rns 510 no signal

[v2brett]

hi guys a mate of mine has a Rns retro fitted in his mk6 golf and is having trouble with the unit going off road and not knowing where it is.  this has gradually got worse over the past few weeks.

Any ideas where to start looking for faults and what to check?

unit is a ver C if that helps with the antenna above in the dash


thanks

brett

[LouCyffer]

I'd start by getting the GPS status screen up whilst the map is displayed. (Press Map, then once the map is displayed, press it again) That should tell you how many satelites the antenna is receiving a signal from. From here you can get an idea of whether the positioning of it is poor. My unit rarely 'sees' less that 5 satelites at any one time, but when I had the antenna positioned badly it would often only see 1 or 2.

If possible, get the antenna out so you can move it while the unit is on, then use the GPS status screen to monitor what happens when you move it around.

Of course, if there are no tracked satelites, you know the antenna or connection is faulty

[vRStu]

Sounds like a GPS antenna problem as above.  Do you know where it's fitted?  Is it deffo in the dash and is it the right way up??

I moved one for someone yesterday who'd had it installed by someone else who had put it inside the roof lining thinking he was getting a better look at the sky.  Two problems with this, firstly the roof is a large metal expanse which if the GPS antenna was on the outside would be excellent but not on the inside, second is that most of the GPS Beetle style antenna have a magnetic base which clearly put the Antenna upside down when stuck to the inside of the roof and just gave it no chance.

My preference is to whip out the dash clocks and mount it on the crash bar behind.

[LouCyffer]

Yup. I've got mine just under the aircon grill in the top centre of the dash.

[v2brett]

cheers guys, the antenna was fitted under the heater vents in the dash so ill take the unit out and see if the antennas still in position and working/connected correctly 

thanks for the tip on the viewing the number of sats being received.

[LouCyffer]

Quick check when I was out last night showed 7 sats being received. If you have a good view of the sky and after 5 minutes are only seeing 2 or 3 the antenna needs repositioning.

[v2brett]

hi guys i had look at the antenna today and all seemed fine, tried repositioning the antenna and after that we got 4 or 5 out of 11, wheres before there were 0.
parked up with the antenna outside the car it only picked 3 sats up, does this sound like a faulty antenna?


 

[stealthwolf]

How long did you wait. On 3 occasions, I've had to wait for fifteen minutes before it would lock on.

[LouCyffer]

hi guys i had look at the antenna today and all seemed fine, tried repositioning the antenna and after that we got 4 or 5 out of 11, wheres before there were 0.
parked up with the antenna outside the car it only picked 3 sats up, does this sound like a faulty antenna?
 

If you're in a built up area there will be buildings that can block line of sight, so I'd say that your antenna is ok. After all, you've seen an improvement by moving it so I reckon it will be fine. Good news

[v2brett]

thanks guys hope so, the car goes up to the top of scotland alot and would often start to drift off the road and eventually end up in the north sea.

its going up again at the weekend so ill report back what happens with the antenna in a new place 

[LouCyffer]

That's exactly what mine would do before i moved the antenna. Ages to get a fix, never more than 3 sats, long periods of off piste map positions.

Sounds like you've got it sorted.

[VeeDub]

Mine developed the exact same problem today on the way home from work, and thanks to the posts on here I removed my unit to find that the antenna had come unstuck from wherever it was located and had dropped down behind my glove box.  I have just repositioned it directly above my unit in behind the air vents and as if by magic i have a full signal again 

Just one question though is there any problem with the heat of the unit affecting the GPS antenna at all with it being directly above it?

[LouCyffer]

It shouldn't. The antenna is essentially solid-state, so unless enough there's heat generated to make plastic a bit melty, I wouldn't worry.

And if there is, you've a lot more to worry about than a bad signal on GPS 

[VeeDub]

  Yes good point 

Thanks again for the reply

Just one thought are there different quality GPS antenna available giving an improved signal, or is one pretty much the same as any other?

[LouCyffer]

It was once the case that antenna were either 8 or 12 channel. This defined a maximum number of received signals (either 8 or 12). Nowadays in the era of cheap & widespread receivers, 8 channel have long since gone. Most mobiles now have a 12 channel stuffed in somewhere, so I doubt a receiver the size of these GPS 'bugs' would still be 8 channel.