fastest sat locking sat nav

wijcc

wijcc

wijcc

Soldato
Joined
10 Aug 2003
Posts
2,696
Location
London
What is the fastest satellite locking sat nav available?. I know it can depend on where you are and the environment surrounding you. But I have noticed that different devices lock on at different speeds even at the same location. I hate having to wait for the sat nav unit to lock on to the satellites. Currently I have a acer n35 with tomtom 6 on it, but I have borrowed and used other units like a tomtom1. I am thinking of getting another unit, but I want a faster one at locking onto the satellites.
 
Its down to the chipset rather than the unit themselves - units with the same chipset will lock in pretty much the same time.
AFAIK, the Sirfstar III is one of the quickest - my old(ish) Acer P610 unit with the SS III locks from cold in less than a minute and from warm in about 10 seconds
 
wijcc said:
What is the fastest satellite locking sat nav available?. I know it can depend on where you are and the environment surrounding you. But I have noticed that different devices lock on at different speeds even at the same location. I hate having to wait for the sat nav unit to lock on to the satellites. Currently I have a acer n35 with tomtom 6 on it, but I have borrowed and used other units like a tomtom1. I am thinking of getting another unit, but I want a faster one at locking onto the satellites.
Click to expand...

You want a-GPS(or QuickGPS), as well as a good 'chipset' (e.g. SIRFIII)..

With a-GPS/QuickGPS, the GPS is told where the satellites should be at that time, so it greatly reduces the lock time..

Tomtom added this a little while ago to their units, and it downloads a week or so's worth of a-GPS data when you sync it to your PC, I noticed it locked in just a few seconds when I did this compared to 30 or so on the previous software.
 
Last edited:
My Holux GPSlim has an SS III in it and it locks very quickly. I took it to the other side of the world and even from cold the first time it locked in under 30 seconds. Thats impressive, imho.
 
That is impressive. They're also very good in low sensitivity conditions, tunnels, indoors etc. Most SSIII chipset bluetooth recievers can be placed in the glovebox with no issues
 
the TomTom with quickGPS fix is extraordinary quick if you keep it updated

Gets a fix in seconds, and essentially means you never have to do a "cold" fix as it always knows where to look for the satellites.
 
MrLOL said:
the TomTom with quickGPS fix is extraordinary quick if you keep it updated

Gets a fix in seconds, and essentially means you never have to do a "cold" fix as it always knows where to look for the satellites.
Click to expand...

Is that quickGPS fix applicable for my acer n35 on which I use tomtom software?
 
Dont know. You'll know if you have it or not though, as it specificly lists it in the downloads when you update it. It says "quick fix GPS data" or similar.
 
iaind said:
That is impressive. They're also very good in low sensitivity conditions, tunnels, indoors etc. Most SSIII chipset bluetooth recievers can be placed in the glovebox with no issues
Click to expand...

Yup, I never need to have it on display. Sits in the sliding door compartment thing in my car, had it burried in the glovebox on the hire cars as well and it was perfect.
 
wijcc said:
Is that quickGPS fix applicable for my acer n35 on which I use tomtom software?
Click to expand...

I don't think you can, TOMTOM's WM version doesn't have this functionality as it has to work with numerous GPS chipsets. The Quick GPS Fix requires low level communication with the GPS Chipset to work..

THe HTC Touch HD for example has an in-built "Quick GPS Fix" application that does the same thing, you can run this, then run TomTom and you get a super quick lock...

If you could find a similar app that works on your N35 it should work in the same way.
 
Demon said:
I don't think you can, TOMTOM's WM version doesn't have this functionality as it has to work with numerous GPS chipsets. The Quick GPS Fix requires low level communication with the GPS Chipset to work..

THe HTC Touch HD for example has an in-built "Quick GPS Fix" application that does the same thing, you can run this, then run TomTom and you get a super quick lock...

If you could find a similar app that works on your N35 it should work in the same way.
Click to expand...

thanks mate :)

Just checked online and my acer n35 has the SiRFstarII GPS chipset in it
 
Last edited:
tom tom give you the option to plug it in each week and it downloads the rough positions of satellites from the net, its supposed to make picking them up quicker.

havent the foggiest if it actually works though
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom