When you do you actually turn on your GPS?

[DaveInLA]

I have a TomTom ONE LE and a Garmin Nuvi 200 that I recently bought, and I've tried them both out a couple times just to get a good feel of how well they work.

Anyway, I park my car in a garage. What I've noticed is that when I turn the GPS unit on (either one, but more the TT ONE), it doesn't get a signal since it's indoors. But since I can't wait forever for the signal to get there, I start driving, which, I understand, makes it even harder for the GPS to locate the signal. What this means is that I'm usually 5+ minutes into my trip before it locates a signal. Would it help if I turned on the GPS when I'm already outside the garage? Or should I wait IN the garage until the signal locks on?

 

[Thom]

I don't usually turn it on until I'm outside my garage. It usually finds a signal before the end of my road (1/4 mile)

 

[Boyd]

In the city I don't turn it on until I leave a parking garage. I think it just confuses it further to start up with no signal. Same thing with my Garmin GPS'es. But from what I've seen, the "quick fix" feature on TomTom really helps. When you connect to your computer and run HOME, download the quick fix file. This seems to get me a satellite fix much quicker in the city - less than a minute usually for me. Out in the country I don't know that it matters all that much though.

 

[zerimar]

I've noticed no major difference in sat lock times.

 

[DaveInLA]

I actually downloaded the QuickGPS Fix the day I opened my TT LE's packaging. The unit's signal was actually decent before I got the update, but after I got the fix, the signal has been spotty, at best. Eventually, I just couldn't get a signal, even out in the open. I removed the fix, and now it seems to be okay.

So right now, I'm parked in a covered structure (multi-level) at work. The ONE LE lost its signal shortly after I entered the structure. When I am ready to go home, should I turn on the ONE while still under the roof, or shoudl I wait until after I get out in the open, or does it not matter?

For that matter, is it good practice to turn off the GPS right before entering the parking structure so the signal is never lost before turning it off?

 

[Pedro2NR]

Mine is automatically turned on with my car.

 

[Boyd]

I actually downloaded the QuickGPS Fix the day I opened my TT LE's packaging. The unit's signal was actually decent before I got the update, but after I got the fix, the signal has been spotty, at best. Eventually, I just couldn't get a signal, even out in the open. I removed the fix, and now it seems to be okay.

That's pretty strange. The first day I used my TomTom after parking all day in downtown Philadelphia I was surprised at how quickly it got a fix. My Nuvi 650 wouldn't have been nearly so fast, so I assume the quickfix was the reason. I've been downloading them regularly and haven't seen any problems acquiring satellites.

Maybe geographic location has something to do with it? But I've been using a Go 720 and 920T, so perhaps they're better than the LE in this regard?

 

[mnguy07]

I turn mine on right away. As soon as I'm out of the garage I've got a lock. I do update quick fix often.

 

[tomlouie]

Old thread, but interesting one.

I turn on my unit when I'm out in the open.

In general, many GPS unit on powerup will start to look for sats based on certain assumptions based on the most recent data (ephemeris data from quickfix, last actual connection to sat, last known position of unit, time according to onboard clock, etc). Any assumptions that are still valid will help the unit get sat locks sooner, as it won't have to find/compute that piece of data.

If it can't find the sats after a certain amount of time, then it'll ditch these assumptions one by one, and continue to search. Eventually, it'll drop all the way down to search the sky mode, which takes a lot longer to find sats.

This means that if your unit has been powered on indoors long enough, it'll be in search the sky mode when you're finally out in the open, where it might take a while to find sats that it could have locked on instantly if you had turned it on when outside.

The one nice thing about the slow search the sky mode is that even if you haven't turned on your GPS in months (or downloaded a quickfix file), the unit will eventually find sats.

 

[Smokiewolf]

I actually downloaded the QuickGPS Fix the day I opened my TT LE's packaging. The unit's signal was actually decent before I got the update, but after I got the fix, the signal has been spotty, at best. Eventually, I just couldn't get a signal, even out in the open. I removed the fix, and now it seems to be okay.

So right now, I'm parked in a covered structure (multi-level) at work. The ONE LE lost its signal shortly after I entered the structure. When I am ready to go home, should I turn on the ONE while still under the roof, or shoudl I wait until after I get out in the open, or does it not matter?

For that matter, is it good practice to turn off the GPS right before entering the parking structure so the signal is never lost before turning it off?

Can you go to the roof of the parking structure, and park there?