GPS Status

Screenshots

• The location/altitude or other data is inaccurate.
  
  GPS Status simply displays the data received directly from the phone hardware. In fact this is the main pupose of the software (thats why it's called status). Inaccurate data is not the fault of the software, but shows that you may not have optimal reception of GPS satellites or there is a magnetic anomaly nearby affecting your compass. Find a different location and try again.


• Velocity cuts out above 400 km/h.
  
  Civilian GPS systems are guarantied to work only under certain conditions. They cannot measure reliably if your speed is above 4-500 km/h or your height is above 15km. So this is a limitation of the GPS system itself.


• Why is the altitude always minus 80 or so feet and I am at 10 feet above sea level?
  
  GPS does not report the height above the mean sea level, rather the GPS system compares the height to the WGS84 reference ellipsoid which may be above or below the actual sea level. In different parts of the earth it can be off by more than 200 meters (depending on the mass distribution of Earth). For example the geoid's surface around Florida is above the mean sea level by a good 30-40 meters, which means that standing on the shore would show you -30m as altitude. This is normal, and not an error, and caused by the fact that the altitude is relative to an artificial reference surface and not to the sea level. If you are interested in this topic, I recommend to read this.


• Is it showing magnetic or true north? How to set the magnetic declination?
  
  Magnetic declination is the difference between the true and magnetic north at your location. The value is calculated automatically by the program using the current geo-magnetic earth model. The algorithm uses your current location and time. To aswer the question: The needle in the middle is always showing the magnetic north while the grid itself (small blue arrow) points always towards true north. The angle between these two corresponds to the magnetic declination.


• My compass points to the wrong direction. What should I do?
  
  Your phone contains a digital compass which measures the magnetic field's strength in three direction with three separate sensors. The orientation of your phone is calculated from these values. Unfortunately the sensitivity of the sensors are a little different. To correctly calculate your orientation your phone must measure first these differences. This is done during the calibraion process. To calibrate your phone, simply find a space where no external magnetic field is present (preferable outside of buildings) and draw big 8 figures in the air for half a minute. If you feel that your compass has become inaccurate you can repeat this procedure.


• What does the Magnetic field reading mean?
  
  Aside from your orientation, your phone can measure the absolute strength of the magnetic field which is displayed as the first number in the reading. The second number is calculated from your GPS position and current time using the earth geo-magnetic model. It is the theoretical strengh you should measure in an open space. If the two values are sufficiently different, then you are standing in a magnetic anomaly. This is pretty funny because this allows you to detect big nearby metal objects. Go and try hunting for treasures...


• What is the difference between GPS Status 1.x and GPS Status?
  
  GPS Status 1.x can be used only on Android firmware 1.0 and 1.1 while GPS Status is working only on Android firmware 1.5 or later. If you try to run GPS Status 1.x on firmware 1.5, it will direct you to the Android Market to download the corresponding version for your firmware.