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GPS VERY accurate ?? — Parallax Forums

GPS VERY accurate ??

Ole Man EarlOle Man Earl Posts: 262
edited 2009-06-05 23:22 in Propeller 1
10:34PM MST
Will someone else check their GPS units.
All mine have suddenly stayed within 1 FOOT radius and +- 1 inch altitude over a 10 min period...No the unit is on. I see data flowing.

Did someone turn on high precision ???

Post Edited (Ole Man Earl) : 6/4/2009 4:55:33 AM GMT

Comments

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2009-06-04 06:00
    Earl,

    Selective Availability has been turned off for some time now. What you may be seeing is just the effect of data from the same subset of satellites over a ten-minute period. Give it more time; once new satellites orbit into view, I'll bet you start to move — without even lifting a foot! smile.gif

    -Phil
  • Toby SeckshundToby Seckshund Posts: 2,027
    edited 2009-06-04 08:04
    There is a rumour over her in the UK that either the GPS system is getting old, or will start to fail soon. I would be gobsmacked if the military allowed this to happen.
    Europe is desparately trying to get their independant system up and running so I don't know if the US system is getting clawed back towards its original usage or even a licence, with payments, (probably on both)·will have to be obtained. Over here we get taxed on the tax.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2009-06-04 09:02
    I just love sailing in the ocean and see my gps gives me an altitude of 50m but it's only 2m above the water. We have some big tides here in some parts, but not that much !

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  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    edited 2009-06-04 12:51
    I don't know, but my centimeter precision DGPS is behaving funny in the last days... so something might be happening. On the other hand I have not GPS precision increase, so the mil error has not been removed.
    By the way, in the past the users that lived the short times of GPS error removal said it was a dream..

    @Cluso: GPS altitude is on the WGS85 ellipsoid, while sea level is 0 on the geoid it can differ up to +-100meters with respect to the ellipsoid. Italy for instance shows a 40m difference. There are math models to calculate this value, and the most used is EGM96, while there is a new EGM2008 model available.
    check http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geoid_height_red_blue.png

    Massimo
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2009-06-04 15:01
    The Selective Availability error was set to zero briefly, during the first Gulf War, so that soldiers could use civilian GPS units. It was zeroed again in 2000 by executive order from President Clinton and has not been reinstituted since.

    -Phil
  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    edited 2009-06-04 15:11
    Nonetheless today I had a lot of problems with my GPS, so it is possible there is something funny around.
    In fact I have a sort of added latency which made today's work useless..
  • northcovenorthcove Posts: 49
    edited 2009-06-04 20:33
    Does $GPGSA show a 3D fix?
    How many satellites does $GPGGA report?
  • virtuPICvirtuPIC Posts: 193
    edited 2009-06-05 17:48
    I remember a NOAA study saying that without SA you have to expect horizontal errors of up to some 13 m (~43 ft) and vertical errors up to some 30 m (~100 ft) due to inospheric refraction. Just my $.02...

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  • David BDavid B Posts: 592
    edited 2009-06-05 18:53
    A few months ago I made a propeller-powered GPS logger and have been using it to log trips around town, so this discussion got me motivated to run a test.

    On May 29, I had logged a 5 mile bike ride:

    http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=224095

    So last night I did the same ride, identical to probably within two feet over the entire trip as on May 29th, and it's shown here:

    http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=231356

    If you pull up two separate browsers, you can zoom in and compare paths between the two.

    I don't see much of a difference.

    The altitude summary shows a large difference, but altitude is always more error-prone, and this could be due to poor satellite geometry over the ride.
  • SciNemoSciNemo Posts: 91
    edited 2009-06-05 20:10
    http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/05/14/2223226/GPS-Accuracy-Could-Start-Dropping-In-2010?art_pos=7

    Scary stuff up there^^

    There must be better things to use than GPS in most instances. You can easily set up some radio beacons and do some trig to find an object's location at half the price or less of GPS.

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  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2009-06-05 21:16
    SciNemo said...
    You can easily set up some radio beacons and do some trig to find an object's location at half the price or less of GPS.
    'Loran-C, anyone?

    Seriously, it's sobering to think how much depends on keeping the plates spinning and the balls in the air.

    -Phil
  • hover1hover1 Posts: 1,929
    edited 2009-06-05 23:22
    @earl

    I'm going to put my Prop-GPS-DataLogger back together this weekend and make a couple of runs and report back. I just cleaned up my protoboard and it didn't work also. I found the bugs. The cleaner it gets, the more bugs get introduced! That said, if you commit it to a PCB, it may not work at all tongue.gif
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) said...
    SciNemo said...
    You can easily set up some radio beacons and do some trig to find an object's location at half the price or less of GPS.
    'Loran-C, anyone?

    Seriously, it's sobering to think how much depends on keeping the plates spinning and the balls in the air.

    -Phil
    And it looks like Loran-C will go away soon:

    http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/Loran/default.htm

    I have a free Loran receiver available. The gentleman that·bought my sailboat said "I don't want that antique" so I pulled it....I forgot the pull my antenna·cry.gif
    Jim

    Post Edited (hover1) : 6/5/2009 11:31:13 PM GMT
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