Devices I have with a GPS reciever built in:
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Trackers? (Score:5, Funny)
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There are more GPS devices than you can believe - almost everything have a GPS chip built in, even though it's not always active.
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No, but it would be wise to put a GPS into your toast, so that you can easily locate it when ejected from the toaster.
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Leggo My Eggo!
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Lego(tm) my Eggo(tm)
Re:Trackers? (Score:5, Funny)
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Anybody got NSA's customer service email address?
All addresses.
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It should be "So Many I can't locate them all". Or. "So many, but I know exactly where they are".
Please explain (Score:1)
I can understand two or three, but I'm at a loss for how someone could have 6 or more GPS devices. Will someone please explain how it's even possible for a normal person to have that many? (Yeah, I can see how some rich SoB might have that many cell phones, but that doesn't count as "normal" in my book.)
p.s. My prepaid cell phone is dumber than a bag of rocks, so I voted none.
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I can understand two or three, but I'm at a loss for how someone could have 6 or more GPS devices. Will someone please explain how it's even possible for a normal person to have that many?
Cellphone (work+personal), tablet, fitness watch, in-car navigation system, (I'm struggling now), child/pet location device?
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15 year old Handheld GPS receiver...
Re:Please explain (Score:5, Insightful)
I can understand two or three, but I'm at a loss for how someone could have 6 or more GPS devices. Will someone please explain how it's even possible for a normal person to have that many?
Cellphone (work+personal), tablet, fitness watch, in-car navigation system, (I'm struggling now), child/pet location device?
In addition to a few handheld navigation-type GPS receivers and one for a car, I have six individual GPS timing-grade receivers (2x Motorola Oncore UT+, 2x Trimble Resolution T, 1x Garmin GPS 18x LVC, and 1x Trimble Thunderbolt) on or around my desk.
Naturally, this isn't something a typical person has, but tinkering with such things is one of my several diverse hobbies. Several ham operators I know have a Thunderbolt or other GPS-disciplined oscillator to provide a stable frequency reference for their radios.
A few friends have GPS-based emergency rescue beacons (they often hike or climb in remote areas where phone service is not available), while others have beacons so they can find their large amateur rockets.
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Two iPads
Two cars w/ navigation systems
Two cell phones
If you're married with kids, the number of small computers in the house go up dramatically.
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Doesn't only the cellular version of the iPad have a GPS? If so good for you I guess if you got the money to burn but I don't really see the use for a cellular equipped iPad and a cell phone (assuming the phone is a smart(ish) one). My telco robs me enough with one data plan :)
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Doesn't only the cellular version of the iPad have a GPS? If so good for you I guess if you got the money to burn but I don't really see the use for a cellular equipped iPad and a cell phone (assuming the phone is a smart(ish) one). My telco robs me enough with one data plan :)
Cellular iPads default to being pay as you go for data. Just go into the settings app and buy a few gigs of data when you actually need it.
Some people do have them on a plan... but even then some carriers have "family" plans where you have a single bill for multiple devices.
And if you actually do use a lot of data, then having a dedicated plan for the iPad works out fairly well. Lets do the math:
A 16GB WiFi only iPad is $499 from Apple Australia, but if I used it a lot with tethering I'd have to upgrade my
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Huh, cool. When I'm away from wifi I'm generally on a train. There I just watch TV (downloaded already) or read till I get home/work so not a factor. All comes down to what you want to do I guess. My cellphone has a 200MB plan and I've never came close. I'm around a computer ~14hrs a day though so have very little need to get my internet fix on a small screen.
Re:Please explain (Score:4, Informative)
Well in my immediate vicinity.
Samdung Note 2 - old phone
HTC Desire - oldest phone
HTC Desire HD - wifes old phone
Lg G2 - current phone
Htc Flyer - really old tablet
Nexus 7 - Cracked screen
Nexus 9 - Current Tablet
Galaxy Tab 10.1 - Old tablet
3 x HTC Sensations - Old work phones they were going to bin.
