Possibly stupid garmin question, but is there a way to help it find a satellite faster? (Read 868 times)

Or am I just too impatient?

Only suggestion is to not be moving / walking around while it looks. If you have a windowsill with a southern line of set, you can set it there and let it lock in before you go out. Our set it down outside and let it lock in while you put on your shoes or something.

I think ^ is right. If I run with my forerunner at home and the next day run at my school a few miles away, the positioning takes longer.

What I do is to set the Forerunner on a window sill while I sit down to put on my shoes (winter), or on the hood of my car while I sit on the porch putting on my shoes (summer) --- like Trent said, they like to be held still. Also, keep in mind that as the specific satellites in the GPS constellation change (they are routinely changing), the GPS cache gets invalid and it will sometimes take a longer time to re-learn the satellites availaible in the current constellation.

Jill -- thank you so much for asking this question! I don't think it's stupid at all, and these are some great tips shared by the other posters, so many thanks for those! New plan: put Garmin on south-facing porch rail. Put on shoes. Then Garmin. I will especially thank you all at 5:30 am in December.

Don't forget when you are travelling to a race to acquire a signal as soon as you get there. Nothing is more annoying than standing with 20 other people all trying to acquire a signal 14 seconds before the start of the race.

And this: DO NOT have it on your body when you are finding satellites. I do not know why this happens, but when it is on your wrist or in your hand, it takes a while. If it is on the ground or on your car's dash, it gets signal very fast.

I had noticed that as well--it is a freakish thing.

And this: DO NOT have it on your body when you are finding satellites. I do not know why this happens, but when it is on your wrist or in your hand, it takes a while. If it is on the ground or on your car's dash, it gets signal very fast.

It has to do with how the GPS finds the optimum satellites for positional readings. Once it has three or four, the rest lock in pretty quickly and maintain their lock, or "hand off" to better ones, as you run. However, the first few are the most critical for the initial signal lock. If you have it on your hand, you are probaly moving your hand, and / or your body. You end up momentarily blocking or partially obstructing the signal from one or maybe two satellites, which then makes the GPS take longer to lock in - especially if you keep doing it. It's sort of like you're playing satellite peek-a-boo (picture the GPS saying "there's a good one / nope, it's gone / oooh, there it is again / nope, lost it" over and over). When you place it on a non-moving surface, it locks in much quicker (no peek-a-boo). Moving your hand around also causes another problem (although to a lesser extent) - it changes the distance the GPS progam uses for triangulation, so it may take longer to pick the best GPS for signal lock. Keep in mind that this applies only for the initial signal lock - once it has more than 4, momentary obstruction of one signal is no big deal. MTA: spelling

Am I the only one who doesn't lose a signal indoors and just leaves it on when its sitting in its dock? It always has a signal.