Is my internal GPS failing?

This year, I've noticed greatly increased connection time when turning on my 1st gen. Helix 10 SI. Last week, it took 18 minutes to connect on the water (my bigger water at that, with the most amount of open sky above and not ringed with hills) and I noticed the error factor was like 50'. In years past, I remember it as being much better than that.

I did a quick test here in the yard; I dug out my old 598 SI and set it up with the Helix 10 nearby; the 598 had a solid connection with numerous satellites (like 7-8) and a very small error factor, like 5' in about a minute while the H10 took nearly 11 minutes, had I think 4 satellites and had the same big 50' error factor. Battery is a 12 amp hour lithium in the H10 and was fully charged and giving 13 volts.

If it is failing, what would my options be without replacing the H10?

2 options ... send it to HB or buy and connect an external GPS antenna ...

Rickie

Maybe try exploring some other troubleshooting steps. Reset Defaults, try bootup without any cards, and inspect NAV directory for excessive waypoints to minimize processor load. If that's good, then might try an external receiver. If you have other networked capability, can sharing GPS or if possible try with another boat before purchasing the external.

Thanks for the input. I have reset the defaults 3 times, tried it with and without any cards at all. I have a total (guessing here, not counting actually) of perhaps 60 waypoints. I did not clear the NAV directory (not sure how to anyway but I could search it out) but did clear all tracks. I don't have anything else hooked to it; it is a stand alone unit.
I have ordered an external GPS (without heading sensor), hope to have it this week. Hopefully, the new external GPS will solve the issue.

I ordered and received an external GPS puck and had a chance to test it out today. In the yard on Friday, it connected in less than 3 minutes and had 7-9 active satellites so a huge improvement over what I had. Had it out on the water today for a live condition test; connected in about a minute and a half, had 8-9 active satellites all morning when I checked and the position error read as low as 3' so I'm very happy so far with this upgrade.

Thanks for the update, glad to hear you have it fixed.



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