When my navi rebooted last week and I had to enter the security code to start it I was puzzled. Why did I have to reset the time? The system is basically a GPS receiver. The GPS system not only broadcasts positional data but it sends out a universal time stamp as well. Why dosen't are navi use this time signal?

Just had me wondering.

 

You shouldnt need to enter the time, you just need to enter your time zone. Once it knows your time zone it can figure out the time itself. Case in point - When Daylight savings ended, my clock was still off by 1 hour. I needed to go into the setup and tell it I was on EST time, and it switched the time back over correctly.

I would imagine that the GPS satellites send out the time in GMT and you still need to know how to account for the hour based on your time zone.

 

If the GPS system in the car can pinpoint your location on a map to within a few feet, I'm pretty sure it ought to be able to figure out the time zone.
Weird that they don't include daylight savings adjustment in the mix.

 

Remember, the satellite has no idea where you are. You're just pulling a signal from a satellite. I don't believe GPS has the ability to send 2-way signals. Its similar to how DirecTV works. You receive the downstream from the satellite, but there is no uplink.

If you were talking to the GPS satellite, all of the people with GPS systems would probably overload the satellite with requests. You simply are picking up the GPS signal from different satellites.

Check this link if you want to understand how GPS figures out your position (its all really in the GPS software):
Link

BTW- I guess the software could figure out what the time is based on your location (Figure out the Timezone that is), but it doesn't sound like the Acura Navigation software can do this.

 

I'm fully aware how GPS works- been messing with it since the late '80s (military). My point is that if the car knows where it is (and it does- that's the whole point of GPS), it can take the GMT time stamp, and easily come up with it. It would appear that they left that simple part out of the software.

 

FWIW, I have a Garmin handhld GPS and it knows what time it is, I have never set the time on it in the last two years. You would think the TL GPS would know how to do it.

 

Yeah, I misinterpreted what you meant, hence the "BTW" part ... It does sound like a pretty major oversight that they left that part out of the software. Not a big deal I guess though considering the navi software does what its supposed to!

 

Good question, but no one here can probably answer it. Sounds like a question for the manufacturer, Alpine (I think).

V.

 

Thanks for all the info. However my clock was off by much more than an hour, and not just an even hour either. I think it was off by something around 3 hours and 20 minutes. That is why I asked this.

At least it wasn't blinking like my VCR.

 

Wow, I'm surprised the minutes were off. Thats really weird... How long was the car running for? Perhaps you needed to start up the GPS Navi system (by pressing OK to the warning message) to allow the NAVI system to sync up with the Satellite? Just a guess I don't know because I've never needed to set the minutes for the NAVI system.

 

I've never had a problem with my navi yet.

 

Actually it sat out of sync for several days until I got around to reading the manual on how to reset the time. I was in and out of the car alot, even had a 7 hour stretch in there. It never adjusted the time on its own.

Thinking about this again has led me to another GPS question. I had entered in a destination and let the navi map out the route. Twice during the trip, at two different intersections, the graphics clearly showed that I should travel straight through the intersection, however the voice told me to turn. Both times I knew that I needed to go straight. At the second intersection I turned just to see what would happen. The navi told me to make a u-turn and put me back on the right path. So it seemed to correct itself. But telling me to do something other than what was shown on the screen was definitely weird.

 

I acutally had one problem once. I started the car and just sat there unit it warmed up and then I noticed that the navi screen was blank. So I turned off the car and started it again. After that no problems at all.

 

wow, lol, sorry to be cynnical but, maybe your NAVI system is possessed . Either that, or it's a human being who doesn't think before he/she speaks.

 

Can we change the voice of our navi?