Increased time to Acquire Sat!

I have noticed that my 350 can acquire a signal quickly some days and lose the signal miles later. Drive a couple of miles and the signal is back. This can happen several times in different location on a trip. ???

whitevolvo I have a 265 and it gets a signal pretty fast with the hot fix.20 minues is way out of line.Maybe a hard re-set needs to be done or a call to Garmin.

I dunno if this could be your problem, and it may just be my imagination, but I seem to have much more difficulty obtaining and maintaining a satellite fix on cloudy days.

I have had more trouble on cloudy days also. Wonder if an external antenna would help?

I would swear that I get worse satellite acquisition and accuracy on cloudy rainy days. But according to this article, http://gpsinformation.net/gpsclouds.htm, it isn't significantly affected by weather.

I've used external antennas, and they can make a huge difference, especially in cities where skyscrapers block sat angles. Gilsson makes some very good ones. http://www.gilsson.com/gps_antennas.htm

On another note I would have to agree with Charlie that 20 minutes is way above average. I personally don't think it,s ever taken more than three minutes to get a fix.

How long was the unit off for? If it's off for a few days or longer, that may be the reason why! All the current data has to be loaded.

At times, my 660 takes 3 min or more to acquire sats...
Other times, it boots and acquires very quickly...

I've been wondering if I tell it to mark a location in a place not near where it actually powers up and looks for sat satellites next time.......

That may have something to do with it...

I know it's not obstruction, clouds or otherwise...

If I remember correctly the GPS satellites updates are usually done from a single ground location - since GPS satellites are in MEO orbit they only come into view of that location twice a day. With ~30 satellites in operation, there are ~60 update opportunities every day. Need for updates depends upon a number of factors such as clock stability, actual orbit, and level of accuracy required. Future generations of GPS satellites will have cross links for GPS operation so that all GPS satellites within a specific orbital plane can be updated through communication with a single satellite in the respective orbital plane.

My Nuvi 200 usually locks on quickly. The 780 can take a while and I am usually out of the neighborhood before it acquires a signal.

Strange the my iPhone locks on in seconds. Now sure, it has cellular triangulation that helps get the initial lock but I think Garmin's products are not the same quality as it was a few years ago.....

My Nuvi 1300 WT GPS has been sitting on a shelf in my computer room/office for the past three months now. I just picked it up and walked out front into the middle of the country road that runs past the house. Turned it on, waited for the splash screen.. and after the main screen came on I pressed the upper left corner of the screen and started counting.

It took between 20 to 30 seconds to acquire all 10 satellites. Sats #3,6,13,16,19 & 20 were all above 75%.. while #'s 20,25,30 & 31 were at 100%. It also showed a accuracy of 10 feet.

Don't understand why yours has the problems it does.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

Nuvi1300WTGPS@Gmail.com

Still, 20 minutes seem to long. Even when I started my unit on different continent it didn't took that long time to adjust to location. And it was turned off during flight. Time for satellites location was visibly longer but not that long.

I take it reseting the unit does not help? I think there is a way to completely reset it to factory defaults?

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26136

Cheers

Still slow
Update firm ware seemed to help some
Never less than 2 minutes but less than 20 minutes

I have noticed that as well, I can almost stop for coffee while I wait!

Maybe you need to do a hard re-set.My 265 has always been fast acquiring satellites.If it has been off for a while it may take a little longer but nothing like you have posted.

It will be more difficult to lock on to a satellite if you are already moving.

I haven't noticed any change in the length of time my 750 takes to acquire satellite data. It sometimes sits for a week between uses and still only takes about a minute to be ready to navigate. I have noticed that it loads the maps faster if I clear the trip logs every so often. Could you have a problem with your units?

just got back from "sunny" Cleveland and I had reception problems. It didn't matter if it was cloudy or clear, in the city or in the open. Most of the time my 755t was only getting one bar of signal strength or nothing. I was running off of battery so does anyone know if the power cable improves the reception? I know it has to be used for traffic service but what about general reception? When it did work it was great. I had the 3d building renderings, lane assist and junction view, traffic and speed cameras poi's from this site worked perfectly ( thanks for the poi's ). I even went outside and stood in the open with clear openings for over a city block in all directions and still would have no signal. When I say no reception I mean for a couple of hours. I even recharged the unit and same thing. This went on for most of one complete day as I checked several times. Any ideas? Luckily I had written directions with me just in case. Got home to North Carolina and had full signal strength so I don't think it was the unit.

Maybe make a thread of poor reception areas?

The last few months my 750 has not been able to fill all 12 satellite slots. The signal bars on the satellite page show full strength on most of the birds but the 750 has only been able to fill 10 or 11 channels. It doesn't seem to make any difference how long I leave it turned on either. Has anyone else noticed this?

Did you navigate to Cleavland with the unit or did you fly and carry it with you? If the latter then your atlas need to be updated and you can only do that by leaving the unit on and with a decient view of the sky sometimes for over a half hour.

"Did you navigate to Cleavland with the unit or did you fly and carry it with you? If the latter then your atlas need to be updated and you can only do that by leaving the unit on and with a decient view of the sky sometimes for over a half hour."

