I couldn't find anything about this in the FEH manual. Anyone know why the compass reading changes color in the Nav System?? It will change from yellow to red to white. Most of the time it is white however. What is this telling me?

 

GPS versus internal compass versus inertial guidance, I believe.

 

I think that indicates GPS signal strength.

 

Orange (or red, I think it is more orange) = No GPS lock using dead recononing only

Yellow = GPS 2D Lock (2 or 3 Sat)

White = GPS 3D Lock (4 or more sat)

 

That would be 3 sats ... I'm pretty sure that GPS's can't calculate a position with less than 3.

btw: Do you know what 'dead recononing' means? "If you don't get it right, I reckon you're dead"

Actually, it's 'ded reckoning' ... or DEDuced Reckoning. Based on a known previous position + course + speed, you can deduce your current position.

david

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmgibbs

That would be 3 sats ... I'm pretty sure that GPS's can't calculate a position with less than 3.

I have been working with Motorola & Garmen GPS units while designing autonomous vehicles for the IGVC completion and I know that those units need at least 3 sats, maybe Visteon is changing color with 2 sats to show signal reception. Not sure, but I got the info from a reliable contact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmgibbs

btw: Do you know what 'dead recononing' means? "If you don't get it right, I reckon you're dead"

LOL!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmgibbs

Actually, it's 'ded reckoning' ... or DEDuced Reckoning. Based on a known previous position + course + speed, you can deduce your current position.

I've always seen it as "dead reckoning" ( I won't mention that I spelled reckoning wrong )

Webster has this ...

Main Entry: dead reckoning
Function: noun
1 : the determination without the aid of celestial observations of the position of a ship or aircraft from the record of the courses sailed or flown, the distance made, and the known or estimated drift

 

When it has two sats it's pretty close to getting a third, so that would be a reasonable indication of 'power'. Not precise, but adequate.

Many moons ago, when I was into sailing, all the navigation books I had always referred to it as 'ded reckoning'. The nautical literature is probably using the historic spelling, Webster is probably using the conventional spelling.

Doesn't really mater that much.