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#261926 - 07/18/13 10:24 PM Cell Phone GPS
Outdoor_Quest Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 08/17/09
Posts: 305
Loc: Central Oregon
Recently a friend just completed a hike on the Continental Divide Trail.

He commented that many hikers now carry their GPS equipped smart phone rather than just the traditional stand alone GPS receiver.

I'd like some feed back on this.

My concerns is that the smart phone isn't as rugged as the GPS and a solar battery charger will be necessary.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

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#261927 - 07/18/13 10:49 PM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Outdoor_Quest]
bws48 Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 08/18/07
Posts: 831
Loc: Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Good Topic--

I have had a Samsung smartphone for about a year now and have been playing with it, especially with the GPS. Here are my observations:

In Normal daily use, (rather light in my opinion) I lose about 30 to 40 percent of my battery power during the day, maybe another 5% overnight. I think recharging is a key, and solar may be the way to go.

Different GPS programs come up with different locations; some right on, others several hundred feet away. I've switched programs at the same time and place and gotten these different results, so its is not the hardware (satellite or GPS chips). I assume software.

If you didn't download the maps first, and you lose the network, your still functioning GPS loses a lot (or all) of its utility.

Bottom line, IMO, is you need to be able to recharge at least once every 24-36 hours, and have planned in advance to have down loaded the maps of the area you will be in. Also, try out the different apps to see which ones give the best locations.

In my area, and on my phone, Google maps is consistently the most accurate (no association).

I am also still trying to find the best combination. . .Power seems key.
_________________________
"Better is the enemy of good enough."

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#261932 - 07/19/13 02:08 AM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: ]
jzmtl Offline
Addict

Registered: 03/18/10
Posts: 530
Loc: Montreal Canada
If you use phone to look at maps you'll kill the battery pretty fast, the screen is a huge power hog, can accounts for 50% to 75% of power consumption unless you are running CPU heavy apps. I figure even with my extended battery I get 4 hours of screen on per charge. Standby I figure 1% per hour with all the network and sync going on, but if I switch on airplane mode maybe 5% per day.

The antenna is also not very powerful, if you have good signal it's all fine (under 10 seconds with AGPS), but once it gets weaker (cloudy days for example) you may find your phone unable to acquire location or take up to half an hour to do it.

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#261933 - 07/19/13 03:13 AM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Outdoor_Quest]
jshannon Offline
Addict

Registered: 02/02/03
Posts: 647
Loc: North Texas

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#261939 - 07/19/13 12:57 PM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Outdoor_Quest]
gonewiththewind Offline
Veteran

Registered: 10/14/08
Posts: 1517
I would never replace a good GPS unit with a smartphone. I might carry a smartphone for comms and use the GPS as backup. In a large city, however, I have found that GPSs can have trouble giving an accurate location due to the interference of tall buildings and that a smartphone gives a better location due to its use of cell phone signals to locate itself.

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#261950 - 07/19/13 08:32 PM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Outdoor_Quest]
Alex Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 03/01/07
Posts: 1034
Loc: -
Agree with all of the above, but have a couple more thoughts.

The ruggedness of the phone can be significantly improved with purchase of a proper protective case. Otterbox Defender is my choice, I have dropped my phone on concrete from the chest height a couple of times - no problems. Some may consider a waterproof case or watertight phone models.

The extreme power consumption of the screen is true for the OLED screen. An ordinary LCD may be a better choice for the field phone in that regard, however, such a screen may be hard to see under the day light. So, in the rural area you must switch to the airplane mode. It is definitely saves battery a lot.

Then you need a proper app for the navigation in the desired settings. Going around the town is one thing. Hiking in the woods - completely different one. IMO, the need in GPS help is usually required if you lost the trail for some reason. So, forget the google map, it will be useless (even its offline clones). You need a GPS logger/tracker app with a waypoints database, so you can get back on trail fast. Sure thing you need to plan and prepare trail's waypoints ahed of time you hit the road, and also make a habit to add new waypoints as you progress on the trail. But that's a huge topic by itself.

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#261951 - 07/19/13 09:15 PM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Alex]
Russ Offline
Geezer

Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
What is the difference in battery life between urban areas with easy 4 bar cell reception and wilderness where you may have no reception? We went thru this exercise for another thread and determined that my iPhone 4S is not a good substitute for a real GPS. I'm using a Verizon iPhone 4S so it doesn't have a sim card to remove (referencing the link above). I'll stay with one of my Garmin dedicated GPS receivers and save the cell phone for communication.
_________________________
Better is the Enemy of Good Enough.
Okay, what’s your point??

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#261952 - 07/19/13 10:10 PM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Russ]
Alex Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 03/01/07
Posts: 1034
Loc: -
The difference is in a bunch of OS services constantly trying to optimize your cell signal reception according to location and orientation changes.

Russ, I did not follow your experiment with 4S, but most likely the cell radio was simply not the primary power drain on it. But I'll check the thread. Thanks.

However, IMHO, the iPhone is not good for anything serious. It's a pop-culture gizmo. With the Android, on the other hand, you can monitor your power consumption precisely, pin point and stop any battery hogs right away (including the system's cell towers ping) and easily develop an effective power saving strategy from that observations. I'm charging my rooted and tuned-up Android phone twice a week and never saw anything less than 50% over the battery icon (Verizon Motorola Droid Razr Maxx - great example of an outdorsman design).



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#261955 - 07/19/13 10:47 PM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Alex]
Russ Offline
Geezer

Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
The other thread is at: Preparedness Apps for Smart Phones Point being I wanted to be able to use the GPS functionality while leaving the cell phone transceiver turned off by using Airplane mode. Apparently AP also disables location services and GPS. Apparently, with iPhone 4S models which have sim cards (not Verizon) you can remove the sim card and have a GPS without the cell phone.
_________________________
Better is the Enemy of Good Enough.
Okay, what’s your point??

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#262003 - 07/22/13 01:08 PM Re: Cell Phone GPS [Re: Russ]
gonewiththewind Offline
Veteran

Registered: 10/14/08
Posts: 1517
Russ,
I had to buy a Mophie battery pack to make the iphone last the day, and I carried another separate battery pack/charger. The navigation in the city actually relied more on good old hard copy maps and addresses, with the phone just to help gauge time of travel and search for addresses. In areas of lower buildings the Garmin was much better, it was only in the urban canyons of the high rises that it had problems.

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