the gps unit under the windscreen where you can see it..
That thing is a standard GPS antenna.. the one needed would be a tiny thing.. with no wire and a whole load of soldering and work to fit it... it will probably never happen.. certainly not with something off the shelf like that id imagine. (you could maybe strip that down and get at the actual antenna inside.. but i highly doubt it would a)be small enough, b)fit, c) work afterwards or d) be in any way easy enough to acheive.
From the pictures on the site it looks like that thing plugs into the external antenna socket on the hermes.. but that wont give you gps.
It might improve signal quality in the car though..as it will probably work in some way as a GSM antenna.
(Have you tried plugging it in under the litttle rubber cap on the back of the phone as shown and seeing what happens - it may of course blow up the phone since it ISNT designed to go in this hole!)
Bluetooth gps is a lot better...becuase it is wireless...I have the holux 240 (smallest on the market)...and it can pick up signal inside my house
The GPS was investigated already for the TyTn, it will never work. The chip has the GPS capability however, there are many pins tied to ground. It would take major modification to attempt to use the internal GPS.
Use bluetooth like Holux, forget plugging anything into the rear antenna port. You have been warned!
so what is the deal? are you telling me that if i buy this external antenna http://cnn.cn/shop/8525tytnhermes-antenna-p-1615.html a gps application will not work? if not how can i get navigation on my device?
explain to others as it was explained unto you!
lodownlv said:
so what is the deal? are you telling me that if i buy this external antenna http://cnn.cn/shop/8525tytnhermes-antenna-p-1615.html a gps application will not work? if not how can i get navigation on my device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you read carefully, you will finally understand that not having it is not going to deny your hermes a gps app.
External= the outside; outer surface; exterior.
antenna=a conductor by which electromagnetic waves are sent out or received, consisting commonly of a wire or set of wires
therefore external antenna mean outside the unit,
gps application = software for use inside the unit
Options therefore:
1. TyTN + INTERNAL BT antenna + BT gps receiver + gps app = works fine
2. TyTN + INTERNAL BT antenna + BT gps receiver + gps app + External antenna(plugged into little hole on back of TyTn not your butt = works much better (because of better reception).
Therefore, unless you install TOMTOM 6 on your pc and expect it to work on your PPC thats the only way it wont work.
Even easier to understand is this:
Imagine you are in your car and you are driving you want to listen to music(find a route) on the radio(your TyTn). Its easy to find your favorite station(gps sat) as your radio(TyTN) already has an
External antenna if you were to unplug the external antenna then you would only be able to pick up a few stations but the radio would still work.
and to the question of getting navigation on your device, you would a) have to install a gps mapping software(TOMTOM navigator comes to mind) b) have a wired or unwired gps RECEIVER. that is all.
Hope i explained it good enough.
FYI I'm using TomTom navigator 6 and Qstars 32 channel bluetooth receiver on my Hermes and it works just fine, and i dont have an external antenna.
If you need any more help feel free to pm me.
Cheers.
1. TyTN + INTERNAL BT antenna + BT gps receiver + gps app = works fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct.
2. TyTN + INTERNAL BT antenna + BT gps receiver + gps app + External antenna(plugged into little hole on back of TyTn not your butt = works much better (because of better reception).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite correct. For the external antenna to improve GPS reception it would need to be plugged into the GPS receiver - not the phone. Plugging it into the phone will be a complete waste of time because the phone does not 'do' GPS. Wired GPS receivers can't be used with the Hermes - it has to be Bluetooth.

