One Solution to Poor GPS Performance

[mddough]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a Motorola T815 bluetooth GPS receiver off E Bay for $58 shipped. Apparently, when CompUSA went out of business, these went on sale at something like 80% off, so there are a few on E Bay from that fiasco.

Check it out: http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/T805/

At any rate, I bought one, set it up pretty easily, and the Bluetooth GPS receiver works fantastically and completely independent of the poor integrated GPS on the Moto Q9h. It is not dependent upon the data connection at all like WLS and GoogleMaps. Even if you are in an area that doesn't have data/signal coverage, the turn-by-turn and Maps all work great. It is a 110% improvement over the integrated GPS working with Google Maps.

I know there have been some posts about how to improve GPS, but those tend to drain the battery pretty significantly.

Not only does this get great GPS reception, it has voice turn-by-turn directions, local directory search (like WLS) and there is no subscription fee like TeleNav.

Admittedly, the voice directions aren't as smooth as TeleNav, but for $58 it's a complete bargain to have reliable GPS with turn-by-turn. You just have to keep the GPS receiver charged (it gets great battery life) and have to have the MotoNav 2GB MicroSD card that comes with the T815 inserted in the phone.

The 2GB chip stores all the preloaded maps of the US, so there is no data loading delays. It makes the application work lightening fast, much like the rest of WM6.

HTH

[mexiken]

Nice to hear of another alternative.

Garmin Mobile XT does exactly what you describe. Its about 100 dollars and works with either external GPS or internal ones. I've lately had a lot of luck with my GPS chip and its been locking quickly.

[mddough]

Originally Posted by mexiken

Nice to hear of another alternative.

Garmin Mobile XT does exactly what you describe. Its about 100 dollars and works with either external GPS or internal ones. I've lately had a lot of luck with my GPS chip and its been locking quickly.

My integrated GPS is as spotty as it ever has been. Sometimes I get a perfect lock with Google Maps, but usually it times out looking for satellites, even in a clear sky. Right now, I live in rural Virginia with lots of legitimate mountains a tall trees, so hopefully when I move to Illinois next month it'll take away that impediment.

I think the T815 will be great for road trips given it's excellent ability to pick up satellites and lock them, along with the fact that it will function while it's hooked up to the car charger that comes with it.

With that said, I'd still love to have the integrated GPS working like the Blackberry 8820 that I had before the Q9h (or even the old school Motorola phone I had through Nextel back in the early 2000s; yes, even that worked WAY better than the GPS on the Q9h). It's fun to use the GPS beyond its practical use in driving directions, and with that said, carrying around the T815 receiver with the MotoNAV 2GB chip popped in (even though it's the diameter of a golf ball and only weighs about as much as a pen) is impractical for that purpose.

[jmreed97]

Originally Posted by mddough

My integrated GPS is as spotty as it ever has been. Sometimes I get a perfect lock with Google Maps, but usually it times out looking for satellites, even in a clear sky. Right now, I live in rural Virginia with lots of legitimate mountains a tall trees, so hopefully when I move to Illinois next month it'll take away that impediment.

I think the T815 will be great for road trips given it's excellent ability to pick up satellites and lock them, along with the fact that it will function while it's hooked up to the car charger that comes with it.

With that said, I'd still love to have the integrated GPS working like the Blackberry 8820 that I had before the Q9h (or even the old school Motorola phone I had through Nextel back in the early 2000s; yes, even that worked WAY better than the GPS on the Q9h). It's fun to use the GPS beyond its practical use in driving directions, and with that said, carrying around the T815 receiver with the MotoNAV 2GB chip popped in (even though it's the diameter of a golf ball and only weighs about as much as a pen) is impractical for that purpose.

I always use get GPStest started before I run any other gps program. It gets a lock much quicker and won't time out like some other programs.

[stevefo]

Originally Posted by jmreed97

I always use get GPStest started before I run any other gps program. It gets a lock much quicker and won't time out like some other programs.

Where can I get the latest version of GPS test?

[rainmakerrc]

Search for chartcross GPStest on Google, and you should find it. The most recent version actually is 1.04, I believe.

\from my Q