Auto time zone changes

 

A while back, I took a business trip up to Nova Scotia with my wife's Street Pilot 2720 because I wanted to play with something different for a while and that's the only other thing with a female voice I'm allowed to play with. But hey, both of our GPSrs are Aussie Karen, so it's not really cheating, right? smile

I noticed that it did not automatically advance one hour like it should have. Even my old hand held hiking GPS adjust for whatever time zone it's in, like a cell phone. Anyone know why this is and why it hasn't been incorporated into this advanced technology? I haven't been out of my time zone yet with my Nüvi 660, only up and down the east coast. Will it auto update the time zone when appropriate? Thanks in advance!

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Newest to oldest... Nüvi 660, Street Pilot 2720, Magellan SporTrak Pro, Lowrance Global Map 100

Time Zone

Just the fact that I had to tell my Nuvi what time zone I was in at all tells me that it probably won't. Sure seems like something that a GPS unit would do.

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Garmin Etrex Vista, Streetpilot 2610, GPSMap 60Csx, Nüvi 750, Colorado 400t, Nüvi 3790t

C580 Does

My C580 automatically changes.

--
Get Garmin or Get Lost

Are you sure about that?

borgt wrote:

My C580 automatically changes.

Are you sure that it changes from time zone to time zone? I highly doubt it. Perhaps you are thinking about the Day light saving time change, that is true.

--
Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

See...

quackinup wrote:

Just the fact that I had to tell my Nuvi what time zone I was in at all tells me that it probably won't. Sure seems like something that a GPS unit would do.

That's the weird thing. I never had to tell my 660 what time zone I was in when I ripped it out of its package in the Best Buy parking lot. I know...I can't wait. smile

I bought the 660 here in Connecticut and it initially booted right up with EST. Not sure how it's going to work when I go back to Arizona over the holidays.

I bought the 2720 in Florida and it booted up in EST, as well. But, hopping one hour forward to Nova Scotia, it didn't auto update the time. Nor did it do it on the return trip. Both ways via car.

It's such a simple thing. All the satellites operate on GMT, UTC, Zulu time, whatever. The unit knows where it is geographically so the time offset is a no brainer.

In the end, it's really not a big deal, but it is something so simple to implement...

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Newest to oldest... Nüvi 660, Street Pilot 2720, Magellan SporTrak Pro, Lowrance Global Map 100

Nuvi

Actually I don't know about the Nuvi. I haven't driven out of the time zone yet (week and a half headin to Denver tho). Just the fact that it had to ask me what time zone I was in made me think it wouldn't.

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Garmin Etrex Vista, Streetpilot 2610, GPSMap 60Csx, Nüvi 750, Colorado 400t, Nüvi 3790t

Dunno about the C580

asianfire wrote:
borgt wrote:

My C580 automatically changes.

Are you sure that it changes from time zone to time zone? I highly doubt it. Perhaps you are thinking about the Day light saving time change, that is true.

Years ago I took an old Lowrance hiking type GPS driving from Florida to Arizona and even that dinosaur auto updated the time zone changes.

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Newest to oldest... Nüvi 660, Street Pilot 2720, Magellan SporTrak Pro, Lowrance Global Map 100

This thread

You may be interested in this thread:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6585
where there are several more links to time zone changes.

RT

--
"Internet: As Yogi Berra would say, "Don't believe 90% of what you read, and verify the other half."

Yep

asianfire wrote:
borgt wrote:

My C580 automatically changes.

Are you sure that it changes from time zone to time zone? I highly doubt it. Perhaps you are thinking about the Day light saving time change, that is true.

We took a trip into AZ a few months ago and it changed practically at the state line (from NM). It changed back again when we came back into CO from the Four Corners area. I also travel almost every week and when I turn on my GPS it shows the local time as soon as I get a signal.

--
Get Garmin or Get Lost

Hmmm...

Now I'm starting to second-guess myself. Maybe I'm thinking of one of my other gadgets. I will confirm this (or eat my words) next week when I head for MO.

Paul

--
Get Garmin or Get Lost

Auto Time Zone Changes

I have a Street Pilot 7200 and a Nuvi 660 that I operate simultaneously. I have never seen either one of them change automatically to adjust for a time zone change.

Nuvi 660 time zones

I travel the USA heavily. My 660 has NEVER changed time zones. I fly into East and West coast locations 5 out of 6 weeks live in Central time zone. Never has changed.

Never has because it can't.

Dwshouston wrote:

I travel the USA heavily. My 660 has NEVER changed time zones. I fly into East and West coast locations 5 out of 6 weeks live in Central time zone. Never has changed.

The time displayed on the GPSr is a cosmetic thing, based on the users preferences established during the initial power-on of the unit. On the inside, the hardware & software uses the time coming down from the satellites, which is UTC (aka GMT...)

Cell phones change because they get their time reference from fixed locations - Cell towers - which are referenced to the network operator's systems.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

My garmin units haven't

My garmin units haven't changed when entering a different time zone.

Some things stay the same.

TnPapa wrote:

My garmin units haven't changed when entering a different time zone.

