How do I know it is working or not? GPS on SDS200

[JG4524]

A few weeks ago I ordered an SDS200 from Bearcat Warehouse and it arrived 2 days later. Today I received the GPS that I ordered a few days ago again from Bearcat Warehouse.

In hooking up the GPS and following a YouTube video I hooked up the GPS and did an auto locate but it could not find me. It came up with two places and each time I hit no because it was not where I was at, One of the locations was the state south mf where I am and the other was two counties over. It then said could not locate try a different method. The GPS port is set for 9600. In looking at the manual location it came up close to where I was on the first entry and on the second entry it had all zeros. I then set the coordinates to what my GPS in the car was telling me. This is fine for home scanning but if I go out of state it would be nice to have the GPS load the stuff for me on my way. When the GPS arrived it was not in a retail box and had no instructions. It only came with the 6 foot RJ11 cable. Is their any way of knowing the GPS is being read by the scanner?. Is their some kind of screen that would tell me it is working or how many satellites it is reading that I do not know about?. It would be nice of their was if their is not or at least an LED on the GPS that would be red when plugged in and change to green when it is locked onto the location.

The YouTube video I am referring to is here.

 

[nessnet]

Messing with auto locate, (if I'm interpreting your post correctly) has nothing to do with GPS. I'll leave someone else to explain it. But, for now, forget about it. Basically, if you go in and set the baud rate correctly, which it sounds like you have, you are good. If you see "GPS" in your display, the 200 is connected correctly. Note that if the signal is weak, it takes a long time to get a lock.

If you edit your display, you can designate a field for lat/long and then know when the unit has a lock. That (and the "GPS") is all the radio has as far as indicating what is going on w/ your GPS.

 

[phask]

Another check. I'll paraphrase the late Paul Opitz (Upman). Disconnect the GPS, set your Zip to something distant. 90210 has always been the suggestion unless you live in Beverly Hills . Using the full database it should load CA data. Now connect the GPS and it should load your location data.

 

[N9JIG]

If you set a field on the display for Latitude or Longitude it will display said coordinates when a GPS lock is obtained.

Eidt: I gotta learn to read ALL prior replies before posting, "nessnet" has already made the same suggestion.

 

[JG4524]

I did not think about changing the zip code. Great idea. I will also look into having the coordinates appear on the screen. Another good idea. You would think that they would have something on the GPS itself to indicate a lock or not but oh well. Looks like I bought the last GPS that Bearcat warehouse has, their website is now saying discontinued. The kit is still available but I could not see myself spending 30 dollars more for cables that I would never use, especially the DB9 to DB9. That's old school computer technology. By the way when I plug the GPS in the display does show GPS but showing the coordinates would tell me it is in fact working.

 

[JG4524]

Well I could not edit my post above so Iam putting this here. I went out to the car with the GPS hooked everything up and earlier I did as suggested entering a zip code from California. It loaded the database then I went in and turned off all the nationwide frequency lists. I did that because a lot of dead carriers were coming in. So when I first hooked everything up in the car it started scanning California then the screen changed and said processing, please wait. It then loaded the state I am in along with a bordering state and started scanning. I **** it down brought it back inside and although the GPS is not hooked up it is scanning the two states it loaded in the car so the GPS works

Now as far as the putting the coordinates in a field to come up I went into display and seen where you could select different items from a drop down list. GPS was one of them but being that the GPS letters are showing up I did not select that to put it in a seperate box. I was looking for a selection of coordinates but did not see one so I left the display as it was for now.

Thanks again for the help. The only reason I bought the SDS200 was to be able to listen to more than the fire and first aid as the police around here are on a P25 project 1 system. Suprisingly the state police are on an analog suystem. I used to have a Radio Shack PRO2006 I think was the model but that got damaged beyond repair. The only other scanner I have is a BC246T. It can handle trunking but not digital.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[highwayman1224]

I did not think about changing the zip code. Great idea. I will also look into having the coordinates appear on the screen. Another good idea. You would think that they would have something on the GPS itself to indicate a lock or not but oh well. Looks like I bought the last GPS that Bearcat warehouse has, their website is now saying discontinued. The kit is still available but I could not see myself spending 30 dollars more for cables that I would never use, especially the DB9 to DB9. That's old school computer technology. By the way when I plug the GPS in the display does show GPS but showing the coordinates would tell me it is in fact working.

If it says GPS at the bottom of the screen then it's working....

 

[N9JIG]

I did not think about changing the zip code. Great idea. I will also look into having the coordinates appear on the screen. Another good idea. You would think that they would have something on the GPS itself to indicate a lock or not but oh well. Looks like I bought the last GPS that Bearcat warehouse has, their website is now saying discontinued. The kit is still available but I could not see myself spending 30 dollars more for cables that I would never use, especially the DB9 to DB9. That's old school computer technology. By the way when I plug the GPS in the display does show GPS but showing the coordinates would tell me it is in fact working.

The CB-GPSK has apparantly been discontnued (This is the one for the SDS200 and BC855) but has been replaced with the BC-SGPS universal kit that has cables for all Uniden GPS capable scanners.

 

[N9JIG]

If it says GPS at the bottom of the screen then it's working....

Yes, that indicates that the GPS is connected but does not indicate that there is a lock. The coordinates or the ZIP Code tricks shown above indicate that a lock as been established.

 

[ofd8001]

Since this has come up before when connecting a GPS device, Auto Locate is something you would use if you do NOT have a GPS device.

If you are monitoring any Motorola or P25 system that is in the RR database, when you press Auto Locate while receiving a signal, the scanner will check a lookup table in its memory. That table will give the location of the tower/site being received and set the scanner's location as the tower/site's location. It also sets the scanner's Range to be 30 miles.

 

[ofd8001]

The CB-GPSK has apparantly been discontnued (This is the one for the SDS200 and BC855) but has been replaced with the BC-SGPS universal kit that has cables for all Uniden GPS capable scanners.

So the SDS 200's baud rate according to the manual is 9600. Many other models use 4800. Is that going to be an issue or will the other models (such as the 536) "adapt" to the different baud rate?

 

[N9JIG]

So the SDS 200's baud rate according to the manual is 9600. Many other models use 4800. Is that going to be an issue or will the other models (such as the 536) "adapt" to the different baud rate?

The baud rate actually goes to the GPS receiver used. Set the radio to the speed that the GPS receiver uses.

The CB-GPSK uses 9600, as does the BC-SGPS kit. These actually use the same GPS receiver, the one in the rectangular matchbox style case with the telephone cable.

The older BC-GPSK kit with the round disk style receiver uses 4800 baud.

If you are using a third-party receiver you would set the radio's baud rate to match. For example, I used to use a Garmin GPS receiver that allows me to set the rate to a wide variety of settings, it really did not matter what speed was used as long as the radio was set to match.