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seanhogan said..
to be unlocked most of those prepaid phones will need either :

a) to have charged a minimum of credit in them (ex vodafone & optus used to need 80 $ spent before allowing unlocking)
b) a fee to unlock it straight away
c) a certain time before being allowed to unlock (from 6 months to a year)

Unlocking is done via their website, I managed to unlock a vodafone for free cause I was overseas.

Great thanks Sean. I have only ever had unlocked iphones so this is a whole new world for me! I will do what Decrepit said and use the Optus prepaid for the time being at least and if I find anything better in the future I will check it out.
Just as an aside after a quick search online I found this on the sony website
developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/unlock-bootloader/
After reading all the warnings it looked a bit scary for me - I only have experience at drowning electronics :-)

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decrepit said..

WazzaYotty said..

Let's start Fangy off on this one.
Unlocked. One string attached.

Have you tried a "display off" test with that? the Xperia is giving me strange results.

I am pretty grumpy with this model - Display off seems to be the default setting! Even when I tried using a waterproof marker to write my speeds on the display they didnt last very long before getting washed off.(range is rubbish too)

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fangman said..
Sorry if this isn't the right forum to ask this - i plan to use the Xperia phone mainly for GPSLogit but I will earn extra brownie points from my beloved if I have the ability to call home if I am stranded somewhere far from shore. So does anyone know if there is a telco,that provides a SIM card and plan that is super cheap, pre paid and doesn't expire for yonks?

ALDI: Telstra 3G Network. Costs like $10-15 and lasts for up to a year!!!

Just activated mine, starts off with $3 credit from the $49 purchase, poured in another $10, and yep, says it will last 6months.

Telco&SIM stuff -Thanks everyone
Did anyone else other than Decrepit and me, have problems with using the Xperia and getting big gaps(30secs in my case) in the log records when the 'display on' was not selected as per Decrepits's post?

Is it recording speeds min speed?

Used the GPS Logit on the xperia together with the GT-31 yesterday. Had the Logit on the top of my camel pack (near the nape of my neck) and the GT-31 on my arm. Results as per below;

Div.............GT-31..........Logit
2sec ........29.26...........28.93
5x10.........28.17...........27.74 (it appears that realspeed has missed the 1st, 2nd and 4th of my best 10sec runs in the logit file)
Alpha........16.51..........16.57
Nm............24.43..........23.58
1hr...........12.29...........12.33
500m........26.15...........25.62

Gt-31


Logit

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sausage said..
Used the GPS Logit on the xperia together with the GT-31 yesterday. Had the Logit on the top of my camel pack (near the nape of my neck) and the GT-31 on my arm. Results as per below;

Div.............GT-31..........Logit (realspeed results)
2sec ........29.26...........28.93
5x10.........28.17...........27.74 (it appears that realspeed has missed the 1st, 2nd and 4th of my best 10sec runs in the logit file)
Alpha........16.51..........16.57
Nm............24.43..........23.58
1hr...........12.29...........12.33
500m........26.15...........25.62

Just ran the Logit and GT-31 files through latest version of GPSResults and much the same discrepancy.

Div.............GT-31..........Logit (GPSResults)
2sec ........29.342...........29.177
5x10.........28.182...........27.749 (it appears that GPS results has read the 10sec runs in a similar fashion to realspeed for the logit file - refer the time stamps below)
Alpha........16.492..........16.587
Nm............24.434..........23.587
1hr...........11.765...........11.56
500m........26.155...........25.622

GT-31 file (GPS results)
10s:
time m [knots]
14:39:49 148.0 28.777+/-0.218
15:08:40 145.2 28.222+/-0.282
14:31:01 144.8 28.148+/-0.194
14:11:10 144.3 28.052+/-0.268
15:20:54 142.6 27.710+/-0.253
15:13:31 140.7 27.354+/-0.240
14:22:51 140.3 27.268+/-0.257
15:02:06 138.9 26.991+/-0.260
15:22:48 136.9 26.609+/-0.245
14:27:01 125.4 24.379+/-0.194
average[2]: 52.781km/h 28.500knots
average[3]: 52.564km/h 28.382knots
average[5]: 52.193km/h 28.182knots

logit file (GPSResults)
10s:
time m [knots]
14:31:01 144.5 28.090
14:39:51 143.7 27.928
15:20:53 143.0 27.798
14:11:11 142.3 27.662
15:13:32 140.3 27.267
15:08:40 139.7 27.148
14:22:46 138.3 26.890
15:22:49 136.2 26.469
15:02:05 134.3 26.111
14:27:02 125.7 24.427
average[2]: 51.873km/h 28.009knots
average[3]: 51.743km/h 27.939knots
average[5]: 51.391km/h 27.749knots

The future is coming fast. I have noted Skytraq chip accuracy so I went to their web site and came across these..

www.skytraq.com.tw/products/Venus816_PB_v1.pdf

www.skytraq.com.tw/products/Venus838FLPx_PB_v1.pdf

50Hz update and miniscule chip sizes with bugger all power consumption and < 1 second reacquisition. Yippee !!

