I used my new 140S on a trip last week, and noticed that it sometimes had trouble finding satellites. A typical scenario would be that I would turn off the unit when I stopped for lunch, then turned it back on when I returned to my car to continue the trip. Usually the 140S would find the satellites almost immediately, but in one case it took almost ten minutes (and a couple power off/on cycles) for it to find them. This was on the open road, with a clear view of the sky. This behavior is quite annoying.

I have owned other brands of GPS devices, and the 140S is the first that has behaved like this. Is this normal behavior for TomTom devices?

Thanks!
/Don

 

Not normal, no, but it happens.........

Have you gotten a gpdquickfix file update lately? Also, a reset on the unit sometimes helps.

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Thanks for the reply. I loaded a gspquickfix the previous day, but in this case I don't think that matters. The gps satellites broadcast ephemeris data that is equivalent to a gpsquickfix every thirty seconds. Since my device had been on and tracking for a couple hours, it definitely had the most current satellite data.

If the problem continues to occur, I'll try the reset.

/Don

 

I cant help from notice a few of these threads popping up.

Yesterday from 12pm to 5pm EST, I had terrible reception. The reception started off great in the morning but around lunch time was dropping off. I leave the GPS on all day so it wasnt because I was moving around with it off. So it was unusual...could have happened at a worse time, I was in a new very very busy town/city (no skyscrapers or even tall buildings for that matter)...

I reset the unit and even cleaned the windshield. Nothing helped. Around 4pm it went from 2 bars to 3, at 430pm it went from 3 bars to 4, and at 5 I had full strength (but only 6 satellites). By the time I got home I had around 10 satellites and it was working flawlessly again.

I dont know if it had something to do with a quickgpsfix error, or even the prediction of degrading satellite signals...hehehe. Anyway I'm curious if this was more of a wide spread issue. Regardless today it worked great with good signal all day, and I was even in the same area as yesterday...

Seems like some of these post have been coming from the east coast, I'm in Maryland, the OP is in NY and there is another one in Maine. Maybe its just a coincidence though...

 

I also had problems when visiting Long Island. It took one or two minutes to find a satellite. No problems before or after my trip here in Phoenix, AZ.

 

A quickgpsfix error would not cause the reception problem that CynicX reports. The data that quickgpsfix installs simply updates the information that the gps receiver uses to initially look for satellites when you turn on the receiver. The orbits of the gps satellites change over time, so the quickgpsfix data may help the receiver to initially find satellites when power is turned on, allowing it to determine it's initial position more quickly.

The gps satellites themselves broadcast this information (it's called ephemeris data) approximately every thirty seconds, so a short time after the receiver is powered on it will have the latest satellite information, independent of quickgpsfix. This will then be continueously updated as long as the receiver is powered on.

Quickgpsfix data is probably most useful in situations where the gps receiver has not been used for many days. Most gps receivers, when powered off, save a copy of the last set of ephemeris data that was received from the satellites. I assume that TomTom follows this practice. So if you use your gps receiver on a regular basis the receiver will already have a pretty accurate set of ephemeris data.

/Don

 

It certainly can and did on mine. I had an issue with super long lock times, crap signal, and hours were my xl would not lock at all. I loaded home up and checked for updates, none showed. I looked in the quick fix location on my tomtom (epher-somethingorother) and it was blank yet home did not show a quick fix available. I went to install the quickfix I had downloaded on the pc through home before and it installed on now shows up on my tomtom as an installed file. Took it back outside and boom - signal maxed and I have 10 sat locks where before I had three at best of times. All I did was the quick fix, so it does resolved some 'cant get a lock, takes forever to lock' issues.

 

And a bad quickfix update can certainly cause sat lock delays even for daily users. It doesn't happen often, but does appear about every 3 or 4 months it seems.

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TomTom 740 (Sold to MVL)/TomTom 930 (sold) - Garmin 760 with MSNDirect / nuvi 255 (sold) - Navigon 8100T- Garmin Dakota - Motorola Droid with Google nav. On the hunt for the next best pnd.

 

I fail to see why the qGPS data is even needed, use the device on a regular basis and it serves no purpose, I haven't used it on any of my units that support it for quite some time (years not months or weeks) and I get a position fix in under 30 seconds, quite often in less than 10 seconds isn't unusual, why run the risk of duff data corupting the positional accuracy - Mike

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950, 940, 930, 720, One Third Edition, One XL, XL IQ Live and a dead 910 as well as PDA based software and an iFone 3G & 3GS

 

just wanted to add my two cents that maybe once a month I get a longer gps fix on my 920. But 99% of the time it comes on very fast. That one percent of the time is sometimes agravating when you want to start your trip. You really have to chaulk this off to the satalites. My friends that have a garmin unit also have this same problem. On the whole however, tomtom is wonderful.