OT Help - GPS gone blind!

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S

Steve

Guest
It's probably died. My BT-77 GPS receiver seems to have suddenly become
unable to resolve a fix. Although it can "see" satellites (I've seen it
with 7 in view but more usually its somewhere between 3 and 5) it seems to
sit there saying "yep, there's some satellites up there" but can no longer
work out where it is. This started about a week ago. There is only one
button - the on/off button - on the receiver and I'm wondering if it's
possible to "reboot" the thing by some magic keypress on this button. Sort
of switch it on and then give four short on/off button presses in quick
succession. Or am I going to have to shell out for a new one?

I've put this in the GPS-cellphone group too, but maybe someone here knows?
TIA for any help,
Steve


 
On 2006-10-14, Steve <[email protected]> wrote:

> It's probably died. My BT-77 GPS receiver seems to have suddenly become
> unable to resolve a fix. Although it can "see" satellites (I've seen it
> with 7 in view but more usually its somewhere between 3 and 5) it seems to
> sit there saying "yep, there's some satellites up there" but can no longer
> work out where it is.

How long have you left it for? If the GPS has lost its memory of
where it last was, which can happen if you leave it without batteries
for a long time, then it can take up to 15 minutes to figure out where
it is again.

Try leaving it hunting overnight if you can power it for that long, or
at least for half an hour or so.

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!
 
"Ian Rawlings" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 2006-10-14, Steve <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Try leaving it hunting overnight if you can power it for that long, or
> at least for half an hour or so.
>

I'd tried leaving it for about 15 minutes last night with no joy. It's now
sat in the shed searching and I'll see what it's found when I get back from
the (on-topic bit) MOT station where my SIII is booked for its annual
teeth-pulling in an hour's time. Fingers crossed that both (GPS and MOT)
come good!

Steve


 
Ian Rawlings wrote:
> How long have you left it for? If the GPS has lost its memory of
> where it last was, which can happen if you leave it without batteries
> for a long time, then it can take up to 15 minutes to figure out where
> it is again.

I think it's the other way round. It's lost the plot on synchronisation.
I had one that would go silly and depriving it of signal (while switched
on) made it give up on its memory and start again from scratch.

It was annoying because it was seeing satellites but never getting a
lock on so no position fix. Pull the aerial and let it whinge for a few
minutes and then it locked in 60 seconds once you plugged things
back in.

This was a plug in to the IPAQ not a built in RR lump but I wouldn't
be surprised if it wasn't a similar problem. I gather the heads are only
made by a couple of companies.

nigelH


 
On 2006-10-14, Steve <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'd tried leaving it for about 15 minutes last night with no joy. It's now
> sat in the shed searching

It being in the shed won't help at all, although if it's right by the
window (as in pressed up against the glass) then it's not too bad.

If it's in a pickle, then best thing is to put it outside, away from
buildings, and let it chew things over for a while, putting it inside
the car or a building, or near buildings, blocks part of the view of
the sky so makes it harder for it to find the satellites.

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!
 
"Ian Rawlings" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 2006-10-14, Steve <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I'd tried leaving it for about 15 minutes last night with no joy. It's
now
> > sat in the shed searching
>
> It being in the shed won't help at all, although if it's right by the
> window (as in pressed up against the glass) then it's not too bad.
>
> If it's in a pickle, then best thing is to put it outside, away from
> buildings, and let it chew things over for a while, putting it inside
> the car or a building, or near buildings, blocks part of the view of
> the sky so makes it harder for it to find the satellites.
>

Well it's nearly 8 hours now and the thing has been switched on sat outside
all day (i moved it out and put it on top of the shed). Still seeing
satellites but not fixing its position. Bugger.

The good news is that the SIII got through its MOT, so there's something
good come from the day.

Steve


 
On 2006-10-14, Steve <[email protected]> wrote:

> Well it's nearly 8 hours now and the thing has been switched on sat outside
> all day (i moved it out and put it on top of the shed). Still seeing
> satellites but not fixing its position. Bugger.

