I have a Garmin eTrex Vista - made around 2006. It has the European
(Atlantic?) maps on it and works with no problems wherever I've been in
Europe.

I took it with me to California last week and it wouldn't even find any
satellites, let alone get a fix, even in clear open spaces, even with new
batteries etc. It's now working normally back in the UK.

Can anyone explain why? - or what I was doing wrong? Is there some in-built
licensing restriction that stops it working outside Europe? I thought a
'GPS' would at least find a 'Global Position' (ie co-ordinates) anywhere on
the globe.

Since returning to the UK I have downloaded IbycusUSA2.0 to my PC, and have
succeeded in transferring a couple of US way-points onto the eTrex, so it at
least accepts there is a world outside Europe!

I am wary of trying to change the base map as I have heard that the original
would be irrecoverable. Can anyone offer any guidance on this - eg can I
make a securitycopy of the current map to reload later?

On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:10:11 +0000, Ed Kolmogorov wrote:

> I have a Garmin eTrex Vista - made around 2006. It has the European
> (Atlantic?) maps on it and works with no problems wherever I've been in
> Europe.
>
> I took it with me to California last week and it wouldn't even find any
> satellites, let alone get a fix, even in clear open spaces, even with
> new batteries etc. It's now working normally back in the UK.
>
> Can anyone explain why? - or what I was doing wrong? Is there some
> in-built licensing restriction that stops it working outside Europe? I
> thought a 'GPS' would at least find a 'Global Position' (ie
> co-ordinates) anywhere on the globe.
>


How long did you leave it to 'find itself'? If it's not been used for a
very long time, or has been moved a long distance, all its 'shortcuts'
for knowing where it is are useless, and it has to start from scratch to
collect basic information from the satellites. This apparently can take
up to 1/2 hour, depending on the device, and whereabouts it breaks into
the sats' sequence of data transmission.

Did you open up the screen that gives information about acquiring
satellites? This will tell whether it has found any to listen to, and
providing there are some 'seen', it should eventually locate itself.

Keith

On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:10:11 -0000, Ed Kolmogorov wrote...
> I have a Garmin eTrex Vista - made around 2006. It has the European
> (Atlantic?) maps on it and works with no problems wherever I've been in
> Europe.
>
> I took it with me to California last week and it wouldn't even find any
> satellites, let alone get a fix, even in clear open spaces, even with new
> batteries etc. It's now working normally back in the UK.
>
> Can anyone explain why? - or what I was doing wrong? Is there some in-built
> licensing restriction that stops it working outside Europe? I thought a
> 'GPS' would at least find a 'Global Position' (ie co-ordinates) anywhere on
> the globe.
>
> Since returning to the UK I have downloaded IbycusUSA2.0 to my PC, and have
> succeeded in transferring a couple of US way-points onto the eTrex, so it at
> least accepts there is a world outside Europe!
>
> I am wary of trying to change the base map as I have heard that the original
> would be irrecoverable. Can anyone offer any guidance on this - eg can I
> make a securitycopy of the current map to reload later?

On my Vista Cx, the basemap shows the whole world if you zoom out far
enough and pan around. I think the European/Atlantic designation is
just the area for which it has roads data. I've not tried it, but I'm
pretty sure you ought still to be able to use it in other parts of the
world, albeit without seeing any roads.

I think your unit was probably just having difficulty getting an initial
fix on the satellites, because California is so far distant from the
last position where it knew where it was. This means it takes a long
time (and it might time out and ask you what to do).

See http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/gpsfix.htm for an explanation.
Scroll down to "EZinit Starts" and "Autolocate - Search the sky" for
possible solutions.

I think the description at the above link is a bit out of date so it
doesn't correspond exactly to my Vista Cx. On my unit, you can get into
the appropriate mode by pressing the menu key from the "Acquiring
Satellites" screen. Select "New Location" then "Use Map", then zoom
out, pan to California and press Enter. This should seed the satellite
search so that it proceeds more quickly.

--
Tim Jackson
(E-Mail Removed)lid
(Change '.invalid' to '.com' to reply direct)

On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:09:10 +0000, keith wrote
(in article <(E-Mail Removed)>):

> On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:10:11 +0000, Ed Kolmogorov wrote:
>
>> I have a Garmin eTrex Vista - made around 2006. It has the European
>> (Atlantic?) maps on it and works with no problems wherever I've been in
>> Europe.
>>
>> I took it with me to California last week and it wouldn't even find any
>> satellites, let alone get a fix, even in clear open spaces, even with
>> new batteries etc. It's now working normally back in the UK.
>>
>> Can anyone explain why? - or what I was doing wrong? Is there some
>> in-built licensing restriction that stops it working outside Europe? I
>> thought a 'GPS' would at least find a 'Global Position' (ie
>> co-ordinates) anywhere on the globe.
>>
>
>
> How long did you leave it to 'find itself'? If it's not been used for a
> very long time, or has been moved a long distance, all its 'shortcuts'
> for knowing where it is are useless, and it has to start from scratch to
> collect basic information from the satellites. This apparently can take
> up to 1/2 hour, depending on the device, and whereabouts it breaks into
> the sats' sequence of data transmission.
>
This happened with the last Garmin unit I bought. The first time I switched
it on it took so long to acquire a position that I thought it was faulty -
apparently its previous fix was somewhere in Taiwan (presumably where it had
been assembled).

