Gps 60cs Oddness...

[+jollybgood]

I've only had my 60CS for a few days and lovin' it.

 

However I noticed something quirky about it's behavior. Maybe someone has a solution.

 

While driving down some heavily wooded roads I occasionally lose my lock on the sats.

Nothing unsual about that. My van blocks signals occasionally with my GPSV. I have one of those windshields that blocks signals if I'm heading a certain direction in relation to the birds.

 

What's odd is that the unit doesn't seem to realize it's lost it's signal.

 

For example I've driving along and come to a fork in the road and turn left. The 60CS (having lost it's lock on the Sattelites shows my route as continuing straight.

 

At one point at a T-intersectino when I came to a stop the arrow on the screen continued on into a field for 10 seconds for so.

 

Eventually the unit will flash a warning say it's lost it's signal. (anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute). By that time the cursor/arrow is way off track from my actual location.

 

This is very annoying. I can just see myself on foot on the woods and walking several hundred feet in the wrong direction before the unit informs me it's lost the signal.

 

My GPSV behaved like this from time to time but the lag time wasn't nearly as long.

 

Is this normal for this unit?

 

Anyway to set the unit so it immediately announces a signal loss?

 

Oh and the oddest thing I've observed was while passing a cememtery that has a circular drive.

I was on the main road and apparently lost my signal lock. As I passed the cemetery the arrow onthe screen merged into the cemetery and actually followed the circuluar drive halfway around it's perimieter before the unit signaled a loss.

 

In other words it appeared the software was attempting to guess my route even though it didn't know where it was. (perhaps a quirk in the Lock on Road feature?

 

Anyway I had my GPSV for two and a half years and never observed this sort of behavior.

 

I'm just curious if others have noticed things like this.

Edited August 6, 2004 by jollybgood

[cteselle]

For example I've driving along and come to a fork in the road and turn left. The 60CS (having lost it's lock on the Sattelites shows my route as continuing straight.

The same thing happened to me this morning. I lost signal going under an underpass, and when I came out it was still tracking straight instead of making my turn.

 

odd.

[Moun10Bike]

What you describe is how all of my Garmin GPS receivers have always behaved, including my GPS V and 60CS. When the receiver loses lock, it continues to plot your position based on the last known trajectory and speed. If it doesn't regain signal within a certain amount of time, it gives up and posts the "signal lost" error.

 

Is it possible that you are not using road lock on your 60CS but did have it on in your GPS V? That might explain why you see yourself going "straight" now rather than sticking to the roadway.

Edited August 6, 2004 by Moun10Bike

[+Night Stalker]

I don't see this much with my new 60CS while on a road, but when I go off-road looking for a cache it really can be confusing. It sometimes wont know where it is for as much as 50 feet then it will suddenly jump and I will have to correct my heading. Renegade Knight used to give me all kinds of SH*T over my Garmin but it never did this.

[+jollybgood]

Thanks all. Sounds like I'm not alone. Just wanted to make sure I didn't have a funky unit.

 

I did notice things seemed to clear up when I turned off WAAS.

 

I bought an extenral anttenae for use in my van on ebay today (19 bucks).

 

Hopefully that'll cut down on the signal loses.