Samsung S2 - someone bricked it and gave it to me - fixed
Then a little further away I have a gps tracker that I use when I'm using my SLR. My canon snappy has a gps in it too. I have 1 gps unit in each car. An old TomTom one that sits doing nothing.
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I would hate to see what you have outside of your immediate vicinity, unless you tend to keep all your GPS devices around you all the time and the rest of your space is free of GPS.
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Lol. Probably. but my collection of random cables is way way worse
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He clearly enjoys tinkering with electronics. Why would he buy a product from a company as hostile to modding as Apple?
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I forgot to add the two iPhones that are in that collection.
On a more serious note there is no way that I would go to an iOS device. The lack of a dedicated back button is enough of a reason. The bloat ware that is iTune is another and the completely locked down environment is a third.
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What can I say, I like toys.... Also I am a very high mobile usage person racking up a couple of hours of talk time every day. As a result I am on the top plan my network provides. The upside is I get to choose a new phone "for free" every year.
At the moment I am firmly on the LG band wagon so will be getting an Lg G4 as soon as my carrier has them, in 6 months or so....
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In addition to what was already mentioned by others: planes, helicopters, drones, robots, cameras.
Yes, perhaps you don't have a plane or/and an helicopter, but some have. Many cameras come equipped with a GPS. If you are a hobbyist, you may have one or more drones, quadrotors, etc each with its own navigation module including a GPS.
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Some old phones that lie dorment in a drawer, an external GPS receiver from the time my phone could run navigation software but had no built-in GPS chip.
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As an Android developer I have a number of phones I use for testing, and two tablets, and a smartwatch, to a total of more than ten.
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My last 3 phones (I still have the old ones somewhere), two tablets, my old GPS navigation unit, a bluetooth GPS receiver I used with a laptop, one of my quadcopters, a USB GPS receiver...I think that's about it. And I've had several more that are long gone. I've been GPS navigating since the late 90s when I plugged a Sony Etak PCMCIA GPS receiver into my Libretto and fired up SkyMap. These days, I use the GPS in my current phone most of the time.
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1) New Smartphone
2) Old Smartphone that's sitting in a drawer somewhere
3) Tablet
4) Old or Builtin GPS in the car
5) Old or Builtin GPS in the other car
6) Hmm... an old GPS tracking device for hiking? Or maybe a location tracking device like a dog collar.
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As others have said, I have a pile of old cell phones. I currently have 6 iPhones of various vintage in my possession. I also have a few other modern-ish cell phones and tablets as cheap gadgets to play with. I'm sure I have older phones around here too (got some Nextels somewhere...), but I'm not sure on quantity or capability. My car has GPS. I also have a neat little GPS-powered digital speedometer HUD [amazon.com] that I bought for my motorcycle.
I'm pretty sure I'm still under 15, but somewhere around a dozen.
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I guess a question then becomes: why have a pile of old phones? Seems to be a common answer on this thread. I have my last phone mainly because I have to pay to dispose of it + take it to the middle of no where where the electronics recycling depo is and don't drive. I never got the idea of people having a 90's vintage blackberry or whatever that they never power on but hang on to forever.
Of course I also don't get people's fascination with getting a new phone every year. I use my phone for it's whole cont
Re: Please explain (Score:2)
Cellphone, tablet, watch, gps logger, camera, weatherproof motorcycle navi, pet/kid tracker, several anti-theft trackers (hidden inside my vehicles and a lawn tracktor), sports tracker (Trace hockey puck). I'm sure I forgot some I have.
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- Two automotive GPSs
- Six current family smartphones
- At least five older smartphones in drawers
- One of these: http://www.bendixking.com/AV8O... [bendixking.com]
- No doubt a few others I've forgotten
PS: this doesn't count the tracker in the Community Car Pool vehicle we sometimes have custody of (we consider it "ours" as it's home base is only about 100M away).