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sausage said..
Used the GPS Logit on the xperia together with the GT-31 yesterday. Had the Logit on the top of my camel pack (near the nape of my neck) and the GT-31 on my arm. Results as per below;

Div.............GT-31..........Logit
2sec ........29.26...........28.93
5x10.........28.17...........27.74 (it appears that realspeed has missed the 1st, 2nd and 4th of my best 10sec runs in the logit file)
Alpha........16.51..........16.57
Nm............24.43..........23.58
1hr...........12.29...........12.33
500m........26.15...........25.62

What I find interesting is you have exactly the same alphas, realspeed has trouble with my alphas, usually missing the best ones out.

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fangman said..
Telco&SIM stuff -Thanks everyone
Did anyone else other than Decrepit and me, have problems with using the Xperia and getting big gaps(30secs in my case) in the log records when the 'display on' was not selected as per Decrepits's post?

Weird one today Fangy, activated it yesterday, today it went for about 35min without skipping a beat, no drop outs at all!

The plot thickens!

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elmo said..
Is it recording speeds min speed?

well, I was doing it stationary, so there's not a lot, but all the speeds that were recorded are .49kts doppler and 1.4kts to zero trackpoints.

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yoyo said..
The future is coming fast. I have noted Skytraq chip accuracy so I went to their web site and came across these..

www.skytraq.com.tw/products/Venus816_PB_v1.pdf

www.skytraq.com.tw/products/Venus838FLPx_PB_v1.pdf

50Hz update and miniscule chip sizes with bugger all power consumption and < 1 second reacquisition. Yippee !!

Been looking at them for a while! Apparently is is possible to get the SDOP or EHVE out of them in the Skytraq binary files but it must be turned on using SDK software. Looking into that.

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sausage said..

sausage said..
Used the GPS Logit on the xperia together with the GT-31 yesterday. Had the Logit on the top of my camel pack (near the nape of my neck) and the GT-31 on my arm. Results as per below;

Div.............GT-31..........Logit (realspeed results)
2sec ........29.26...........28.93
5x10.........28.17...........27.74 (it appears that realspeed has missed the 1st, 2nd and 4th of my best 10sec runs in the logit file)
Alpha........16.51..........16.57
Nm............24.43..........23.58
1hr...........12.29...........12.33
500m........26.15...........25.62

Brian if you send me both files I'll check them in gpsarpro, it superimposes the tracks on top of each other, that may shed some light on the different order.

2 things that seem to make a difference to the xperia, is activation and display on. (sounds crazy I know, and I'm still checking). So is you phone activated and was the display on?

Had a first run with the Xperia on Monday at Primbee. Still waiting on my waterproof Bluetooth headphones to arrive so first up sacrificed the standard headphones. The wind was howling so I found them useless, couldn't hear a thing even at full volume. They were drowned after a few runs anyway, as expected. Next up, roughly sealed up some old Non! Waterproof Bluetooth headphones with some electrical tape to try again. They had a better sealing earpiece which made it possible to hear the speed chat. Although still found that on speed runs over 35kts or so it was a struggle to hear over the wind and chatter of the board on the water. Still I think speed chat is AWESOME! I'm hooked already. Clearly some issues still to sort out but in my opinion this will do as much if not more for my sailing as the GT31 has. Love it! Bring on heads up display sunnies lol.

Comparison between Samsung Ace3 and the Xperia today.
The good display off result was an aberration! Started off with both phones display off alongside the GT31 on the balcony.
Then took all 3 for a drive straped to the masts.
here's the overall tracks of the two phones.



Red is the Xperia blue the Ace3, first half is display off 2ns half is display on. The straight red lines are where the Xperia has no data recorded.

SO, DON'T be tempted to use the Zperia with the display off!!!!!

However it didn't seem to affect the Ace3.
Sitting on the balcony table the Xperia had 13sats with a few of them red, whereas the Ace had 23 all green. But looking at the data they both used about 10 to calculate the results, so there isn't much difference in the outcome.