No matter how far you travel.
Fact/

DOH!

borgt wrote:

Now I'm starting to second-guess myself. Maybe I'm thinking of one of my other gadgets. I will confirm this (or eat my words) next week when I head for MO.

Paul

Hear that crunching sound? Those are my words... kinda chewy. I don't know what I was thinking of, except maybe my cell phone.

--
Get Garmin or Get Lost

Not that I noticed

I crossed a time zone recently with my Nuvi 660. I was only there for a few hours. I didn't specifically look, but I was playing with the GPS often. I didn't notice it change the time.

Zumo - Stuck in Time

I have had my Zumo with me crossing a number of time zones and it remains stuck in time. I can understand if it does not adjust in the "grey" areas where they never change the time, but think it is an easy addition to the code to make the change. It is not like the GPS unit does not know where it is...

The Zumo does change for DST, just will not adjust for the time zones. I wonder, for those folks in the areas where they never change their clocks, I wonder if they have to change the time on the GPS unit twice a year???

One of the options when you

One of the options when you setup your Locale is the time zone, the clock follows that setting. Time zone setting under the Locale and only comes up when you select the change all option. That's how my nuvi 370 is.
Another discussion on the same topic
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2299

--
nuvi 2460LMT

You know, I was scared to

You know, I was scared to post this, but when Garmin shipped me my c580, I guess it had their time zones with a different time. I thought about maybe it was a daylight savings error but I believe it had the recent updates, but as I was driving to Jacksonville, FL it said that it has detected a new time zone and it changed the time, something along those lines. That was awhile ago, but I believe my c580 did that. So I can concur with the user who said his c580 changes time zones, I just never posted it for months. Maybe someone should e-mail garmin, but I believe mine did that.

Actually that is a blessing

Actually that is a blessing to those of us who live on a time zone line. I can't rely on my cell phone because I don't know which tower I'm on. Unless of course it indicated PST or MDT that would be helpful.

Quote: That's the weird

Quote:

That's the weird thing. I never had to tell my 660 what time zone I was in when I ripped it out of its package in the Best Buy parking lot. I know...I can't wait. smile

I bought the 660 here in Connecticut and it initially booted right up with EST. Not sure how it's going to work when I go back to Arizona over the holidays.

I just got my 660 today - and it asked me what time zone I was in when I was doing the initial setup. Mine was shipped to me from DFW, so it was set to Central, and I had to change it to Eastern. Are you SURE you didn't have to select the time zone when you set it up? (It may have already said "Eastern," but you probably had to okay it.)

I noticed the other day that

I noticed the other day that my nuvi 200 didn't adjust for time zone changes. My destination was in a different time zone but it displayed arrival time in my home time. During my whole time there, it never changed time zones but since I never changed the time on my car's clock, it didn't matter really.

You need to change time zones manually

draksig wrote:

I noticed the other day that my nuvi 200 didn't adjust for time zone changes. My destination was in a different time zone but it displayed arrival time in my home time. During my whole time there, it never changed time zones but since I never changed the time on my car's clock, it didn't matter really.

The nuvi is not able to change time zones on its own. There is a helpful POI file available at:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6652

You can set a proximity alert for this file to warn you that a change is needed. Changing the time is really only needed if you need to see the correct hour for a destination time.

--
Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

Automatic Time Change Really Exists!

borgt wrote:
borgt wrote:

Now I'm starting to second-guess myself. Maybe I'm thinking of one of my other gadgets. I will confirm this (or eat my words) next week when I head for MO.

Paul

Hear that crunching sound? Those are my words... kinda chewy. I don't know what I was thinking of, except maybe my cell phone.

Okay, I'm not crazy after all. I live in CO (Mountain Time) and travel weekly. When I'm in a new area I frequently use my GPS (c580), but because it's generally for short intervals, I rarely use the charger... I just recharge it at night. Well, this week I'm in Florida and had a bit of driving to do, so I hooked up the car charger. After driving about 5 minutes I got a message on my screen that a new time zone had been detected, and asked me to confrm that I wanted the GPS to change to Eastern time! The new time zone is detected by the MSN receiver/charger!

Paul

--
Get Garmin or Get Lost

~

borgt wrote:

After driving about 5 minutes I got a message on my screen that a new time zone had been detected, and asked me to confrm that I wanted the GPS to change to Eastern time! The new time zone is detected by the MSN receiver/charger!

Exactly. It's not the GPSr doing it - it's the MSN receiver & programming associated with it...because the MSN signal is coming in from fixed transmitters, and the local timezone is encoded into the data stream.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Time Zone

kch50428 wrote:

Exactly. It's not the GPSr doing it - it's the MSN receiver & programming associated with it...because the MSN signal is coming in from fixed transmitters, and the local timezone is encoded into the data stream.

While this may be true for some particular models, it is also NOT true that a bare GPSr can not automatically adjust for a time zone change.

Just think it through: The unit is capable of doing a really complex calculation to pinpoint EXACTLY where you are and plot it on a map. Compared to that, having the software to recognize what time zone you are in is TRIVIAL. Really it is.

