anyone else had trouble connecting to a satellite today (20.01)?

The only day I had to drive to Bangkok for an appointment and I couldn't get any signal reception...

...or is it just my GPS?

Deffo just your GPS..

If the GPS network went down there would be chaos globally..

I have a Garmin and purchased a SE Asia over the internet. I could not make it work and went to a place in Pattaya that loaded the card and got it working. I had good reception and then when out and around it had trouble locking into a satellite. I found it best to turn on in an open area and without movement until the signal locked. After that is was not bad but driving to BKK has some loss of signal so not always reliable.

I would be interested if others found a way to improve reception and which areas have difficulty.

My Garmin 205 almost never looses satellite signal, unless I'm under an elevated roadway/skytrain. Pattaya to Bangkok is all open road, you should never loose satellite lock while making the trip. Are you sure that your GPS has a clear view of the sky from inside your car? It will loose signal if not mounted directly under the glass windshield. I've found my Garmin GPS to be very reliable.

Some of the metallic window tints decrease reception a lot too..

So I am told.. Mine seems fine in my motor but heard reports of this.

>anyone else had trouble connecting to a satellite today (20.01)?

>The only day I had to drive to Bangkok for an appointment and I couldn't get any signal reception...

>...or is it just my GPS?

Try using that as an excuse for turning up late for work

Strange things do happen. I could not get a GPS connection with my smart phone since Wednesday last week. Checked with another GPS device and that one got reception without a problem, hence I knew that the problem was with my phone. When I checked with my phone today, going for a hike, its GPS was working again. Don't know exactly how long it was on the blink on my phone but it was for at least four days.

--

Maestro

Sometimes my phone doesn't get a GPS fix. Sometimes other things on it don't work. A reboot always seems to solve it.

A GPS fix should never take longer than 25minutes from a cold restart anywhere outdoors on the planet, as that's how long it takes to download the almanac from a GPS satellite using the L1 signal. Using A-GPS with download-able almanacs off the Internet it is much faster. Warm fixs should be just seconds. I wouldn't wait 4 days. I'd reboot.

Hi

I've noticed that my garmin nuvi 300 sat-nav takes significantly longer from start-up to establish my location in Thailand than it ever did in the UK (which was where it was purchased). No ideas why though!

Cheers :-)

Hi

I've noticed that my garmin nuvi 300 sat-nav takes significantly longer from start-up to establish my location in Thailand than it ever did in the UK (which was where it was purchased). No ideas why though!

Cheers :-)

In Europe WAAS is used that gives most commercial GPS receivers improved positioning and start up times, not available in Asia except out of Japan afaik.

Here's some interesting information I saw another another website:

The GPS receiver is first started, it does not know where it is currently located – and consequently, does not know where to look for satellites. This is known as “cold start”. Therefore it has to lock on to at least one satellite first, listen to what it says about where the other satellites are, and then lock on to others. This procedure takes time, and in average requires anywhere from 45 seconds to a few minutes.

Once a GPS receiver has locked to at least 3 satellites, it will normally start reporting a geographical position. However this position will be rather inaccurate until more satellites are found and locked on to. A reasonable degree of precision is obtained once GPS receiver locks on to 5-6 satellites. This may take 2-3 minutes after an initial lock. So here comes the second rule:

- To improve GPS positioning accuracy, let it work for a few minutes after it obtains initial lock upon a cold start.

Most modern GPS receivers have a short term storage they use to memorize the satellite map from the last time it has been turned on. Then, when a GPS receiver is powered back on, it uses that information to quickly find the satellites to lock on to. This procedure is known as “warm start”. A warm start is not a strictly defined term, and it normally applies when you turn your GPS receiver back on within a few minutes of turning it off.

Sometimes the receiver will be able to re-lock to exact same satellites it worked with before being turned off. This is known as “hot start”, and it normally takes 1-2 seconds only.

The more time a GPS receiver spends turned off, the more the satellite visibility will change. Therefore, the longer the GPS receiver is off, the slimmer is the chance of getting a hot or warm start.

excellent advice, thanks

In the end, after much research and trial&error, I found out that the problem was caused by a combination of various factors:

- When switching on the GPS while driving, it is very, very difficult, almost impossible to lock on to a satellite...especially if you are in a different place from the last time you used it

- I had the GPS mounted on the right side of the windshield, next to the frame. This position I found out, reduces reception considerably. It is now mounted in the centre of the windshield. much better

- tinted windshield do indeed reduce reception, but there's nothing I can do about that

So, when far from home, I now switch on the GPS when standing still, with the window open if necessary, wait a couple of min and then I'm good to go. I will look a bit silly, but at least I won't get lost! :-)