South of France (NOT)

[billybob]

Just come back from four days in South of France. Standing in car rental queue at Nice airport got a fix in a few seconds.Great. Stuck Navman on windscreen of rental Renault Megane. Not so good. All satellites disappear except for one. No more fixes. I assume it is one of those windscreens that can't take a GPS signal. Arrive at St Maxiime, take Navman out of car. No fix. Only one sat. Then fix obtained for a few seconds. This goes on and off. Upshot is that Navman can't seem to get a fix between Nice and Saint Maxime. Suspect maybe a sofware problem. Get home in North London,. Take Navman outside. Six sats seen in a few seconds. Fix in 30 seconds. Perfect. So - Navman works great at my house but not when I needed it in another country to show me where the hell to go. Anyone any ideas why GPS in South of France was so flakey?

[netrider]

I think it was athermic heat reflecting windshield problem (which blocks GPS signals), since you said that you were using a Renault. Check NAVMAN suport FAQ you will see that Renaults 2001 onwards are in the list.

[Darren]

It is almost certainly due to a coated windscreen which most Renault's seem to have these days. You'll be glad to hear it's not due to being in the South of France! A re-radiating antenna, powered from a cigarette lighter socket would overcome this problem with Navman jackets.
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Darren Griffin

[billybob]

I suspected the coated windscreen. The kicker is I have a re-radiating antenna but forgot to pack it!



Do you think the act of trying to get a fix from within the car stuffed the algorithms in the tables making it difficult for Navman to get a fix outsuide the car with a clear view of the sky?

[Darren]

I wouldn't have thought so no, were you getting any indication of satellite activity on the status screen when you attempted a fix outside the car? It's entirely possible that a soft reset may have sorted things out. Can't really give you a better explanation I'm afraid!
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Darren Griffin

[billybob]

I soft reset about a dozen times! Picked up sat activity (about four or five). But the fix only lasted a few seconds at a time.



Anyway, back in Blighty all seems to be fine.



Moral of the story - always pack a re-rad antenna when heading off to foreign parts and a rental car!

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