OK I think you've given it more of a chance than it could possibly ask
for, it's fooked!

I suppose the alternative is to see if you can try the other recent
suggestion, leave it turned on somewhere where it doesn't have a hope
in hell of getting a satellite thus making it go into exhaustive search
mode then putting it outside.

While it's doing that, try and find the warranty details ;-)

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!
 
: > Well it's nearly 8 hours now and the thing has been switched on sat
outside
: > all day (i moved it out and put it on top of the shed). Still seeing
: > satellites but not fixing its position. Bugger.

well, just having acquired a silver box thingy that talks to my Nokia E61
over bluetooth and allows me to run the GPS stuff for under £20, then I
would just get a new one

Si


 
"GrnOval" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> : > Well it's nearly 8 hours now and the thing has been switched on sat
> outside
> : > all day (i moved it out and put it on top of the shed). Still seeing
> : > satellites but not fixing its position. Bugger.
>
> well, just having acquired a silver box thingy that talks to my Nokia E61
> over bluetooth and allows me to run the GPS stuff for under £20, then I
> would just get a new one
>
> Si

Yup, that's the way it's looking. Of course, as soon as I part with the
readies someone will tell me that I just needed to stand on one leg facing
north and blip out the morse code for SOS on the on/off button and the thing
would have reset itself. Oh well.

Steve


 
On 2006-10-14 09:46:09 +0100, "Steve" <[email protected]> said:

> It's probably died. My BT-77 GPS receiver seems to have suddenly become
> unable to resolve a fix. Although it can "see" satellites (I've seen it
> with 7 in view but more usually its somewhere between 3 and 5) it seems to
> sit there saying "yep, there's some satellites up there" but can no longer
> work out where it is. This started about a week ago. There is only one
> button - the on/off button - on the receiver and I'm wondering if it's
> possible to "reboot" the thing by some magic keypress on this button. Sort
> of switch it on and then give four short on/off button presses in quick
> succession. Or am I going to have to shell out for a new one?
>
> I've put this in the GPS-cellphone group too, but maybe someone here knows?
> TIA for any help,
> Steve

Remove the battery for at least 24hrs to allow the memory to drain.
Then retry.
--
Darren Griffin
PocketGPSWorld - www.PocketGPSWorld.com
The Premier GPS Resource for News, Reviews and Forums

 
"Darren Griffin - PocketGPSWorld.Com" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
> On 2006-10-14 09:46:09 +0100, "Steve" <[email protected]>
said:
>
> > It's probably died. My BT-77 GPS receiver seems to have suddenly become
> > unable to resolve a fix. Although it can "see" satellites (I've seen it
> > with 7 in view but more usually its somewhere between 3 and 5) it seems
to
> > sit there saying "yep, there's some satellites up there" but can no
longer
> > work out where it is. This started about a week ago. There is only one
> > button - the on/off button - on the receiver and I'm wondering if it's
> > possible to "reboot" the thing by some magic keypress on this button.
Sort
> > of switch it on and then give four short on/off button presses in quick
> > succession. Or am I going to have to shell out for a new one?
> >
> > I've put this in the GPS-cellphone group too, but maybe someone here
knows?
> > TIA for any help,
> > Steve
>
> Remove the battery for at least 24hrs to allow the memory to drain.
> Then retry.
> --

Thanks, trying that now (it's been out since 6pm last night). However, hope
is fading fast. Absolute last resort is to have a look at
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25575&whichpage=1
which someone on another forum suggested. There's a lot of acronyms in
there though and I don't understand hardly any of it. The up side is that
if the removed battery thing doesn't work and it's still broken then I can't
break it any more than it is already!

