GPS product reliability

[hertsbiker]

Ok lads, I have a GPS based product, and it has become terribly unreliable. to wit;-
Takes 10 minutes before aquiring satellite, and losing satellite link while driving under trees, through tunnels.

Having sent this back twice now, I am getting a bit peeved at the value for money factor, and not terribly happy with the customer service.

Have any of you had similar problems?

I am seriously considering replacing it with a conventional detector, eg 100yds warning is better than the zero I am getting right now!

Opinions please, money no object...

By the way, 10 minutes warm up is on a *good* day - and if placed in a moving car, I can often get to the destination (40 minutes) before "blue light". Bit of a p*** take, no?

C

[raceboy]

Not much help, but mines fine, every now and again I get no signal but most of the time it's great, although it didn't 'see' the camera on the Mansfield inner ring road on Saturday, but the camera was pointing at the ground anyway

[Pete_W]

Uhm...never had problems with any GPS-based product, but then again mines a hand-held unit made by Garmin. Can't make a direct comparison to dedicated 'detector' products, but a 10-minute warm-up time is unheared of with my system. It even keeps reasonable lock in tunnels....sounds like you've got another dodgy unit or there's an inherent problem with the make of unit. GPS isn't rocket science anymore. I think the receiver / processor bit sells for about 20 notes!

Forgot to add, stationary warm-up is about 40s for me. Moving warm-up does take longer, about 3 mins

>> Edited by Pete_W on Tuesday 16th July 14:06

[pbrettle]

I have the Compaq Navman system and that can take a little while to "warm-up" and aquire the satelites. Normally it will get the information on rough location in 3 minutes, but to get an accurate lock it can take something like 5. Not too bad but can be a little anoying.

I am lead to believe that this is sometimes related to time. For example, my Navman used to take ages to aquire sometimes leading me to think that it wasnt working. However, spoke to support about this and they said that aquiring in a new location miles from the last known area takes longer. Something to do with having to reaquire all of the satelites and get the time and location right as it cant assume anything anymore. Also time between use makes a difference too - for the same reason. But if you do use one regularily then it doesnt take it miles without switching it back on then it should be fine.

Will agree with accuracy sometimes - for example driving down Moorgate and its accuracy drops off considerably. Like it puts you several streets away occassionally loosing the lock. And Moorgate has buildings about 5 - 6 stories high! Trees knock them out and tunnels are a no-no. But you do kinda get used to them sometimes. Suspect that you have another duff unit, but it might just be one of those "features"...

Cheers,

Paul

[ZZR600]

Carl this GPS based product wouldnt be A black box with with cash(speed camera) machine locations in its memory would it ????

[hertsbiker]

quote:
Carl this GPS based product wouldnt be A black box with with cash(speed camera) machine locations in its memory would it ????

errr, could be.. but I will hopefully have an exchange unit v.soon, and will let you know. I pray it is just a "blip" of a problem. Wouldn't want to do without it y'see?

'ere, has your email address changed? I mailed you a while ago? or you just ignoring me?

cheers, Carl

[Mad Dawg]

I've got a Geodesy - had some problems a while back which I eventually traced back to poor connection to the power source - check the back of the unit to make sure that the connection points aren't being obscured.
Where is yours mounted?? I found that angling the unit forwards so that it can 'see' out of the screen helped when I put the unit in my Jag, When I first installed it it used to lose the signal reasonably often, now it maintains lock pretty much all the time except in tunnels...

[Mojocvh]

Just sent mine back for the "upgrade".
Have also noticed a bit of a time delay until it gets the blue light just recently but having just changed cars hope that this might have something to do with it as it's an item I wouldn't like to travel into indian territory without.........MoJo.

>> Edited by Mojocvh on Tuesday 16th July 23:19

[ATG]

the signal can be blocked by almost any obstruction, your hand, a bit of metal leaf. If you lose a segment of the sky the triangulation will become less accurate, as happens when you go past buildings. Might be worth seeing if you can improve the position of the antenna.

[Mojocvh]

Just got the geodesy plus back, all working fine.
Will give it a run out and report back on the plus features soon MoJo.