Problem with a new 60CSx (in the UK)

[glowball]

My 60CSx is a few days old and I have been using it a lot, the problem is that I have WAAS (EGNOS) enabled but I have never seen any 'D' symbols in the signal strength bars.

I have the latest softwares and firmwares installed (v2.7 & v3.0) & have done a reset, I have also pressed Zoom-In while turning the unit on which I'm told clears the Almanac allowing it to reload from fresh but still no 'D's.

Most annoyingly I can set it beside my Vista C which always shows 'D's in all the columns.

Turning WAAS on and off makes no difference to reported accuracies, my Vista C often displays 2m while I have never seen better than 4m on the 60CSx (Yeak, I know that's pretty good - but something's not right).

Are other people in the UK getting 'D's on their 60CSx's at present? & where are you?

Awaiting a response from Garmin.

Have I got a faulty GPSr?

[+apersson850]

At least to begin with, the SiRFstar III receivers didn't give away the data required to know when to show the "D" symbol. Thus it should be impossible.

But then I've heard about others who did get the "D" symbol, so not I don't really know.

 

Do you receive an Egnos satellite? The Egnos almanac is sent rather rarely, and thus it may be difficult to receive unless you let your unit stay put, with a good view to the south, for half an hour or so.

[glowball]

Can you tell me what the number of the EGNOS sat would be, on my Geocaching trails today I did notice a 35 pop up but only briefly.

 

Can't understand why my Vista C doesn't have a problem but my upgrade (read more expensive) does, is it all to do with getting this Almanac?

[+joje]

I have the same problem with my 60CX. It is updated with the latest firmware for both the unit and chipset. (3.0 and 2.7). After upgrading to 3.0/2.7 I have never had a "Egnos fix". I live in Sweden and it has been working on a previous firmware version on my 60CX. I can sometimes see a Egnos satellite pop up for 5-15 seconds with a really good signal strength, just to see it disapear the moment later. I have left my unit for 4 hours with a complete clear sky to south and still never had a Egnos fix.

 

My guess it has something to do with the firmware or the fact that Egnos is not running in test bed mode anymore.

 

/Johan

[+pbn]

I also live in Sweden and I get EGNOS fixes from time to time with my 60CSx running 3.0/2.7. I was in England for a week (two weeks ago) and while there I never received EGNOS signals long enough to get a fix with them, the satellites flashed for a few seconds at most.

[+own6volvos]

On my brand new 60cx with all updates installed (3.00/2.70), I am getting D ona few bars, and I am inside my home on the 2nd floor! I just got my GPS unit today, saw this thread, and literally moments before I was going to reply about not getting WAAS lock, and then Sat 51 popped up full bar, and I started getting "D"s on all the locked in bars.

 

I am in southern Wisconsin, USA if that matters.

 

A little off topic, but is there any dumbdown or averaging feature to make the unit a bit more stable when moving slower or almost stationary? It seems to bounce around a bit.

[NewZealand]

I also live in Sweden and I get EGNOS fixes from time to time with my 60CSx running 3.0/2.7. I was in England for a week (two weeks ago) and while there I never received EGNOS signals long enough to get a fix with them, the satellites flashed for a few seconds at most.

This happens also to me since Egnos went productive at begin of july 2006 (satellite pops up shortly with D's on the other's bars, and disappears again after some seconds. After some minutes the same game again).

Before july it was no problem.

I assume, they must change the firmware to adapt the unit to the new Egnos situation.

[glowball]

Exactly what I was thinking - it must be a firmware problem as other GPSr's don't have this problem (correct me if I'm wrong).

own6volvos, through updated softwares / firmwares the wandering problem has improved a bit but it's no way near perfect, yesterday I took a stationary fix and even before I had changed the waypoint name I was 13m off!

[Hertzog]

This happens also to me since Egnos went productive at begin of july 2006 (satellite pops up shortly with D's on the other's bars, and disappears again after some seconds. After some minutes the same game again).

