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- Does-BatterySaver-Mode-Impair-Acquisition
- 01-26-2010
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On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:22:57 -0800, Gene E. Bloch
True. But I don't think my graphic editor's bugs, or lack of them, will
determine if I find my way back out of the jungle or not one day.
>OK. I was hoping you were more obsessive-compulsive than that :-)
Hey, I just report a potential problem I observed. I don't go nutso fixing
it for everyone. :-)
re: OCD -- In my kitchen a spoon is lucky if it will be found in the same
drawer as a fork. It's lucky if it'll even be found in the same room.
Did you know that grouping unrelated items together is a much more
efficient way to find any particular item again? A filing system of my own
design that I suspect matches the way memories are stored. So much easier
and faster to find your favorite ball-point pen when it's stored next to a
screwdriver or pair of socks than in a whole drawer full nearly identical
pens, 97% of them being out of ink. Organizers are wasting most of the
minutes of their life making life less efficient. I now see their behavior
as just a manic phase of displacement-activity. Can't fight or flight, so
preen and organize their feathers.
>I laughed about the goat. For one thing, I'm partial to goats (no, not
>that way!), since I do eastern-European folk-dancing; their bagpipes
>are typically made from goatskins.
>The word for bagpipe in a few languages there is gajda (pronounced
>guyda) and in Spanish it's gaita, both claimed to be from a Gothic word
>for goat (as is the word "goat").
>that way!), since I do eastern-European folk-dancing; their bagpipes
>are typically made from goatskins.
>The word for bagpipe in a few languages there is gajda (pronounced
>guyda) and in Spanish it's gaita, both claimed to be from a Gothic word
>for goat (as is the word "goat").
While going even more dangerously off-topic, I'll log this goat-gut
information next to my memories about batteries and satellites. On the
off-chance I'm ever stuck in a bog in some Scottish Moor. Because I forgot
that I put my GPS in "Battery-Saver" mode and I am forced to strike up
small-talk with a local villager to get on his good side. (Hopefully he'll
have never seen any episodes of "Cheers" and feel disdain for the Clifford
character.) Then he'll hopefully show me the way out ... and share his
booze with me. :-)
>Are you a playwright? You seem to have the touch...
No. But you're most certainly not the first person to have asked or
strongly suggested that I missed my calling. I'm going to keep missing it.
English class was always a nightmare and I don't want to relive childhood
torments as a way of life.
I'm replying at length in the hopes that if others see this thread active
and busy more will read it and offer their own "Battery-Saver"
observations. Then I can update my comprehensive Garmin owner's-manual.
(Does the sarcasm in that phrase not come through?)
Keeping this thread going, in the hopes of further on-topic input, is based
on my own premise that I like to call the "Human Termite Syndrome". Or HTS
for the acronym afflicted. Nobody wants to go to a garage-sale or be first
on the dance-floor unless someone else is already there. Just as a lone
termite, when building a spire in its nest, will abandon working on his own
better and more functional support-spire to go help elsewhere if it detects
two or more other nearby and less talented or less intelligent termites
already at work building a less useful spire. The lone-termite sometimes
even dismantling its own better spire to go add to the less useful but more
popular one. Popularity-rules. The bane of Googled "facts", where
popularity-hits exponentially bolsters the most plausible misinformation as
truths. In other human terms: VHS vs. Betamax being a good example. As too
the Commodore Amiga, a true multi-tasking architecture sorely losing out to
the far far less capable time-share PC. What a huge loss to past and
present humanity that was. All thanks to the "Human Termite Syndrome".
Termites aren't too bright, insect-sized minds and all, but this HTS
choice-making behavior seems to work for them too ... somehow.
So? How's that "Battery-Saver" mode working out? Anyone?
:-)
Charles G wrote:
> ... Just as a lone termite, when building a spire in its
> nest, will abandon working on his own better and more functional
> support-spire to go help elsewhere if it detects two or more other
> nearby and less talented or less intelligent termites already at work
> building a less useful spire.
> nest, will abandon working on his own better and more functional
> support-spire to go help elsewhere if it detects two or more other
> nearby and less talented or less intelligent termites already at work
> building a less useful spire.
Aha, that's what's meant by "a-spiration"!
Mike.
--
If reply address is invalid, remove spurious "@" and substitute "plus"
where needed.
