Increased time to Acquire Sat!

I'm noticing the same problem with my 680. Sometimes it takes so long the GPS gives up and asks if I'm inside. After answering all the questions, it locks on to the satellites and everything is fine.

The position of the satellites are showing up on the screen and I'm getting the signal boxes for several of them but they don't fill in with a solid blue color.

It seems to be worse, but not always, in the morning when it's turned on after being off for several hours. I've been trying different things to see if there's a common event but so far no luck.

Anyone else having problems

It seems like it's any satellite as my radio is having the same problem. Plus I;m hitting a lot of dead spots with the satellite radio. May be sun spots

It also takes quite a while on my nuvi 660 as well to acquire the satellites. If anyone has any idea on how to perhaps shorten this delay, would love to hear it!

Cut it back on exactly where you cut it off.

I have a Garmin SPC530. It used to be blazingly fast when I first got it but now, it is rather slow when you first seek satellites. As the unit has dropped to the floor a few times, thanks to a defect in manufacturing the rubber that fits to the disk, I assumed THAT to be the cause. I wonder if it has something to do with a software upgrade or some other cause such as the source.

Same thing is happening to me right now with my nuvi 760, but in my case I didn't notice it until after I upgraded to the new 460 version.

It takes awhile for my Garmin to locate the satelite at times. I simply choose the "find location" icon and the satelite is located quickly.

I have had trouble with ham radio reception and have been blaming the recent increase in sunspot activity. I suspect some connection. W3JXN

Increase in sunspot activity? I wish

It's been almost 100 years since the sunpot numbers have been as low as they are today. We've been mostly sunspot free for the last year with only a tiny one popping up now and then. There doesn't seem to be any end in sight.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/solar_minimu...

I'm a ham radio operator too and wish the sunspot numbers would get up there so the higher bands can become usable again.

VE4CY

The higher bands are still usable, if you don't want to talk farther than about 50 miles. hehehe

Jack j
N8BSR

Gee, I did not know the sun even had a case of acne.

I blame El Niño for the problem.

If I dont use 750 a couple days it takes a long
time for it to get signal but the next time I turn
it on works just fine

When this was explained to me it made sense then. Maybe someone can confirm if this is how it really works.

Once the GPSr locks onto the constellation of satellites, it creates a table in memory. It then calculates where the satellites should be in the near future, and constantly makes small changes in the table as your position changes. If the GPSr is turned off for a period, and I'm guessing <24 hours, and then it is turned back on relatively close to where it was when it was turned off, it doesn't take as long to get a fix on where it is since most of the math is already done. But if a longer period elapses, the data is stale and has to be completely recalculated. This is also true if you turn the GPSr off and drive a distance >300 miles and then turn it on. The data coming in doesn't match what's in the table as it was expecting to wake up where it went to sleep, so it has to recalculate everything. This may take a couple of minutes.

The ability to predict where the satellite should be may be model dependent. If it really works this way, then a GPSr that always takes a long time to get a fix, may have a problem, or it may not have a clear view of open sky.

Any thoughts?

Will check it out and see whether it makes a difference. I haven't been using daily for a while now which is why I noticed now

One thing that may be worth looking at is if your windows have UV protection or other tinting that may be interfering with the signal.

Exactly what I experience with my 255W.

same problem with my 660 but not with my 265

I have the same problem here with my 760, but instead of not getting the satellites, mine take a lot longer to get the traffic signal and it is getting anoying.

It has in the past for me.

I've noticed the same with my 660.. I suspect the new Nuvi's (with better satellite position prediction) would be better, but it's weird it's getting worse now than when the unit was new. Maybe the US Government's de-tuned the satellites some?

I haven't experienced these problems, yet. have you contacted technical support?

It's amazing what one can learn on this site. I was told that sunspot activity was increasing again, and without checking I assumed the info was accurate. By now. I really should know better.

I have turned my C530 on setting on my desktop many, many, many times and for the first time ever just got the "Are you indoors?" message. The message came up five minutes after turning the unit on. I have noticed it taking a long time for about three months at least but until today it would sync in about three minutes or so. Until a couple of months ago with the unit in the same spot it would sync in a minute and a half every time.

One possibility that I just noticed is that I have a wireless computer device from AT&T U-Verse now that is pretty close to my gps at the same location. The wireless operates on about 2.4gig hertz but I would not think that would interfere. I moved my gps to the other end of my desk and in synced up in about a minute or so. I'll have to do more testing outside but I'm pretty sure it was taking longer outside too.

PS. A final note, I moved the gps back close to the wireless device and after a minute or two it is displaying "Poor Satellite Reception" so I guess the wireless is causing my problem at my desk.

Hello Mattb, what do you mean with resetting the Stacks???

Thanks a lot: FRGG

This is not an issue of screen calibration or inaccuracy; it is a delay, or slow redraw. With some models, it can be dramatically improved if you reduce the amount of detail shown on the screen from "Most" to "Normal" (or "Medium", or . . .).

Hi Jim,
From these forums I've noticed that you & I have had similar experiences regarding our 765's. Unfortunately, this problem continues our similarities.

After receiving a replacement unit, I too, noticed that I often get the blinking question mark after powering up the unit & I've got a convertible so there's nothing blocking the signal. Sometimes I don't acquire the signal for a few minutes. The new one also has a yellower screen (I noticed that when I had mine & my wife's both on at the same time).

