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How to tell if a smart phone has a GNSS receiver built-in ?
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 11:51 am
by Externet
It is about hardware. Some smart phones have a built-in GNSS (global navigation satellite system) receiver. Does not matter if enabled only for Glonass, or Galileo, or GPS or other, or more than one.
Is there any test to find out, not from reading specifications ?
Re: How to tell if a smart phone has a GNSS receiver built-i
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 4:10 pm
by Ronaldlees
Since the receivers don't transmit anything, I don't think you could sniff them out easily, unless you'd happen know the frequency of a local oscillator it uses. That would get into the specs to determine. I suppose the apps on the phone should normally do the trick. You might be able to identify the chips (RTR6285, BCM4751, Avag03012, etc) - unless the GPS/GNSS/Galileo functionality is integrated into the radio or the SoC chip. I'm not an expert, but I'd be interested in seeing how it could be done.
If you're trying to determine which of the 3 systems it uses - I think in the US it's still mostly GPS L1 (1560-1580 MHz). There are test generators (pretty cheap) to test for GPS L1 and GPS L2 (1217-1237 MHz) - but I haven't ever used any of them. According to the Wiki - GNSS is at 1602 MHz, and Galileo at 1278 MHz.
Re: How to tell if a smart phone has a GNSS receiver built-i
Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:26 pm
by tk21326
get a satellite view app. Disable wifi and mobile network services in the phone, enable location. see what satellites show in the app.