Hello, and GPS problem

[Ruth Gunstone]

Greetings from cold, wet and windy Yorkshire!

I have just bought a 0803 camera via Amazon, which turns-out to be an 0805 So far so good! Unfortunately, the GPS module seems to be unreliable, at best. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The attached screengrab should show today's travels - 20 miles-ish, but all it shows is a small squiggle around where I was parked for a few hours!

Obviously I can send it back for replacement/refund, but I wondered if anyone on here has a suggestion to fix.

I have installed the latest firmware, checked that the camera is securely inserted into the GPS unit. Stumped now!

Thanks for running this forum - I've already found some really useful stuff. Brilliant work.

 

[reverend]

Hi Ruth, is that data extracted from Registrator Viewer? There seem to be a few bugs with the 0805 at the moment which aren't fixed in the version in the website - to be honest on mine it does show the full journey but the speed is usually wrong so the fact there's a load of data missing isn't a great sign.

What sort of car are you in as there's a small chance it may be something on the windscreen blocking the signal, you may be better off seeing if the Amazon seller will send you another GPS mount though or maybe sending the lot back and swapping it for another?

I'm not in Sheffield until the back end of the week but I'll swap my 0805 back into the car to see if I get the same problem up there too

 

[Ruth Gunstone]

Hi there!

Yes, the image is a screengrab from Registrator Viewer (latest version, 6.0.0.1).

My car is a Fiesta (which has an electrically heated windscreen, now you mention it - thanks for the suggestion!).

Cheers!

 

[reverend]

That may be related looking at this:

http://www.talkford.com/community/topic/98846-windscreen-mounted-gps-with-heatedir-windscreen/

That's suggesting maybe stick the mount on the black area at the top of the windscreen but I'm not sure how that would affect your picture quality - it might work actually?

It's a pain getting these off but if you could unmount it and test it elsewhere on the screen that may help - you can't test it outside the car when you're moving but it might be worth trying it out the window while you're sat to see if it gets a lock then

 

[Ruth Gunstone]

Thanks Reverend! I'll try that during my lunch-break tomorrow (if I get one!).

Cheers!

 

[Ruth Gunstone]

OK, I have now 'cured' the problem - by swapping the GPS unit with another one. Obviously the one I was originally sent was faulty. It seems to be working now. It does take a few minutes to get a 'lock', but after that, performs OK, albeit not terribly accurately - see image! That said, it's good enough for my purposes

 

[jokiin]

You may find the accuracy improves once the new version of Registrator Viewer is released

 

[Nigel]

OK, I have now 'cured' the problem - by swapping the GPS unit with another one. Obviously the one I was originally sent was faulty. It seems to be working now. It does take a few minutes to get a 'lock', but after that, performs OK, albeit not terribly accurately - see image! That said, it's good enough for my purposes

Sounds like it is still having difficulty seeing through your heated windscreen. If used regularly then it ought to lock on within a few seconds, the delay suggests that it can't see all the satellites it is expecting to see and the inaccuracy suggests that even when it has locked on it can only see 3 or 4. The more satellites it can see the more accurate the position is.

It's not unusual for it to wander around a few houses when parked but you should be able to see which road you were on 90%+ of the time.

 

[Ruth Gunstone]

Actually, while testing the alternative GPS mount, the unit was sitting loosely on top of the dash-board and not mounted on the windscreen at all! So it will probably be more accurate when mounted properly (I'm so tight-fisted I didn't want to waste one of the adhesive patches ). I'll see how tomorrow's journeys go.

Thanks all!