Sunday, December 29, 2013

Nexus 5 GPS fix confirmed:UPDATE


UPDATE : while the Antenna fix helps, I ended up RMA'ing the phone back to LG - the new phone is now out performing my old Nexus4. So I now conclude that the only REAL fix for a poor GPS is a new phone.... 

Since upgrading to the Nexus 5 I've been happy in every respect EXCEPT for the GPS performance which was so bad it made me second guess leaving the Nexus 4. It often took minutes for the phone find its present location and position accuracy was horrendous.  Playing Ingress was pretty much impossible and doing any sort of navigation was a true test of my patience and had me wishing I still kept a Thomas guide in my truck.
Both my wife and I have Nexus 5s and both have the same terrible GPS performance so I was convinced it was inherent to the phone but the rest of the internet was silent on the issue. It wasn't until digging through the XDA Developer forums did I stumble upon a post that gave me some hope. Apparently there is a fit up issue between the back cover that contains the GPS antenna and its spring loaded connector on the main board.  That was all the excuse needed to break out the case cracking tools give this potential fix a try - and I'm glad I did - while I haven't performed any extensive field test my initial post fix comparison in the video above do indicate a positive affect.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

SIG SAUER 516 Patrol Rifile - POF drop in trigger to the rescue

 

Last year I picked up a Sig Sauer 516 patrol rifle off the prize table at the Superstition Mystery Mountanin 3 gun match. With it's 16" barrel I figured I'd turn it into a lightweight carbine which my son Ryan could use to shoot Tac Iron class. 
First impressions were very good, while the big news on the upper is its gas piston operation, the lower had some nice touches like large ambi mag releases, an oversized bolt release/lock buttons, and a setscrew under the grip which applies tension against the upper to give the rifle a nice solid, one piece feel. One thing that immediately stood out on this rifle was how absolutely horrible the trigger was. It wasn't excessively heavy but it was terribly notchy and felt as if they used a hacksaw to cut the sear - any long range stages would not be fun with this trigger.
Instead of breaking out the polishing stones, I elected to take the easy way out and install a POF drop in trigger system - 10 minutes after I started I had a 4.5lb trigger with a sweet, crisp, single stage break. The POF trigger also came with KNS anti walk pins which are a real premium touch. This is exactly the kind of setup I'd expect for the $2000 Sig charges for these rifles.