Holux BU-353 or GR-213 dies in heat?

**uptpilot** · 07-09-2009, 06:22 PM

I live out in West Texas where the temperatures are recently coming up to about 105 deg F. I have a BU-353 mounted inside of my car on the window and the older GR-213 mounted on the roof. The BU-353 was a replacement for the GR-213 which has become unreliable. I've noticed that in the heat, the GPS received doesn't seem to come back online. Ordinarily it has no problem with resume from hibernate, so I don't think hibernation is the issue. Rebooting has no effect. The only way to get it back online is to unplug it from the USB port then plugging it back in after 10 seconds or so. So should I expect heat to kill these GPS receivers?

Are there any GPS receivers that have the SiRF chipset which will not die in this kind of environment?

Thanks

**eigenVector** · 07-19-2009, 08:53 PM

I use a deluo Bluetooth GPS receiver, and I'm seeing a similar story.

I did not have this problem for the first year and a half of using my device, however I was forced to remove the battery (due to fears of explosion, as the battery was 'growing' in size.) If I try to use the GPS after the unit has been sitting in the sun all day long, it will simply refuse to send any NMEA messages across the bluetooth. When I let it cool off with a bit of air conditioning and turn it back on, it will eventually start sending messages. I didn't have this problem before when it operated with the battery in. I used to leave it turned on 24/7, and just let it's battery die out when I wasn't using it.

So, in the mean time, I'm also looking for a permanent solution for a bluetooth GPS unit that uses the SiRF chipset, something that's able to withstand the heat of a car that sits in the sun all day long!

Thanks

**theksmith** · 03-08-2012, 11:14 AM

very interesting - now curious if this is why my Globalsat MR-350 acts up on long trips! it just stops working and then i turn the whole system off for a few hours and sometimes it works again and other times won't work till the next day. i hadn't thought of heat on the receiver, i was thinking only of heat in my hub, dock or laptop itself. i do live in heat hell (AZ), but this happens even in the winter for me.

i've given up on my Globalsat for now as it's always had issues. i'm currently trying a QStarz which is working so far - but is yet to be taken on a long trip.

@eigenVector - the QStarz is a BlueTooth and USB but does NOT use SiRF. i specifically got it to try something that wasn't SiRF and wasn't Prolific for the serial driver to see if that helped my problems. as i mentioned, i still don't know if it will help on the long trips, but the 3d-fix time is way faster than the Globalsat ever was, and even inside the Jeep it gets more satellites than the Globalsat did on the roof! now maybe i have a bad Globasat unit, since most people aren't complaining about them. but just thought i'd through the QStarz out to you as a potential solution.