Garmin 751xs losing signal constantly.

[Kdog]

Gday all
I have just brought, and fitted a Garmin 751xs combo which has an internal antenna, onto my 4.3 centre console, the problem I have is that when I went to first use it last week it took the Gps around 2 hours to “find” any satellites, and after that, it would lose the signal around every 10 minutes or so then find the signal again. (Frustrating to say the least)
This Saturday it only took about 30 minutes to find the satellites, but still had the problem of losing the signal then getting the signal back again.
For power, there are leads running from the battery at the back then back up to the centre consul, they then terminate to a buss bar which feeds the bilge pump, LBT, nav lights ,anchor lights etc, the Garmin connects to this buss as well.
Should I run dedicated power cables from the unit to the battery and hope that corrects the problem I have, or should I buy an external antenna and see if that picks up the signal?
I should add that the boat is new as well if thats means anything
Cheers
Kerrod

[Crunchy]

Does not sound like a power supply problem unless the unit is actually switching on / off intermittantly. Is the unit obscured by anything metal? i.e. have you got it mounted under a dash for example? Other than that the unit may be faulty, you could remove it from the boat and connect it to a powder supply in the open air and see if it improves or take it back to the retailer and ask them to compare it to another one in stock. I was in a tinny with one of these on Saturday and it did not have any of the problems you describe, in fact it worked really well.

Sometimes when you first fire up a brand new unit up they can take a while to get their bearings but then to lose the signal constantly is a either fault or internal antenna being blocked out. Another option is to try a full re-set but save any marks you have entered onto a card first.

[Kdog]

Gday Crunchy,

Mate, I will post a pic when I get home today, it sits in the centre console out in the open next to another Garmin gauge which shows fuel usage, taco, etc. so maybe picking up interference from that?
I will try the re-set as I haven’t saved any marks yet, when it is working correctly though it’s an awesome unit which I am very impressed with….sort of.
If that doesn’t work, I will give the dealer a call and see what we can come up with, Thanks for your input mate, much appreciated.

Cheers

[chocolatemoose]

havnt had any issues with the 751 units yet. "and mine has been stella in the boat" when you go to skyview "system-gps-(turn glonass on here)-skyview" how man satelites are you picking up. what kind of strength do they have?

moose

[Horse]

I had a Garmin doing the same thing. I had to do a full location reset. It has been perfect since

[Kdog]

Gday Horse,

Mate, I’m gunna try that, cause I had had a few…..well, a lot of beers by the time I had finished installing the unit, and I remember it asking me,” is this your current location” and I thought, well of course it is you dic* head I live here!
But at the same time I think it was showing me at being at the Jacobs Well boat ramp and I pressed ok? So could that be the reason? Something as simple as that? I hope so cause it’s an awesome unit when it’s going properly.
And if that fixes it, then note to myself that one should not drink when installing electrical stuff.

Moose, mate I will drag the boat out of the shed and check that out as well, but I think / hope that Horse may be on the money.
It may be that I have caused it to be confused when I incorrectly selected the location it was asking about?
Thanks guys

[Lancair]

Those who have one of these 751xs, what transducer are you using ?

Im super keen to get one but undecided on transducer type ? Ideally CHIRP and high power for very effective use in deep water. My current Garmin 750s is hopeless in deeper water than about 20-30 metres.

[chocolatemoose]

600w inhull chirp but the tm150 is your best choice for price and quality

[Kdog]

I had a Garmin doing the same thing. I had to do a full location reset. It has been perfect since

Gday Horse,

Mate, I did that full location reset by going back to default settings, and this time it did find my correct location

It still takes around 20 minutes to "lock on" to the satellites though, but that maybe just because of my location here at Tamborine

Unfortunately, because of work and a few other things, I wont be able to test it out properly for a couple of weeks, but I will let you guys know when I do.
Thanks again for all the input guys, its much appreciated

[Kdog]

Gday Horse,

Mate, I did that full location reset by going back to default settings, and this time it did find my correct location

It still takes around 20 minutes to "lock on" to the satellites though, but that maybe just because of my location here at Tamborine

Unfortunately, because of work and a few other things, I wont be able to test it out properly for a couple of weeks, but I will let you guys know when I do.
Thanks again for all the input guys, its much appreciated

Gday all,

Well I finally got the boat out on the weekend,and as advised by Crunchy and Horse I did a full location reset.Well what a difference that made, it took around 5 minutes to "lock on" to the Satellites but after that I had no problem what so ever not once did I lose reception and after turning the unit off and on couple of times it found the satellites with in a minute or two, so needless to say I'm a very happy chappie
This is the first time I have had one of these Chirp sounder thingies and the results are fantastic to say the least.
Anyhow thanks to all again who offered advice it was much appreciated.

[chocolatemoose]

cant go wrong with chirpy chirp thats a grouse unit that 751