What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

GNS480 Question

Warbirdsolutions

Active Member
Does anyone know if the Internal battery has expired on a GNS480, will that cause the unit to not acquire satellites after it has been in a box for several years?
Thanks
Brad
 
IIRC the usual symptom is that it will take a long time - maybe 30 minutes? - to lock onto the satellites if the internal battery is dead. Depends on how good the view of the sky is (assuming you're outside). It can't remember where it is. If it's been unused for 3 years it might be that way even if the battery is okay. How much time did you try it for?
 
The internal battery in the GNS 480 can be replaced fairly easily without going to Garmin for the battery if you end up needing to do so.
 
GNS480

Thanks guys. I left it out for about 20 min. I plan to replace the battery. Curious though if a failed battery could contribute to the unit’s failure to acquire.
Brad
 
keep an eye on the GPS status page as it tries to acquire. As long as you see it sequencing through satellites and showing signal strength (white bar graph on right side of gps status page) as it sequences it should eventually figure out it's time and location. If you're not seeing white bars, check the antenna connection and seating of the units in the rack.

The battery remembers prior position and satellite constellation info. Since it's been in a box so long, that data isn't useful, so has to restart with raw data from the satellites it does fine. Even without aid from the battery backed data, 20 minutes seems like a pretty long time.

480 users group is here: https://gns480-users.groups.io/g/main for more info.

-Greg
 
We had an installer that installed our 480 and did not replace the old GPS antenna with the WAAS antenna. It will not acquire satellites and work correctly without the correct WAAS antenna.
 
Back
Top