How to get a good reception/signal on a satnav?

geek84

Hi Folks


I have a Satnav (TomTom One) which is about 7 years old. Today, I went to see my friend, by car, who has just bought a new house, so I thought it would be best if I follow the directions of the satnav.


However, I lost the signal for the Satnav shortly after leaving home and so had to rely on my smart phone for directions to my friend's house. I used my A to Z in order to get back home, since I could not get any signal on the way back.


What is the best way to ensure that my Satnav always gets a good signal?


Thank You.

grumpycrab

Any half-decent sat-nav should work from car windscreen (back of sat nav needs a clear line of sight to the sky). And if it gets confused - switch off and on again should fix it. (may take a couple of minutes to refind satellites.)

fwor

Some cars (particularly french ones) have a metalised layer in the windscreen and this can impair reception. If that is the case you can get round this by starting the satnav outside the car and moving it inside once it has full lock.

However, you may find that the patch antenna inside your TomTom has failed, which permanently impairs reception. If so it's typically not economically viable to repair.

rockin_plumber

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks


I have a Satnav (TomTom One) which is about 7 years old,


What is the best way to ensure that my Satnav always gets a good signal?


Thank You.

TomTom's download a file when you connect them to the TomTom software on your pc, this updates the satellite positions, letting your device get a quickfix.

In the 10 years I have been using tomtom's they have never had a problem finding satellites, connecting to the tomtom software also updates the mapshare and postcode file for free.

I connect mine once a month anyway to update the speed cameras so the quickfix gps gets updated at the same time

agrinnall

I find that my pretty ancient TomTom occasionally starts up but then never finds any satellites - a reboot has always (so far at least) done the trick.

lammy82

My Garmin sometimes likes to take me through a bit of a routine. This normally happens if I turn it on somewhere that it can't see the sky, e.g. inside a multistorey car park.

By the time I'm outside and have a clear view of the sky, it's given up on the 'expected' satellite location and is steadily scanning through less and less likely alternatives, until it finally gives up and starts accusing me of either still being indoors, having moved 'hundreds of miles' since I last used it, or interfering with the space-time continuum. Once I reassure it that all is normal it starts the process again and quickly locks on to the signal.

On the plus side, once it gets a signal it doesn't lose it.

Sorry OP, this sounds like a slightly different problem to yours.

kwikbreaks

I'm wondering if you got a lock before your started off.

My old TomTom would take a while to lock if you started it up a long time since it was last used or in a very different location. If I drove off before it did lock as often as not it would reboot itself and still take quite a time to get a lock. Keeping it updated with the quickfix file regularly helped but didn't cure that.

I eventually got fed up with TomTom because when I dropped the traffic subscription it actually deleted all the speed camera data plus map udpates were expensive. I switched to a Garmin which doesn't have such a good interface but the model I picked did give lifetime map updates and has retained the old speed camera data after I didn't take a subscription beyond the free one it came with. It does have free traffic but not as good as the TomTom paid service.

If you had a lock and lost it permanently while driving I'd supsect either the screen as mentioned or consider it a fault.

droopsnoot

Yes, you should really get a position fix before you move off. The initial position acquisition works by triangulating the position with signals from multiple satellites, so if you are moving, it will take much longer as it needs to keep starting afresh. If the position fix it got was an "only just" fix, it may well have lost that and never recovered as you were moving by then. Also note that it generally takes more satellites to get a position fix than it does to retain one - so if you already have a fix, you can move into an area with worse reception and not necessarily lose it.

Some TTs have a socket for an external antenna which would get around the windscreen issue, and if it does not, you can get a device called a "re-radiating antenna" which has an external antenna and, as the name suggests, an internal one which relays the signal to your GPS. If it was the windscreen, though, OP would have had the problem before and (probably) would have had the same issue on the phone if it uses "proper" GPS.