New beta release - GPSTest v3.9.0

[Sean Barbeau]

Hi all,

I pushed a new beta release to Google Play beta testing group (v3.9.0):

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.android.gpstest  

It should be available over the next 24 hours or so.

Main changes:

• Crowd-source device capabilities - Optionally contribute your device capabilities to the public GPSTest Device Database (https://bit.ly/gpstest-device-database) via the Share screen. 

• Log antenna info - Support for logging GnssAntennaInfo to a JSON file. 

• Add Finnish translation - Thanks Ari Nygard! 

The first feature for crowd-sourcing device capabilities in particular will hopefully be useful to the community, as everyone always has questions as to what a particular device can support. Now on the "Share" screen you can optionally choose to upload your device capabilities to a public Google Sheet, which you can see here:

https://bit.ly/gpstest-device-database 

Note that this does NOT upload any private or identifying information from your particular device such as your latitude and longitude - uploads from the same device model should be the same (with some exceptions for restrictions of GNSS based on location or visibility of certain GNSS). The country from which you're uploading is included so that restrictions per country can be reflected.

So, please try out sharing your device capabilities and then check the Google Sheet to watch them appear!

Full release notes at:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.0

Thanks,

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

FYI, there is going to be a delay accessing this via Google Play. Google blocked the rollout as part of their new blanket location policy (not related to this particular update) so I need to go jump through some hoops... 

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

So my best guess is that Google blocked the update because of the legacy setting that mentioned "background location" - more details here:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/issues/456

In short, this setting doesn't have any effect on modern Android devices, so I'm removing it in case it's causing the problem.

I've submitted v3.9.1 with this change and hopefully it goes through this time:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.1

Sean

[jon...@gmail.com]

Just a heads up that people using some form of hardware-to-basic attestation modifier (such as magisk props module) to pass safety net may show up with the incorrect model. My entry is on line 15 and it's a "pixel 3a" because that's what my device is set to, to pass safety net; the gnss hardware model name still shows up correctly as redfin.

Its interesting to see other pixel 5 users that are obv3outsode of the USA, whose devices support other constellations.

Mine occasionally, but rarely shows a Beidou satellite (or many) until it gets preliminary location info, then they all disappear. This happened just once with my pixel 4,but has happened more than once with my pixel 5. This screenshot was from the first boot ever of my pixel 5.

[jon...@gmail.com]

I'm also line 38, because I often don't get WAAS access at night for some reason.  Now it's showing, and now it's reported.

[Sean Barbeau]

Jon,

Thanks for flagging this - I'll delete those records. Yes, I don't know a way around detecting this from within the app via an Android API to avoid allowing these types of submission, but if someone else does please let me know.

I still need to work on some post-processing scripts to remove duplicates, near duplicates, etc. Maybe there is a way I can try and filter these via post-processing too.

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

I've submitted v3.9.2 to Google Play with a few bug fixes that should hopefully be available soon:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.2

Sean

[andras.l...@gmail.com]

Hi Sean,

I dont know is it a bug or not but from 3.9.0 the recorded raw file has csv extension (instead of txt) and the header is duplicated in the file and the GNSS Analysis App gives error message (ok, i renamed it .txt and deleted the duplicated header and it is already working). Is it accidentally happened? Can You check it?

Br,

Andras

[Sean Barbeau]

Andras,

The file extension change from .txt to .csv was intentional, but if that's causing problems with the Analysis App I'll change it back (I thought it supported CSV but I guess not?).

The file header duplicate definitely isn't, but I can't seem to reproduce that. Could you give me a series of steps that results in the duplicate header?

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

Ah, I do see the duplicate header now. I'll take a closer look.

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

Ok, I've submitted v3.9.3 which should hopefully fix the logging issue (revert to .txt extension and remove duplicate header) as well as the share layout issue:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.3

Please take a look at the file logging, especially if you have a Pixel 5 that can log the GnssAntennaInfo to JSON. There was some seemingly duplicate code in there that I yanked out, and hopefully that doesn't cause any other problems.

Sean

[andras.l...@gmail.com]

Thx Sean,

Yeah, now the header and the file extension is ok with 3.9.3 , perfect

(just FYI, i tried the GNSS App with good header and with .csv extension and got error message /log file doesnt contain raw data or similar error/ so it cant process csv extension, i just renamed to .txt and immediately processed... weird :) )

an another minor problem, in the past the file name was like this : gnss_log_2020_08_27_18_59_15.txt, now it is a long number like this: 1608296911552.txt . , this way a little bit harder to find if i'm searching a certain trackings.

