BRZ NAV system GPS signal issues?

[DSPographer]

Originally Posted by dwx

I did some more testing in my case and I found if I waited a few minutes in my driveway for the Nav to get good satellite reception it worked the entire same drive where it previously didn't work. I think it's when I start moving without it first syncing up it has a terrible time ever getting a satellite signal. This time around it never lost signal.

Tomorrow morning I'll try it again just leaving right away and see if it ever gets a good signal.

That was my thought too. The problem is when it never syncs- even after waiting 20 minutes or more.

[86design]

Originally Posted by sieeegel

I have been having trouble getting traffic results on my nav. It worked the first day amd then stopped working. Anyone else having those issues?

all the time


called my dealer have an appointment tomorrow at 730am

[n7011n]

I posted this in the technical section accidentally. Here it is again:

I just picked up my GBS Limited 2 days ago and drove over 800 miles from NY to Illinois without any GPS issues. Now that it is home though, the nav unit refuses to reliably lock on to satellites. I tried sitting in my driveway with the engine running and the sat lock screen visible and I'm only getting 2 sats (low on the western horizon) and they won't lock (green dots on sky view display). My iPhone locks in immediately. I know from my flying days that there are usually at least 6 sats that should be somewhere overhead at all times. I pulled the following from the FAA site:

"With the baseline satellite constellation, users with a clear view of the sky have a minimum of four satellites in view. It’s more likely that a user would see six to eight satellites."

I have to wonder if the head unit doesn't have a complete or accurate satellite position database as there should be more visible satellites.

I have to agree with other posts that once moving, the unit has a terrible time trying to lock into satellites. Once it does lock in, it seems fine.

Hopefully, Subaru will work on a fix for this as it is annoying to have the nav screen bouncing around. I prefer to turn the display off or leave it on audio.

[DarrenDriven]

Hey man, I added you to the list of NW owners:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6070

[Lytheum]

I noticed mine is dropping signal in the exact same spot without fail. sometimes it picks back up sometimes it doesnt.

[Longhorn248]

My navigation also loses signal suddenly and gets stuck in a loop trying to find satellites again. I think it's ridiculous that I can get turn by turn directions on my cellphone perfectly yet a purpose built navigation unit has problems. I'll talk to the dealer when I take it in next.

[DSPographer]

I noticed my map display showed my car moving way too fast when the nav had no satellites this morning. So, I think the wrong speedo value in the service menu picture I posted before is at least causing problems for the nav unit's dead-reckoning. This error might also have something to do with slow GPS lock while or after the car is moving.

[WRXGuy1]

Clear skies yesterday allowed me to travel to and through downtown Boston without issues, however whenever it's cloudy the GPS is pretty much unusable.

[switchlanez]

I lived in Seattle for a few months and occasionally go back for biz trips. My Android smartphone sometimes loses GPS signal for miles at a time because of, like you said, the cloudy weather.

The BRZ's touchscreen software is quite buggy. The GUI isn't as responsive as my mom's Prius' system, the graphics look a bit basic, I was able to get the radio to cover half of the map's menu buttons and had to reset the device to get out of it, it's frozen on me, and I can't delete past bluetooth devices from its pairing history (I'm a software quality assurance engineer for a smartphone company and ran some tests on this unit with our smartphones). It seems like Subaru contracted out a company to make this unit which isn't as mass produced as, say, a Pioneer AVIC or, in terms of navi-only systems, a Garmin. They don't have as large a team dedicated to this unit as other companies who regularly churn out significant maintenance builds to fix the smallest bugs. Those companies have the best software engineers in the industry retained from past product generations to improve their products with each generation. The BRZ unit was made seemingly only for North America with a contracted design team with which there seems to be no commitment of a product refresh and minimal maintenance releases, if any. Because this unit alone won't be a cash cow, resources aren't heavily invested in it. The GPS system is but one of many systems in this all-in-one system and does not seem as robust as other GPS systems. This is true for any factory in-car navi, unfortunately. Garmin units, aftermarket headunits, and smartphones have many people dedicated to the GPS system alone and see more continuity in terms of sustaining quality throughout a product lifecycle. For those other products, the GPS chipset maker (usually Qualcomm), the hardware maker's GPS radio engineers, and the software companies (like Google Maps) put tons of effort in pefecting the quality because consumer electronics products have more payoff.

[Longhorn248]

So based on Switch's post it sounds like we may not get much support for this thing. Has anyone done any research on a possible replacement?

[Opie]

The BRZ Audio/Navigation unit is made by Fujitsu Ten

[86design]

having so much problems with my navi...when i'm driving and I want to check if there's traffic ahead it doesn't show anything just a bunch of "0"

then if I want to search for an address or a location it doesn't let me push any buttons or I cant type in a location from where I want to go.

so sad....also just found out today that my telephone doesn't let me contact to my phonebook....

[DigDloppyFonkeyBick]

Follow up on my issue:

The dealer has had my car the last 3 days with Subaru NA technical folks onsite.
They couldn't replicate the exact failures I was seeing (what are the chances it would be sunny in Seattle?) But, they say they are seeing a difference in signal quality between my car and the imprezza with the same nav unit.
The likely outcome will be a TSB for new antenna placement once they work out where and how.

[Opie]

Originally Posted by 86design

then if I want to search for an address or a location it doesn't let me push any buttons or I cant type in a location from where I want to go.

Just hit the "Voice" button and you can tell the system where you want to go, then it will find it and plot the route....all by voice.