Steve


 
Steve wrote:
> "Darren Griffin - PocketGPSWorld.Com" <[email protected]> wrote in
> message news:[email protected]...
>
>>On 2006-10-14 09:46:09 +0100, "Steve" <[email protected]>
>
> said:
>
>>>It's probably died. My BT-77 GPS receiver seems to have suddenly become
>>>unable to resolve a fix. Although it can "see" satellites (I've seen it
>>>with 7 in view but more usually its somewhere between 3 and 5) it seems
>
> to
>
>>>sit there saying "yep, there's some satellites up there" but can no
>
> longer
>
>>>work out where it is. This started about a week ago. There is only one
>>>button - the on/off button - on the receiver and I'm wondering if it's
>>>possible to "reboot" the thing by some magic keypress on this button.
>
> Sort
>
>>>of switch it on and then give four short on/off button presses in quick
>>>succession. Or am I going to have to shell out for a new one?
>>>
>>>I've put this in the GPS-cellphone group too, but maybe someone here
>
> knows?
>
>>>TIA for any help,
>>>Steve
>>
>>Remove the battery for at least 24hrs to allow the memory to drain.
>>Then retry.
>>--
>
>
> Thanks, trying that now (it's been out since 6pm last night). However, hope
> is fading fast. Absolute last resort is to have a look at
> http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25575&whichpage=1
> which someone on another forum suggested. There's a lot of acronyms in
> there though and I don't understand hardly any of it. The up side is that
> if the removed battery thing doesn't work and it's still broken then I can't
> break it any more than it is already!
>
> Steve
>
>
I had a similar problem with my Garmin 12Xl GPS which sits in a cradle
suckered to my screen. Recently it suffered a spate of "power down and
re-init" messages, which seemed to have no rhyme or reason. The only
thing I had done to the vehicle was change the stereo from a Sony tape
player to a Sony Minidisc player. I moved the cradle from the centre of
the screen to the edge by the driver's door, and voila! no problem
anymore. It seems that the stereo was leaking some signal that b*ggered
the GPS reception!

Stuart
 
Darren Griffin - PocketGPSWorld.Com wrote:

|| Remove the battery for at least 24hrs to allow the memory to drain.
|| Then retry.

Darren, any idea what's up with my Tomtom GO700? I've had it 5 months and
it's taken me round Europe already without a problem, at least nothing that
a button reset and re-init couldn't cure (twice so far).

I wanted to use it this Sunday, and it had been lying around for about a
month, so I gave it an overnight mains charge, but it wouldn't boot up - it
kept going to the "hand pointing at the GO" screen and then switching off.
Switching it on again takes you right back to the "two hands and the
drumbeat" screen, which ISTR was what it did fresh out of the box. After
about 10 attempts, it started up and said "no map found". I reset it again
(about the nth time that night) and after a few more attempts it started OK.
Lucky it did, because the next time it was going out of the window. It
worked faultlessly on a long journey on Sunday (switched off 8 hrs between
out and return legs). Tonight it's back to turning itself off again.

Any ideas what could be wrong? It's under guarantee (if I can find the
receipt) but I don't want to go to the hassle of returning it if there is a
simple fix. The battery is internal, so I can't disconnect it as you advise
Steve.

Tomtom customer service site is down - I did try them first!

TIA for any help.

--
Rich
==============================

Take out the obvious to email me.


 
On 2006-10-16 19:58:50 +0100, "Richard Brookman"
<[email protected]> said:
>
> Darren, any idea what's up with my Tomtom GO700? I've had it 5 months
> and it's taken me round Europe already without a problem, at least
> nothing that a button reset and re-init couldn't cure (twice so far).
>
> I wanted to use it this Sunday, and it had been lying around for about
> a month, so I gave it an overnight mains charge, but it wouldn't boot
> up - it kept going to the "hand pointing at the GO" screen and then
> switching off. Switching it on again takes you right back to the "two
> hands and the drumbeat" screen, which ISTR was what it did fresh out of
> the box. After about 10 attempts, it started up and said "no map
> found". I reset it again (about the nth time that night) and after a
> few more attempts it started OK. Lucky it did, because the next time it
> was going out of the window. It worked faultlessly on a long journey
> on Sunday (switched off 8 hrs between out and return legs). Tonight
> it's back to turning itself off again.
>
> Any ideas what could be wrong? It's under guarantee (if I can find the
> receipt) but I don't want to go to the hassle of returning it if there
> is a simple fix. The battery is internal, so I can't disconnect it as
> you advise Steve.
>
> Tomtom customer service site is down - I did try them first!
>
> TIA for any help.

