Hi, this is my first major thread / tutorial here on G3 Troubleshooting. I was having issues with GPS since I replaced the entire housing to replace the touchscreen and display so I figured it was an hardware problem.
This is meant for you if you've tried all kinds of roms / kernels and still aren't getting decent GPS reception.
I am not responsible if you damage your own phone by doing something stupid. Do as I say at your own risk. Stop reading if you don't understand this.
The main part responsible for GPS reception on the G3 is the little board that serves as an antenna on the lower part of the phone, left of the usb port.
Start by disassembling your phone following any popular guide on youtube. Stop when the main board is fully removed.
Now, you should see this antenna board fully exposed. It's very tiny and fit snuggly onto the housing with glue tape underneath.
Your goal now is to remove this gently with a thin plastic pry tool. Try to find a spot where you can pry it, the one with most surface area to minimize chance of further damage to the board.
After you removed it, salvage the sticky glue tape, you'll need it later.
Now get some tinfoil. Fold it several times over itself and compress it until you get a strip of the width and length*1.5 of the board size approximately, so there's a few centimeters left over.
Now see this? imgur / wveT6R2 this is the underside of it. Make sure the tinfoil is making contact with the gold metal bit, the one exposed shaped like a semi-ring, route the strip from that point up until the middle of the board and then do a vertical angle (90º) pointing UP, apply the glue sticky stuff on the frame of the phone (spot where the board goes) place the board with the routed tinfoil superimposed as explained. It should stick to the frame and you should now have a bit of tinfoil strip angling out of there. Route the strip vertically and horizontally (making 90º angles) as you find corners to form a "zig zag" pattern THIS little square space: imgur / 2a2h5e5 is where you should be routing it. This should form an extra antenna that makes contact with the antenna board, thus boosting your GPS signal. Don't forget to secure the foil with electrical tape (tiny bits as possible). Assemble the Phone back together (trace steps backwards) and boot. Run GPS Test. Be Amazed
It took 2 attempts to find the perfect solution, my first attempt at this idea did not work out in a very substantial improvement, but after reopening the phone and opting for the bigger strip and zig zag pattern, it REALLY made a difference.
This was MY EXPERIENCE. I really believe that if your antenna for one reason or another is going flaky, this should at least improve it.
I learned a lot from this, but take this with a grain of salt, results may vary.
Sorry for the lack of images, I had to strip some of the imgur links because I can't post images yet.
Thanks for reading and hope you get good results (don't touch anything else) :D
This is meant for you if you've tried all kinds of roms / kernels and still aren't getting decent GPS reception.
I am not responsible if you damage your own phone by doing something stupid. Do as I say at your own risk. Stop reading if you don't understand this.
The main part responsible for GPS reception on the G3 is the little board that serves as an antenna on the lower part of the phone, left of the usb port.
Start by disassembling your phone following any popular guide on youtube. Stop when the main board is fully removed.
Now, you should see this antenna board fully exposed. It's very tiny and fit snuggly onto the housing with glue tape underneath.
Your goal now is to remove this gently with a thin plastic pry tool. Try to find a spot where you can pry it, the one with most surface area to minimize chance of further damage to the board.
After you removed it, salvage the sticky glue tape, you'll need it later.
Now get some tinfoil. Fold it several times over itself and compress it until you get a strip of the width and length*1.5 of the board size approximately, so there's a few centimeters left over.
Now see this? imgur / wveT6R2 this is the underside of it. Make sure the tinfoil is making contact with the gold metal bit, the one exposed shaped like a semi-ring, route the strip from that point up until the middle of the board and then do a vertical angle (90º) pointing UP, apply the glue sticky stuff on the frame of the phone (spot where the board goes) place the board with the routed tinfoil superimposed as explained. It should stick to the frame and you should now have a bit of tinfoil strip angling out of there. Route the strip vertically and horizontally (making 90º angles) as you find corners to form a "zig zag" pattern THIS little square space: imgur / 2a2h5e5 is where you should be routing it. This should form an extra antenna that makes contact with the antenna board, thus boosting your GPS signal. Don't forget to secure the foil with electrical tape (tiny bits as possible). Assemble the Phone back together (trace steps backwards) and boot. Run GPS Test. Be Amazed
It took 2 attempts to find the perfect solution, my first attempt at this idea did not work out in a very substantial improvement, but after reopening the phone and opting for the bigger strip and zig zag pattern, it REALLY made a difference.
MY RESULTS
Indoors:
Before - No fix / No signals | After - 6 satellites with medium SNR and a fix after 5 seconds; Acc: 10mIndoors:
Outdoors:
Before - Fix after 10 seconds / losing signal while in a car or cities with big buildings | After: Fix in 3 seconds; 10+ satellites; acc: 3m best, 4-5m averageThis was MY EXPERIENCE. I really believe that if your antenna for one reason or another is going flaky, this should at least improve it.
I learned a lot from this, but take this with a grain of salt, results may vary.
Sorry for the lack of images, I had to strip some of the imgur links because I can't post images yet.
Thanks for reading and hope you get good results (don't touch anything else) :D
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