Etrex Legend Connection Problems

[+yokes]

I just upgraded from a basic Magellan Sportrak (yellow) to a Garmin eTrex Legend (from gpscentral.ca) because I wanted to map support. Do to a recent geocaching injury (sprained ankle) I haven't be able to try it out in the "wild", just at home and at work.

 

Question 1:

This thing is wicked slow at locking on to satellites at home in my backyard. It usually times out the first time and then takes another minute or two to lock on. After about 2 minutes of 3 dish lock on it gets down to full accuracy. Comparatively, my old Magellan would lock on and be ready to go in less than a minute (I also did a few head-to-head lock on challenges and the cheaper yellow beat it everytime by a landslide). Is this unit known to be slow to lock on and I'll just have to accept that?

 

Question 2:

When I take it to work (about 20km away from home) in mid-town Toronto it rarely will lock onto dishes. I don't work in the financial core's urban jungle... but rather in College Park with a significant sky view expanse (more so than many rural settings I had my old yellow in). I made sure to use New Location and pointed the arror within about 5m of where I was sitting. It took about 5 minutes or so to lock feebly on to enough dishes to get a sad 40m accuracy... feebly because it said "need clear view of sky" twice after it locked on and didn't drop below 39m as I was walking around the park. Suffice to say, this performance is crap... Did I get a bad unit or are these notorious for having lock on troubles when started up away from its last location?

 

Thanks!

[+BlueDeuce]

Typically they work just fine, rather well really.

 

To eliminate the basic cause for poor lock time, 'bake' the gps under open skies for at least a half hour. This gives it enough time to update the almanac. Once that's updated connection time will be faster.

 

Also, it'll lock faster sitting still. Locking while in a moving car takes longer.

[+yokes]

Typically they work just fine, rather well really.

 

To eliminate the basic cause for poor lock time, 'bake' the gps under open skies for at least a half hour. This gives it enough time to update the almanac. Once that's updated connection time will be faster.

 

Also, it'll lock faster sitting still. Locking while in a moving car takes longer.

Do I have to bake it in each new location I go to?

 

Good to know about car vs. still. In this case, I happened to be sitting in the park until it for its feeble lock.

[+BlueDeuce]

Do I have to bake it in each new location I go to?

No, but if you travel a couple hundred miles or more and don't have it tracking you should probably give it some time to update.

 

Search this GPS units forum for 'bake' (older than 30 days). There are people who can explain poor sat locks better than I can. (Bake is usually mentioned at least once in this situation)

Edited June 7, 2005 by BlueDeuce