Just over a week ago my wife got a GB WTX watch. We've taken to 3 different courses. It takes forever to pick up a signal. The last course she was at it connected on the 7th hole and lost the connection again on the 9th hole. We did some internet before buying at it was rated quite well. The instructions explain how to reprogram the watch. Did that . Took an hour and 20 minutes. But I thought if it works great. Go to the golf course the next day and the same thing , won't connect in a reasonable amount of time . Anyone else have any history with a Golf Buddy watch? Sending it in for service, maybe we have a dud.

Have a Garmin and haven't had that issue. Is it possible the satellite signal is being blocked by trees etc... in those areas? I've had issues with satellite watches and radios in trees and canyons.

quote:

maybe we have a dud

Sounds like it - a simple networking issue or you are far off the beaten path.
My old Callaway hand held unit (now defunct) never had a connection problem.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

maybe we have a dud

Sounds like it - a simple networking issue or you are far off the beaten path.
My old Callaway hand held unit (now defunct) never had a connection problem.

Been to multiple courses. Quite often you're out in the open. Signal can't be bad everywhere.

I have a Garmin G5 that takes a little bit to get signal at first and one spot on one course I play it has trouble. Other than that, it is great. It sounds like yours maybe faulty.

Golfed in a scramble Monday and one guy in our group had a garmin. It was dead ass on every shot. I was checking his watch against my rangefinder on the flag, not a cheap one either, never more than a yard or 2 off.

quote:

Originally posted by kramden:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

maybe we have a dud

Sounds like it - a simple networking issue or you are far off the beaten path.
My old Callaway hand held unit (now defunct) never had a connection problem.

Been to multiple courses. Quite often you're out in the open. Signal can't be bad everywhere.

Agreed, sounds like a bad unit.

I have a Bushnell ion and it’s been great for me. Garmin has a good performance record as well. I’d suggest those two companies. I have two or three friends who did not have good experiences with Golf Buddy.

A basic GPS device with no cellular data connection should take at most 2-3 minutes to get an initial fix, during which time it is figuring out which satellites are above the horizon, where they are, and which ones it can use to most accurately calculate its position. After that, it should maintain a solid position fix indefinitely unless you are indoors or surrounded by mountains or tall buildings (e.g., basic GPS devices don't work very well in Manhattan).

The reason for the no internet connection caveat is that there's a thing called A-GPS, where devices with cellular connections can get a much faster initial fix (a few seconds) by getting an approximate location from what cell tower they're connected to and by downloading a list of where all the satellites are from the internet.

quote:

Originally posted by snoris:
I have a Bushnell ion and it’s been great for me. Garmin has a good performance record as well. I’d suggest those two companies. I have two or three friends who did not have good experiences with Golf Buddy.

That's the trouble with doing on line research. May or may not be accurate. Golf Buddy had good reviews, for what that was worth.

Get a Garmin and make sure that it's a model that supports BOTH GPS and GLONASS. Note, GLONASS is the Soviet version of GPS and that added constellation of satellites provides a vast improvement in Acquisition and Accuracy. What used to take about 5-7 minutes for acquisition with my Garmin Forerunner 15 (GPS only) now takes about the time it takes to lock my door with my Forerunner 235 (GPS and GLONASS).

I've had garmins. only needed at most half a minute turning it on at the course to get it to figure where it was at.