BR,

Andras

[Sean Barbeau]

Andras,

Huh, that's strange, the file name shouldn't have changed. Could you please open an issue on GitHub for that with device details?

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/issues

Thanks,

Sean

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[lodrog...@gmail.com]

Hi,
i don't remember if i have test previous versions. But with 3.9.3, when i press the icon for social media, the app crash

[Sean Barbeau]

There is an open issue here for the Share crash on Android 4.4:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/issues/463

On Mon, Dec 21, 2020, 7:55 AM lodrog...@gmail.com <lodrog...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,
i don't remember if i have test previous versions. But with 3.9.3, when i press the icon for social media, the app crash

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[lodrog...@gmail.com]

my device 1+ 5T use stock android 9

[Sean Barbeau]

v3.9.4 is now rolling out to the Google Play beta testing group and is available here:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.4

This should hopefully fix the issue some were seeing with the app crashing when tapping on "Share" button in the action bar.

Please give it a shot and let me know what you see!

Thanks,

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

v3.9.5 is rolling out now to Google Play beta that hopefully fixes another crash some were seeing when tapping on the "Share" button:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.5

Sean

[lodrog...@gmail.com]

i want to say my opinion about the android smartphone database specs we can found into post 1 when we visit this web page
https://bit.ly/gpstest-device-database

don't trust this list
having experience from my device and a few more when i have the opportunity to have access to others persons or from internet tests / reviews, the specs into this list are far away from the truth. The persons who tranfer those specs based on devices having firmware for local regional all over the world, access to local SBAS and GNSS systems and some times having the GNSS receiver with enabled the power save mode like the qualcomm SoC do all the time (i have 2 devices). Propably and other companies GNSS receives, having power save mode.

thoese specs, are not the device specs. They are user specs, from local area, with local firmware.

[Sean Barbeau]

I plan to do a blog post discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the crowdsourced data before releasing it to the public, but in short - there are certainly caveats to the list, but it's the best thing we have so far in terms of reflecting real data from real devices. 

You can trust the data as much as you can trust the screenshots users have been sharing as part of the dual-frequency article (https://barbeau.medium.com/dual-frequency-gnss-on-android-devices-152b8826e1c). The data in the database is the same data used to show information in the GPSTest UI. It's much more transparent than manufacturer spec documentation.

Users in different regions and with different device variants and settings can certainly see different information. I've tried to capture things like country of the users location and device variants per county (see some of the OnePlus device listings) and OS build versions so that this relevant information can be considered by users when looking at the data.

If anyone has ideas for additional data to collect via the Android APIs that would be useful please open issues at https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/issues/new/choose for each data element. I'll have to make judgement calls about some information (e.g., device carrier - https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/issues/468) and whether the privacy/permissions tradeoff is worth it. But all ideas are welcome!

Sean

[lodrog...@gmail.com]

this database has access only from a few people. Those customers has the necessary experience and knowledge before the buying, for the specs of their smartphone. The common customer does not know about this special application if exist.

with the first look of this database we can see
- there is no model list alignment
- there is multiple posts of the same model of the same user. Soon or late and other users do the same. Those specs has small differences between posts
- for someone who has experience, he can see that there are a lot of missing specifications per model

about the power save mode into qualcomm iZat GNSS
my old device has snapdragon S2, and the last one 835. Both of them is working today. After some seconds, when we have valid location data, the hardware disable the 50% of receiver capabilities. How we can trust this GPSTest database ?
Maybe and other gnss receivers from other companies has similar options ?

[Sean Barbeau]

v3.9.6 has been pushed to Google Play beta, includes a few bug fixes as well as the ability to log GnssAntennaInfo to CSV as well as JSON using the GnssLogger format.

Full release notes at:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.6

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

v3.9.7 has been pushed to Google Play, which hopefully should resolve issues with the support for carrier phase measurements being detected incorrectly on some devices in the crowd-sourced database. I'd love to see more reports from devices to see if this helps. I don't have access to these devices so testing is challenging.

Full release notes at:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.7

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

v3.9.8 has been pushed to Google Play beta:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.8

This includes reporting number of GNSS antennas and GNSS antenna carrier frequencies to the Device Database, as well as a Danish language translation (thanks Claus Østergaard!).

Full release notes are at the above link.