I don't have any solution but wanted you to know that you're not alone.

I haven't noticed the change in screen color that you mention

for some odd reason, since receiving my replacement 765T a couple of weeks ago, I have been experiencing much longer sat acquisition times

not always, but when it is slower, it is much slower than with my original 765T...sometimes as much as 2-3 minutes...I thought hot fix was supposed to eliminate a delay as long as that

everything else about the new unit is working fine, with the possible exception of this unit sometimes being slightly off on when it shows the vehicle icon crossing an intersection on the map...sometimes, the map shows me about to reach an intersection as I am passing through it...nothing I can't live with, but I wonder if it is related to the slow sat acquisition issue in some way, since it seems to be reading my position incorrectly

is this something that can be tweaked in the configuration, similar to what I have been reading about owners improving their touch screen accuracy?

any ideas and feedback would be greatly appreciated

this morning, I acquired the sat in...drum roll please...under 20 seconds

My new 5000 seems to take longer to acquire satellites when compared to my 680. I know the "external" type antenna of the 680 may make a difference. The 5000 has the antenna built in the upper part of the case. I plan on doing more tests

To what do you attribute your success?

BTW, any idea how your original post moved in relation to other posts? It now shows up AFTER a couple responses. Editing hasn't done that in the past with this site's s/w.

as for the move of my original post, I suspect Miss Poi moved it into this thread to consolidate things.

I should have searched first prior to my post.

I will do that in the future.

I tried using the GPS over the last week a lot more regularly and it does appear that it is "locking" into the satellites faster.

Will keep monitoring and see whether this is really the case.

Thanks for the hint

My C340 was pretty quick about getting the satellites until an "upgrade" of the software about 18 months ago or so. Now it's much slower than it used to be (when running on battery, it takes forever/never does find the sats). Coincidence? Maybe.

Have you tried resetting it?

My Nuvi 660 has same problem, so slow that i finish buying a Nuvi 755T a few weeks ago.

Since 2000, sunspot activity has been in decline, and this year sunspot activity has matched an inactivity level not seen since the early 1900s.
Due to the lack of sun spots The average temperature on earth has declined over the past two years by about half a degree Celsius - an amount that similar to the temperature increases reported over the past century. This year may be the coldest on record in the past century.

Frequent use of the unit did actually reduce the amount of time it takes to find and lock on to the satellite signal.

So if you don't use it daily, expect a delay when you first start up and hope that you are not in an area (like downtown areas or coming out of parking garages) where getting a signal is even more difficult.

I have had the same issue with my NUVI 350, for some time. Sometimes, it takes less than a minute. There are times that it takes 5-10 minutes and increasingly, I get the "Are you inside" question. Once you answer, it seems to immediately be ready to navigate.

I found my lock time seemed much longer after a firmware update on my NUVI 350. Some say, there is no such thing as coincidence.

From keeping windmill alive:

"Nuvi 660 (GyPSy)...lost satellites...after a 12 hour rest GyPSy regained her senses." (Lost satellites again.) "She hasn't found a satellite since."

Update: Now, almost 3 weeks later GyPSy appears normal. Three days of being stationary, plugged in and at a window nothing changed. Then an external influence charged my circuits.

I inserted a thin wire into the center hole of the MCX external antenna plug and GyPSy immediatelly started searching for satellites again...and locked on. Removing the wire caused loss of all satellites.

Reinserting the wire regained the lock which I maintained (under AC power) for 2 days. I removed the wire and AC power and GyPSy acts as she did when new--without Garmin's $110 repair charge.

I think GyPSy lost satellite almanac data. Hope this helps others.

no comment, still on 350

I am not sure if this is a hard confirm, but I have read this reason in the past on this site and Garmin's. I tried to fond the actual link but with no luck. As I travel around the upper Midwest I do have these same issues with my 755T, but not very often.

It is worse when I am home for a week or so and leave my GPS in the house.

I have a 680 and 760 Garmin and found that the more songs I add to MP3 player on both units the longer it takes to find the satellite.

Hope this helps.

This is information anyone can get by doing a search on the Internet.

Your GPS does NOT compute where the satellite will be, it has a data table that tells it the location of the satellite for about 4 hours into the future. This table is called the ephemeris data and contains the precise orbital path information for that satellite. It also contains information about the satellite's clock. This data is updated to the satellite every 2 hours and is valid for 4 hours. Each satellite transmits ephemeris data for itself only and your GPS can take up to 30 seconds to receive it. Your GPS needs to download this data on every satellite it uses.

The second data set needed by your GPS is called the almanac. This contains coarse orbital data on all the satellites as well as time data and an ionospheric model needed by the GPS. This data can be used at receiver power-up to predict which satellites should be visible to the receiver. It takes your GPS about 12 minutes to download the entire almanac.

It is possible that your GPS could take as much as 2 minutes to download enough data to generate a rough positional fix. It could also take as much as 20 minutes for your GPS to reach its maximum accuracy.

When you say your GPS is acquiring satellites it is really acquiring satellite data sets. Poor reception can cause this time to become extended.

Jack j

Thank You

My 265 is very slow, sometime more than 20 minutes
Now I know why.
Thanks

ive been using my 255w a lot lately putting in pois and i can hold it up by my window and it comes on with good signal ( dont have to put in password) so that seems to be relatively fast . 15 seconds or so.
mike

my 255w aquires satellites within 30 seconds from a cold startup.

Never been an issue.