Caveat: I've never worked with a 3805. I do have a 380. I'm assuming they are close.
> If the gps hasn't been turned on in a while, it will need to download a new > ephemeris. With the new ephemeris, it can find it position much faster > because it will know pretty close where the satellites are, and how much to > offset the tracking code. Yes, that's one problem. But there are two types of GPS receivers. The common ones are optimized for navigation: location and velocity. The other type has slightly different firmware optimized for timing. If you know where you are located, you can do a better job of interpreting the noisy data and/or get decent time with as few as 1 satellite. I suspect your unit is confused because it "knows" the wrong location. The manual for the Z3801A is widely available on the net. (If you can't find it, I'll mail you a copy.) It has good descriptions of the status page and the survey process. If you have a terminal program you can probably figure out how to talk to to your 3805. The Z3801A runs at 19.2, 7 bits, odd parity. I don't know about the 3805 and a quick google didn't find anything. If you can't find it with trial and error, somebody on this list knows. If you send it ":SYSTEM:STATUS?" a Z3801A will send you back a status page. In particular, there is a chunk of the page that shows the satellites it's using and the ones it's trying to lock up to. ":GPS:POS:SURV ONCE" will tell it to do a survey. (That's assuming it's the same as a Z3801.) It will take a long time, depending on how good your antenna is. You can watch the progress with the status page. The commands above may need the right CR/LF type magic after the text string. My notes don't say anything so I expect the 3801 is forgiving. (Or I was lucky. I'm running Linux so my luck may not transfer to Windows.) In this context, the Z3801A is different from the TBolt. The Z3801A automatically saves the new location in Flash when the survey completes. The TBolt doesn't do that unless you tell it to. So on power up, the Z3801A that was working but has been moved to a new location will be confused because it has remembered the wrong location. On the other hand, a TBolt that was never told to save its location will automatically do another survey and eventually start working. -- These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.