GPS very slow to acquire fix

ZZeevG · Jan 22, 2022

Hi,

I’ve been testing out my nrf9160 feather using the Golioth example here https://www.jaredwolff.com/nrf9160-feather-on-golioth/

Despite being outside and with a reasonable view of the sky I’m having trouble getting a GPS fix. Sometimes I can acquire a fix after several minutes, other times I can’t and the application times out.

Is there anything I can do to improve the GPS performance? My phone for example will get a GPS fix pretty much instantly. Is there a more sensitive antenna or GPS configuration I can use.

A few details about my setup.

I am using the supplied active? GPS antenna listed here https://www.jaredwolff.com/store/nrf9160-feather/#active-gps-antenna
I am outside ~ 5 meters from any buildings
The feather is mounted in the supplied case with GPS and battery installed.
I have an active LTE connection and the SUPL client library installed

Thanks!
Ze’ev

jaredwolff · Jan 23, 2022

@ZeevG

There are a couple things you can do:

Update the modem firmware to 1.3.x. Instructions here.
Check your power supply. I’ve noticed if the power supply is too noisy it may affect getting a fix negatively .

ZeevG My phone for example will get a GPS fix pretty much instantly. Is there a more sensitive antenna or GPS configuration I can use.

This is a common misconception on how GPS works. Your cell phone uses Geolocation data (like nearby Wifi networks) and assisted GPS data to get an immediate “fix”. GPS by itself can take some serious time and can be affected by anything that may impede on signal from the sky.

I saw a great write up on GPS here if you ever are interested in the implementation details: https://ciechanow.ski/gps/

Hope that helps.