Tip GPS receiver location

justintime · 12-09-2005, 09:28 PM

I figured this could help some folks wanting to install the GPS receiver externally, yet concealed and protected from water...

Below the roof rack molding... in my car it looks like this one, location outlined in red. it is hollow on the inside. Works perfectly.

Skipjacks · 12-10-2005, 02:03 PM

That's pretty cool!

You get good satalite locks with it there? The plastic cover doesn't shield the signal too much?

I've thought about concealing mine below the rear deck panel under the back window but don't know how it would get a signal through the wood sheet. (And it's just been too darn cold to be outside fiddling with it laetly)

justintime · 12-10-2005, 02:14 PM

Skipjacks:

I did extensive testing comparing external mounting vs under-plastic mounting. In my tests, the plastic seemed to have no effect on the number of satellite locks.

The correct way of testing this is to mount on location 'A' and then fire up the PC from scratch. Then mount on location 'B' and start the PC from sratch. The reason you want to do it this way, is so that you force the GPS to search for the satellites from scratch, and force it to do its initial search/lock of satellites.

In the past, my tests were flawed because I was just moving it from location A to B, and in reality the satellite lock procedure was already perfomed, and hence not a thorough test was in place. GPS receivers are most picky during the initial satellite scan/lock, and this is what you need to test in any mounting location. I though under dash would work for me, because I tested incorrectly. Then I put everything in place, restarted the PC, and of course it did not lock at all.

Good luck!