Battled to get my Navman satnav working in my Disco. Took about half an hour to find only four satellites. Then I realised why.
Heated Front Windscreen!
Battled to get my Navman satnav working in my Disco. Took about half an hour to find only four satellites. Then I realised why.
Heated Front Windscreen!
t> Heated Front Windscreen!
...never ever been an issue for me in Piglet with any of my GPS's ... or for that matter in Bagheera or Owl???? All 3 have heated windscreens .....
If anything the Disco has an issue cos the windscreen is fairly vertical, not giving a good view of the sky - so get the unit as close as you can.
Yep, guess it could be the verticality causing the line of sight to go thru very thick glass, but it used to work fine in my old V8 disco. Only difference between the two is the heating elements in the screen. Worked in the end, had to hold the satnav outside the window to find a handful of satellites, then it kept them when I brought it inside.
It is. You don't say which Navman you have but I'm guessing it's not one of the later units. As such it's GPS Chipset is less efficient at achieving a lock than current units and where signals are more marginal you get the problem you describe.
The solution is either an external antenna, a re-radiating antenna or a later GPS receiver with SiRFStarIII chipset. This chipset is found in most current units and is so efficient that it will happily and quickly achieve sat lock from inside the glovebox or centre cubby.
OOI, what unit do you have?
I get a lot less signal without an outside aerial on a P38 HSE but it does lock up a whole bunch of satalites. Perhaps your reciever is a bit deaf.
The outside aerial was only a few quid but watch out for the plugs. There are two different sizes.
nigelH
There's many more than that, at least half a dozen I can think of.
My tomtom one works fine on my ES
The ONE has a SiRFStarIII Chipset, works in many places where older receivers struggle.
wouldn't be a Navman Pin 570 by any chance would it? Derek
is slower to pick up sats in the 300 which has the heated screen. Works fine once it's locked on though, apart from not knowing where Sheffield is. TonyB
It's an 18 month old icn320 (iirc)
Which has the earlier SiRFStarII chipset hence your issues. It can accept an external attenna which should cost less than £20 and will make the world of difference.
Don't want cables trailing over the dash..
Maybe it'd work better if I moved it as far to the right of the screen as possible where the elements stop....
My TT700 was slow too - sometimes 10 to 15 mins. I got an external antenna, mounting it internally to look through the sunroof. Cable routing was relatively simple, neat and almost invisible. Now very quick to lock and excellent signal.
Mike E
what was suggested to me was manually input your position before you set off it acquires a lock very quickly or so the theory goes , the 570 was taking anything up to 10 minutes to lock sufficient sats to work . My 570 is away with the faeries at Navman because it kept continually locking up, hopefully it will be A1 when it comes back or I will be miffed beyond the realms of Nige's colourful posts (and remember Nige has has some crap to put up with) watch my shirt tear and me turn a verdant shade before I start. Derek
It may aquire satellite lock slightly quicker if it can see some satellites through the drivers side window as well but an external antenna be it directly coupled or the re-radiating type is the only real solution to the problem.
The antenna cable has a very thin cross section and so can be easily hidden under trim, along the windscreen channel etc.
Direct connection antenna would require the cable to be connected/disconnected each time you plug in the 530. A re-rad avoids this issue but requires a 12v supply.
Darren,
What has my ancient SPIII got then? As it aquires without external antenna in about 15-30 seconds....
It is an earlier chipset but Garmin used a Helix antenna in the SPIII which works better in these cases than the patch antennas more commonly used.
I used to have to do that in the Range Rover (Garmin GPS12 hand-held), but the Tomtom works fine in the Disco, even with the HWS. I got a mount with a separate antenna (for when I drive the works Renaults with the silly purple windscreens) but it made no difference in the Disco - i.e. still fine. GO700, mounted normally. Perhaps the Navman is a bit less keen/quick to acquire than the Tomtom?
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.