GPS kph Drop Outs

TJOz49

New Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2020
Messages
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Location
Tasmania
Country
Australia
Dash Cam
Guardtrak GT65EX
I bought a Guardtrak GT65EX earlier this year and installed it in our 4x4 wagon.
The Guardtrak unit is user-friendly, discreet and works very well for my needs.
Except for the irregular drop-outs and drop-ins of the GPS unit.

The 'on glass' GPS unit was installed as per the instructions, but watching the image files in play-back it sometimes takes a while to start registering the speed reading once it starts up.
Ten or fifteen minute delays after every restart throughout the day in not unusual before the speed readout commences. Even with clear skies in rural areas.

Tall trees lining the side of the road and some types of low cloud cover seem to cause the kph dropouts as well.

This is my first dashcam, so I'm a newbie looking for some advice to help sort out this little glitch.

Thank you,
 
Welcome to the forum TJ.

Are you sure you have inserted the GPS plug fully ? you would be surprised how many manage to not do that, or when it is a option plug it into the AV out socket.
The boss man will be here later and maybe also have a couple of hints.

A faulty Antenna are also a option, but in all the years of Street Guardian / Guardtrak i have only seen / heard of that 3-4 times ( myself being one of those )
But i also see a lot of their hardware as a affiliate of the brand / tester, but no matter what you are a solution will be found shortly.

PS: don't worry about the GPS dropouts, in a pinch / court of law the speed can always be determined as XX meters ( between 2 things in the video footage you can go measure the distance in between ) and the time in your video recording it took to cover that distance.
That will give you a exact speed in meters / second, that are easy to convert to km/h or MPH if you like that.
So dont limit yourself while this get resolved as it should be.
 
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Vegatation blocks or reduces the power of radio signals at UHF and higher frequencies which GPS operates at. When you bear in mind that the GPS hardware used in dashcams is of the most basic and inexpensive variety, you can expect slow boot-ups and signal dropouts to occur. To use better hardware would add to the cost of the cams, perhaps to the point of causing the loss of sales. Even the most expensive dashcams use similar GPS hardware. Like the SOC approach to designs and the use of SDK's to program cam functions none of this is optimum in any cam, only the way all cams are made. @jokiin will be along shortly and assist you with his product, rest assured in knowing he's got the best customer support of any cam manufacturer bar none, and you'll be fine.

Phil
 
It do indeed, driving in my friends Dodge ram charger, using a NAV unit for speedo as it had a broken speedo and also larger tires.
Well in the local forest south of Aarhus all hell broke loose for the GPS ( Garmin as i recall ) and it some times listed our speed as +300 km/ h and a few M later was would be going 0 km/h

TBH i never looked at how my cameras GPS would be affected such a place under the large Beech and oak trees, but the 2 lane road almost have full cover.
 
Results are indicative of poor signal, some treated windscreens or other nearby electronic devices can cause that, of course it could just be a fault with the GPS itself, message me your details and I'll arrange a replacement GPS for you to at least rule that out
 
Welcome to the forum TJ.

Are you sure you have inserted the GPS plug fully ? you would be surprised how many manage to not do that, or when it is a option plug it into the AV out socket.
The boss man will be here later and maybe also have a couple of hints.

A faulty Antenna are also a option, but in all the years of Street Guardian / Guardtrak i have only seen / heard of that 3-4 times ( myself being one of those )
But i also see a lot of their hardware as a affiliate of the brand / tester, but no matter what you are a solution will be found shortly.

PS: don't worry about the GPS dropouts, in a pinch / court of law the speed can always be determined as XX meters ( between 2 things in the video footage you can go measure the distance in between ) and the time in your video recording it took to cover that distance.
That will give you a exact speed in meters / second, that are easy to convert to km/h or MPH if you like that.
So dont limit yourself while this get resolved as it should be.
Thanks for your reply and your welcome kamkar1,

I did go and check that plug thinking you could be right, I've accidentally done it before with music gear jack plugs and such.
But the plug was as it should be.

The real problem is that I'm a bit of a gadget and electronics fiddler and if it don't work I wanna know why and see about fixing it.
There are others here just the same no doubt.
The dashcam is my serious new toy at the moment and I'm tuning how I use it.
And your right about other ways to calculate speed and I'm partial to a little math, but I do like movin' numbers.

I'm sure it'll get sorted.
Your inputs appreciated...thanks again.
 
Well click on jokiins avatar, start conversation and send him your contact info and he will have a new antenna going out to you from Sydney ASAP.
Dont know if Tasmania have forests like we have a few places up here, i only know when a Danish prince want a proper girl he go to exotic places like Tasmania to find one, cuz no one want a Danish Barbie girl.

Yeah i started tearing into things to see how they looked at a early age, for some years that was not always a success or a good thing to do as i once in a while broke them in the process.

I will have to swing past Tasmania too if i ever get to do my dream great walk down under, sadly that are in the hands of lotto gods that don't appear to have much kindness towards me.
 
Vegatation blocks or reduces the power of radio signals at UHF and higher frequencies which GPS operates at. When you bear in mind that the GPS hardware used in dashcams is of the most basic and inexpensive variety, you can expect slow boot-ups and signal dropouts to occur. To use better hardware would add to the cost of the cams, perhaps to the point of causing the loss of sales. Even the most expensive dashcams use similar GPS hardware. Like the SOC approach to designs and the use of SDK's to program cam functions none of this is optimum in any cam, only the way all cams are made. @jokiin will be along shortly and assist you with his product, rest assured in knowing he's got the best customer support of any cam manufacturer bar none, and you'll be fine.

Phil
Thanks SawMaster,
I've learned a lot about dc installs in two replies, and you've added to my own suspicions regarding signal stregnth and the glitches.
You make good points re costs and quality and that all stands to reason.
I bought at what I thought was a good reasonable price and I'm very happy with the result.
Thanks again.
 
Results are indicative of poor signal, some treated windscreens or other nearby electronic devices can cause that, of course it could just be a fault with the GPS itself, message me your details and I'll arrange a replacement GPS for you to at least rule that out
G'day Jokiin,

Thank you very much for your reply and your very kind offer.
I shall message as you suggest.
It will be interesting to try another unit.

Many thanks again to you and others for the kind attention.
Nice buzz here. (y)(y)(y)
 
Well click on jokiins avatar, start conversation and send him your contact info and he will have a new antenna going out to you from Sydney ASAP.
Dont know if Tasmania have forests like we have a few places up here, i only know when a Danish prince want a proper girl he go to exotic places like Tasmania to find one, cuz no one want a Danish Barbie girl.

Yeah i started tearing into things to see how they looked at a early age, for some years that was not always a success or a good thing to do as i once in a while broke them in the process.

I will have to swing past Tasmania too if i ever get to do my dream great walk down under, sadly that are in the hands of lotto gods that don't appear to have much kindness towards me.
Tasmania has many large forests...I live in place with forests all around.
Oh yeah that's right, we got connections to Danish royalty.
Princess Mary from Hobart...very nice family I hear.

Breaking things and fixing 'em is part of the tech experience...no?
If you had a dollar for every gizmo or gadget I ever broke while learning to fix it you could "swing past" Tassie up the front in first class.

Good luck with them there lotto gods man.
 
G'day Jokiin,

Thank you very much for your reply and your very kind offer.
I shall message as you suggest.
It will be interesting to try another unit.

Many thanks again to you and others for the kind attention.
Nice buzz here. (y)(y)(y)
no problem, replacement going out today for you, have messaged you the tracking details
 
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