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I was counting only stuff that was actually mine. We have 5 cell phones in our house, but only 1 is mine. I'm also only counting devices which I actively use, not stuff that's sitting in a drawer and hasn't been turned on in 2 years. So I have my current cell phone, and my handheld GPS that I mostly use for tracking bike rides (with handlebar mount - not hand-held). If you've "forgotten" about a device, surely it shouldn't count. I'm actually surprised you don't see them built into more devices, Most la
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I can understand two or three, but I'm at a loss for how someone could have 6 or more GPS devices.
I have a drone with a GPS device, it will return to me if it loses signal from my controller.
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Every Cell phone sold in the US since 2003 or so has had a receiver chip built in, not always active, and for years not user accessible but mandated by law to facilitate 911 calls
That's not true. E911 compliance does not require a GPS chip. See E911 technology [wikipedia.org] and look at what it says about GSM systems.
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I tend to hoard my old electronics, for scavenging them for parts when I need them.
So, a dedicated GPS-Bluetooth ding that was horrible at both; I tried to use it with a netbook for geocaching, it didn't work out. A terrible idea, powered over USB but needing Bluetooth for communication and with enough quirks to make it useless.
my two old Windows Mobile phones, same cheap Medion knock-offs, after charger of one broke I found the other costing maybe 30% more than a new charger so I bought it, same model. Fun
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I don't own a car because I like city life and for the amount I use them can rent them on demand for less cost and parking hassle.
So, eight.
I do think, now that we are getting closer to the "personal area network" that people used to talk about,
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Samsung S4 Active (personal phone).
Iphone 5s (work phone),
Galaxy S2 mini (spare phone),
GPS usb dongle for my desktop PC,
Garmin satnav device in the car,
Garmin Edge 500 bike computer,
old Garmin handheld eTrex mono GPS ~8 years old now.
Easy enough to rack up the device count when a techie for long enough and involved in active sports.
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Not even "rich SOB", have many cell phones. Three Android devices, a featurephone, and a LTE modem, all with GPS receivers.
It's worth noting that device ages are:
I keep my old devices. No need to toss them, especially when you're poorer than shit - your backup strategy extends to equipment.
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It isn't really all that hard. I have 7, and only one of those is a cell phone. I have a very old GPS unit that barely works (and is in a box somewhere), the GPS unit that I replaced it with in my main car
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Oh, and I forgot to count the cell phone that I use for app testing at work (which is currently at home with me). So make that 8.
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I can understand two or three, but I'm at a loss for how someone could have 6 or more GPS devices. Will someone please explain how it's even possible for a normal person to have that many?
Also some cameras have inbuilt GPS devices for tagging photos (with commensurate security and privacy problems resulting).
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1 smartphone
1 tablet
2 Raspberry Pis that I use for RTK that have nice timing GPS modules that output raw pseudo range and phase data.
2 older handheld GPS units
1 older symmetricom time frequency device
Granted I am a bit unusual with that collection but given how many tablets and cellphones just come with a GPS unit it seems that a family could easily exceed 6 now days without much effort. Also a lot of vehicles now come equiped with SatNav so there is another one or 2 GPS enabled devices.
Missing humor option (Score:4, Funny)
"Do implants count?"
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Only if you consider yourself a Borg. In which case, there is no "you" but only "we".
does it have to be useable? (Score:1)
so many (Score:3)
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The problem with the response of "So many I can't count them all" is, in addition to duplicating the previous answer
I can count to infinity, so it isn't a duplicate for me.
1 or 2? Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems a lot of people don't know about half their GPS devices. Of course, smartphones...and what about the drawer full of old ones? Tablets often have them. Cars too!
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If your tablet has a cellphone radio (for example the iPad models that can tap into cellular networks), then it's likely be able be GPS-enabled.
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Nexus 7's are GPS-enabled whether or not they are equipped with cellular.
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It isn't advertised either. I used my nexus 7 to access some google maps, and I stopped at a light a half mile away and noticed it was tracking me. I have the WiFi only version. So google map cache quickly ran out. But it was trying to follow !my route.
