Rikaline 6010 GPS - Pointing North ?

MJW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 23, 2004 Posts: 5

I just bought a 6010 GPS unit which I am using with my Dell Axim X5 and TomTom. I am reasonably happy with it except that when setting off from a standing start i.e. from a junction or roundabout, I find that the compass swings momentarily North. This has the effect that TomTom swings the map around which is very disorientating. I have looked at the GPS log file and it is definately the 6010 that is telling TomTom the the heading is 0 degrees (i.e. North). Is anyone else experiencing this .. is it common to other GPS' ?

Marcus

lbendlin · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:16 pm Post subject:

Is it doing this all the time or just at the beginning?

I have seen something similiar in poor reception conditions.
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MJW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 23, 2004 Posts: 5

Does it all the time, or at least 98% of the time !

Reception has always looked pretty good, I generally see 6-8 sats (as reported by TomTom) the lowest I have seen is 4 but that was on only once for a few minutes.

I take it no one else is seeing this behaviour with their 6010 and so its more likely to be a faulty unit than a bug in the firmware ?

Could the fact that my car has a heated front windscreen (wires running virtically through it) be the cause ? I have the GPS in the corner of the windscreen where there are no wires and it works fine when moving.

Marcus

lbendlin · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:30 pm Post subject:

Sounds more like a buggy unit to me. What's the reception like when you place the receiver outside the car (on the roof for example) - any difference?
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MJW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 23, 2004 Posts: 5

I haven't tried that.. thought about it, but the base isn't magnetic (or at least doesn't stick on my car!), so thought I'd ask if anyone else has the same problem. I'll try sticking it to the roof with some bluetack and see if it makes any difference...

Marcus

aliendad · Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 10:50 pm Post subject:

for the first couple of minutes, my compass points north but then is ok.

MJW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 23, 2004 Posts: 5

Tried placing the GPS unit outside the vehicle and it still orientates North every time I set off from a standing start.
Marcus

lbendlin · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 3:04 am Post subject:

If you just applied power and it hasn't moved yet then obviously it will not know better and point north. The question is how long it takes after you started moving that the GPS shows the proper bearing. This should be instantaneous, and if it is not then your GPS unit is faulty.
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Lutz

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MJW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 23, 2004 Posts: 5

I leave my GPS powered all the time, so when I set off in the morning its been powered all night, all I do is connect the PDA. Whenever I stop at a junction and then set off it swings momentarily North. From your helpful comments I can only conclude that the unit IS faulty. Strangely enough when I first bought this from eBay they sent me a 6012 (by mistake?) which also seem to exhibit this behaviour, I returned it because I wanted a 6010 not a 6012. Seems I've just been VERY unlucky !

Marcus

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