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faultymonkey Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 24, 2008 Posts: 2
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:23 am Post subject: Improve signal strength on Bluetooth GPS? |
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I have a GPS MX-BG001 (i dunno what brand it is, it just says GPS on the front of everything)
Its a stand-alone GPS bluetooth receiver that I run using Tom Tom on my phone (SE W960i). To be honest the signal strength is pretty poor, it takes quite a while to see all the satellites and even longer to get a fix off some of them.
So I decided to take it apart to see if I could get to the aerial:
I found this little thing on the side and I was wondering if I could do anything to improve the signal strength.
So here is my question: If I attached a piece of wire as an extension to this little aerial, would it improve my signal strength or just be a waste of time?
Thanks |
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mikealder Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:35 am Post subject: |
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to the forum, you cannot simply attach a piece of wire to improve reception, the receiver circuit is tuned to work at a specific frequency 1572,42 MHz some receivers have a socket to which you can attach an external aerial but your unit doesn't appear to support such a connection.
A few things to try though, make sure you have a position fix before setting off, once you are moving without a position fix the receiver will really struggle to locate the signal.
Put the receiver on the rear parcel shelf in the car and see if this improves matters, it could be your vehicle is fitted with an Athermic windscreen which will attenuate the signal making position fix more difficult. By moving the receiver to the rear window (which often are not coated you can boost signal level).
The backup battery could be defective, this is used to power some internal memory that stores certain information which speeds up reception time, if it is dead the device has to download a full set of this information before signal lock - this can take around 12 minutes - Mike |
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:37 am Post subject: |
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If that is an antenna it'll be the Bluetooth Radio antenna. The GPS antenna will be a patch antenna. _________________ Darren Griffin |
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faultymonkey Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 24, 2008 Posts: 2
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:52 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for your help guys. Just one more thing
There is this little 5 hole socket next to the edge of the casing and I was wondering what it was for
It looks like there could be a component put there for something |
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mikealder Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 11:22 am Post subject: |
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The PCB pads look like they are arranged to accept a socket, along the lines of one of These BUT I wouldn't try fitting one, they need to be soldered to the PCB at the assembly stage, you will probably break the device by attempting a DIY installation, and still there is no 100% way of knowing if the PCB pads are indeed for a socket, they just look like it - Mike |
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