Next road trip I am going to link the WiFi together or precache the maps
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Re:1 or 2? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes really. I don't have a car, so the only ones are my phone and my bike satnav. For those without a bike satnav substitute car satnav.
Not everyone has a tablet & a phone & a car satnav & a separate satnav & a second phone & a laptop. Some people limit their purchases.
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My phone does not have a GPS receiver, it does location tracking by the cell network itself.
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It seems a lot of people don't know about half their GPS devices. Of course, smartphones...and what about the drawer full of old ones? Tablets often have them. Cars too!
Lets see ..
1. I don't have or have ever owned a smart phone
2. My tablet is wifi only and doesn't have GPS
3. My car is 14 years old
You insensitive clod!
Yes, really. (Score:2)
Embarassing to say, but... (Score:3)
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Caveat (Score:1)
GPS receiver as such (Score:2)
I also counted my dedicated GPS receiver. I almost never use the GPS receivers in smartphones and tablets. The old Garmin eTrex on the other hand is a frequently used tool for fun with geocaching [wikipedia.org] for my family.
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You might discover that the GPS in a newer phone is better than in an older dedicated receiver. The newer chipsets have reduced power consumption and much improved features. In particular, the newer ones can use both GPS and Glonass, which improves accuracy and decreases time to first fix.
no recievers (Score:2)
Most people answered too low. (Score:3)
Your phone has one. Your tablet probably has one. Some laptops and even PCs have one. Your digital camera probably has one. Any newer car has one (whether it has a nav system or not). Your nav system obviously has one (possibly shared, possibly separate from the car's). I would expect just those alone to easily push the baseline up to 3+.
And that doesn't even get into niche products like toy "drones". Between me and my housemate, I would estimate my household owns no fewer than 9 GPS enabled devices (and I've probably missed a few), and only one of them actually takes the form of a handheld dedicated GPSr.
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You might be right, but you might also be the distant outlier. I'm pretty sure I have 2 -- one in my tablet and one in my satnav (not a built in one). My car is 8 years old, I have a very dumb phone that doesn't have one, I don't have a digital camera, my laptop doesn't have one, and I don't have a desktop. I'm not particularly atypical (okay, the fact that I don't have a smartphone is atypical, but if I did have a smartphone I wouldn't have a tablet, so that would balance out).
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I find it odd that "1-2" has the most votes - I have to suspect many people have no idea how many GPS receivers they really have.
Or that you are trying to project your experiences on to other people.
I am quite capable of counting GPS enabled systems that I own, and the answer is 2: My current satnav device and my previous satnav device. So for you to try and deny my reality is an indication of your personal bias.
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If you live in the US, your cell phone also has one as required by law.
E911 compliance does not require a GPS chip in the handset. See E911 Technology [wikipedia.org]. My handset definitely does not have a GPS chip in it, as/because I am also on a GSM network.
Also you are projecting that I have a cell phone in the first place!
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You do realize that you are a severe outlier not owning a cell phone, right?
You do realize that GSM is the default global standard for cell phones?
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Most of us assumed that the poll only refered to ''currently working" devices, and so didn't count broken tablets and old phones that have dead batteries etc since they don't actually receive anyhing
And I don't own a car you insensitive clod!
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Well technically they do receive the signal, they just don't do anything with it. My mouse, wallet, keys, coffee cup, everything is receiving the signal.
Re:Most people answered too low. (Score:4, Insightful)
I can count, thanks. I don't have a tablet. I don't have a laptop. And I'm quite sure my PC and camera don't have one. One phone, one car.
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Your phone has one.
No, it doesn't. It's not a smartphone.
Your tablet probably has one.
I don't have a tablet.
Some laptops and even PCs have one.
Mine don't.
Your digital camera probably has one.
No, I have four digital SLRs, none of them with GPS.
Any newer car has one (whether it has a nav system or not).
I don't have a car. Never even felt the need for a drivers license. I live in a bike-friendly place with excellent public transport.
Your nav system obviously has one (possibly shared, possibly separate from the car's).
