OpenStreetMap
My phone GPS is so inacurate, uploading a GPS trace LOWERS the quality of OSM.
Posted by PhysicsArmature on 1 April 2020 in English.(Subject says it all) If the GPS that got uploaded was accurate, I would be running off road, across driveways, on sidewalks that are not yet built.
Discussion
Comment from n76 on 1 April 2020 at 04:32
The GPS on my old low end Android phone was horrible too. I ended up getting an external Bluetooth GPS and pairing it with my phone. It gave me much faster time to first fix and much more accurate tracks for mapping. You might want to look into that as it is probably cheaper than getting a newer higher end phone with a better GPS.
I don’t know where you are located but here is a search on the US version of Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bluetooth+gps+receiver
I got the cheapest Dual model as I didn’t want to waste too much money. Only GPS, no GLONASS, etc. but it did the job. I’ve moved on to a high end phone with a good GPS but I am keeping the Dual Bluetooth GPS just in case. . .
Comment from kucai on 1 April 2020 at 05:26
I am still waiting for external bluetooth gps with L1 & L5 bands. Doesn’t seem likely, but there’s nothing else to do but wait and hope.
Comment from SomeoneElse on 1 April 2020 at 11:00
I don’t think that “uploading a GPS trace LOWERS the quality of OSM” - it only would if you then converted that trace to some sort of highway without looking at any other data source (which is something that I would hope that no-one in 2020 would ever do, except in the very unusual case that there’s no other data sorce available).
If you can provide a bit more information about where you’re interested in adding data, I’m sure local mappers can explain which sources locally they find most helpful - both in terms of being not offset and also in terms of being recent.
Comment from PhysicsArmature on 5 April 2020 at 20:22
@SomeoneElse, I understand GPS traces do not directly impact the map. I just wanted to use my phone GPS to confirm the location of certain features for desktop users to place down, only to see it off by many meters in different sections. The local mappers can see the obvious errors. Thank you for your concern, sorry about my initial vagueness.