Satellite Fix very slow!

[GPSrChive]

Yes, that information was written for older and slower 12 channel parallel devices. Your Oregon 7x0 series is a much newer, faster, 24 channel parallel device! This allows the Oregon 7x0 to look for every single satellite in the GPS GNSS system simultaneously instead of having to 'look' for half of them, wait for a response...... Then look for remaining satellites.

[Plato]

Going back to my question: why do I get a much faster fix by forcing the receiver to AutoLocate instead of doing nothing and wait for the unit to get a fix, which takes much longer !?

[GPSrChive]

Going back to my question: why do I get a much faster fix by forcing the receiver to AutoLocate instead of doing nothing and wait for the unit to get a fix, which takes much longer !?

That answer is in this post.

[Plato]

Sorry, I've read your answer a few times but I don't understand it.

Let me put my question in another way: normally one would expect a gps unit to get a fix as soon as possibble when turned on. My Oregon however takes a lot of time to get a fix when I am in a mountain area and I seem to get a much faster fix by going to the satellites page, hit the menu and hit the AutoLocate Position option. This requires 3 steps and I found myself doing this everytime I started my Oregon during 7 weeks in the Alps.

In my humble opinion these 3 steps should not be necessary, right?

[GPSrChive]

How much time and distance elapsed between each of these events?

[Plato]

I have the habit of turning off my Oregon untill I need it again (to save battery power) on long multi-day hikes. Sometimes I turn it on after an hour again, having walked 3-5kms but it also happens that I have to turn it on again after 5-10 minutes and the walked distance is fairly short. On many occasions I had to wait very long for a fix, even when the unit was off for only 5-10 minutes.

[GPSrChive]

Thank you. On average, how long is the unit powered on before you shut it off to continue hiking?

[Plato]

In most cases the unit was powered on for 5-10 minutes. When the unit was turned off the accuracy was very good (3 meters with GPS only and WAAS/EGNOS off). Sometimes I had to turn on the unit within 5-10 minutes again because I hesitated which way to go, one would expect to get a very fast fix then but it took long on many occasions, very annoying and therefore I sometimes let the unit powered on for an hour or so with the screen turned off.

[GPSrChive]

Fantastic, let me do some testing...

[GPSrChive]

Testing random times between startups and shutdowns with my Oregon 7x0 v470, I was seeing about 30 seconds time needed at each power on event before a 3D position was available, and about 1 minute before normal 3 meter accuracy was achieved.

Then I performed a 'SYNC' between the Oregon 7x0 and Garmin Connect on my mobile phone, and performing the same testing aftwards almost always resulted in a much quicker 3D position.

I assume this is because the 'SYNC' provided the GPSr with an updated copy of the EPO.BIN file, which is used by the GPSr to provide near instant satellite signal acquisition.

See GPSrChive > Oregon 7x0 > Operation > Connected Features for more information.