Before july it was no problem.

I assume, they must change the firmware to adapt the unit to the new Egnos situation.

There was a discussion on this at sci.geo.satellite-nav last week; it looks like the latest round of updates messed things up for EGNOS, but not for WAAS.

[+TheRoundings]

I have seen Ds in the bars in the past, but only rarely. I'm not sure if EGNOS is truley fully functional yet. Interestingly it may have coincided with a firmware update (?).

 

A bit of useful info that I posted some time ago in another forum:

 

In Europe and Africa EGNOS (Garmin sat numbers 33, 37 and 39) are Geostationary sats transmitting correction data. Being Geostationary they are low on the horizon from the UK and in most cases may be difficult to receive. They went into intial operations in July this year and I presume the correction data may now be available continously. Two channels are reserved for these correction sats when WAAS is enabled on the GPSr. The little Ds indicate that correction data has been received for the that particular sat - and hence that a signal was received from at least one of the EGNOS sats. The letter D itself is used because WAAS/EGNOS is a form of digital (or perhaps differential?) correction.

[R_S]

I have just tested my 60CSx (3.0/2.7) outside with a 360-degree clear sky view, location near Gloucester, UK. I had 10 satellites at or close to full strength and a further one on the NNE horizon at up to half strength intermittently. These were acquired almost immediately. After a few minutes the 60CSx also acquired EGNOS satellite 33 with a hollow bar, and a few minutes later was showing a solid bar for it and a D on the solid bar for all other satellites including the one on the horizon whenever signal was being received from it. Displayed accuracy was 3m before the differential correction was acquired, then 2m with it.

 

Maybe the receiver firmware does need a bit more tweaking to update it fully about EGNOS, but on the basis of this test it is certainly picking something up! I was interested to see that the receiver chose an 11/1 split. Am I right in thinking that, provided signal strength is good, there is no benefit in picking up the differential corrections from more than one satellite if those are differential-only satellites? No D appeared on the bar for satellite 33.

[glowball]

Finally, today I have seen the 'D's - was beginning to think my new 60CSx wasn't working properly.

Sat 33 did show briefly once and 39 on numerous occasions but it's signal strength was up & down like a yo-yo with more 'no signal' than with.

Sat 39 was half way between the 45 degree ring & the horizon with quite poor reception whereas normal sats at the same angle were showing full strength - so is this a conditions thing, low power or firmware? If firmware, how would that make the signal come and go?

My Vista C displayed a full set of 'D's with 33 & 39.

Are EGNOS sats always going to be on the horizon for UK users?

So many un-answered questions, sorry.

[glowball]

Curious happenings on 60CSx:

I got my GA 25MCX today, put the sensor on the outside window ledge (S facing) plugged it in & turned it on - instant lock on sat 33 with 'D's. Unplugged antenna, still good so went outside, moving through the house I lost lock on 33 and never got it back again until I turned the unit off and on again at which point I immediately get a good lock on 33 again.

Each time I lose the initial lock it doesn't recover - anyone else find this?

Edited August 11, 2006 by glowball

[viamundi]

I use a GPSMAP 60CSx (installed 3.00/2.70) in Germany (N 48.01,000 E 12.08,000). When I turn on WAAS, sometimes with a good view to the south, the satelite 33 or 39 pops up with "Ds" for about 10 seconds max. The bar is not very stable. After a view seconds the bar for the satelite as well as the Ds disapear. Usually I swithch back to WAAS off in frustration because even with the Ds displayed the error reading of the device is not better that with the Ds. My hope is that Garmin will fix this with later code changes.

[rbrugman]

I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and can get EGNOS satellite 33 to lock, especially in my boat. I had it locked for a half hour on Thursday. It's funny how I can get an EGNOS satellite but I can't pick up anything other than WAAS 51.

 

Robert

 

Yes, I am sure it was 33 and not 35.