How long to get a signal?

[richardlister]

Hi all,
one thing that has always bugged me about the F&H is the variable length of time it takes to get a signal. Sometimes it's 2 mins and sometimes 10!
Now that might not be a problem on the way to the under 17s match on Sunday but when you get back in the car in the middle of nowhere and set off, then get lost, it defeats the object.

Does everyone else have this problem? I'd be intersted in you all posting your average time ot getting a signal.
Do you have any software tricks? Should you be outside the car stood still? I sometimes think swapping the settings in "configure" sometimes get it going quicker but there is no pattern.
Does putting it in standby help?
Thanks for any advice.
R

[Detlef]

It can depend on the number of visible satellites even on the fastest of Satnavs (it is not specific to one make of Satnav). That varies with time as they are not geostationary like the TV satellites.

Also there are black spots especially near UHF TV transmitters and other high powered transmitters. Although GPS uses a frequencies well above UHF the first (2x) and second (3x) harmonic of TV transmitters can blank out the GPS signal. If you are really interested I can list the UHF TV channel numbers that are most problematic.

A problem with older TomToms is that the internal battery deteriorates with age - with mine the solution is to put the Satnav on charge for about 15 minutes before any journey. Trying to start it up cold and with a low charge seems to delay the procedure and confuse it or even corrupt some of my saved destinations.

[echelon]

just used mine this morning ( f+h ) and took maybe 2 minutes on my drive , and about a minute in the open where my destination was

think the setting is com7 , nmea on 57600 baud from memory

I did both from a switch on from cold , not standby

[richardlister]

thanks for info. How is the charge on yours Echelon? Mine is pretty poor and usually is flat when plugged into the car so maybe I'll try charging first like Detlef suggests.
cheers guys,
Richard