Sean

[Lukoviczki András]

Hi Sean,

i made a device upload (2times) with my MI8 and latest app and your sheet says the CF is Not Supported, but the MI8 supports the Carrier Phase. Any idea why? :) 

Br,

Andras

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[Sean Barbeau]

Andras

Ugh - looks like the carrier phase metric still needs more work, as now it's too strict and eliminating devices that do support it.  How long are you letting it run before pushing the data?

Everyone,

If anyone has a device that they believe supports carrier phase measurements (I think Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Xiaomi Mi 8, and Huawei Mate 20?), it would be helpful if you could share a full raw measurements log from those devices. Just be sure to enable raw measurements logging, kill the app, wait a while, and then start the app to record the log. I'd like to see what the log looks like from a cold start.

I'm going to take a look at https://www.kaggle.com/google/android-smartphones-high-accuracy-datasets to see if these help too.

Sean

[Lukoviczki András]

Sean, i waited apprx 1min, ~30 sats were fully locked and used (all AEU flags), 4-5 E5 Galileo signals and 1-2 L5 GPSs (somewhy only so few, maybe unlucky constellation, usually there are more L5 signals, when i made the 1st upload then i lost the only 1pc L5 signal and the sheet says the L5 is not supported :), this is why i made it twice)

I will give a try tomorrow morning again and will send You raw log too.

[Sean Barbeau]

Andras,

One more question - do you have "Force full GNSS measurements" enabled in the Android system Developer Options?

See https://barbeau.medium.com/gnss-interrupted-the-hidden-android-setting-you-need-to-know-d812d28a3821.

Everyone - If anyone shares a raw measurements dataset, I'll need to know if you have this option enabled.

Sean

[Sean Barbeau]

Alright, v3.9.9 is now rolling out to Google Play beta:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.9

Thanks to logs from Andras and looking at the other Google raw measurements contest logs, I'm cautiously optimistic that I've fixed accumulated delta range detection in this version by  treating the state variables as a bitmask instead of discrete state integers.

So, if you think your device supports carrier phase measurements, please check the capabilities again by uploading to the database!

Thanks,

Sean

[gpsfan]

Using the email feedback form, ADR is currently shown as NOT SUPPORTED on the RealMe X2 even though there is data in them, bogus data of 0s so that's good.

On the other hand my Mi 8 does not show the ADR line, is that meant to imply "SUPPORTED" ? Would probably be best to show it explicitly ?

[Sean Barbeau]

For Mi 8, sorry, there was a bug in the server-side script that I believe I fixed now - could you please re-submit?

It should show SUPPORTED.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gpstest_android/a1e65332-2f0c-45c1-bcdd-d82f29d115f9n%40googlegroups.com.

[Sean Barbeau]

If it doesn't show in the email, make sure you're waiting until there is a GNSS fix first.

[gpsfan]

I was pretty sure I had a fix since dual band support was shown but I tried again and ADR came up. Sorry for the false alert.

[Lodro Gyamtso]

according with this new generation of app, we have the opportunity to collect from our device the gnss specs with enough details and send them to gpstest server. But can we see or save to our device those specs ? where is this option ?

[Sean Barbeau]

>according with this new generation of app, we have the opportunity to collect from our device the gnss specs with enough details and send them to gpstest server. But can we see or save to our device those specs ? where is this option ?

If you wait for a location fix and then go to "Send feedback" and open the email app, it will show the more detailed info in the pre-populated text there (similar to the previous details that were shown there).

I plan to add a more detailed in-app UI for this - here's the issue if you'd like to follow along:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/issues/313

Sean

On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 4:02 AM Lodro Gyamtso <lodrog...@gmail.com> wrote:

according with this new generation of app, we have the opportunity to collect from our device the gnss specs with enough details and send them to gpstest server. But can we see or save to our device those specs ? where is this option ?

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[Lodro Gyamtso]

i have an idea ....
will it possible to add at the next feature of UI, the ability to save those specs to one text file into the device internal memory ?

[Sean Barbeau]

I could probably write these to the top of the CSV log file similar to what's done now with make and model, although for now it would be subject to the same requirements of getting a fix on the Status screen for now. I opened this issue to track the new feature:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/issues/484

Sean

On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 2:22 AM Lodro Gyamtso <lodrog...@gmail.com> wrote:

i have an idea ....
will it possible to add at the next feature of UI, the ability to save those specs to one text file into the device internal memory ?

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[Sean Barbeau]

Alright, v3.9.10 rolling out now to Google Play beta with translation updates and a bug fix for reporting ADR to the database on devices that don't support raw measurements:

https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest/releases/tag/v3.9.10

I'll start pushing this to production soon if I don't find any more bugs.

Sean