i asked the people at my local dealership about some problems i have been having with NAVI.. and they attributed it to a loss of the signal because of the tint i have on my windows. Does anyone know if there is a way to get an external antenna?

 

What is the problem???? alot of people has tint here and haven't complain about lost of signal

 

I always thought the GPS sensor was the little black box on the rearwindow (near the top) I forget if it is on the right or left side though. So just check to see if the tint is covering it up, but I doubt that the tint is affecting it. The real problem is probably just your location. I some times have problems connecting to the satallites in the same area lot. I guess it is just a dead zone like cell phones, there are just some areas that aren't covered to well????

 

the gps antenna is UNDER the rear deck carpet/plastic, not over it. so it has nothing to do w/tint on the window. if you dont believe me, im doing a nav relocation and while the antenna and dvd were sittining in the trunk, it worked just fine.

http://www.dreamwater.org/systek/acuratls/DVDHACK.html

 

Exactly. The GPS antenna is on/under the rear shelf area; to get at it you need to remove the rear speaker grilles and the left rear shelf.

GPS satellites cover the entire earth, unlike cell phone towers which leave potential dead spots by design. But GPS satellite coverage/signals can be adversely affected by tall buildings, mountains, tunnels, large tree, large trucks, etc.

 

to continue on this subject and thwart this misconception, i will have my gps antenna under the front passenger seat(will have pix when done...hopefully tomorrow)

 

Whoa...that DVD relocation sounded complicated. Where did you put the Antenna? And why did you put the player under the seat? just curious. I would like to relocate the antenna only...unless there was a good reason to move the player also. or....they are both attached together? hehe. PM me systek

 

i finished that relo...i just need to post pix that i took. it wasnt too hard, just strip the car's innards to make it easy, make a mess of the factory wiring harness to fish out the navi wires, and reinstall everything correctly, meaning make it look factory...jeje

anyway...its not as hard as it sounds, just takes time. the only reason i did this is cause i want to fit 4 10"subs in the trunk along w/the necessary amplification and the nave was in the way of that plan..(phase 3 coming soon)

also, you can't just move the antenna cause the cable is tooo short...which i hate.. the cable is about 6" long, which i cant understand, but it makes for difficult decisions.

so far it has worked fine under the passenger seat, sitting next to the dvd player, but this morning it wasnt tracking correctly. soooo, if it doesnt work like i planned, i may cut and elongate the antenna wires, if possible...most things are

 

Ahh, I see. Post up pics soon! I wanna see! Also if you try to extend the antenna, let me know..I really want to do that.

 

here are the pix...specifically page 2
http://dreamwater.org/systek/acuratls/DVDHACK.html

also, i hope to get the converter in a week and will let ya'll know how that goes. as for the antenna, im hoping i dont have to extend the wires, but that may be what i have to do. the cat5 cable should make it easy to do, nonetheless.

if so, i bet that anyplace high up in the car away from other electronic devices should provide good results(and i fear that may be what is impeding it now)

 

Wow! That's a huge project you had going there. hehe! Cool! Just let me know! I'm thinking extending it up to the roof and hiding it in the roof liner. in the rear.

 

think of it this way...everything on page 2 i started doing on monday night..after 11pm...and didnt stop working at it until 8am...slept 3 hrs and went at it again...finished...and put it all back together, minus the rear deck lid, since i wanted to see if there are any rattles in the metal and trunk as of now....


im hoping to order the rgb converter today and the springs...so hopefully i will be working on that during new year's day...!!!!!!

 

If your tint is non-metallic or has very little metallic content, then yes, the GPS antenna won't/shouldn't be affected by the tint on the rear window; otherwise, there will be a degradation of the GPS signal being received by the GPS unit. How much of a degradation varies, but there will be some nevertheless if you do have certain types of metallic tint on your rear window.

As far as the GPS working with the antenna and DVD sitting in trunk (well, the DVD is normally located in the trunk to begin with, so it is a non-issue): the receiver could be receiving enough of a signal--however weak it may be--that, combined with the input from the gyro/wheel sensors could quite possibly be able to plot and track your location.

Tony

 

correct, i guess...but what about it plotting perfectly last night, but not today? it is currently under the passenger seat.

 

well, another day of driving, another day of accurate plotting. i corrected my location on the map again yesterday during my lunch and it hasnt messed up anymore. i dont know what has allowed it to work now, but it is working. i didnt move anything. the antenna is still located where it was before when it was getting lost.

well, i was gonna extend the antenna wire, but as of now, i think im gonna wait at least a week before deciding on this(hopefully it will work from now on )

i'll keep ya'll posted..!!!

 

A good test would be to see if you get all three green bars on the navi screen (or even better yet, go into the hidden service menu and see how many satellites the navi can see) while your antenna is completely hidden underneath the passenger seat. I noticed in your other post you stated that you had to correct your location; if your antenna--in its current location--was indeed picking up a signal you normally wouldn't need to do this. I think that the correction, in combination with the gyro/wheel sensors, allowed your navi to more or less accurately plot your location.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your typical consumer GPS cannot properly receive a signal if it doesn't have a clear view of the sky since it receives its signal from satellites; therefore I don't think that the antenna can pick up a signal if it's completely underneath the seat and unable to get even a small view of the sky. It's like saying that you can put a Directv dish underneath your bed and still claim that you can receive a good signal.

OTOH--the Acura navi remembers your last known location every time you start the car, assuming that the navi was working right before you last turned it off, so theoretically it can still plot your location using the sensors (albeit perhaps not as accurately) even if a GPS signal is weak or non-existant.

Nothing personal, just constructive criticism as I sorta find it hard to believe that your antenna can still pick up a signal while underneath the seat, although in all fairness I don't know where under the seat you did put it...

Tony

 

where is it located..completely under under the seat, and out of sight...you cant even see the dvd player

but this antenna works fine when covered...since from theh factory it is UNDER the rear deck lid and has NO line of sight w/the sky...i'll keep ya'll posted on this since it seems no one has relocated their nav, although there are alot of nav/vid conversions, including me as of next week...(i just ordered the pioneer rgb converter)

 

Hey systek, where did you order the pioneer rgb converter? Do they have it in stock of immediate deliver?

 

knowing some of my forum bro's like urself would be searching for this part, i asked them if they had anymore in stock....they dont..i got the last one...sorry

i did a search on yahoo.com and google.com on avc rgb1 and found alot of places that sell it, since this was the cheapest i found and they are located here in texas, i gave them a try and went ahead and ordered it.

here are some links to other online retailers who are selling it, but i never confirmed if they are in stock or not but i hope it helps:

http://www.audiosound.com/avcrgb1.html
http://www.mmxpress.com/Pioneer/avcrgb1.htm
http://usacaraudio.com/pioneerR.htm
http://www.globalmart.com/index/ au.../> pioneer_.htm
http://www.caraudioshopping.com/ind...empavcrgb1.html
http://www.speakersound.com/index.html?catalog88_0.html

im sure there are others...but ya have to call or email to verify

 

Okay, I should rectify my "line of sight" definition--I should have said that there should be nothing between the antenna and the satellite that could deflect or weaken the signal. I would imagine that some materials would not deteriorate the signal, especially since there are satellite dish covers out there that supposedly protect dishes from the elements.

So, I can see why the antenna can still receive a signal even while underneath the seat; it technically still has a line of sight with the sky, but doesn't have anything in it's way (you seat isn't made entirely of metal, is it?? ) that could weaken the signal enough so that the nav can't process it.

Tony

Tony

 

well, im trying to find coax cable to extend it back to its original location since i want it to always have a signal, but i cant find coax thin enough...anyone have an idea???