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Firmware for GPS receiver in Android. Why GPS does not work on an Android device: reasons and solutions. Setting up GPS through the engineering menu

Almost all Android devices have a built-in GPS module. In this case, we are talking about a satellite navigation system, which provides determination of the location of an object on the ground. The use of this tool is quite wide and is not limited solely to navigation, so today we will talk about how to set up GPS on Android.

Mobile gadgets with the Android OS, being the brainchild of Google, have many applications as pre-installed software that need to constantly determine the location of both the smartphone itself and, accordingly, its owner.

For example:

  • Using Google Search, you can quickly find the desired object located nearby (cafes, shops, medical institutions, etc.);
  • Creating all kinds of “reminders” requires the use of GPS (for example, Google Keep, which can show a corresponding notification if you find yourself at the right point);
  • Actually “Navigator”, which will help you not to get lost in an unfamiliar city and get directions to a given point;
  • In addition, this tool is necessary when searching for a smartphone, since all applications in this line require the activation of a module with which it is possible to determine where the device is located;
  • Again, coordinates are also attached to photographs thanks to GPS.

How to properly configure the GPS module on Android

So, as follows from what is written above, the subject of our conversation today is a very necessary tool, if not necessary. But, at the same time, using it leads to rapid consumption of battery power and more.

That is why you should pay special attention to the settings of this component. This is done quite simply: go to “ Settings" and in the section " Personal data"go to the sub-item " Location" Here we can activate this function, and then any application to which we have given permission will have access to the relevant information. In line " Latest geo queries"A list of applications that made attempts to determine our location will be indicated:

A very important point in the settings is “ Mode" (on some devices it may be " Operating mode», « Location mode"). It will be available when the line " Location" The fact is that modern mobile gadgets, in addition to the GPS module, are equipped with a special A-GPS technology, which helps to quite accurately determine the location in the event of lack of contact with satellites. For this tool to work correctly, several factors are used, including:

  • Data obtained by triangulation from mobile radio towers (namely cellular communications);
  • Indications of wireless access points (Wi Fi), even if the device is not connected to them.

Modern mobile devices have three operating modes of the GPS module:

  • « According to all sources» – all data obtained using A-GPS technology is used to determine location (see above);
  • « By network coordinates"—the GPS module is disabled, and the coordinates are determined by Wi-Fi networks and data from mobile operators;
  • « By GPS satellites» — A-GPS is inactive, and the location is determined by geopositioning satellites.

Maximum location accuracy will be ensured by activating all modes, however, if you need to increase the battery life of your smartphone, then it makes sense to leave only the first mode. The second mode will provide freedom from the power source, but this option is not relevant for navigation.

Now you can activate the transfer of geodata (either directly in “Settings”, or by lowering the “blind”:

We update satellite almanacs through the engineering menu

Sometimes the GPS connection may be unstable or not work at all. This is due to the fact that the smartphone manufacturer made the settings taking into account the production region, so in our latitudes the module will show incorrect operation. Then it makes sense to set up satellites for your area and make adjustments through the engineering menu. How to do it:

  1. In the settings we find the section “ date and time", deactivate the item " Network time zone", in point " Timezone“We set ours, and then activate it again “via the network”.
  2. Next, open “ Settings", go to " Location", activate the AGPS item (" According to all sources"), then, lowering the curtain, turn on " Transfer of geodata"(see above in the screenshot).
  3. After that, in the dialing line enter the entry code to the engineering menu *#*#3646633#*#* Depending on the gadget model, this code may be different:

If the above methods do not work and you have a MediaTek-based smartphone, you can use a special application MTK Engineering Mode, which will help you get into the engineering menu, but it will require Superuser rights (). After starting the program, click " MTK Settings" and go to the engineering menu, to the item " Telephony».

