Magellen GPS4000 Bargain or what?

[WedWon]

Hi All

Just bought a Magellean GPS4000 for $5 (yes $5) at the local school fete. Cleaned up and fresh batteries in it seems to be doing all it should.

However:
It only seems to track more than one satellite at a time, or two at its best(and therefore cannot triangulate). When I do a satellite check there seems to be a whole batch up there but signal strength too low to get a reading on

Does anybody else run one of these? If so how are your's going?
Does anybody know if this model uses satelites that may be defunkt and no longer in orbit (in the Southern Hemisphere anyway)
Who thinks it may be a faulty on board GPS sensor? How can I check, who could fix it?

As always any info, or opinion will be appreciated

Jason7001

[rmp]

Sounds like it's stuffed, hence the price. You could borrow another receiver and see if that can get reception in the same area, although give the 4000 more time. Then take it to a large, open, high field, new batteries, clean it up. Leave for half an hour. If it still fails to lock, junk it unless your hobby is electrical repair.

[Blknight.aus]

sometimes they get the Im confuzzled issue local interferance can distort the signal enough to upset them.

give it a hard reset, if its got an external antenna socket plug one into that and go have a nice cuppa in an open field for half an hour as already mentioned. (as already mentioned)

Ive had instances where my mio takes 3 hours to get a lock but thats generally worst case setups when Ive been flying and had to shut it down and its woken up under cloud cover, in building shadows with plenty of things that might be tweaking out the signal.

once its got its lock tho it tends to hold it through hell and high water.

[WedWon]

Thanks Guys

Thats why I asked here: prompt and correct responses.

Tried again yesterday and left it searching for AGES but eventually it did lock onto 3 and stayed fairly stable for about an hour of playing.

So $5 looks like a good deal, just need to be a bit patient with the old thing

Cheers

Jason

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Don't forget that if it's been switched off for a long time and or re-located it has to start again looking for satellites and this can take 5 minutes plus. I'm surprised that it could pick up 2 but no more.

I would sit it somewhere out in the open on a clear day and leave it a good ten minutes or more. Sometimes if you give them a hint as to where they are it can help them.

If it still can't find anything then put it back in the next school fete for $5. :)