NAVMAN 520i - trouble finding satelites

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Hi people

I have a Navman 520i which seems to have great difficulty finding satellites even though my Garmin GPS can find them.

Is this a problem with the 520i or do I need an external antenna?

Diana

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Is this a problem with the 520i or do I need an external antenna?

Diana

Hmmm - I guess this is not the sort of GPS people talk about here.

Diana

[waynep]

I don't use/know the Navman Street Navigator but my Ipaq runs TomTom ....

see if you have a menu option where you can look at the satellites it is picking up. There should be a "constellation" picture of the sky and a bar graph showing the strength of each satellite. Out in the open with a clear view of the sky you should pick up six or seven satellites at least with good signal stength.

If you can't do that maybe try a soft or hard reset ( there should be a button you can push with a biro somewhere to reset it). If it still doesn.t pick up any satellites, maybe your GPS receiver is cactus.

Also look around for any forums on Navman such as this one :

http://www.expansys.com.au/foc.aspx'm=579

they might be able to help,

about all I can suggest ..... maybe a NavMan owner will pop up and help ....

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I don't use/know the Navman Street Navigator but my Ipaq runs TomTom ....

see if you have a menu option where you can look at the satellites it is picking up. There should be a "constellation" picture of the sky and a bar graph showing the strength of each satellite. Out in the open with a clear view of the sky you should pick up six or seven satellites at least with good signal stength.

If you can't do that maybe try a soft or hard reset ( there should be a button somewhere to do that ). If it still doesn.t pick up any satellites, maybe your GPS receiver is cactus.

Also look around for any forums on Navman such as this one :

http://www.expansys.com.au/foc.aspx'm=579

they might be able to help,

Wayne

Thank's for that - I am not getting any bars on the "dish" icon when it's not receiving. It seems to happen on cloudy days, but not necessarily ones where there is rain. It may take 20 minutes to pick up a fix. On Monday I was in Artarmon and still thought I was on Southern Cross drive Kensington. I was thinking it may be my windscreen or something, so needed an external antenna.

The website you gave is blocked by the "Shopping filter" from work so I will check when I get home.

Diana

[Bushie]

I was thinking it may be my windscreen or something, so needed an external antenna.


Diana

Does the windscreen have a heater/demister wire running through it - if so I think you're on the right track.


Martyn

[waynep]

Take it outside in a clear open space and hold it at arms length, and see if the signal stregth bars increase considerably. ( I presume it'll run on internal batteries ). If they do then something about your vehicle is causing the problem - maybe if its a Defender or Series the window's too vertical, not allowing a clear enough view of the sky.

My wfie's Peugeot has a metallised windscreen that blocks the satellite signal a lot - still gets enough to work OK though.

So you may need an external antenna but I'd be surprised. The SIRF type GPS Receiver chips they put in the navigator units these days are pretty damn good.

[stevejo43]

I have an IPAQ which has the sattelite display you are talking about and I have recieing probs as well. Out in the open it will recieve okay but the minute it goes in the car GPS Signal lost. Would an antenea make a diference? I would be curious if I could run oziexplorer or some form of off-road prog in this as well. Regards,

Steve

[rmp]

The 312 can take an external antenna. I run OziCE on mine and will be posting full instructions for getting it working here shortly. The instructions will be somewhat applicable to similar units like Navmen, Mios etc, anything with Windows CE 5 as a base operating system.

The 312 is good as it presently leads with size/resolution, 4.3" 800x480. Niiice.

[Xavie]

I think the best idea is trying it outside the vehicle to see if/how quickly it picks up satellites if their is a big difference then external aerial is the way I think. In my series my tom tom gets excellent reception and also in defenders. It is the Disco which it suffers in. I found having an external aerial in the vehicle still makes a big difference.

I have to admit I'm leaning towards the unit having a fault because a navman should have a good enough antenna unit to pick up within the vehicle, even if not full but enough to make it work sufficiently. BUT, in saying that sometimes all the tom toms I have used can take up to a couple of minutes to find where you are at and many times I turn mine on and off and that helps a lot.

Xav

[Bushwanderer]

Hi Xavie,
If your Disco has an electrically-heated windscreen, this would explain your difficulties.

Best Wishes,