So, after we got into EngineerMode (engineering menu), and in what way it doesn’t matter, scroll further and go to the “ tab Location", select " Location Based Service", these are the basic settings from which we need to go to the tab AGPS:

Now open the tab EPO and activate (check the boxes) in the field Enable EPO, and Auto Download. To make it clear, EPO is the system file in which data is stored both on the coordinates of all satellites and on their flight path. Now you can go back to " Location" and open " YGPS" Here we will see our GPS module with red satellites, this means that the module “does not see” them:

Now we need to go to the " Information" Here in the line " Status"(status) written " Unavailable"(unavailable), and the TTFF parameter, indicating the time of determining the coordinates, is in an endless search (" Counting"). In this case, we need to do a complete search reset; to do this, click the “ Full", and after a couple of seconds we launch AGPS again (button " AGPS Restart"). It turns out that by resetting the frozen process, we get rid of the initial settings and reboot the module, which, as a result of this manipulation, will begin to search for satellites, which is called “from scratch.” We wait a few seconds, and after that you can open the tab “ Satellites", see how the satellite signals appeared, and after some time the GPS module of our smartphone will connect to them:

Important: It is better to carry out manipulations not in an apartment, but in an open space.

If your smartphone has an MTK 6592 processor, I suggest watching a video on what to do in this case:

As an afterword: if you cannot call yourself a confident user, but want to set up GPS on Android through the engineering menu, then it is better to trust a specialist. And with that I say goodbye until the next topic with wishes of good luck.

Today I once again thought about the issue of poor GPS signal reception on my Chinese smartphone Jiayu G2. But, unexpectedly for me, the problem was solved in just a couple of minutes - the “Chinese” finds satellites within 20 seconds. Now let's talk about everything in order.

In October, I received a Chinese phone ordered from Aliexpress. The phone is excellent for the money, and everything would be perfect, but the GPS module found the satellites for a very, very long time, in about an hour, no faster. And this is with Wi-Fi turned on and A-GPS and GPS EPO assistance checked. This didn’t make me happy at all and I had to remember a useful post on the livejournal blog, the advice from which I used when setting up my first smartphone on Android. It came down to editing gps.conf auxiliary programs. This helped the “Chinese friend”, but after the first (and so far the last) reset to factory settings, GPS reception began to get even worse - I left it in the open air for an hour to search for satellites and no results. And today I started looking again for that useful post on the livejournal blog and came across an update in the post header:

"Fantastic!" I thought and immediately followed the link. Compared to the first post, this time even more specific actions were proposed, namely replacing the contents of the file gps.conf(you can find it along the way /etc/gps.conf, must be root-rights) to the following settings:

NTP_SERVER=ua.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=0.ua.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=1.ua.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=2.ua.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=3.ua.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=0.europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=1.europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=2.europe.pool.ntp.org
NTP_SERVER=3.europe.pool.ntp.org
XTRA_SERVER_1=/data/xtra.bin
AGPS=/data/xtra.bin
AGPS=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
DEFAULT_AGPS_ENABLE=TRUE
DEFAULT_USER_PLANE=TRUE
REPORT_POSITION_USE_SUPL_REFLOC=1
QOS_ACCURACY=50
QOS_TIME_OUT_STANDALONE=60
QOS_TIME_OUT_agps=89
QosHorizontalThreshold=1000
QosVerticalThreshold=500
AssistMethodType=1
AgpsUse=1
AgpsMtConf=0
AgpsMtResponseType=1
AgpsServerType=1
AgpsServerIp=3232235555
INTERMEDIATE_POS=1
C2K_HOST=c2k.pde.com
C2K_PORT=1234
SUPL_HOST=FQDN
SUPL_HOST=lbs.geo.t-mobile.com
SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
SUPL_PORT=7276
SUPL_SECURE_PORT=7275
SUPL_NO_SECURE_PORT=3425
SUPL_TLS_HOST=FQDN
SUPL_TLS_CERT=/etc/SuplRootCert
ACCURACY_THRES=5000
CURRENT_CARRIER=common

These settings are designed for residents of Ukraine, but for residents of Russia they are very easy to adapt by replacing ua.pool on ru.pool.

On my own behalf, I can add that I use the GPS Status application, and after rebooting when I first launched the application, I reset the cache data: call up the menu in the program, then select Tools, there Manage A-GPS state and click Reset, and then Download.

I take my hat off to the author of the original post, dear mechanicuss. His advice helped not only me, and can help many more sufferers.

That's all. Clear skies and a stable signal from space to everyone.

