iguidance and bu-353 problem

Curry · 04-19-2006, 11:37 PM

I have a bu-353 unit I just got from mp3car.

My problems are as follows:

1. When I start the car it wont detect any satellites until I go to the menu and do an autoscan for the GPS. Usually if I do it twice it will startup...

Once it gets going it will pick up about 4-6 satellites (is this good?)

The weird thing is once I take off the car for up to 30 mins it will automatically pick up the satellites as soon as I turn the car on, but if its off for a few hours it will pick nothing up until i wait really long or use the autoscan for GPS.

I'm using the USB ports on the computer itself, I'm not using a USB hub or anything. And I only have 3 USB devices. My touchscreen, GPS and wireless playstation game controller.

2. When driving and coming to a full stop the cursor will sometimes turn around or move on the screen when the car is stopped or it will spin in a circle once or twice.

3. Also when driving sometimes the cursor will be a little behind maybe 100-250 feet.

If anyone can help me out I would really appreciate it! Thanks again

Im running windows XP SP2 on a 1200 mhz intel celeron processor with 384 megs of ram. The motherboard is a DFI Mainboard (ill look up the model number and post it if needed)

DarquePervert · 04-20-2006, 08:02 AM

4-6 datellites is normal, yes. Sometimes I get 7-8 if I'm out in the middle of nowhere with no buildings or anything around.

You don't need to run autoscan. The GPS will pick up the satellites on its own. Granted, you're not hurting anything by running the autoscan, either. Yes, the cursor will rotate. Your'e stationary, so the software has no way to determine a heading.

If your GPS is off, I can't help you. I'd contact the vendor and/or manufacturer for help with that.

Marvin Hlavac · 04-20-2006, 10:27 AM

If your GPS receiver has been turned off for more then 4 hours it will indeed require a longer period to start. Cold start usually takes about 45 seconds.

Jahntassa · 04-20-2006, 12:22 PM

Also iGuidance only updates once a second (or less) so it's not going to be to-the-foot accurate while driving. It's 'good enough' to figure out where you are and what direction you need to go in

Curry · 04-20-2006, 02:02 PM

Quote:

4-6 datellites is normal, yes. Sometimes I get 7-8 if I'm out in the middle of nowhere with no buildings or anything around.

You don't need to run autoscan. The GPS will pick up the satellites on its own. Granted, you're not hurting anything by running the autoscan, either. Yes, the cursor will rotate. Your'e stationary, so the software has no way to determine a heading.

If your GPS is off, I can't help you. I'd contact the vendor and/or manufacturer for help with that.

The GPS is on so im guessing it just takes a while to start up.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jahntassa

Also iGuidance only updates once a second (or less) so it's not going to be to-the-foot accurate while driving. It's 'good enough' to figure out where you are and what direction you need to go in

Yea I don't have a big problem with it, I was just a bit concerned, I wasnt sure if this is regular behavior.

Quote:

If your GPS receiver has been turned off for more then 4 hours it will indeed require a longer period to start. Cold start usually takes about 45 seconds.

I see, I will time it and see what happens, it seems to take more than 45 sometimes.

Thanks for all the help everyone, appreciate it!

sandworm · 04-25-2006, 04:47 PM

I had a similar problem like this with my lilliput 7" TS. The GPS would get almost no signal if my carputer was on, so it would lose accuracy and start spinning around or never lock on. I finally figured out that my lilliput running at 800x480 at 70-75hz was interfering with the gps signal. I switched it to 60hz and then 85hz and it runs like a champ now. Try changing your monitor resolution and refresh rates to see if this is happening to you.

Curry · 05-01-2006, 04:38 PM

Update:

Well I've been watching the gps more recently and it seems that it is operating fine. Some days it will take a little extra to start up and some days its immediate. So I guess everything is well.

Thanks for the help everyone.