Connecting Note to Car Stereo

I currently have an IPhone 4s and have a car windshield mount (which the note will fit in), but I have a separate cable (iphone cable) that connects to the head unit which charges and of course allows me to control the ipod from the head unit. (shows song titles and such).
What is the best way to connect to the head unit? Is there a head unit that has android integration?
BTW...my current head unit is a Pioneer AVIC N4.
TIA
Does the head unit have an aux input jack or Bluetooth? If not (and I don't think it does) you'll need to swap head units
Bataga said:
Does the head unit have an aux input jack or Bluetooth? If not (and I don't think it does) you'll need to swap head units
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get the Bluetooth Module for it but that's only for calls. It does have USB Mass Storage capability though.
I assume that will work (or that's what I need)??
Are there any head units out there that are more Android friendly?
Not really. The USB port may not read the device and only let you use a flash drive. I bought a normal unit with auxiliary front and plug my phone and satellite into that. Gotta get the car dock if you want to charge while driving but I never run low batt and I drive like 5-8 hours a day.
usb mass storage should work with all android phones. it would read it just like the usb flash drives. ive had tried this with an htc inspire on a kenwood stereo. all function controls with file discriptions works.
idanoclo said:
usb mass storage should work with all android phones. it would read it just like the usb flash drives. ive had tried this with an htc inspire on a kenwood stereo. all function controls with file discriptions works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like this might work then.
As a side note...anyone know what the best head unit for android would be?
majority of after market stereos now are intended for the use of ipods but will work for all standard usb drives. if you are unsure, you can always test the demos at your local audio shop.
edit:
for your pioneer avic n4 you need this add-on for usb connection. pioneer cd-ub100
I am looking for a car dock but one that dose not have that stick thing at the end because I need to take it off each day and I don't know if you could do that with the one that's out now
Still looking for a good head unit. I currently have the Pioneer AVIC N4, but to add either bluetooth or USB, it will cost me about a hundred bucks. (Bluetooth is voice only).
I saw the Parrot Asteroid online, but it seems a bit steep (and a bit young...needs some updated firmware I think)
http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/bluetooth-hands-free-car-kits/parrot-asteroid
Any other options out there that you think would be a good fit?? I assume since my Note is nice and big now, that Navigation isn't necessary in the head unit.
I have a pioneer that I use the USB with a 32gb thumb drive just loaded up with music. The phone is also bluetoothed to the head unit for phone calls. I am going to work on using the samsung car dock with a usb host cable and an external hard drive to play media in the car. Only problem I have yet to figure out is how to power it while still using the usb host cable. If I can't find a way I am going to try out a seagate satellite hard drive my buddy has sitting around. Could be a good option, Ive just heard the seagate app kinds sucks

Any apps for USB car stereo mounting?