I flew in on Monday and it took about 30 minutes to update to my new location from North Carolina. I expected that as the signal was weak. We navigated to the hotel using maps and then the GPS when it activated and it work perfect. I turned it off at the hotel and then the next morning ( completely clear day and in the open) it would not acquire a signal but we had a shuttle so it didn't matter. After reaching the destination I tried several times at my new destination to the point of having to recharge the battery and no luck then or back at the hotel that night again I went outside to a clear view of the sky with open area around me for at least a full city block on all sides. No signal. The next am on the shuttle I got 1 bar and it navigated fine. I shut it down on the way to my destination about 10 minutes from my hotel. That night no signal again charging the batteries I left it on that long trying to get a signal. Next am got 1 bar and it worked fine. Came home that night after it was shut off in Cleveland. In North Carolina it acquired a signal (full bars), relocated itself and was navigating me home in less than 4 minutes from boot up. Worked perfect since. I'm sure it was a lack of signal causing the issue. I did not use the power cord in Cleveland and I know that is the antenna for traffic reception but I wonder if the cord as helps for standard GPS signals. I ran it yesterday sitting still in a car and plugged / unplugged and it appears that it helps to use the power cord but I can find no written statements to that. Any suggestions would be appreciated. May be I need to get an external antenna for poor reception areas. That was why I suggested a thread of known poor reception areas.

the only scientific explanation I could this of is the technology of the new devices are constantly updated and being critique as the hardware still remains the same. Why fix something if it ain't broke.

I took some advice from this earlier post and bought a Gilsson antenna. This weekend I gave it a test run going to a different city.

My 755T was last on at my home so I left it in the off position until I was about 15 miles from my home and in some valleys caused by mountains. Previously I had done this same thing in the same area and when trying to look up a POI I had to wait about 5 minutes for the GPS to locate itself and find the POI.

This time with the antenna I did the same thing the same way and in less than 10 seconds it had the position and found the POI with directions being spoken. It was so fast my wife who was with me looked and me and said "WOW, that was fast".

She also uses the GPS on trips she takes and has experienced the same lag in waiting on the GPS to find itself. She was so impressed by the difference she told her mother about it completely on her own!

An antenna is not needed that often but when it is this $20 device is well worth it and can save you a hassle. Thanks Juggernaut, I appreciate the advice!

You're very welcome.

The external also increases accuracy as well as a fast lock. You can't beat them no matter where you are.

Enjoy!

I'm not sure if the 755 acts the same but my 750 is on any time it has external power. If I plug it into a powered cigar lighter socket it will turn on. If I turn it off the screen will blank but the receiver is still powered up. The way I can tell is that if I power it on, it does not go through it's normal power up screens (loading maps, etc) it just comes on with the Where To screen showing. If the 755 acts like that then, if you plugged it into your car when you left home, it was locating itself during the trip even though the screen was dark.

An external antenna shouldn't make any difference in how fast the GPS gets a lock on it's position...if it gets a signal using the internal antenna. The main difference will be that it will pickup birds that are shadowed by your car roof. That will help its accuracy but not its speed.

The limiting factor in speed isn't the RF signal strength, it's the time it takes to identify the birds it hears and download their orbital data. Of course all of my comments are assuming that the GPS gets a strong enough signal that it can decode the data without having to wait through 2 or more data cycles.

Jack, I would have to disagree. RF signal makes all the difference in speed of lock, and accuracy. A -28dB attenuation makes a marked difference.

Think of a wifi signal as a comparison basis.

Juggernaut if the receiver is able to decode the data error free, then an increase of 100 dB will make no difference in the data transmission speed. That's basically what I said in my first post. I repeat, the limiting factor is the data speed not signal strength.

I do not believe I had the unit plugged in, but next time I go I will duplicate it and be sure to leave it unplugged.

I'm not an electronics expert but I'm curious. If a unit of any kind...gps, radio etc... is getting very little signal to no signal then wouldn't an antenna improve this by allowing it to receive a signal in the first place when it may have been getting none? The reason I am asking is on a recent trip to Cleveland before I bought the antenna according to my gps signal meter I was getting no signal most of the time and 1 bar a little of the time. Once the gps located itself, the 1 bar was enough to allow it to function. I believe the antenna could have allowed it to get that 1 bar when it was getting no signal. If the unit is going between no bars to 1 bar would it not have a problem giving a position and routing you to a poi? So if it could get and keep that 1 bar of signal strength would that not allow the gps to give your postion faster than one on the border of losing the signal? I agree that in an area of good reception the antenna would likely make little difference in speed. I know of 2 other gps systems one a Tom tom and the other a Magellan that had similar issues in the same area in terms of getting a signal.

Not trying to start an argument just to understand the gps better and get better service from it.

George Bush!!!

Yes it would gus2259. If your internal antenna is broken then the unit wouldn't be able to receive the data it needs to locate its position. An external antenna would, in that case, allow the unit to work.

I replied in an earlier post I wasn't sure if I had the unit plugged in or not and I would try again whenever I went to the same area. That happened yesterday and here are the results.

This time I was careful to make sure of my procedure. I left the GPS off, undocked, unplugged and the external antenna unplugged from the GPS until I got in the same area. As before, the last time the GPS had been on was a few weeks earlier at home over 15 miles away.

To start, I attached the antenna, docked the GPS, plugged it in an turned on the unit. After the power up I went to favorites and selected the same poi. I timed the GPS from the time I picked the poi until it was giving directions. It took 7 seconds. This was in the same area under similar weather conditions that previously took over 5 minutes without the antenna.

You have speculated my internal antenna was broken but I do not believe so. Most of the time ( over 90% I would say) I have no delay in getting directions to a typed direction or to a poi.

Double post, sorry

... my lock time seemed much longer after a firmware update on my NUVI 350. The Nuvi 350 will intermittently acquire satellites after power up. This has only started recently. Have entered a destination and calculated the route... only to go into acquiring satellites. The satellite screen doesn't display any satellites. Software/firmware/maps are all up to date.

I performed the master reset. Unfortunately, the system is still unreliable. What I have noticed is that when the system displays “acquiring satellites” there are times that the satellite screen doesn’t display any satellites or bars – sometime the two displays (showing satellites on the left, and the bars on the right) will be totally empty. With this displayed, the unit will never acquire satellite lock. Turning the unit off, then back on, sometimes will complete acquisition for a period of time (but not always).