Is "autolocate" Really Necessary

[phern47]

I am having problems getting my Garmin 45 to "autolocate". Does it really have to do that? Isn't entering a nearby know coordinate then just acquiring satellites enough? Has anyone else had problems getting the Garmin 45 to "autolocate" and "acquire" satellites. There are lots of satellites on the screen but there are no signal bars showing strong signals. Sometimes I get 1 signal bar but then it goes away and I get another from another satellite. The manuals don't explain much other than what is on each screen and how to modify.

[+nincehelser]

Try putting the receiver out in a very open spot for at least 15 minutes or so. It sounds like it may have to re-aquire the almanac data.

 

George

[phern47]

I finally got almanac data (date and time) yesterday when trying to autolocate but no position.

[+Renegade Knight]

Yes, your GPS needs to know some basic infomation.

 

It has to build a table that tells it where the satalites are located so it can figure out where it's at. That table is updated each time you turn the GPS on, but if it's out of date it takes longer for the GPS to figure things out. The table it has in it's memory is old, the satalites are not where they should be so it has a hard time 'finding them' etc. Once you go through the process your normal use of hte GPS will keep the table updated and you will have fairly quick acquistions.

[+Renegade Knight]

Sometimes the GPS will let you input your approximate coordinates and that helps it figure things out faster.

[+ZingerHead]

If you aren't getting any signal bars you need to find a spot with a better view of the sky. Unless the GPS can "see" the satellites it won't acquire any data. I believe the almanac data is what the GPS stores to keep track of it's rough location so it has a pretty good idea of which satellites to expect when it powers up. That's why if you fly across the country and fire up your GPS it takes forever to lock because it has to reacquire all this "baseline" info from a different set of satellites. With accurate almanac data it already has a good idea of which sats it should hear from so it can get started earlier on determining your present position.

[phern47]

Well, I finally got a position today. After over 2 hours, the gps showed strong signals from at least 5 different satellites. There were 8 or 10 satellites on the screen. What a relief. At least I know that the old Garmin 45 works. I even got a response from the seller of the pflug to make a power cable and a pc cable today. After supper, I plan to take a walk around the neighbourhood. Tomorrow I plan to do some ice-fishing if my blues band decides to not have a band practice. I can hardly wait to see how long the acquisition time will take.