Bloody thing doesn't work

[jenks]

Last week I took my wife to Marbella for a week, and decided to leave all the maps at home but took the 2610 with the region uploaded.

It didn't work, no signal all week, I cannot believe that the Spainish don't have satalights, so whats the problem??

AJ

My wife has always said it was a worthless gadget, this was more fuel for her fire.

 

[MikeP]

The Spanish don't have satellites, it's the Americans who do and everybody else just uses them!

Maybe the Yanks are pi**ed at the Spanish for pulling out of Iraq and have fitted shields to the satellites so they can't be seen from the Iberian peninsular!

 

[Lord Snooty]

There are 24 satellites constantly orbiting the globe so why you were unable to get a signal from any of them is a mystery. I toured Spain this year and my SPIII was on the button every day, and I know others on this board have also been there this year. If I was you I'd email Garmin tech support for some advice, you may need to get your unit checked out.

The lesson of course is to always take your maps as well, at the end of the day any sat nav unit is a piece of technology and as we all know technology has a tendency to go wrong. I always take paper maps as a back up and they give you the benefit of the bigger picture and you can identify scenic routes, mountainous areas etc.

 

[(RIP) Shenzi]

The Spanish don't have satellites, it's the Americans who do and everybody else just uses them!

Maybe the Yanks are pi**ed at the Spanish for pulling out of Iraq and have fitted shields to the satellites so they can't be seen from the Iberian peninsular!

 

[adamski49]

jenks

I took my V to Calahonder (just up the road from Marbella) and used it for the two weeks I was there and yes, it would occassionally lose the satellites and take forever to find them again... much to my wifes amusement.

In the end I resorted to stopping, turning the GPS off and then on again - this normally solved the problem but if I moved off before it had found them it just gave up.

Did you have a fancy heated screen in your hire car? We only had a Punto so no such problem

Adam

 

[BurnieM]

In the end I resorted to stopping, turning the GPS off and then on again - this normally solved the problem but if I moved off before it had found them it just gave up.

Fix time is always longer if you are moving (maybe 10 x longer).
Getting a fix before moving is always a good idea.

 

[Gecko]

Jenks
When you turned it on did you reset your location manually or were you waiting for the unit to figure it out automatically ? If you were letting the unit figure it out you do need to be very patient. I had a similar problem last year when I flew to Switzerland and it (GPSV) took over 10 minutes to figure out where the heck it was on the planet. It starts from where it last knew it was and tries to triangulate it's new position , in your case hundreds of miles away from where you turned it off last.
If you only waited a few minutes before you started cursing it for being useless and then tunred it off and if you didn't reset the position manually this could be the problem. You may have just turned if off too quickly and then next time you tried again it starts the whole search all over again.
It may be different on the 2610 but I suspecct this could be your problem because the satellites are still up there

 

[jenks]

Thanks for that, No I didn't reset as I didn't know you could,,,,,,(how do you reset????)

I trended to switch on in the car park, wait for a few minutes, get angree, sware a bit then drive off, leaving the GPS on, so maybe I need more patience?

Andrew

 

[Kropotkin]

Hire cars in Spain tend also to have heat-reflective glass, which is very bad for GPS reception as well.

So you probably had lots of things against you, reflective glass, not waiting for fix, driving off, etc.

 

[Greg Masters]

Hire cars in Spain tend also to have heat-reflective glass, which is very bad for GPS reception as well.

Almost certainly, this was your problem. Most cars with heat-reflective glass have a small unsheilded patch near the rear-view mirror. That's where you should stick your remote aerial.

Greg

 

[jenks]

Thanks for all that. Should have known it wasn't fault. Can someone explan how to reset the location.

Also those with experiance of remote aerials, do they stand up to the wheather all year round?? I was thinking of fitting one to the roof of my 110 Defender,

Andrew

 

[Taff]

My wife has always said it was a worthless gadget, this was more fuel for her fire.

AJ. Set a route to a cosy country pub and treat the wife to a romantic meal - letting the GPS guide you there and back of course (take a map back-up just in case). She will love it for life. Works every time.