Android GPS....?

[Nigelnaturist]

I have started keeping my stuff on sportracks its desktop based and has loads of plugin features. Though from one of the forums it's likely to go web based next realise. It has tools to correct faults in tracks.

 

[Devonshiredave]

I've use both runkeeper and strava on my samsung galaxy S2 and never had a problem.
One thing you could try is to turn off your wi-fi while using GPS.

I use the strava app on my Samsung Galaxy S2 and it's very accurate. For example I planned a ride yesterday on google maps that came out at 42.9 miles and when I rode it, my phone recorded 42.8.

It did use a lot of the battery but I've bought an upgraded battery for £10 off amazon and it doesn't drain it too much now.

Did either of you guys have trouble tracking the start of a ride? A couple of times now I've had a ride record about quarter of a mile or so after I hit record ride and get going. I have to turn on GPS and strava about 10 minutes before I set off or I end up waiting for the darn thing to locate. I checked strava and don't have the facility to hide you home location set so shouldn't have an issue.
I can see Mrs DD having a Garmin Edge 500 on my Crimbo wishlist!

 

[SG5327]

Well thankyou very much for all your help & advice guys I will give strava a try while I try an save up for a garmin edge I think. Be a while before I get an edge though. I will keep you posted on how I get on with strava.

Thankyou guys

Scott

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Did either of you guys have trouble tracking the start of a ride? A couple of times now I've had a ride record about quarter of a mile or so after I hit record ride and get going. I have to turn on GPS and strava about 10 minutes before I set off or I end up waiting for the darn thing to locate. I checked strava and don't have the facility to hide you home location set so shouldn't have an issue.
I can see Mrs DD having a Garmin Edge 500 on my Crimbo wishlist!

All the time, sometimes times it was better than others.

 

[GentlyBenevolent]

You can use Strava (I used the android app until I got an Edge 500 or Google's own My Tracks app (click here) as an alternative.

For a better GPS signal you can disable wifi, bluetooth and 3G/mobile data connection. If you do as I did and you're just setting it going then keeping your phone in your pocket/bag then this doesn't inconvenience you. If you're not bothered about incoming calls then just put it in airplane mode. Disabling data will also mean the phone isn't syncing data, using up battery, when all you want it to do is record the GPS trace.

I've found that with an Edge 500 the GPS trace is more accurate, in that I always seem to be on the lefthand side of the road, whereas with a phone GPS I'm somewhere on or near the road. You can use the GPS Test app (click here) to see what accuracy your android is getting.

 

[Typhon]

Did either of you guys have trouble tracking the start of a ride? A couple of times now I've had a ride record about quarter of a mile or so after I hit record ride and get going. I have to turn on GPS and strava about 10 minutes before I set off or I end up waiting for the darn thing to locate. I checked strava and don't have the facility to hide you home location set so shouldn't have an issue.
I can see Mrs DD having a Garmin Edge 500 on my Crimbo wishlist!

I did have that issue a couple of times. I've found though that if I hold my phone up to the sky just before I set off it finds my location within a few seconds and then I can hit record and have no problems. The neighbours probably think I am a bit strange doing that but I don't care what they think!

 

[ray7]

I have a Garmin sat nav in the car and a Garmin Etrex for walking, sometimes they both have trouble locking on to the satellite. Would think any GPS device would be the same. Happens more in bad weather.

Ray

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I have a Garmin sat nav in the car and a Garmin Etrex for walking, sometimes they both have trouble locking on to the satellite. Would think any GPS device would be the same. Happens more in bad weather.

Ray

Might have something to do with a cloud layer, the Edge works in the house the phone never did