Re: Garmin 2610 3.5 software - speeding up satellite acquisition

From: PanEuropean (paneuropean_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 06/06/04 

Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2004 17:08:18 GMT

James:

I am using version 3.50 on my SP 2650 and it works just fine. My "educated
guess" is that if people are finding that it takes longer than it did before
to pick up the satellite constellation, they probably have the WAAS (Wide
Area Augmentation Service) function enabled. This can be turned off by
pressing MENU, then INFO, then GPS INFO, then looking at the page to see if
it says "WAAS ENABLED". If it does, then touch the words 'WAAS ENABLED' and
it will change state, to "WAAS OFF", which is what you generally want for
automotive use.

WAAS satellites are parked over the equator, this means they are very low in
the southern sky for most people in North America and Europe. When WAAS is
turned on in the Garmin 2610-2620-2650 GPSRs, the GPSR will reserve 2 of its
12 channels exclusively for searching for WAAS satellites. This means there
are only 10 channels now available to search for "normal" satellites. So,
by turning WAAS on, you are unintentionally handicapping your GPSR, unless
you can promise a clear view of the Southern sky all the time. To do this,
you would have to avoid driving north....

I fly an aircraft for a living - WAAS is very useful in the aircraft, but
only because the antenna is on the top-middle of the plane, and it always
has a clear view of the WAAS satellites that are low in the Southern sky
(assuming I am in the air, and not taxiing on the ground). But, I keep WAAS
turned off on my SP 2650 when I am driving my car or riding my motorcycle,
because I find that the SP 2650 does a better job of navigation if I let it
use all 12 channels to track "normal" satellites. FYI I have found the
version 3.50 software to be otherwise trouble-free.

Hope this suggestion helps you.

PanEuropean

"james woods" wrote:

Check out the other thread... search for garmin 2610 v3.50 on deja.com
People were reporting that the cold boot takes much longer to lock on
singals and they said they lost signals where they never lost before.

Relevant Pages

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