moonpup Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 (edited) I found out from Garmin today that the new 60C(S)x units when WAAS is enabled will never show a lock (solid bar) on the WAAS bird when looking at the satellite screen page. The other satellites will show a lock. It will show the signal strength of the WAAS bird, and receive the differential data which will appear as 'D' on the other satellites. They told me this is due to the SIRF chipset. Just wanted to let you know in case you thought something was wrong with your unit. Can anyone else confirm this? Edited January 20, 2006 by moonpup Quote Link to comment
freeday Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Someone should try to disable WAAS - is there any lock averwards? Quote Link to comment
moonpup Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 Someone should try to disable WAAS - is there any lock averwards? Just to clarify, only the WAAS satellite will not show a lock, the others will. Quote Link to comment
+Timpat Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 I found out from Garmin today that the new 60C(S)x units when WAAS is enabled will never show a lock (solid bar) when looking at the satellite screen page. It will show the signal strength of the WAAS bird, and receive the differential data which will appear as 'D' on the other satellites. They told me this is due to the SIRF chipset. Just wanted to let you know in case you thought something was wrong with your unit. Can anyone else confirm this? Very interesting Moonpup! Looks like you're the first to actually have an X in hand and experience this, or anything else regarding it. I await delivery of mine next week. Thanks for the reports! Quote Link to comment
GeoBobC Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 That's an odd design decision by Garmin. I know that recently a new WAAS satellite (shows up as 36 on my 60c) has been in the process of being tested, and because it is not sending corretional data it will not lock - it only shows a hollow bar. I wonder if that Garmin tech got confused with this issue? It really doesn't seem logical to only show a hollow bar for a satellite with a lock. I've experienced similar conditions with my 60c on satellites 35 and 47: the satellite page displays "D" on satellites before a solid lock is displayed for 35 and/or 47. Quote Link to comment
moonpup Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 I guess we'll have to wait for someone else to get their unit, enable WAAS and see what happens... Quote Link to comment
+jotne Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Here in Europe we use Egnos instead of WAAS. At the moment Egnos is still in test phase Some time Egnos satellite 33 is filled and some time it is not. When Waas or Egnos is filled up, you also get correction data from it, so that you don’t "loose" one satellite when you have waas turned on. Here is more information about Egnos http://ravel.esrin.esa.it/docs/egnos/estb/schedule.htm http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/egnos/estb/egnos_pro.htm Quote Link to comment
+SketchySmurf Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Its less likely a design decision as it is an oversight on Garmin's part. The question is if/when they can do a firmware update in the future. Quote Link to comment
moonpup Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 I guess we'll have to wait for someone else to get their unit, enable WAAS and see what happens... It's been confirmed... WAAS bar will not show lock... see photo here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ic=120525&st=50 Quote Link to comment
+jotne Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 I guess we'll have to wait for someone else to get their unit, enable WAAS and see what happens... It's been confirmed... WAAS bar will not show lock... see photo here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ic=120525&st=50 As long as the waas bird do not send position data, you are correct. Quote Link to comment
GeoBobC Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 I've seen D's on my (old) 60c before the 35 or 47 signal became solid, so I'm not sure this is conclusive. I've wondered how it can receive differential data without a lock. The first time a new GPS is turned on, I believe it can take 20 minutes or more to download the WAAS almanac. Quote Link to comment
+jotne Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 The last 12 month of testing Egnos in Europe i did observe the following. 1. You can se the waas/egnos bird at GPS with no lock and no "d" They are sending do not use differential signal. 2. You can se the waas/egnos bird at GPS with no lock. And you see "d" They are sending differential signal and you can use it 3. You can se the waas/egnos bird at GPS with lock. And you see "d" They are sending differential signal and position signal In these 12 months I have seen mostly situation 1 and 2. Only the last two month I have seen mode 2 and 3. At the current date, it is in mode 2 in Europe. More information here: http://ravel.esrin.esa.it/docs/egnos/estb/schedule.htm . Quote Link to comment
+team fuzzybunny Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 Well I have the 60CSx in hand and it is showing 35 at 3/4 strength and blinking not locked. Is this what your talking about? By the way I'm in the house not even close to a window. Quote Link to comment
SergZak Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 I can confirm this on my Nuvi 350 which also uses the SiRF III chipset...you will never see a solid WAAS lock bar when viewing the satellite page. Hope you guys are enjoying your new x series GPSs with their awesome map storage capabilities. My Nuvi 350 has the full City Navigator US (NT) pre-loaded. And even with all that map data already on the unit, there is still ~750 MB of free memory (with even more if you delete the pre-loaded speech data in different languages) for map storage on top of having an SD card slot for more map data. With all this map storage capacity, I'm really having trouble just filling up the built-in memory, let alone using the SD card for additional. I guess this is where the built-in MP3 player comes into play. I'm really glad Garmin is finally giving us the memory we've been asking for & needing all this time. Quote Link to comment
+JohnnyVegas Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Someone should try to disable WAAS - is there any lock averwards? And why would you want to do this? Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.