As I have prepared presentation about GPS something like 20 years ago, I remember that each satellite send its almanac repeatedly in subframes of every 30 second frame but then there are multiplexed subframes 4 and 5 which allows to receive whole GPS almanac after 25 frames, i.e. 12.5 minutes. So if the GPS is working (sic…) then after some time you get whole almanac and are prepared for satellites which appears above horizon. You do not get Galileo almanac from GPS satellites and same for Glonas. But if you have even single satellite only from the given network then you can build whole information after relatively long time. For sure, almanac data known in advance can help do get fix much faster.
I expect that Teseo-LIV3 GNSS Module does all that processing from all available sources and utilizes complete almanac data.
The only available source it has is the GPS signal itself (plus past data it stored on its flash). And if you miss a frame, you wait for another cycle. And the tiny smartphone antennas aren’t really optimized for being able to receive data over GPS…
So yeah, without assistance it gets pretty hard for the module to retrieve almanac and ephemerides. Since almanac retrieval can work on multiple channels, under ideal conditions you should be able to get it in about 3 minutes. The conditions are usually far from perfect though, so it can take multiples of 12.5 minutes instead.
By injecting almanac and ephemerides obtained from the Internet, I’m able to reliably get time to first fix down to about a minute, sometimes even just a few seconds. So far I’ve figured out ephemerides for GPS and Galileo and almanac for GPS. I’m almost finished with almanac for Galileo too. From what I’ve seen it shouldn’t be hard to deal with almanac for GLONASS too, but its ephemerides may be trickier (I’m not sure yet where to get all the data the module expects from).
I contacted Purism support again and asked for detailed photos of the antenna spring contacts. I was very happy about how quick and clearly the person at Purism support responded to all my requests.
* Image 1: here are where they are located when looking at the side of the midframe that points towards the back of the phone.
* Image 2: there's the other side, the side from which they are inserted.
* Image 3: here you can see them when taken out, the longer side goes through the hole from the inside, shorter side pointing out towards the inside of the phone.
* Image 4: with the pin pulled out a bit.
* Image 5: fully inserted.
In most cases this should fit pretty snug inside the plastic hole, if it fell out it could be that you pushed on this spring contact from the back side of the phone when removing the midframe. If the midframe is taken out and you press on this spring pin from what would be the back side of the phone, they will pop out.
I also asked if they have service point in the EU to repair the GPS antenna connections (in case I do not dare to take the phone apart in the end), to replace the WiFi module, and to replace my screen that has a crack at the bottom.
All this can be done in a small service center in Germany, Purism support would arrange this:
... it takes a bit more time to repair, but technician there is certified and approved by Purism.
I did not try to check the GPS antenna connections yet, because I want to wait first until the GPS software (gnss-share in particular) is more reliable and mature to rule out a software issue.
Also, no special tools are needed according to Purism support:
There are no specific tools, just a screwdriver and pair of tweezers to gently unhook antenna connectors from the card's connector knobs.
Interesting. My contact at Purism’s support never came back with any info about this. I will need to have a closer look at those photos when I am at my PC. Never thought those golden metal pieces had anything to do with the GPS antenna, though.
This is of high interest to me as I’m located in Germay. I asked Purism several times if I could buy the new Wifi card and if they could do the swap as payed service, even willing to pay the oversea transport fee. I never got an answer (last time I asked June 7).
My issue? GPS has gotten worse for me over the last few GNSS updates (or whatever updates I think I see over the last few months). I use Pure Maps. Every once and awhile, if I wait any odd number of minutes, I can get a decent fix and, maybe, get navigation to work for a little while before more problems, etc.
Does anybody have a better GPS experience than me? I am wondering if I need to re-flash the OS or re-install GEOClue. Maybe just wait for whatever miracle update is coming?
Actually, and I do not want to speak too soon, but navigation has been nearly flawless lately. Routing can make some strange choices but I accept that.
Furthermore, I managed to get PureMaps to talk to me like a pirate. So that is pretty great too.
Note that PureMaps doesn’t use the Freedesktop locations portal so that library backport won’t affect it. Does help for flatpak apps that do use the portal though like Gnome Maps for example.
There are a settings for language in “navigation routing” for individual routes. I do not recall Star Trek being in any remote way an option. Sorry.
I looked again. The choices are in the navigation language setting. The option was “English pirate”. I believe you need to have a route chosen and displayed, then change the navigation language setting. Still no Star Trek
Majel Barrett would be awesome but not available. At least I couldn’t find for free / freely available.
Interestingly, the Speech Note app’s (which has several voices - but no authentically trekkie) last update included something (“Actions”) that I interpret as maybe a potential way to make many other apps speak…
I see the PureMaps language option, but how do you get it to speak? SpeechNote? That’s something I ran across when looking at Ollama, but I haven’t tried it yet.
