Satellite Lock question

Hi guys, for some reason,
when i went in my car,
fired'up my GPS,
entered destination,
then it found it but,
GPS didn't look like it had a Satellite Lock,,

because when i started to drive,
screen was still in grey, arrow wasn't moving,
like everything was inactive...

then while driving, i retried to enter my destination,
once again it found it but still,
no Satellite Lock cuz screen was still in grey and arrow wasn't moving...

uhm, arrived at my destination, yes, at my destination,
i reboot iGO8, and only then, it magically found the satellites
giving me a satellite lock,,,

So, my question is,
would changing my GPS settings to Port 4,
and Baud Rate to 38400 could help locking down satellites??

so far im at Port 1, Baud Rate 4800,,,,,

Code:

Info about my GPS
------------------------
CPU; SIRF Atlas V, AT550 600 Mhz
RAM; 128MB
SCREEN; 5" (800x480)
FM TRANSMITTER; Yes
BLUETOOTH; No
TMC; No
BUILT-IN STORAGE; 4GB
EXTERNAL STORAGE; Up to 16GB MicroSDHC/SDHC
OS: WinCE 6.0

thanx

Port 1 and port 4 ??? Has your device got 2 GPS receivers?
Why port 4? Maybe you got confused by the TMC receiver? (if your device has one)

Take a look here:

chas521 wrote:Find your GPS port, speed, and protocol

GPSScan_debug.exe is a small tool from the Miopocket Tronik utilities. It does seem to run standalone(at least on a wince gps) and did find the port, baud rate, and protocol of my GPS. So if you need a "tool" to find your gps port, you might want to give GPSScan_debug.exe a try.

[Please Register or Login to download file]

Thanks to dohcacr for this excellent tool.

Run it and check what is your GPS-port and baudrate.

Port: COM1
Baudrate: 4800
Protocol: NMEA

So that are your settings for gps.
I don't know why your device did not find gps. A technical failure? A program hick up?
Before driving off, it's best to have a signal. So wait for it or switch on your gps before putting on your shoes ;) That way, gps should have found a signal and if not, time to reset.
And remember that cold, warm or hot starts could make a difference in time needing to find satellites. Also for finding them your device should have clear view to the sky. But you know that of course.

Also, this is important. Do not leave your portable GPS device plugged in when you start your car or you stand a very good chance of frying the connections which could possibly brick your device.

Try this too... in case you fiddled with the settings in your sys.txt with the port and baud settings and did not delete the save folder after making those changes. That can sometimes cause an issue since the device might hiccup trying to determine which set of values to use. So anyways, my suggestion would be to delete the save folder.... then before starting igo8 up again I would check my sys.txt and make sure I had the port and baud settings correct. I would also make sure not to have any [device] heading in my sys.txt since having that and a device name will cause igo8 to ignore your sys.txt completely. I am not saying you have a [device] line in your sys.txt, but if you do perhaps delete that as well.

It took us 3 posts but a more complete answer is impossible to give.

thanx guys...

ok, i did not play with the baud rate settings or anything like it,,,,

but i did delete the save folder just in case....

now i never leave my unit plugged in my car, i dont want to fry it like chas said....

and in my sys.txt file, i dont have a [device] section,, so im good there...

Now my question, nabi, when you said
--> Before driving off, it's best to have a signal. So wait for it or switch on your gps before putting on your shoes....

how can i check if i do get a satellite signal? like where do i check the strengh of the signal in iGO8??

thanx

eskro wrote:thanx guys...

ok, i did not play with the baud rate settings or anything like it,,,,

but i did delete the save folder just in case....

now i never leave my unit plugged in my car, i dont want to fry it like chas said....

and in my sys.txt file, i dont have a [device] section,, so im good there...

Now my question, nabi, when you said
--> Before driving off, it's best to have a signal. So wait for it or switch on your gps before putting on your shoes....

how can i check if i do get a satellite signal? like where do i check the strengh of the signal in iGO8??

thanx

Nabi will answer but all you have do is look at the map and the time to know you received a signal

well there's a way to check using the device's main GUI...

like in the options, there's TEST GPS...

but when i load iGO8, like within iGO8, is there s way to check signal strengh?


thanx

eskro wrote:well there's a way to check using the device's main GUI...

like in the options, there's TEST GPS...

but when i load iGO8, like within iGO8, is there s way to check signal strength?


thanx

OK, let me say it this way - no offense intended. Why would you care about signal strength if your device is working as it was intended? Now if it wasn't working, that's another story.

i just want to know if theres a way to verify the signal strengh in iGO8....

eskro wrote:i just want to know if theres a way to verify the signal strengh in iGO8....

I don't think so in the default iGO skin but there might be something in the manufactured skins. I don't use them so I can't say anything about them.

ok i found it,,,

in default skin, when u click on this icon



u get a quick menu,

• [Please Register or Login to download file]

which you can then click on lower right corner where it says --> GPS

then, you get your GPS infos,,, strengh and all,,,,

but now, is there a way to reinitialize the GPS,,, hmmm,,,,

Glad you found it. It you want to reinitialize it, just turn-off your device and restart.