Here's all 3 on the best 2sec result.



So there's a bit of a time gap between the phones and the GT31 but they are so close otherwise I don't think it matters.

At low speeds both phones produce a "stepped" wave form. Manfred says this is due to

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that the speeds sometimes have a 'grid-effect' i.e. a limited resolution of 0.25m/s = 0.9km/h = 0.486knots at lower speeds.

Again red is Xperia, Blue Ace3 Green GT31, the above steps start at 3kts then drop off

results for display on session
2s
Xperia 51.39, Ace3 51.15, GT31 51.08

5X10
Xperia 38.93, Ace3 38.93, GT31 38.90

NM
Xperia 37.78, Ace3 37.79, GT31 37,81

Alpha
Xperia 24.21, Ace3 24.10, GT31 24.10

So I'm quite happy with that, it looks like the Samsung does a better job, but for our purposes there's not enough difference to spend the extra money

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decrepit said..

sausage said..

sausage said..
Used the GPS Logit on the xperia together with the GT-31 yesterday. Had the Logit on the top of my camel pack (near the nape of my neck) and the GT-31 on my arm. Results as per below;

Div.............GT-31..........Logit (realspeed results)
2sec ........29.26...........28.93
5x10.........28.17...........27.74 (it appears that realspeed has missed the 1st, 2nd and 4th of my best 10sec runs in the logit file)
Alpha........16.51..........16.57
Nm............24.43..........23.58
1hr...........12.29...........12.33
500m........26.15...........25.62

Brian if you send me both files I'll check them in gpsarpro, it superimposes the tracks on top of each other, that may shed some light on the different order.

2 things that seem to make a difference to the xperia, is activation and display on. (sounds crazy I know, and I'm still checking). So is you phone activated and was the display on?

OK here's Brian's 10sec



Red is GT31 Black is Xperia. This looks like the tracks I had riding my bike. My upper arm was almost vertical, unlike sailing where my apper arm is fairly horizontal. I have a feeling Brian that you'll get better results with the Xperia either on your head or your upper arm.
You are using 10 sats, but they are a long way off from a good beometric pattern for triangulation, the HDOP numbers are typically 0.8. When I get good results the HDOP is 0.2 Still only using 10sats but they are spread over a wider area.

It does seem the xperia is fairly sensitive to sky view.

A bit more to the Ace3, Xperia, GT31 tests.
I've just looked at the begining when they were all on the balcony, the phones with display off.

period is about 55min
Xperia says distance is 100m, Ace3 has distance 15m and GT31 has distance 51m. So the Ace 3 is looking pretty good. The balcony only has a bit more than 50% sky view, and the Xperia is suffering from it's "display off" syndrome.
The Xperia has HDOP 0.2 and 0.4, the Ace3 is a solid 0.2 all the way, the GT31 suffers from only having the American sats to draw on, it's HDOP is 0.8 to 1.0. Although they all use 9 to 10 sats.

I think the Sony phone has some kind of special power saving mode that pops up after the screen has been off - I've never seen this on other Android phones I've had in the past so it must be a Sony add-on.

I used the phone for about an hour on the water on Monday, with screen ON the whole time, and battery went down about 15%. So unless you're sailing an all-day session, the battery should be enough for most sailors to keep the screen on all the time.

Also, mine has not been activated and seems to work fine. The only problem is that keeps prompting me to select my country/language every time I power on, because theres no SIM card to read the info from automatically.

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jamesf said..
I think the Sony phone has some kind of special power saving mode that pops up after the screen has been off - I've never seen this on other Android phones I've had in the past so it must be a Sony add-on.

I used the phone for about an hour on the water on Monday, with screen ON the whole time, and battery went down about 15%. So unless you're sailing an all-day session, the battery should be enough for most sailors to keep the screen on all the time.

Also, mine has not been activated and seems to work fine. The only problem is that keeps prompting me to select my country/language every time I power on, because theres no SIM card to read the info from automatically.

Yes, I think the "display off" file I got just after activation, with no holes in the data was an aberration. It certainly didn't help today.
And yes I agree, mine went for almost 7hrs before it got down to 1% battery. So if it's fully charged you can still do a good distance.

Mine didn't do that before I activated, but I had the sim card in, that allows it to set the right time etc.

Mike,
Thanks for having a look at files. Wore the Xperia on my right arm with a quick session this afternoon. Numbers much closer to the GT-31 today than Monday's session. BTW - had display on with the Xperia for both sessions (but not activated) so it must have a weak(er) antenna and needs full view as you have mentioned or activation is the key.