This is a recurring problem i keep having across android phones and I'm trying to find some kind of solution ....
Ive got a few different car stereos, they all allow usb mass storage mounting to directly read/play songs from the phone.
They all require the same basic things: they expect to see a fat32 partition, they load the first and only the first partition that they can see, and they load every "media" file in the drive, including the nav turn by turn cache, etc.
Im hoping someone can write a program similar to "multi mount sd card" that basically allows you to choose a particular folder where you know all of your music, and only your music, is stored, and present that single folder to the car stereo as a good old fashioned mass storage device with a fat32 partition. Theoretically, id hope to leave the rest of the storage access able to the other programs on the phone, the only thing that would be affected maybe is the music player....which i wouldn't be using. I have different kinds of problems with getting this to work across different phones, an app like this could fix them all at once.
Ive got a lot of different tech experience e but im not a dev by any stretch. Ive tried a lot and my current issue is card order, stereo is seeing the internal card but my music is on external and it refuses to look past the first partition.
Anyone got any ideas? Ive got a razr (vzw) on the 215 leak.
Just wondering, I have a few decks in my cars and trucks also... Why do you plug your phone into the deck? I just recently got a Pioneer deh-6400bt for 149$ that allows me to seamlessly use Bluetooth to play music and also to talk with for hands free since its technically illegal to talk on the phone in Oregon....gr... anyways, And another point almost all decks that I have used, kenwood, alpine, pioneer, don't push enough power through the USB to make it worth your while to plug your phone in while using it. And all of those decks that had USB input also had a AUX input in the front.
he probably wants to use the deck to control the music, which can't be done with the aux cable
That is true... Have to tell you though.. BT is the shizzz though.. get in your rig and start it up... connects to phone and continues streaming where it left off and having the hands free is awesome
1. I actually have the pioneer deh-p6200bt in one of my cars - and it doesn't stream bluetooth audio, only phone functions. My other vehicle has a deck which can stream BT audio, and it's great for some things, like pandora, but with my internal music collection the audio quality is just not up to par, it's an obvious weak link.
2. The USB port charges at standard USB rates. It isn't a quick charge but it's certainly enough to make things worthwhile. I've found that on extended, 6-10 hour drives, running pandora, wifi tether, nav, torque and leaving the screen on constantly, yes, it can discharge to the point where it shuts off. I was running this configuration while driving for a touring band once. More often, however, I'm not using everything at once, and i turn the screen off just because I don't always need it. It seems that I can run pandora, nav, torque, and have the phone still actually charge, it was serving wifi tether to the rest of the van that caused the phone to go over the edge and actually pull more power than it wAas getting in. Moreover, the bigger problem I wind up having is that phones will actually stop charging themselves from overheating (sun heat through windshield, and/or just to much load on the phones systems at once), at which point the amperage is irrelevant. In fact this may have been the ONLY problem I was having, while driving I couldn't pay enough attention to the phone to figure out much other than "oh hell it shut off cause its cooking itself".
3. Yes, I want control over tracks from front of deck, and USB is THE most complete way to do that, especially in the one car I have where i have steering wheel controls. I can search for specific tracks from the wheel, as well as call up any phone functions, which is more than the BT side would be able to do - in BT audio mode my systems seem to only be able to start/pause and track forward/reverse. Having hardware buttons that handle both phone and music leaves the screen of the device free for torque or maps.
4. On the audio quality note, if you're playing digital files stored on the device, nothing beats using the stereo to play them via USB, because the deck itself is the actual computer doing the conversion and the D/A converters in the deck should theoretically be nicer than anything in a cell phone. Its the cleanest path one could have.
For things like pandora, this isn't always possible, and in that case the next best option would be a toss up between BT and the 3.5mm jack, based on your ears which is cleaner. in absolutely ideal scenarios, where BT on the deck supports the more recent high quality a2dp codecs, BT can sound as good or better than the cable. A2DP audio isn't exactly this clear cut though, as the blanket of A2DP doesn't specify which codecs are supported, and the better ones are a more recent thing. I'll say that the cell phones have been good about this, it's more that the decks themselves don't always have the newer codecs. And in addition to that, there's still the matter of settings within either device, such at bitpool on the phone, that can have an effect on the sound. Unfortunately, my setup is such that only one deck I have does actual BT streaming, and while nice for some things definitely doesn't sound as good as when it is cabled or using USB directly.
The cable has the disadvantage of running through multiple conversions - the phone goes from D to A through it's own, lower quality converter, the stereo gets that signal as A, changes it to D in order to apply EQ/etc, then back to A as it goes down to the amps. It's generally unnecessary to do something like this if one can avoid it.
There is a third option, but this is very rare and just sort of coming to market - if you happen to have an in car video system with an HDMI input, it will send the streaming audio info as a pure digital signal and as with USB the radios D/A converters will be the units making the actual sound and thus being just as clean. An example of a unit like this is the Pioneer SPh-da100 (I could be wrong on model number), AKA the "appradio2". These are rare, and the least expensive version of this I've found is around 300-350 bucks. One thing I don't like about the appradio is that it seems to have only 2 sets of preamp outs....other than that, it looks like an amazing solution for at least one of my problems!
Basically.... sorry about the confused ramblings. I'm still trying to figure this out. The funny thing is - the phone presents the two storages, internal and external, and both of my radios make the connection - however one radio, a Dual unit, actually sees the external partition first and works fine, while the pioneer radio actually sees the internal first and it gives me nothing! the third vehicle I have, I actually am just using the 3.5mm in for sheer simplicity, it's an old crappy car that has no use for such a nice setup and the moto car dock with the combo usb/audio cable is actually a perfect fit for it. For the other cars, the moto car dock actually sucks, because it won't pass USB data, but that's another issue for another thread. Most likely I'm gonna gut it's frame and insert a straight through USB data cable for it.......
But I still need some way to make the phone consistently present the right info, all the time, every time!
Bump......
Anyone? Theres got to be someone else out there as frustrated by this as I am.....
Well, you're not the only one. I've running a Kenwood deck, on my Razr prior to the ICS update, I got it to work every time, since then...it's like rolling a die and trying to get lucky 7. Something in the update must have disabled the order of recognition of partitions coming up. I was able to get it to work...*once*. I've read that leaving dev/debug mode on some devices cause enough of a timing delay to let the deck recognize the sdcard, but this didn't work for me. There's actually a kenwood app that's supposed to help with all this but of course for me it does nothing. You might want to try the debug mode thing - I've read for some people that worked. I just want a way to configure the phone to *only* mount the sdcard drive when setup as a usb mass storage device. I'm assuming this is the problem, the internal storage confusing the deck.
It's been very frustrating...

[Q] [ask] how to identify gps receiver

I got a chinese android mtk phones with a lousy gps, and I heard a lot of people who have the same problem, fixed their gps using copper foil tape, making their own external antenna out of it
So I plan to do the same, after I disassembled the phone, I failed to identify, which is the gps receiver, could someone help me ?
ummm, no one ?
found it, and fixed it, using copper wire+aluminium foil
deleted mtkgps.dat and epo file from data/misc, boot it up, ran gps test only and compared it with my other 2 phones in my room (where the gps signal's usually rare to none)
now it works perfect as car gps, since I planned to use it as a car navigation only LOL

Trying to get phone calls on tablet

I have tried searching for a while, but cannot find a solution. I have installed a Samsung Tab A in the dash of my vehicle. It is a wifi only model so I put a 128gb chip in for music and it is bluetooth connected to a head unit neatly tucked away behind the tablet.
My question is this... Without using any data, is there a way that I can use the tablet which is connected to my car speakers for phone calls? Are there any direct tethering apps that can do this? My cellphone is an S8+ and is not rooted.

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