>Charles G wrote:
>> ... Just as a lone termite, when building a spire in its
>> nest, will abandon working on his own better and more functional
>> support-spire to go help elsewhere if it detects two or more other
>> nearby and less talented or less intelligent termites already at work
>> building a less useful spire.
>> nest, will abandon working on his own better and more functional
>> support-spire to go help elsewhere if it detects two or more other
>> nearby and less talented or less intelligent termites already at work
>> building a less useful spire.
>Aha, that's what's meant by "a-spiration"!
>Mike.
>Mike.
<eye-roll> Kewt.
:-)
wrote:
>I noticed something odd yesterday. It had been awhile since I powered up my
>eTrex Legend Cx. I had since done a firmware update (v3.40) and not used it
>since about 250 miles away. While experimenting with new maps and settings
>I also chose the "new location" a few times from the menus without ever
>having used it to update the data direct from the satellites. I suspect it
>was essentially "location blind" by this time.
>When I turned it on it seemed to be taking an inexorably long time to
>acquire the usual satellite locks. Which normally would happen in under a
>minute. It never did lock onto any satellites when placed on the sill of a
>large picture window (where it normally had no problems doing so). So I
>stood out at the end of my long driveway where there are no trees, thinking
>that would help. Granted it was a heavy freezing rain at the time, so that
>might have had something to do with it. But still no lock, for what seemed
>to be upwards of 10 minutes or more.
>I then realized ... after the new firmware install, I had put it to
>"Battery-Saver" mode, after reading up what that undocumented setting does.
>It supposedly only polls the satellites once a minute or something instead
>of continuously.
>I took it off of "Battery-Saver" mode and now within 1 minute it was
>locking onto and downloading the needed data.
>Does "Battery-Saver" mode impair satellite-lock during power-up in all
>units? Or was this just a spurious example that had nothing to do with that
>setting? Was it the weather, the new firmware update, or my having not
>logged into the satellites in about a month?
>Considering how fast it locked onto the satellites after I took it off of
>"Battery Saver" mode, I strongly suspect that was the reason. But perhaps I
>just had not waited long enough and it would have done it anyway with that
>setting engaged if I had waited just one more minute before disabling that
>feature.
>eTrex Legend Cx. I had since done a firmware update (v3.40) and not used it
>since about 250 miles away. While experimenting with new maps and settings
>I also chose the "new location" a few times from the menus without ever
>having used it to update the data direct from the satellites. I suspect it
>was essentially "location blind" by this time.
>When I turned it on it seemed to be taking an inexorably long time to
>acquire the usual satellite locks. Which normally would happen in under a
>minute. It never did lock onto any satellites when placed on the sill of a
>large picture window (where it normally had no problems doing so). So I
>stood out at the end of my long driveway where there are no trees, thinking
>that would help. Granted it was a heavy freezing rain at the time, so that
>might have had something to do with it. But still no lock, for what seemed
>to be upwards of 10 minutes or more.
>I then realized ... after the new firmware install, I had put it to
>"Battery-Saver" mode, after reading up what that undocumented setting does.
>It supposedly only polls the satellites once a minute or something instead
>of continuously.
>I took it off of "Battery-Saver" mode and now within 1 minute it was
>locking onto and downloading the needed data.
>Does "Battery-Saver" mode impair satellite-lock during power-up in all
>units? Or was this just a spurious example that had nothing to do with that
>setting? Was it the weather, the new firmware update, or my having not
>logged into the satellites in about a month?
>Considering how fast it locked onto the satellites after I took it off of
>"Battery Saver" mode, I strongly suspect that was the reason. But perhaps I
>just had not waited long enough and it would have done it anyway with that
>setting engaged if I had waited just one more minute before disabling that
>feature.
A long awaited update.
I had not used my GPS for about 2 months and thought I'd test satellite
acquisition this morning. WITHOUT battery-saver mode it took about 5
seconds to find the first satellite, and about 1 to 2 minutes to fill out
all 12 slots. I was getting about a 17ft. accuracy within the first minute.
So, there's another data-point to add to this issue. I'm sort of convinced
now that battery-saver mode DOES seriously impact satellite acquisition
when it needs a full refill of all almanac data.
I'd contact Garmin and tell them but they don't pay me enough to debug
their products and find the solutions for them. It's enough that I now know
to turn off battery-saver mode anytime I'm getting long delays on satellite
locks.
Adjust your own brain-cells accordingly.
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>radical. It seems to be not limited to Garmin, truth be told...