It was pouring down rain when I headed across the parking lot to my pickup. It was the hardest down pour I have seen this winter and spring. There was no night light except from the hall I just left. I had been at a friend’s retirement party. I had been up since before 0500 in morning to get ready for work. I had left work early so that I could change for the party. Just before leaving home I programmed the address for the party in Garmin c550 automotive gps. The event was in a rural woody subdivision. I do not know the roads in there.
I had originally mounted my c550 on top of the dash board and it received excellent satellite reception at that location. A change in State law in January had me looking for another location. There is a pocket in the middle of my dash next to the radio and I manufactured a removable mount taking advantage of that pocket. The result is the initial satellite locks have slowed down a little in less than ideal conditions, under tree cover. This has not been a problem because I set still an extra thirty seconds and let the unit get the satellite lock. I also have a remote antenna which I did not have with me, because it is normally not needed. When the wife and I head off the hill in her Jeep the c550 operates okay in the back seat.
It was a soaking walk to my pickup, I took a couple minutes to put my sports coat on a hanger, and dig the c550 out of the hiding place. The incidents of vehicle break-ins have taken a radical upswing the last few months. Yesterday a co-worker was reading an e-mail from a friend who had a gps unit stolen from a parked vehicle. I plug in the power cord and while the c550 was starting up, I headed out of the parking lot. I had not waited the extra 30 seconds for it to get a satellite lock. It is far more difficult for a unit to get a lock at speed then when stationary. The tree canopy and heavy down pour did not help.
As I drove out of the maze the street signs were not familiar, I had gone right where I should have gone left, or did I go left where I should have gone right. I did not know. As I continued to move the unit was not getting a lock. This was very unusual, but I am not normally in a heavy down pour and overhead canopy on the road. I kept going a couple miles because there was not a safe place to pull off the road. I finally pulled into a drive way of a place with a for sale sign and parked. I pulled the c550 out of the dash mount and placed it on top of the dash. Between the better location and being stationary it quickly received a satellite lock and calculated the most direct route home. I then placed the unit back in mounting location on the face of the dash. It was not the same route I had taken into the area because I was starting from a new location.
In fact I was a little concerned about the new route but decided this was a good test of the gps. As I travelled down a series of narrow paved roads it gave me direction on which street to turn on to. A little concern came up when I hit a dirt road, and there was a sign saying it was Not County maintained. It was full of large pot holes, filled with water. I hit the automatic 4-DR button on my dash. Based on a little knowledge of the area I knew the unit was guiding me to a paved route the County had constructed a few years ago. After a few guided right and left turns I was on the Country road, and within a half mile on the State Highway headed home.
No doubt about it, I should have let the unit get a lock while was still in the open parking lot. When it gets a lock it holds on to it even in tree canopy. Once I had a lock I realized it was taking me a on a new route. I had the option of returning to the Hall and then selecting home. This would have taken me back home the way I came. I took the second option because I wanted to test the limits of the unit, build trust in the unit. I think the unit did a good job.
I could have prevented this by plugging the unit in the power outlet in the back of the center console, and leaving it powered up while I was inside. The unit does not draw enough power in a few hours to place my battery at risk.
A little glitch I came across the other day was that I was on a new piece of road that the County and State had reconstructed and closed off about a half mile of roadway to force traffic to take a new route. The purpose was to remove a killer intersection. The map in my unit is now a couple of years old and did not show the change. It did not cause me a problem, but may confuse drivers from out of the area. There has been at least one map update since I bought the unit.
Now that I have had the learning experience I will wait until the unit has calculated the route.
