Topic: Time to acquire satellite fix

[englewood mark]

I have a 798cisi that I have been using for about 10 months. When I power up,the unit takes at least 10 minutes to acquire satellites for a fix. Is this normal?

[sonar2000]

What gps antenna do you have?
Is there anything obstructing the view of the sky?
Chuck

[englewood mark]

It has an internal antenna and the sky is not obstructed.what kind of time to acquire are others experiencing?

[LocDown]

The internal and external gps should have acquisition within a minute. If it's external, maybe double check the connection.

[englewood mark]

I thought something might be wrong. When I look at the screen showing the satellites location and strenghth, numerous satellites are displayed yet the display shows no gps fix. I am wondering if I have a setting wrong or if the unit is malfunctioning. I wonder how many satellites must be locked in for the unit to work.

[sonar2000]

I dont know for sure but it is either 3 or 4 to get a fix...
Make sure your indash lets the internal antenna have a clear sky view.
If this is ok then you might consider a call to customer service and see if the unit needs repair...
10 minutes is not normal....
Chuck

[Humminbird_Greg]

Chuck is right about the 10 minutes not being normal and also about the boat dash blocking the GPS satellite signals.  Try removing the unit from the dash and holding it above the console, power it on and see if the time to first fix is faster or not.  If it locks on within two minutes than there is something in your dash that is blocking the satellite signals.  If not, than call the folks in the Humminbird Customer Resource Center at 1-800-633-1468 about it.
If you don’t mind: post a screen snapshot of the GPS Diagnostic View when it gets a position fix.

3 satellite minimum for a “2D Fix” and 4 are required for a “3D Fix”.  You should be also getting the signal from the WAAS satellites and so the position fix should be showing “Enhanced”.

[sonar2000]

WAAS may only have 2 satelite at this time. For a while only the north america east coast was working.  It was shut down for a while to get set up for the second one in the west.
I dont know if there are any WAAS satelites below north america yet..

But even without WAAS your unit should grab three gps satelites in a very short amount of time...

the screen that shows satelites in your area is not an indication that you are connecting to them until the graph starts showing up. (signal strength)

Does your unit say anything about no gps connection...?

Chuck

[stillbear]

I have a 798cisi that I have been using for about 10 months. When I power up,the unit takes at least 10 minutes to acquire satellites for a fix. Is this normal?

Ans. No that is not normal but there might not be nothing wrong with your unit if it is obstructed in anyway
you will not get a signal hills,moutains .trees ,gourges,all take there toll on the reciever getting a signal. Also 16 channel or 50 channel differ also you might be getting interference blocking or destorting your signal.Before I sent the unit in I would take
it out of the boat in the open hook it up to power ( battery or 12 volt power supply) and see if it works better. Gary

[englewood mark]

The unit is flush mounted in a Maverick boat console(carbon Kevlar if that makes a difference). I have always experienced Long acquisition times and I thought it was normal. Is the units antenna located in the front or rear of the head unit? Just thinking that maybe if it's in the back, it doesn't read well when shooting through karbon Kevlar.

[Humminbird_Greg]

The GPS Receiver is located in the upper right hand front corner of the 798ci Si unit.
I don’t know whether carbon fiber Kevlar will block RF signals or not… but a quick internet search showed that it will or may block certain frequencies dependant on its construction.  Easiest way to know would be to remove it from the dash, hold it above the console and test it.  You will get the answer within two minutes.

[englewood mark]

My boat lift has a roof over it and I usually power up before I pull out from under it.This must be the reason it takes so long to acquire a fix.Today I tried powering the unit up after I pulled out from under the roof and it locked on within a minute or so. I guess once the unit has trouble finding the satellites, it takes a long time to acquire a fix. Thanks for the help and I hope to have solved this problem.

[sonar2000]

GPS is a low signal operating level and very very sensitive to signal levels.  Which is why the mfg's opened up the number of satelites it tries to accuire.
The same hold true with automobile gps uits especially if housed in a garage.
The summer is also a bit influencive to signals as the trees leaf out....and guess what the leaf contains the most of.  (water) which blocks the gps signal...Kind of like cell phones with the new low wattage short range units...

Glad you are back in business and without a unit failure...

Chuck

[stillbear]

My boat lift has a roof over it and I usually power up before I pull out from under it.This must be the reason it takes so long to acquire a fix.Today I tried powering the unit up after I pulled out from under the roof and it locked on within a minute or so. I guess once the unit has trouble finding the satellites, it takes a long time to acquire a fix. Thanks for the help and I hope to have solved this problem.

   This would definitely be considered an obstruction.  Gary