Ten years ago, car GPS navigators were a curiosity in the domestic market of electronic devices. But today it is difficult to surprise anyone with the presence of built-in global positioning systems in modern smartphones and tablets.

General information about GPS

Most modern smartphones and tablets on the mobile device market today are equipped with a GPS module for determining location. This is a really convenient and advanced option. In addition to plotting a route for a car or bicycle on the ground, the GPS module will be able to determine its own location with high accuracy up to tens of meters. Along with this, the system makes it possible to turn on some programs or activate the reminder function on the phone when you are in a certain point of the globe. on Android?

The main disadvantage of GPS positioning

The main disadvantage of GPS positioning in a smartphone is the rapid drainage of the battery. In this regard, an important point is the correct adjustment of the operating mode. Below we will discuss the basic tools for how to set up GPS on Android, as well as the principles of working in the engineering menu of a smartphone in case of incorrect functioning of the system.

Enabling GPS operating mode

To enable GPS navigation, you can use the notification panel of your smartphone. The activated positioning system is displayed at the top of the screen in the form of a periodically flickering circle. To change or view how GPS functions, you need to go to the smartphone settings, then to the “Personal Data” section, from there to “Location” and select “Mode”. Typically, the operating system provides three options to choose from, including “By device sensors,” “Battery saver,” and “High accuracy.” If we are talking about phones that use the latest versions of Android, the menu may look slightly different. How to set up GPS on Android 5.1? In this case, the listed items will be named “By all sources”, “By network coordinates” and “By GPS satellites”.

Highest level of GPS accuracy

The most accurate positioning option is the “High accuracy” or “Across all sources” mode. At the same time, with this operating procedure, battery consumption will be the most intense and rapid. In this mode, the system tries to determine the location by all means available to it, namely: GPS, Wi-Fi and using mobile networks. The smartphone will constantly evaluate the space for the presence of a signal and try to determine the location not only in open areas, but also indoors.

This operating procedure is also sometimes called A-GPS. Its distinctive feature compared to the operation of conventional navigators is the ability to obtain additional service information about satellites via an Internet connection. This speeds up the search for satellites and obtaining data on their signals.

Other Global Positioning Modes of Operation

The GPS operating mode “Battery saving” or “By network coordinates” is used to receive signals exclusively from wireless networks. In this case, the GPS module is not used. Of course, in this mode the accuracy of position determination is somewhat deteriorated. At the same time, indoor position can be determined using Wi-Fi.

The operating mode “By device sensors” or “By GPS satellites” can only function in open areas in the absence of interference. In this case, the position of the object is determined using satellites. If interference occurs in the form of high-rise buildings or walls and ceilings of premises, the satellite signal will be lost and the position will no longer be determined. It would be appropriate to say that this article is about how to set up GPS on Android without the Internet. But it should be noted that such installations are also possible using the World Wide Web. In this case, the Internet is used to correct the position if the signal from the satellites is not good enough.

The last operating mode is the most economical for the battery. In addition, you can disable determining your own position on the ground in the notification panel. If you need to get a route from point A to point B, you can turn on positioning and follow the prompts of the navigator built into your smartphone. If you need a personalized search for an object, you should give preference to the "Battery Saver" mode. Well, if the phone has a powerful and capacious battery, the user may well choose the most expensive method of operation, “High precision”. The methods described above are suitable for solving the problem of how to set up GPS on Android through the main menu of the device.

Configuration using the smartphone’s engineering menu

However, some smartphone models, especially those made in China based on MTK processors, may experience connection difficulties or unstable communication. There are even cases when the device does not determine the location of an object at all. This is due to incorrect configuration of the GPS module for operation in domestic latitudes.

This software malfunction can be mitigated and GPS can be configured on Android through the engineering menu of the mobile device. It should be emphasized that this functionality can be used on devices on which the Root operating mode is activated, which gives the user the opportunity to manage the smartphone as developers.

Next, you should perform a series of sequential operations. First you need to turn on GPS and Wi-Fi and go outside or to the balcony of the room. After this, you will need to enter the engineering menu by entering the combinations on the phone keyboard: *#*#3646633*#*#, *#15963#* or *#*#4636#*#*. It should be noted that on different smartphone models, the symbol combinations may differ, or even not be suitable at all. Then, to solve the problem of how to set up GPS on Android, you can use the Mobileuncle ToolHero application, in which, after launching, select the desired item and enter the engineering menu.

