AGPS works on Thingy91

[Nahan_Trogn]

I found that AGPS can get location information via mobile network. With this feature "GPS" can work indoor.

1. Thingy91 also uses AGPS, but when I ran prebuilt hex asset tracker "thingy91_nbiot_2021-03-04_8e8c6089.hex" inside a building, agps didn't get location? Because it didn't use mobile network?

2. My phone, with normal LTE, can obtain location inside the building (maybe my phone use AGPS?)

3. How to know Thingy91 is using GPS or AGPS?

[Markus Tacker (he/him)]

Nahan_Trogn said:

I found that AGPS can get location information via mobile network. With this feature "GPS" can work indoor.

The A-GPS the nRF9160 uses provides assistance data to the GPS receiver so it can limit the number of satellites it tracks in order to receive the GPS location which will speed up the time to a GPS fix. However it still depends on the GPS satellites to be visible by the device, which is not the case in door.

What you are referring to are other means of locating the device which include cell tower location and WiFi, which you are used from your smartphone. However this is not yet supported on the nRF9160.

You can get a rough location based on the cell tower location, the device is connected to, but the resolution is a few kilometres, so it's not accurate enough to know where in a building the device is.

[Nahan_Trogn]

Hi,

Thanks for the respones.

I read somewhere on the internet that AGPS takes assistance from mobile tower to reduce time to fix fix position. Is it true for AGPS on nRF9160?

The AirBolt GPS tracker use Nordic's chip, its GPS can support indoor environment. Is it also get position based on the cell tower location?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/airbolt/the-airbolt-gps

https://theairbolt.com/products/airbolt-gps

Thanks.

[Markus Tacker (he/him)]

Nahan_Trogn said:

I read somewhere on the internet that AGPS takes assistance from mobile tower to reduce time to fix fix position. Is it true for AGPS on nRF9160?

Yes, the A-GPS data provided to the modem is tailored based on the cell tower information available to the modem (you now the time of day and roughly the position on the globe).

Nahan_Trogn said:

The AirBolt GPS tracker use Nordic's chip, its GPS can support indoor environment. Is it also get position based on the cell tower location?

Please ask AirBolt directly about features of their product.