What are the Nuvi's like when the sat signal drops out?

[Stanley_Tweedle]

Well I'm shopping for a new GPS, thinking of the 310D or the original Tomtom One (with headphone socket).

One frustration I've had lately with my existing GPS (Navman 530) is what happens when the GPS signal drops out. This is especially the case in cities.
Does the Nuvi correctly extrapolate position based on the previous route/speed? I know the old Tomtom 700 did quite a good in this situation and I'm coming to realise such a feature is critical to not finding yourself going around in circles.

[mikealder]

I have never experienced "drop out" with the 310D even in deepest Manchester/ Liverpool, both cities in places have narrow roads with tall buildings either side, the 310D has maintained a solid lock at all times, the reception drops slightly but from a navigation perspective it doesn't appear to matter. Mike

[pandamedic]

i've never had a problem either except the once, when i took it with me on holiday to hong kong just to see what happened. Never left the hotel room with it though and it never got a signal next to the window in the hotel room either.....that could be due to the typhoon proff windows though

[mikealder]

How long did you let it try for a signal? the device would need to update its internal memory of where the actual satelites are, this can take between 15 and 30 minutes depending upon local reception. (Inside a hotel room under tropical storm conditions is far from ideal).

If you don't power up a GPS device for a considerable amount of time OR you move it a considerable distance in a de-powered state then it will take considerably longer to lock to a signal and produce a position fix. Mike

[Skippy]

[pandamedic]

, i was only taking it for a laugh anyway to see what would happen. Not like i had the hong kong maps in there anyway, but it works fine here, gets a sat lock really quick and never lost a signal yet

[mikealder]

Skippy and I both came to the same conclusions, insufficient time to acquire a signal.
While this is irrelevant now you might want to consider this if you transport the device by air in future. You never know you might want to install some maps for a far away land and actually use them when you get there. Mike

[Skippy]

Yeah, I kind of repeated what mikealder said there.

When the older Garmin units couldn't get a lock within a few minutes they used to ask you if you had moved a large distance since your last fix. If you had, you could then give it a vague idea (~500 miles) of where it was and it could figure out which sats it should be looking for and get a fix much quicker.

As for maps, most Garmin units have a world wide "basemap" these days which will give you a (rough) map of where you are which is of some use even if you don't have detailed maps loaded for your new area.

You can also use the Garmin to mark your hotel location and find your way back using the "off road" routing option which will give you a compass heading and distance to the hotel. Not as good as street mapping but a useful alternative to the "beer compass".
_________________
Gone fishing!

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!