SDS200 & GPS

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eaf1956

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I'm trying my best to make sure that it can't see satellites just to see if the GPS on the screen goes away. Time to look for something thick and made of lead :)
Park in my metal garage or put it in a building with a metal roof.
 

togo54

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Park in my metal garage or put it in a building with a metal roof.
It's already been established that as long as a GPS puck is connected to the scanner the GPS letters will show on the screen regardless of whether it actually has satellite signal lock or not.
 

eaf1956

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It's already been established that as long as a GPS puck is connected to the scanner the GPS letters will show on the screen regardless of whether it actually has satellite signal lock or not.
Which is why he was told to add LAT/LONG to the display. See Post #4
 

Patch42

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It's already been established that as long as a GPS puck is connected to the scanner the GPS letters will show on the screen regardless of whether it actually has satellite signal lock or not.
Technical point, but the GPS puck must be connected AND the radio set to the proper baud rate before the GPS icon will be displayed. At least such is the case with the SDS100. The GPS icon means it's connected and is able to decode the data coming from the GPS. Whether it can make sense of that data is a separate question. My radio apparently defaults to DD MM' ss.sss" format while the GPS puck is sending DD.ddddd format. That really messed me up for quite a while, me assuming the GPS icon meant everything was working when the scanner hadn't a clue where the GPS was saying it was. I can't believe there isn't something in the Location menu that would display the location being sent by the GPS. This would allow you to verify it's working without messing about with detailed display. Like I really want to see "No GPS" displayed the 98% of the time I don't have the GPS attached.
 

togo54

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Technical point, but the GPS puck must be connected AND the radio set to the proper baud rate before the GPS icon will be displayed. At least such is the case with the SDS100. The GPS icon means it's connected and is able to decode the data coming from the GPS. Whether it can make sense of that data is a separate question. My radio apparently defaults to DD MM' ss.sss" format while the GPS puck is sending DD.ddddd format. That really messed me up for quite a while, me assuming the GPS icon meant everything was working when the scanner hadn't a clue where the GPS was saying it was. I can't believe there isn't something in the Location menu that would display the location being sent by the GPS. This would allow you to verify it's working without messing about with detailed display. Like I really want to see "No GPS" displayed the 98% of the time I don't have the GPS attached.
The idea of my original post was to find out if there was a way to actually verify that the scanner, with a GPS puck connected, was actually seeing satellites. I realize that I can manually enter my GPS coordinates but that doesn't help with my original question. It's a moot point anyways because I have already put the BC-SGPS kit up for sale.
 

fxdscon

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The idea of my original post was to find out if there was a way to actually verify that the scanner, with a GPS puck connected, was actually seeing satellites.

As previously posted, the display will verify that the GPS is seeing satellites by clearly displaying the current co-ordinates.

 

togo54

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As previously posted, the display will verify that the GPS is seeing satellites by clearly displaying the current co-ordinates.

Only after a user gets a degree in "Uniden SDS200 programming". I'm too friggin old for school :)
 

Patch42

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The idea of my original post was to find out if there was a way to actually verify that the scanner, with a GPS puck connected, was actually seeing satellites. I realize that I can manually enter my GPS coordinates but that doesn't help with my original question. It's a moot point anyways because I have already put the BC-SGPS kit up for sale.
You can infer that it's seeing satellites by it reporting lat/long to the scanner. Sadly, the only way to see that is to customized the detailed display to include Latitude and Longitude. This is incredibly unclear as one might well assume that like most of the other information on the detailed display, this would pertain to the transmitter being received, not necessarily to the position of the scanner, but it is, in fact, the position of the scanner. If the GPS is not reporting position data the scanner can understand it will display "No GPS" instead of lat/long. It's a special joy to see the GPS icon at the same time you see "No GPS".

What I was trying to suggest was that it would make a lot more sense for there to be an additional item on the Set Location menu that would display the location data being sent by the GPS. This would provide essentially what you're looking for, would have helped me immensely to get my GPS working, and would avoid having to waste detailed display space on something that isn't of much use after you've verified the GPS is actually working. Alas, the Uniden scanner programming department seems to no longer exist so we're not likely to see this.

If you ever plan to use your scanner on a long road trip, you might want to reconsider selling the GPS. As many issues as there are getting it to work and with it scanning loads of effectively dead frequencies when you're using the full database, it's still vastly better than trying to manually set up the scanner in advance for a long trip. I've tried to do that for a cross country trip and it's the work of weeks. Virtually impossible unless you have scads of free time and the patience of a saint. Having the scanner automatically pick out what's in range, even if it includes a ton of dead frequencies, is so much better.
 

togo54

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You can infer that it's seeing satellites by it reporting lat/long to the scanner. Sadly, the only way to see that is to customized the detailed display to include Latitude and Longitude. This is incredibly unclear as one might well assume that like most of the other information on the detailed display, this would pertain to the transmitter being received, not necessarily to the position of the scanner, but it is, in fact, the position of the scanner. If the GPS is not reporting position data the scanner can understand it will display "No GPS" instead of lat/long. It's a special joy to see the GPS icon at the same time you see "No GPS".

