Nokia sports tracker as a training aid

well you are losing GPS signal, it struggles with tall buildings or tree cover. You could try positioning the phone with a better view of the sky - I understand the gps receiver is in the bottom of the phone on the N95 (not the best place). You could also try a firmware upgrade on the phone, GPS is apparently improved, or use an external bluetooth GPS receiver.

NYK wrote:

Mmm, that would explain it. Thanks for that, I wonder is there anything that is useable through the forest etc?

The only thing is a more sensitive GPS receiver, and possibly better placement of the receiver. An external bluetooth receiver can be used with the phone and may help, though ultimately if the canopy of trees is thick enough nothing will work.

NYK wrote:

Mmm, that would explain it. Thanks for that, I wonder is there anything that is useable through the forest etc?

tried a firmware upgrade?

The firmware upgrade is for your phone, its free. I am not saying that you need one, but I have read that GPS performance was improved with firmware updates on the N82, which I have, and therefore the same may apply to the N95.

Firmware updates are released from time to time to fix bugs or improve performance or functionality.

There is a full explanation of what firmware is and how to upgrade it here.

Later firmware versions include "assisted" GPS, where the phone gets additional data from the phone network to assist with GPS accuracy and with locking on to GPS satellites (it reduces first fix time from about 2 minutes to just a few seconds). Downloading this data from the network costs a few pence. Assisted GPS can be turned off if you don't want to pay for the data. The later firmware's may help with GPS sensitivity in other respects too.

One thing to note, if you are still within the 3 month free trial of voice navigation on Nokia Maps, updating the firmware will probably lose that (it won't lose Nokia Maps, just the voice nav bit, which is a subscription service), and you will have to purchase the voice nav, however you may not have the trial, or may not use it.

When my Nokia Maps voice nav trial is up I will probably be buying Garmin or similar to install, as it is free to use after the initial purchase, the Nokia voice nav subscription seems a bit pricey to me. Alternatively I would like to install TomTom which is probably the best sat nav software (IMHO) but at the moment it isn't compatible with the internal GPS receiver on these phones (without a hack). So hopefully there will be a new TomTom version sooner or later that is.

Whilst Sports Tracker is indeed a beta programme, your GPS signal issues are not likely to be related to this.

The sports tracker web site puts your route on Google Maps, you can view it in map, hybrid, satelite, topographical formats. It shows a chart with altitude against distance. Text details of the route statistics. Have a look at the site and you can probably browse some shared routes. www.sportstracker.nokia.com/

The routes can be exported from the web site or the phone in various formats for other software.



On the phone you can scroll through several screens, the first shows speed, distance and time and a graphic display of the route, screen 2 shows ave speed, speed, distance, time, altitude; 3rd screen shows course, speed, lat, long; 4th shows a speed versus time graph, 5th speed versus distance graph, 6th altitude versus distance, 7th a summary of the route.

I am considering getting a Boxit to bar-mount it (it is fully waterproof and there is an accessory bike mount, costs about £25 for both at Chainreactioncycles). For now I am putting it in the map pocket on my bar bag, but it works fine if left in my zipped back pocket of my jersey. I think the Edge is slightly better to mount on the bike as I presume the case is waterproof, but considering I got the N82 free and got a cheaper and better tariff at the same time, I'm chuffed with it! You only need a £25/month tariff on Orange (you get 400 or 600 minutes/free landline calls/unlimited texts - there are a few variations).

It won't do cadence or heart rate though!

It does have a pedometer though (if you run or walk with it obviously).

On the other hand, it doubles as a sat-nav for in the car or on the bike, and will run Garmin and some other sat-nav software, or its own Nokia Maps. I have now dispensed with my PDA sat nav for the car, and use this now. I think the edge will give you a direction pointer but doesn't do map based sat nav as far as I know (I think the more expensive 700's do though).

A thing I really like about it is that as I carry my phone all the time, I have sat nav available all the time, even if its just for finding my way around a town on foot.

Looks good speedy gonzales!

Just had a look at the garmin motion based demo
http://www.motionbased.com/info/product ... oduct.demo

It does look good - and I can get a garmin for £100

Will have to see best annual contract I could get the nokia on.

One question, whats the battery life like when on GPS? I have a GPS PDA but the battery life is poo - needs to be constantly on charge.

gcwebbyuk wrote:

Looks good speedy gonzales!

Just had a look at the garmin motion based demo
http://www.motionbased.com/info/product ... oduct.demo

It does look good - and I can get a garmin for £100

Will have to see best annual contract I could get the nokia on.

One question, whats the battery life like when on GPS? I have a GPS PDA but the battery life is poo - needs to be constantly on charge.

Well my ride at the weekend was 3 hours, but I was out for 5 (pub stop) and there were 2 bars (of 5) on the battery meter, however, I did have the backlight on auto (switches off after a short time). But I am pleased with the battery life. I'm touring in 2 weeks and I have bought an iGo Trip to charge it up each day (takes 2 AA batteries).

Cheers Alfa - sounds like that could be a good tip. I've had it set to O2 Active so I'll try with it on None and see how that fares.