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire

Tim Jackson wrote:
> I think your unit was probably just having difficulty getting an
> initial fix on the satellites, because California is so far distant
> from the last position where it knew where it was. This means it
> takes a long time (and it might time out and ask you what to do).

My old Garmins ask for a suggestion as to what country you are in and then
they look for those satellites it thinks should be visible from there...

Mike.
--
If reply address is invalid, remove spurious "@" and substitute "plus"
where needed.

Thanks to all for the helpful replies and links.

> How long did you leave it to 'find itself'? If it's not been used for a
> very long time, or has been moved a long distance, all its 'shortcuts'
> for knowing where it is are useless, and it has to start from scratch to
> collect basic information from the satellites. This apparently can take
> up to 1/2 hour, depending on the device, and whereabouts it breaks into
> the sats' sequence of data transmission.

I left it for at least an hour on each of two different days. The second
time I tried changing the time zone to Pacific in the hope that it might
look in a different section of the almanac for likely satellites - no
different. And when I tested it back here in UK it was still on Pacific and
found 5/6 sats quickly.


> Did you open up the screen that gives information about acquiring
> satellites? This will tell whether it has found any to listen to, and
> providing there are some 'seen', it should eventually locate itself.

Yes, I opened that page, but got only hollow satellite bars - no solid ones
as I usually get.

I will have another opportunity to visit US again later this year so will
try the suggestions there.

Thanks again

EK

On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:07:38 +0000, Ed Kolmogorov wrote:

> Thanks to all for the helpful replies and links.
>
>> How long did you leave it to 'find itself'? If it's not been used for
>> a very long time, or has been moved a long distance, all its
>> 'shortcuts' for knowing where it is are useless, and it has to start
>> from scratch to collect basic information from the satellites. This
>> apparently can take up to 1/2 hour, depending on the device, and
>> whereabouts it breaks into the sats' sequence of data transmission.
>
> I left it for at least an hour on each of two different days. The second
> time I tried changing the time zone to Pacific in the hope that it might
> look in a different section of the almanac for likely satellites - no
> different. And when I tested it back here in UK it was still on Pacific
> and found 5/6 sats quickly.
>
>
>> Did you open up the screen that gives information about acquiring
>> satellites? This will tell whether it has found any to listen to, and
>> providing there are some 'seen', it should eventually locate itself.
>
> Yes, I opened that page, but got only hollow satellite bars - no solid
> ones as I usually get.
>
> I will have another opportunity to visit US again later this year so
> will try the suggestions there.
>
> Thanks again
>
> EK

One other possibility is to try a reset. We had a visitor with a Tom Tom
which didn't seem to want to know that it had arrived here - some 300
miles from 'home' (they'd used another on the way, so this one hadn't
kept itself 'current'). A reset and leaving for 1/4 hour outside made it
wake up!

Only other thing I can think of - was the area where you left it closed
in with buildings? Can get strange interference from 'bounces' if there
are too many high obstructions around.

Keith

"Ed Kolmogorov" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:gnptva$rkg$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks to all for the helpful replies and links.
>
>> How long did you leave it to 'find itself'? If it's not been used for a
>> very long time, or has been moved a long distance, all its 'shortcuts'
>> for knowing where it is are useless, and it has to start from scratch to
>> collect basic information from the satellites. This apparently can take
>> up to 1/2 hour, depending on the device, and whereabouts it breaks into
>> the sats' sequence of data transmission.
>
> I left it for at least an hour on each of two different days. The second
> time I tried changing the time zone to Pacific in the hope that it might
> look in a different section of the almanac for likely satellites - no
> different. And when I tested it back here in UK it was still on Pacific
> and found 5/6 sats quickly.
>
>
>> Did you open up the screen that gives information about acquiring
>> satellites? This will tell whether it has found any to listen to, and
>> providing there are some 'seen', it should eventually locate itself.
>
> Yes, I opened that page, but got only hollow satellite bars - no solid
> ones as I usually get.
>
> I will have another opportunity to visit US again later this year so will
> try the suggestions there.
>
> Thanks again
>
> EK
>
Which GPS mode where you in?
I have a Navman F10 andit has 3 modes: Normal, WAAS (only available in USA)
and EGNOS (only available in Europe). Mine iscurrently seton normal.