Sometimes the GPS will not pick up satellites for hours after booting up unit, for no explainable external reason. I have heard that these units can have a software problem and if so, how to fix it?
I have a c120 and sometimes intermitantly wont connect to sats and i have tried turning off the unit and rebooting with no change. It is wired so i have to turn on my auto pilot so it can opperate. I turn all this off before leaving the boat.I have a c120 and sometimes intermitantly wont connect to sats and i have tried turning off the unit and rebooting with no change. It is wired so i have to turn on my auto pilot so it can opperate. I turn all this off before leaving the boat.
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Depending on how your equipment was installed, your GPS receiver may not be on the same electrical circuit as the E120. I see lots of these GPS receivers that are wired to be "always-on" so even when you shut down the E120 display head, the GPS receiver (probably the RS125) is still on.
You may want to see if this is the case on your boat and if it is always-on, change it so it powers on and off with the other gear. This allows the CPU in the GPS receiver to reboot from scratch at the start of every trip.
Had same problem on trip down the pacific west coast.
Best solution is to replace your GPS antenna to the 175 ( It is a problem on the 120)and upgrade the software. If this is not feasible, shutting the unit down for about 10 to 15 mins. sometimes dumps the GPS data overload. and allows FIX re-acquisition.
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Do you live in a an area with plenty of tall buildings/trees around you? Do you live in a valley? GPS units need to "see" plenty of clear sky to work reliably.
Does the problem occur the same whether you're using it in the car or on foot? Many modern cars have solar reflective glass which has a microscopic metal coating and it blocks satnav signals unless a supplementary external satnav antenna is fitted.
If you press and hold the nuvi's signal strength bar on the display for
a few seconds you'll get a screen which shows how many satellites the
unit is picking up along with a display which tells you how accurately
the machine has fixed your position. It won't fix your problem but can help you find out what seems to be wrong.
If you're still having problems and these are not the causes then there's no point in doing anything further: just return it to the vendor for a refund or exchange as they are sometimes faulty straight out of the box.
Most GPS systems require a first time boot-up where they scan all registered satellites to determine where in the world they are and what satellites to concentrate their navigational efforts on. Try charging the GPS up entirely, and then doing a hard reset of the system (either by navigating to the hard reset in software or by pressing the tiny reset button usually located on GPS units), and then taking the system out under the open sky and letting it run for half an hour or so, making sure it is running in navigation mode (as opposed to setup or media mode). Once it locks properly onto a small subset of satellites, it should not have much difficulty.
If you continue having problems, check to be certain you are running the latest software on the device which can make a big difference. The latest software for the 520 is here: http://www.navman.com/Navman/Templates/standardcontent____4407.aspx
Do you have a heat reflecting windscreen? These are a total barrier to GPS signals. It may be getting the odd satellite through the side windows if you have such a windscreen. An external antenna, such as the ones supplied by Gilsson.co, would be ideal but you need to have an external antenna socket on the GPS. Not many car units have this feature. Another option is to try a re-radiating antenna but I've not seen these for ages - bought my last ones from www.rnrplace.com
Have you hooked your GPS to an internet connected computer lately?
The TomTom home software that comes with the GPS will update so that it knows were the satalites are for the next week. It will also update the software to the latest verson.
You could also try inserting the end of a paperclip in the reset hole on the bottom of the GPS unit.
If all this fails contact TomTom. I have found them very helpfull.
As suggested at the end of the above thread I left my unit outside for a couple of hours and it suddenly sprang into life. Now it reliably gets a fix in 2 to 3 minutes when I switch it on.
My theory is that because it is only a 2 channel unit it takes hours to acquire a fix when the memory is blank.
The manual says it will keep it's memory for a month without batteries.
So if you leave the batteries out for more than a month, or move it more than 250 miles and then switch it on expect it to take a while to first fix.
It fixed my garmin Nuvi 660:
With the unit off press firmly on the upper left hand corner of the screen with the tip of your finger.
2. Press the power button.When you see the screen light up let go of the power button but continue to press on the upper left hand corner of the screen until you receive the message "Do You Really Want to Start Up In Maintenance Mode?"
3.Say Yes and then select the third Option "Clear All User Data" and then say Yes.
4.The unit will then start up and ask you to set some preferences.
5.Once the unit is on the Main Menu please sit it in a safe place outside with a clear view of the sky for about 10 minutes and let it lock on to the satellites.
Hello, I currently own a Garmin quest myself, and some time ago I had some strange problems myself, I am a electronics technician, and I do have a work around for you. I will explain the problems and a cure for you to try, none of the work arounds depend on any parts to be removed.
1. NO RECEIVING SATELLITE TELEMETRY. I beleieve this could be due to a number of reasons, but more so at sometime corrupted telemetry was the problem to fix this,
a turn GPS on when booted (initialised)
b. depress menu
select settings
select Time Setup
when in Time Setup depress MENU
Select SET DATE
Depress OK button
Depress OK button again on the numberic keypad that appears on the screen (DONE)
what this seems to do is resets the internal date/time clock and the unit starts to work again.
the Second workaround is this but takes hours to perform.
Simply turn the Guest on and allow the battery to fully discharge, usually this works to TOTALLY flush the Memory again, but on my unit I have to setup all the maps again, this is easy to perform, but just takes time. I hope this helps you.
phil
Hello, I currently own a Garmin quest myself, and some time ago I had some strange problems myself, I am a electronics technician, and I do have a work around for you. I will explain the problems and a cure for you to try, none of the work arounds depend on any parts to be removed.
1. NO RECEIVING SATELLITE TELEMETRY. I beleieve this could be due to a number of reasons, but more so at sometime corrupted telemetry was the problem to fix this,
a turn GPS on when booted (initialised)
b. depress menu
select settings
select Time Setup
when in Time Setup depress MENU
Select SET DATE
Depress OK button
Depress OK button again on the numberic keypad that appears on the screen (DONE)
what this seems to do is resets the internal date/time clock and the unit starts to work again.
the Second workaround is this but takes hours to perform.
Simply turn the Guest on and allow the battery to fully discharge, usually this works to TOTALLY flush the Memory again, but on my unit I have to setup all the maps again, this is easy to perform, but just takes time. I hope this helps you.
phil
Hello, I currently own a Garmin quest myself, and some time ago I had some strange problems myself, I am a electronics technician, and I do have a work around for you. I will explain the problems and a cure for you to try, none of the work arounds depend on any parts to be removed.
1. NO RECEIVING SATELLITE TELEMETRY. I beleieve this could be due to a number of reasons, but more so at sometime corrupted telemetry was the problem to fix this,
a turn GPS on when booted (initialised)
b. depress menu
select settings
select Time Setup
when in Time Setup depress MENU
Select SET DATE
Depress OK button
Depress OK button again on the numberic keypad that appears on the screen (DONE)
what this seems to do is resets the internal date/time clock and the unit starts to work again.
the Second workaround is this but takes hours to perform.
Simply turn the Guest on and allow the battery to fully discharge, usually this works to TOTALLY flush the Memory again, but on my unit I have to setup all the maps again, this is easy to perform, but just takes time. I hope this helps you.
phil
I have a c120 and sometimes intermitantly wont connect to sats and i have tried turning off the unit and rebooting with no change. It is wired so i have to turn on my auto pilot so it can opperate. I turn all this off before leaving the boat.
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