Yes, I did count my two handheld Garmin GPS receivers. They have nothing to do with cars, though.
Perhaps your assumptions about what devices people own don't hold for everyone.
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Quite right! I clearly made a grave error in assuming the average Slashdotter as an American and not a Luddite. Mea culpa.
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As if not owning any smartphone, tablet or GPS-enabled camera would make you a luddite.
Sure, the parent post had a remark at the end that you could interpret as the author being a smart-ass, but you don't have to be a smart-ass in return.
Some people who like tech just happen to prefer other types of devices and other types of interaction than what you can get with a smartphone.
Garmin GPS receivers are considered by many to be superior to any service you can get on a smartphone. If you are used to using one
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Huh? A PC that is not a tablet or laptop is a desktop PC. Why would a desktop PC have one? Which one does?
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Maybe non-iPad tablets have a lot of GPSs I don't know. But (I think just anadocacoly) by far the wifi only iPad is the most popular iPad (if not tablet period): and it doesn't have a GPS.
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1) A GPS watch for running, biking, etc.
2) A Garmin navigation system that I only use when I travel to a strange city. ANd I usually forget it and leave it at home.
My phone does not have one that I know of. It is an old clamshell "dumb" phone. The battery lasts up to two weeks on a single charge, which would be astonishing if GPS were enabled... Aside: I never understood the fascination with smart phones, or why everyone thinks I need one. I spend all day at work staring at computer scre
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Not to mention a lot of people don't need nav systems. They either don't travel much or when they do they are flying somewhere. They know their local streets so never have needed one. My parents are that way. They just got a nav system 4 years ago when I moved way out of town so they wouldn't get lost on the way to my place. After 10 trips or so they knew the side streets well enough that they started leaving the nav at home again. I'm essentially the same way: I commute using public transit so I always pla
Real GPS (Score:2)
I have a handheld for work (Garmin 12XL). I used to have an old Garmin SRVY II also for work.
I have had two cellphones with "GPS Assist" which is something else entirely. I would love a cellphone with real GPS, but I suspect that would kill the battery usage.
I suspect many don't know the difference.
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I have no devices with a GPS reciever (Score:2)
I think six (Score:2)
I think I have six. Four are obvious:
- Current work smartphone (Galaxy Nexus)
- Tablet (Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet)
- Navigation system built into car
- Portable navigation system for use in rental cars (a cheap one, don't remember the name)
Plus two more:
- Old work smartphone (BlackBerry Bold 9000) sitting in a drawer
- Navigation system built into my old car - currently used by my mother (the car but not the navigation system...)
And my wife has two more:
- Work smartphone (iPhone 5s)
- Personal smartphone (Galaxy Ne
GPS "Reciever"? (Score:2)
None that I know of.
I do have a few devices with GPS receivers, though.
Not enough? (Score:2)
My NTP clock.
My Garmin GPS45 that I hacked so it would work above 90 kts.
My Garmin GPS12 which didn't have that problem.
My timing generator for my canopy network.
A few GPS modules.
My Tom Tom car naviation device.
My misc smart phones and devices.
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My NTP clock
What does your NTP clock have to do with GPS?
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GPS depends on extremely precise time measurements- there's an atomic clock on each of the GPS satellites- so it's a cheap way of getting a very precise clock. If you know the correct offset between GPS time and UTC, it will be extremely accurate, too.
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GPS depends on extremely precise time measurements- there's an atomic clock on each of the GPS satellites- so it's a cheap way of getting a very precise clock. If you know the correct offset between GPS time and UTC, it will be extremely accurate, too.
The GPS time-UTC offset is transmitted as part of the GPS almanac and virtually all receivers should interpret it as soon as it is received. From a cold start with an old receiver, this can take up to 12.5 minutes but most modern GPS receivers can get this in a few tens of seconds to minutes.
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Drone autopilot (Score:2)
Two devices (Score:2)
Recievers? (Score:2)
Spell Checker (Score:2)
Too bad Slashdot's spellchecker doesn't have a GPS so they could find it. "receiver"