No GPS fix on Droid Maxx

[teambsw]

Hello,

I have a Droid Maxx which will not get a GPS fix. The sensor is listed as a motorola XT1080 GPS and shows as being connected to. When I click the info button The dialog says "NMEA sentences received:" but there is no other info--just the OK button. If I use another GPS enabled app everything appears to be working correctly. Any ideas?

[Harry]

Seems the Motorola is another device not passing on NMEA information to LapTimer. There are currently 4 known devices running Android 4.0 missing that feature, they are listed here: http://www.gps-laptimer.de/Compatibility_Android.html

In case you want to use LapTimer Rookie for Android, you need to connect any BT GPS mouse. In case you want to pass it back, please contact me on Harry@gps-laptimer.de I will probably add access to Android standard location service later. LapTimer is more accurate using NMEA directly, that's the reason for the NMEA priority.

- Harry

[teambsw]

Thanks Harry! I will look at getting one of the external GPS devices, but I am curious to understand exactly what NMEA data incompatability is missing from the Droid Ultra Maxx. I installed a program called NMEA Recorder and is seeing NMEA data streams, so I am guessing that it is a particular standard that you are expecting?

[Harry]

There are two ways to register an app to Android location service: asking for updated locations (from wherever they come), or asking for the NMEA stream delivered by the GPS chip built into the phone. LapTimer does the later. There are two things that can cause problems: NMEA sentences are not passed on in general, or the set of sentences sent is too small / the wrong one. As the list of NMEA sentences is empty in your case (noting behind the ":"), I assume your phone does not deliver any data. You may use this NMEA Recorder to record whatever is arriving and send it to me. I will check that. Please use the email above.

- Harry