GPS problems

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jtlmd

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I bought new the GPS unit that is sold by Uniden, hooked it to my 536HP, and no joy. Yes, I have the baud rate selected at 4800, yes there is power to the GPS unit, and yes I have the serial connector securely plugged into the back of the 536.HP

Here's the wrinkle: The "half-page instruction sheet" with the GPS unit says that the LED will be steady if the unit is searching for signals, and then will BLINK when locked in and receiving signals from the satellites. Well, my LED has stayed steady all damned day long (12 hours now) and yes, the antenna can see plenty of sky and it is on top of my car, plus other GPS equipment sitting right nearby is picking up the GPS satellite signals just fine. here in Minnesota.

What am I doing wrong ? I have "Location Control" selected ON for all of the favorites of interest and I am getting the "GPS" indication on the screen of the 536.

LED not blinking. Do I have a dead GPS receiver here? Or did they screw up the instructions?
 

signal500

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GPS Problems

I bought new the GPS unit that is sold by Uniden, hooked it to my 536HP, and no joy. Yes, I have the baud rate selected at 4800, yes there is power to the GPS unit, and yes I have the serial connector securely plugged into the back of the 536.HP

Here's the wrinkle: The "half-page instruction sheet" with the GPS unit says that the LED will be steady if the unit is searching for signals, and then will BLINK when locked in and receiving signals from the satellites. Well, my LED has stayed steady all damned day long (12 hours now) and yes, the antenna can see plenty of sky and it is on top of my car, plus other GPS equipment sitting right nearby is picking up the GPS satellite signals just fine. here in Minnesota.

What am I doing wrong ? I have "Location Control" selected ON for all of the favorites of interest and I am getting the "GPS" indication on the screen of the 536.

LED not blinking. Do I have a dead GPS receiver here? Or did they screw up the instructions?

Sounds like you have a bad GPS receiver. Time to send it back for a replacement.
 

willdanl

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Are you referring to the LED on the disc? The instruction sheet is not clear. I would have been waiting for the LED on the power plug to flash, but since I had the disc sitting on the dash I noticed that there is a small LED on it near where the cable connects - that is the one that flashes. I would have never seen it if I had put the disc outside.
 

phask

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What makes you think it's not working?

I bought new the GPS unit that is sold by Uniden, hooked it to my 536HP, and no joy. Yes, I have the baud rate selected at 4800, yes there is power to the GPS unit, and yes I have the serial connector securely plugged into the back of the 536.HP

Here's the wrinkle: The "half-page instruction sheet" with the GPS unit says that the LED will be steady if the unit is searching for signals, and then will BLINK when locked in and receiving signals from the satellites. Well, my LED has stayed steady all damned day long (12 hours now) and yes, the antenna can see plenty of sky and it is on top of my car, plus other GPS equipment sitting right nearby is picking up the GPS satellite signals just fine. here in Minnesota.

What am I doing wrong ? I have "Location Control" selected ON for all of the favorites of interest and I am getting the "GPS" indication on the screen of the 536.

LED not blinking. Do I have a dead GPS receiver here? Or did they screw up the instructions?
 

SCPD

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Feb 24, 2001
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Virginia
GPS

What makes you think it's not working?



Move the Uniden GPS antenna away from the other antennas.AND/OR Try on a car with no GPS and see if you get the same result.
One may be interferring with the other .Also keep it away from SIRIUS antennas.
 

JamesO

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My Garmin 18X is solid red until it acquires the satellites and locks, then the red LED blinks.

I have an official Uniden GPS around here somewhere as well, and I recall it is the same as the behavior is the same as the Garmin 18x.
 

phask

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Maybe he should try driving away from his home area and see if the scanner starts scanning other stuff and stops scanning the Home area stuff.


Don't need to do that, load the entire DB, set your zipcode for somewhere in , oh maybe Hawaii :) Make sure it's now scanning HI then plug in the GPS. It should load the local stuff.
 

wx5uif

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Or unplug gps and set a zip code that isn't remotely close. Plug gps back in and in a minute or two it should lock that area out and enable the gps area.
 

UPMan

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Per the OP's post, the GPS is working fine, he was just looking at the wrong LED. No other suggestions are needed, now.
 

ofd8001

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I apologize for being a "Johnny Come Lately", but before I posted the following, I wanted to confirm it worked.

Using the scanner keypad: Menu>Set Your Location>Set Manual Location and note the "Input Latitude" value. Then move the vehicle a short distance (about 100') and repeat the above steps. If the value for "Input Latitude" has changed, that means the GPS device is updating the scanner's location and confirming proper GPS functionality.
 

JamesO

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Just to follow up, I double checked and it was my BC-GPSK that I currently have in my truck. I have both a Garmin GPS 18X serial GPS puck and the BC-GPSK unit.

The Garmin GPS 18X DOES NOT have an LED.

The Uniden BC-GPSK unit DOES HAVE a red LED. My BC-GPSK LED is solid red until is locks on the satellites, then it blinks.

So not sure what "wrong" LED the OP is looking at, there is only one LED on my BC-GPSK and it will blink once the GPS has acquired lock and is in sync.
 

JamesO

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Power adapter LED.

Correct, there is a power adapter LED as well, but at least on my BC-GPSK GPS puck there is also a LED on the base near the power cord enters the side of the GPS puck.

So hopefully the OP understands you want to look at the LED on the side of GPS puck near where the power cord enters the puck!

I guess I can see where someone can get confused?
 

dispatcher812

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I am also having an issue with my GPS it's plugged in location control is on and the led on the puck is flashing but I do not have a GPS icon. I have tried all the rates with no luck.
 

ofd8001

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Have you done the enter a remote zip code thing without GPS attached, then attach to GPS to see if different "stuff" loads?


4800 baud should be the only rate and you should be using the rear RS 232 connector.
 
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