Here the user will find several bookmarks, from which he must select Location, and then go to Location Based Service. In the EPO line, you must check the Enable EPO and Auto Download boxes. It should be clarified that EPO is a system file that contains information about the coordinates of GPS satellites and their lines of movement. This item is often deactivated on some phones.

Now you need to go back a step and select YGPS, and then go to the Satellites tab, in which the user will find a map of the position of the satellites in orbit. If satellites are displayed in red, this indicates that the mobile device sees them, but cannot receive a signal from them due to incorrect settings.

To fix this problem, you need to go to the Information section, click full, and after a few seconds AGPS restart. After this, you need to return to Satellites and wait until the satellite icons turn green. It is best to carry out this operation in an open area, since on the balcony, due to significant interference in the form of house walls and trees, the signal quality is much worse. The last step is to reboot your device, be it a smartphone or tablet. Thus, the most common ways to set up GPS on Android are discussed.

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 functions. In this regard, many novice users are interested in how to enable GPS on Android. In this article we will briefly consider this issue.

As a rule, Android devices have a GPS module enabled. But, if you previously disabled this function, and now want to turn it back on, then you need to open Settings and go to the “Location” section.

At the top of the “Location” section there is a switch that is responsible for disabling and enabling GPS on Android.

If this switch glows blue, it means GPS is turned on. In addition to simply turning on GPS, you can change the navigation mode. To do this, go to the “Mode” section. Based on device sensors."

In the “Mode” section, you can choose one of three modes for determining your location.

Consider these modes:

  • High accuracy. In this mode, all available information is used to determine location: data from a GPS sensor, data received using a Wi-Fi wireless network, as well as data received using a mobile network. If you turn on GPS in this mode, you will be able to determine your location with maximum accuracy.
  • Save battery power. The operating mode intended for the device. In this mode, the GPS module. Instead, data obtained via Wi-Fi and mobile networks is used to determine location.
  • Based on device sensors. In this mode, only information from the GPS module is used.

Also in the "Location" window, you can enable or disable the use of data about your location by Google services. To do this, go to the “Sending geodata” section.

In the “Sending Data” section there are two additional sections: “Sending Geodata” and “Location History”. Open each of these sections and turn off (or turn on) the use of your location data.

When you turn on GPS for the first time in a new Android phone, a situation may arise that the navigation does not work correctly: it takes a long time to search for satellites, and the connection often breaks down. Don’t rush to blame your phone for a bad antenna and GPS receiving module. Most likely, this is due to the fact that EPO updating is disabled by default on the device.

Many modern Android smartphones have an additional GPS feature called “EPO” (Extended Prediction Orbit). Your phone downloads an EPO file to help you find GPS satellites faster and reduce the time it takes to determine your location.

To check the operation of GPS in your Android phone, I recommend using the "GPS Test" application.

In my case, when I turned on GPS for the first time, the following picture was detected:

That is, initially, 11 satellites were already predefined in the EPO file by factory settings. But, since the phone was assembled somewhere in China, it is logical that they will not work well in another region.

Setting up EPO

To update the EPO file, turn on the Internet on your device. This can be either a Wi-Fi connection or mobile GPRS/3G Internet.

After entering "Engineer Mode", go to the "Location > Location Based Service > EPO" section and check the boxes next to the "Enable EPO" and "Auto Download" options.

Then go back a step and select the second item - "YGPS". On the "Information" tab, press the "full", "cold" and "AGPS restart" buttons in sequence.

Go to the "Sattelites" tab and wait until the signal from the satellites is detected (this may take tens of minutes). At first there will be red circles on the compass, then they will turn green.

Now you can exit the engineering menu (press the "Back" button on your phone several times). Turn off the Internet and GPS. Go to "Settings - My Location" and turn on navigation only by GPS satellites.

Open the "GPS Test" application or any other. The smartphone should establish a stable connection with satellites within 30 - 60 seconds. provided you are outside and in good weather.