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Cellular forums Home > Archive > Garmin GPS > November 2005 > GPS 60 CS
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| Van de Staey - Rens 2005-11-25, 5:48 am |
| Hi,
We have since 2 months a new GPS 60 CS for when we do a little walking.
The problem is that it takes until 15 min. to find the satellites.
When the GPS finally has found the satellites, they are gone when we make a
walk in a forest. But that was the purpose to use it.
Is this normal??
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Van de Staey - Rens wrote:
> Hi,
> We have since 2 months a new GPS 60 CS for when we do a little walking.
> The problem is that it takes until 15 min. to find the satellites.
> When the GPS finally has found the satellites, they are gone when we make a
> walk in a forest. But that was the purpose to use it.
> Is this normal??
No, your experience is not normal. There could be a number of possible
reasons for your difficulties other than a defective unit.
You are holding the receiver away from your body, aren't you? Your
body can block the signals.
Check to make sure you do not have the receiver set up to use battery
saver mode. (press MENU MENU>>Setup>>System; select the top field,
labeled "GPS", press enter, select "Normal"). Battery saver mode makes
it more difficult for the receiver to maintain a lock on satellites
under difficult conditions.
When trying to get an initial lock on satellites, you should stand in
one spot in an area with a relatively open view of the sky. Do not
move until the receiver has established a 3D lock. Moving while the
receiver is trying to get initial data from the satellites may
interrupt the process if you pass some obstruction which blocks the
reception even momentarily. If that happens at the wrong moment, the
receiver may have to start over in gathering data from a satellite.
This can cause it to take a long time to get an initial lock.
I suggest you wait until the signal strength bars on the satellite page
are solid for most of the satellites in view before you proceed into
the forest. (I say "most" because sometimes one or two may take much
longer than the others for some reason.) You don't need to wait for
all of them, but if you can get more than just the minimum needed (4)
before you go into the forest, the receiver will be more likely to
maintain a lock on enough to determine its position. If you do this,
your receiver should be able to maintain a lock under most conditions.
But if the forest cover is *extremely* dense, you may still lose lock
occasionally. That would be normal.
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| Sorry I don't have any answers for you but I don't think your
experience is entirely unique.
I have had much trouble with my 60cs dropping sats. Twice I have
returned my GPS to Garmin for this problem. In fact it is currently
with them as it stopped receiving sats altogether. Garmin says my unit
meets their specs and that my probglem is due to the forest canopy -I
am a forester- but I have trouble understanding why a co-worker with
an identical unit has had no trouble keeping sats and I do even when we
are working side by side in the woods. I have run my 60cs and a 60 at
the same time and the 60 will recieve at least 25% more sats with at
least 25% stronger signals.
Hopefully they will send me a different GPS when mine is returned. I've
spoken with several people at tech support who are very helpful and
understanding but I have also spoken with several who dismiss my
experiences with an arrogance that is very disconcerting.
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