Garmin V stopped acquiring sats

**tarisius** · #1 16 Jul 2004

hello there

my garmin V for some reasons stopped acquiring satellites. Unbelievable! but it has happened, I checked the manual but couldn't find anything usefull. Everything else is working, but that is of little help of course.
Did anybody experienced something like this?
I am in Nigeria and Garmin's offices are very scarse.(none that I know)
Any help will be really wellcome
thanks

**imadan** · #2 17 Jul 2004

Yup ... Same here ...
Bought mine in the U.K and have been travelling with it for the past 8 months ...
Now All of a sudden it is not aquiring sats ..
Also a Garmin V

Me in India --- so there is not help .. !
Any solutions out there ??
Thanks
Indeep

**Kudi** · #3 17 Jul 2004

The most easy thing you can try: Be patient. If the GPS has "no idea where it is" it needs a complete satelite signal cycle to trace its position, this can take up to 30 mins (give it a hour, just to make shure). I had this problem twice, once when I flew from EU to AU and once when it was stored for a few months without battery. It looks like there are no sats in the sky...

If this doesn't help check if the antena is still connected. You can open the case of the V by unscrewing the 6 small screws you see from outside. Just be carefull you do not damage the sealing.

Good luck, Kudi

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Ride Your Dreams

**iswoolley** · #4 17 Jul 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by Kudi:
If the GPS has "no idea where it is" it needs a complete satelite signal cycle to trace its position, this can take up to 30 mins (give it a hour, just to make shure).

I'm not sure this is entirely accurate. If I remember from my GPS V manual a complete 'cold' start should take no more than 2 or 3 minutes, maybe 5 maximum. That's for when the unit has been stored or relocated a 'long' way from it's last known position.

[Techie stuff: once the unit can 'hear' one satelite it then knows the time and can look up in it's almanac where that satelite should be at that time. From that it can also work out what other satelites should be in view. Seeing as there are 36 satelites, it's just a case of cycling through those 36 frequencies, which isn't very time consuming.]

I would think a more likely cause to your problem is that the aerial has become disconnected somehow. I guess it's possible that continued vibration will loosen the BNC connection between unit and aerial. Try wiggling the aerial a bit to see if it moves.

Good luck, Iain

**Kudi** · #5 17 Jul 2004

Hi Iain

Quote:

<font face="" size="2">I'm not sure this is entirely accurate. If I remember from my GPS V manual a complete 'cold' start should take no more than 2 or 3 minutes, maybe 5 maximum. That's for when the unit has been stored or relocated a 'long' way from it's last known position.</font>

You're right, I was wrong with the 30 mins. Must be a side effect of beeing over 30 ;-) To be exact the cycle is 12:30 minutes. And if I'm not completely wrong now I'd suggest this is the max time for a complete cold start of the unit.

If you're keen...: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pubs/gps/sigspec/default.htm

The same but less technical and in German: http://www.kowoma.de/gps/Signalaufbau.htm

I just mentioned this because it's the easiest and cheapest thing you can try if the GPS seems not to acquire any satelites at all. And I had the same feeling and wasn't shure if the unit is broken just because I wasn't patient enough and didn't choose "Stored without batery" option...

Save Rides, Kudi

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Ride Your Dreams

**Jerome** · #6 21 Nov 2004

Very Strange.

I had exactly the same problem at about the same time in Peru.

It had been working perfectly for several months
.
I{d had the buggered aerial problem before but it wasn{t that.

Garmin in Lima fixed it by upgrading the software - strange solution but it worked.

Reloading the software can also help sometimes.

Sorry im a bit late.

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Jerome

http://www.fowb.co.uk