Sounds more like a dodgy hard disk. What version of firmware is it running?

--
Darren Griffin
PocketGPSWorld - www.PocketGPSWorld.com
The Premier GPS Resource for News, Reviews and Forums

 
Darren Griffin - PocketGPSWorld.Com wrote:

|| On 2006-10-16 19:58:50 +0100, "Richard Brookman"
|| <[email protected]> said:
|||
||| Darren, any idea what's up with my Tomtom GO700? I've had it 5
||| months and it's taken me round Europe already without a problem, at
||| least nothing that a button reset and re-init couldn't cure (twice
||| so far).
[...]

|| Sounds more like a dodgy hard disk. What version of firmware is it
|| running?

Aha! I can't get it running, so I can't tell you that! I bought it in June
and it had an immediate firmware update, if that's any help.

Thanks.

--
Rich
==============================

Take out the obvious to email me.


 
On 2006-10-17 18:09:03 +0100, "Richard Brookman"
<[email protected]> said:

> Aha! I can't get it running, so I can't tell you that! I bought it in
> June and it had an immediate firmware update, if that's any help.
>
> Thanks.

Not a lot. It's time to involve TomTom's Support bods assuming it's
still in warranty?
--
Darren Griffin
PocketGPSWorld - www.PocketGPSWorld.com
The Premier GPS Resource for News, Reviews and Forums

 
On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:58:50 +0100, Richard Brookman wrote:

> I wanted to use it this Sunday, and it had been lying around for about
> a month, so I gave it an overnight mains charge,
<snip>
After
> about 10 attempts, it started up and said "no map found". I reset it
> again (about the nth time that night) and after a few more attempts it
> started OK.

Does it do this if powered from a reliable external source (vehicle)?

It could be that the internal battery is knackered. NiCds inparticular do
not like being left charged. If it had little use, on battery, before
being stored the cells won't have fully settled down from new.

--
Cheers [email protected]
Dave. pam is missing e-mail



 
Darren Griffin - PocketGPSWorld.Com wrote:

|| On 2006-10-17 18:09:03 +0100, "Richard Brookman"
|| <[email protected]> said:
||
||| Aha! I can't get it running, so I can't tell you that! I bought
||| it in June and it had an immediate firmware update, if that's any
||| help.
|||
||| Thanks.
||
|| Not a lot. It's time to involve TomTom's Support bods assuming it's
|| still in warranty?

Customer care part of their site has been down for a few days - I'll give
'em another try. Thanks.

--
Rich
==============================

Take out the obvious to email me.


 
Dave Liquorice wrote:

|| On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:58:50 +0100, Richard Brookman wrote:
||
||| I wanted to use it this Sunday, and it had been lying around for
||| about a month, so I gave it an overnight mains charge,
|| <snip>
|| After
||| about 10 attempts, it started up and said "no map found". I reset
||| it again (about the nth time that night) and after a few more
||| attempts it started OK.
||
|| Does it do this if powered from a reliable external source (vehicle)?

In the car it worked fine for the day, after taking several attempts to boot
up. But not on the mains adapter in the house.

|| It could be that the internal battery is knackered. NiCds
|| inparticular do not like being left charged. If it had little use,
|| on battery, before being stored the cells won't have fully settled
|| down from new.

I charged it fully from new, and it's been either sitting on a shelf
(unpowered) or in the vehicle being used (and on 12v) - I've never used it
on battery alone, although the literature says it will use power while in
storage and run itself down. It hasn't had the charge/discharge cycle that
older batteries like, but I assumed they would have thought of that. It's
still turning itself off after about 1 minute.

One more try with Tomtom customer care, and then I'm going to try to
exchange it - if I can find the receipt in the box of similar receipts
sitting on the floor in here. Could take a while ...

Thanks.

--
Rich
==============================

Take out the obvious to email me.


 
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