Time/ Date GPS fix

YD over 4 years ago

Is this a bug or implementation?

When unit is powered indoors without any coverage, GPS and or Iridium, time and date is not correct.

Why cant have the time and date set by the Bluetooth when paired to supported mobile device or via the WiFi when 66i is connected to WiFi.

0 twolpert over 4 years ago

All Garmin handhelds get date/time from the GPS constellation AFAIK. Even on iR devices, the iR satellites have nothing to do with it.

Between uses, the unit should also maintain the clock via battery power. This is necessary because the unit requires a decent approximation of the date/time in order to use the almanac (or the EPO file) to acquire the initial fix on cold start without doing a full sky search.

Bad date/time would explain why your unit fails to acquire indoors (in a short time). Unless you are in the basement or an interior room, the 66i normally acquires indoors (although the estimated error may be quite high).

It's possible that the unit has a problem. If you have had an outdoor fix recently and the clock is more than a few seconds off, that would tend to indicate an issue with the unit.

Things you can check before opening a support ticket:

1) Main Menu > Setup > About; scroll down one page with the minus key; check to see that it says EPO: Current. If not, sync to get a current EPO file.

2) Once you have a current EPO, head outdoors, put the unit down with a clear view of the sky, and wait until it acquires a fix. If the clock is off by a lot to start with, this may take a full sky search which will take some time (minutes, not hours). Once you have a fix, verify that the unit has the correct time.

3) Power the unit down and take it indoors. Wait for several hours (at least, overnight is better). Take the unit to the basement or an interior room as far as you can get from a sky view. Power up and check the time. If it is more than a few seconds off, there is a problem with the unit.

I'm assuming that you did NOT allow the battery to run flat before noting that the date/time is off. I don't know if the unit has a separate battery for the clock or not.

0 YD over 4 years ago in reply to twolpert

I will definitely try this.

In my case, powering down the unit in the evening then powering it up on the next day, say 11AM (indoors, without locking on GPS) it will show time like 04:30am. That's what happened today and its been happening few times already. On e i go out and GPS fix is acquired, time adjusts.