As the responses here have indicated, some models do it and some don't.

Asserting that it is not possible is.......short sighted. mrgreen

--
Magellan Maestro 4250// MIO C310X

Still...

The time displayed on the unit's screen is a user setting, based on a user's preferences...I change the setting when needed and don't really care if the thing can do it by itself or not as it really has nothing to do with how the unit operates. On the inside, they operate on UTC, which is what the GPS satellites operate on and transmit in the data the GPSr uses to make it's calculations to determine position.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

wouldn't you think that

wouldn't you think that since the navigation system is gps based...that like cell phones it would be able to tell what location you are at and adjust the time accordingly like cell phones?

I would not think that at all

Because cell phones get their time source from the cell towers, which are fixed in position, and their time is referenced to the cell site, and the time displayed is from the cell site. Most GPSrs on the other hand, operate internally on the UTC time code provided by the GPS satellites, and the time they display is based solely on the user setting for the timezone, and nothing more.

--
*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

For people who live on the edge

rxmedicine wrote:

wouldn't you think that since the navigation system is gps based...that like cell phones it would be able to tell what location you are at and adjust the time accordingly like cell phones?

For people who live on the edge of a timezone, this "feature" would be maddening.

--
><> Glenn <>< Garmin nüvi 2598

Minority

I suppose for a small minority this may not be a convenient feature but a simple toggle added to the tools section allowing a user to disable auto time adjustment would alleviate that issue.

Relying on cell towers

kch50428 wrote:

Because cell phones get their time source from the cell towers, which are fixed in position, and their time is referenced to the cell site, and the time displayed is from the cell site. Most GPSrs on the other hand, operate internally on the UTC time code provided by the GPS satellites, and the time they display is based solely on the user setting for the timezone, and nothing more.

I'm not sure why it would be necessary for a GPS device to rely on a fixed structure to calculate time. The unit "knows" where it is at any given moment in a more precise way than a cell phone would so it would just be a matter of software interpreting location and adjusting time accordingly.

Time zone borders

The time zone borders are not "straight lines". For the GPSr to interpret it's current position against the time zone border would require constant calculation for every point it is in. I would expect this would require both memory and a slow down of the response time with the current processor.
The solution is easy with MSN, as mentioned earlier.

Cell phones are given the local time. The GPSr is given the UTC time code and would need to do a lot of calculation.

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

Borders

Yes, time zone borders are not straight lines for the most part but they are static, fixed values residing between certain longitude and latitude values. The algorithm would not have to be long just assigning values bases upon if between this longitude/latitude value = time zone. It seems with all the complex dynamic calculating many GPS units do now (i.e. detours, traffic conditions checking, weather, movies, alerts, etc.) this would be one of the simpler ones to accomplish. And again make it a toggle switch for people that would rather set it themselves. I will submit this suggestion to Garmin and see if they give a response. I am curious if this would occupy too many resources for a GPS to handle.

Are the borders really static?

Are the borders really static, or do they change as populated areas grow to avoid splitting cities?

Also, I think localities can "vote" to change their timezone if they are on the edge and see a benefit to be in the other one.

--
><> Glenn <>< Garmin nüvi 2598

All I did...

.... was to set up the custom time zone POI with alerts. That way on most roads that cross the boundary, I get warned that it's coming up in a mile. A few touches and I'm ready for the crossing. Not only does the jagged boundary line cause complications with any sort of automatic setting, but inconsistent daylight savings application in some regions is a pain also.

I guess I don't see it as that big an issue. I'd a heck of a lot rather have them put multi-stop routing back into all units than have them fiddle around with this. JMO

--
Rick - Nüvi 260 - eTrex Summit HC

Thank You...

rapriebe wrote:

.... was to set up the custom time zone POI with alerts. That way on most roads that cross the boundary, I get warned that it's coming up in a mile. A few touches and I'm ready for the crossing. Not only does the jagged boundary line cause complications with any sort of automatic setting, but inconsistent daylight savings application in some regions is a pain also.

I guess I don't see it as that big an issue. I'd a heck of a lot rather have them put multi-stop routing back into all units than have them fiddle around with this. JMO

That is exactly what I had in mind when I built the TZ POI. Sure the points could change over time with the legislative process, but that would be a quick update to the POI file and we'd be back in business.

I too have an alert set for about 1/4 mile, it's not a very good sound file but it works none-the-less.

2-cents
dd

Static

I should clarify, I meant static as a relative term as something that changes infrequently if ever. What's really absolutely static in this rapidly changing world of ours. There are tons of websites that keep track of time zones. I would think this could be handled in a firmware update or even the annual map updates.

doesn't change the time

quackinup wrote:

Actually I don't know about the Nuvi. I haven't driven out of the time zone yet (week and a half headin to Denver tho). Just the fact that it had to ask me what time zone I was in made me think it wouldn't.

When I took mine to Europe I had to change the time because it didn't automatically change it. Too bad because I think the GPS signal received from the satellites is based on time triangulation.