What I was trying to suggest was that it would make a lot more sense for there to be an additional item on the Set Location menu that would display the location data being sent by the GPS. This would provide essentially what you're looking for, would have helped me immensely to get my GPS working, and would avoid having to waste detailed display space on something that isn't of much use after you've verified the GPS is actually working. Alas, the Uniden scanner programming department seems to no longer exist so we're not likely to see this.

If you ever plan to use your scanner on a long road trip, you might want to reconsider selling the GPS. As many issues as there are getting it to work and with it scanning loads of effectively dead frequencies when you're using the full database, it's still vastly better than trying to manually set up the scanner in advance for a long trip. I've tried to do that for a cross country trip and it's the work of weeks. Virtually impossible unless you have scads of free time and the patience of a saint. Having the scanner automatically pick out what's in range, even if it includes a ton of dead frequencies, is so much better.
I hear you. What I was actually wishing for was a dedicated screen somewhere within the settings of the SDS200 that would actually give a "what satellites are visible and what satellites are locked on" type of display. I've owned dozens of handled and automobile type of GPS devices and every single one of them had a display option that showed what satellites were in the visible sky at any given moment and what satellites the device was actually locked on to. If I decide to go with GPS for my SDS200 I'll go with the Uniden BC-GPSK kit (of which I've already sold two) since the puck in that kit has an LED which serves to indicate when satellite signal has been locked.
 

jonwienke

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The pucks I sell have a flashing red LED when they get a lock. And they RX the American GPS and Russian GLONASS systems, and can calculate a fix from either/both.
 

togo54

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The pucks I sell have a flashing red LED when they get a lock. And they RX the American GPS and Russian GLONASS systems, and can calculate a fix from either/both.
Please message me with a price and means of payment. And a pic of the GPS if possible.
 

jonwienke

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Go to the site in my signature, and click the payment link. I build them into a small white RJ11 junction box, the type you use to attach a phone jack to a wall or baseboard. I don't have a photo on my phone, so I'll have to do that Monday.
 

togo54

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Go to the site in my signature, and click the payment link. I build them into a small white RJ11 junction box, the type you use to attach a phone jack to a wall or baseboard. I don't have a photo on my phone, so I'll have to do that Monday.
Just bought one . Thanks....
 

Patch42

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I hear you. What I was actually wishing for was a dedicated screen somewhere within the settings of the SDS200 that would actually give a "what satellites are visible and what satellites are locked on" type of display. I've owned dozens of handled and automobile type of GPS devices and every single one of them had a display option that showed what satellites were in the visible sky at any given moment and what satellites the device was actually locked on to.
The difference is those devices were designed to provide that feature. The handheld GPS units I've owned were much the same, providing a sky map of which satellites it thought should be in view were being received. In this case the SDS200 is not the GPS device, but a user of the GPS device output. Ages ago, before automobile nav systems were a thing, I hooked my handheld GPS to my laptop and used it to provide current location to a mapping program. In that case it used a RS-232 serial port and it was easy to monitor what the GPS was sending. It was nothing but a steady stream of lat/long coordinates, exactly the same as the GPS puck sends to the SDS200 over the USB serial connection. The only thing that's changed is the form of the connector. In other words, the SDS200 doesn't have access to satellite position data, just to the coordinates the GPS puck keeps spitting out. This is not a shortcoming of the SDS200.
 

TNORRIS

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Got my old Garmin out and decided to hook it up to the SDS200 for testing :
Porting over LAT & LONG perfectly!

(I have multiple GPS iii Plus' but they have the famous battery issue even after changing that out - 2 only work off external power, so I grabbed this GPS V and it works great for this test).

1615952806549.png
 
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N9PBD

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Got my old Garmin out and decided to hook it up to the SDS200 for testing :
Porting over LAT & LONG perfectly!

(I have multiple GPS iii Plus' but they have the famous battery issue even after changing that out - 2 only work off external power, so I grabbed this GPS V and it works great for this test).

View attachment 100652

Interestingly, if you are in the Omaha area, then the latitude shown on your screen (41°11'XX.X"N 95°55'XX.X"W), is three degrees north of Omaha, somewhere up in southwest Minnesota. Omaha is around 44°11'00.0"N 95°55'00.0"W.
 

TNORRIS

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N9PBD

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Not according to Google .. nor any of the other GPS' I have (including my vehicle). ??
MN is NorthEast of Omaha, NE .. so it pans out correctly.. Equator = 0* and the North Pole is 90*

44°11'00.0"N 95°55'00.0"W (MN)
41°11'00.0"N 95°55'00.0"W (NE)

EDIT -- added map https://modernsurvivalblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/united-states-latitude-longitude.jpg

Sorry, you are absolutely correct. I may or may not have been under the influence of cold medicine when I made my earlier post...

I retract my statement, and apologize to you, @TNORRIS for insinuating that there was an error in your original post.
 
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