Probably just going to use the xperia for on the run feedback when I get round to purchasing suitable waterproof case that accommodates the earphones.

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sausage said..
Mike,
>>>>>> or activation is the key.

Probably just going to use the xperia for on the run feedback when I get round to purchasing suitable waterproof case that accommodates the earphones.

NO, The activation thing was just coincedence! It didn't make any difference today.

That's what I intend, I'm going to wear the GW52 on my head, and Xperia on my upper arm. I'll use the GW52 to post results, and the Xperia for on the water info.

But I'm fairly confident, if the Xperia was on your head the results would be as good as anything else we use, except for the lack of SDOP data.

Toll arrived this morning with a parcel from Dick

As a crusty iPhone user took about an hour to get things started on the Experia and GPSLogIt working

Had to roll back through the thread to find download data.

@Sailquick are you able to edit the first post to add these details?

Been for a run around the backyard and it seems to be putting out useful numbers

Needs a bigger display of numbers so I can read it without putting on my glasses-or i haven't found the settings yet to do this?
edit - Reading the web page there is a zoomed view Its the little magnifying glass icon

Very excited - much prefer the touch phone experience over the gt31 navigation plus having an emergency phone on the water is a reassuring bonus

Now to activate - need to work my way through Optus offers All very foreign territory to a Telstra iPhone user

cheers Jeff

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jirvin4505 said..
>>>

Had to roll back through the thread to find download data.

@Sailquick are you able to edit the first post to add these details?

>>>>>>>

Now to activate - need to work my way through Optus offers All very foreign territory to a Telstra iPhone user

cheers Jeff

The ability to edit a post only lasts a few hours unfortunately, other wise I'd have cleaned up a lot of mine!

For an emergency phone only I've gone with the Daily prepaid, $1 a day, min top up is $10 and last 6months. you're only charged the $1 if you use the phone that day. So if you only use it 20 times, it'll cost you $20 a year.

Just remember to turn off mobile data, use wifi to download stuff.

I managed to get it working on a Kogan smartphone with android 4.2.1 today.

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waricle said..
I managed to get it working on a Kogan smartphone with android 4.2.1 today.

So how does it go? The site says 4.2.2 or later, anything missing or not working quite right?

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choco said..
The audio output has been around for some years now in the form of GPS Talker.


http://www.gpsspeedtalker.com/

Sadly Speedtalker hasn't been updated since 2010/11. When Manfred came out with GPSLogit he was kind enough to incorporate "Speedchat" after I requested it. I'd been using Speedtalker up until that time and found it one of the best features to improve your speeds ever.

Roo

here's yesterday's quick session comparing the GT-31 and Logit files (run through GPSResults). Worn on both arms. The Logit reads slightly higher but pretty close none the less. Only issue I see is that the 5 best speeds (2sec and 5x10) don't always correlate with the time stamps (have hi-lighted the logit ones that don't correspond)


GPS Logit
2s:
time m [knots]
15:45:14 31.5 30.616
15:51:15 29.5 28.672
15:35:28 26.2 25.513 (GT-31 shows 1 sec max of 24.143 at corresponding time)
15:47:49 26.2 25.513
15:54:36 25.3 24.541 (GT-31 shows 1 sec max of 23.695 at corresponding time)

10s:
time m [knots]
15:45:16 147.4 28.643
15:51:23 143.2 27.828
15:47:53 126.2 24.534
16:05:59 122.5 23.821
15:35:33 121.7 23.652
average[5]: 47.588km/h 25.696knots

GT-31
2s:
time m [knots]
15:45:14 30.8 29.925+/-0.272
15:51:16 28.9 28.059+/-0.292
15:47:49 25.9 25.163+/-0.243
16:02:09 25.5 24.755+/-0.282
16:05:57 25.1 24.366+/-0.253

10s:
time m [knots]
15:45:15 147.2 28.620+/-0.261
15:51:22 142.5 27.690+/-0.274
15:47:52 124.9 24.287+/-0.262
16:05:58 121.4 23.602+/-0.253
15:54:47 120.1 23.353+/-0.275
average[5]: 47.246km/h 25.511knots

Display went off on me today, don't think it was for long, didn't loose any data.
So I've very quickly made a switch protecter, out of some pool tile foam. That should minimise accidental activation of the on/off sw.




The volume control, walkman and on/off switches are reasonably protected, but the foam is soft enough to use them if you intend to.
It still fits in the paqua OK, but not sure how it'll go with the waterproof earphone thingo.

Does any one know what the timerange speed does/means?