Community Forums

1atom12 · 06-08-2020, 08:13 AM

Greetings All,
Headed out for the weekend and the Rand McNally GPS was perfect. Left the park yesterday to return home and for the first 20 minutes of the trip the GPS screen was showing the no GPS warning sign on the screen. I have done a bunch of searching the site today. I last updated my SD card around Christmas. I plan on pulling the card and update on my computer, but I also wanted to check to make sure the GPS antenna is still where it is supposed to be. I do not know where the GPS antenna is on my 2017 Cornerstone. The GPS unit is in the cabinet above the driver's seat. It is pretty warm in there BTW most of the time. My searching also revealed that I may need to vent that cabinet and possibly add a cooling fan to keep the Rand McNally unit cool.

Again, if anyone knows where the GPS antenna is on a 2017 Cornerstone, I would appreciate it.

BTW, the GPS signal kicked in about half way home and stayed locked in until we put her away.

Thanks in advance!
Adam

Gary.Jones · 06-08-2020, 09:24 AM

I dont know where the GPS antenna is on your coach. I DO know where the GPS unit is on my 19 Cornerstone, and it is right under the faux wood panel on the dash right inside the door. If I remove that faux wood panel, there is a bundle of wires.... one of them is light blue, and it is clearly marked "GPS antenna". it needs to be worked around so that it is always on top of that wire bundle (zip tied together into a bundle) so that it has the best shot of "seeing" the sats through the front window.

Now, I have also had the GPS simply stop tracking sats and not be able to figure out where it is.... that happened about two weeks ago.... could not figure out where it was in my house community, or for entire 90 miles west to Tyler on I-20. Shut the coach down for lunch (turned off the Xite unit totally), and 45 minutes later, fired up to continue to Lewisville and the GPS had no problem knowing where it was (no change to the antenna location)..... My only guess is that rebooting the system and starting again on our trip reset something and it worked just fine.

Gary

Magic-carpet · 06-08-2020, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1atom12

Greetings All,
Headed out for the weekend and the Rand McNally GPS was perfect. Left the park yesterday to return home and for the first 20 minutes of the trip the GPS screen was showing the no GPS warning sign on the screen. I have done a bunch of searching the site today. I last updated my SD card around Christmas. I plan on pulling the card and update on my computer, but I also wanted to check to make sure the GPS antenna is still where it is supposed to be. I do not know where the GPS antenna is on my 2017 Cornerstone. The GPS unit is in the cabinet above the driver's seat. It is pretty warm in there BTW most of the time. My searching also revealed that I may need to vent that cabinet and possibly add a cooling fan to keep the Rand McNally unit cool.

Again, if anyone knows where the GPS antenna is on a 2017 Cornerstone, I would appreciate it.

BTW, the GPS signal kicked in about half way home and stayed locked in until we put her away.

Thanks in advance!
Adam

The antenna is located behind the dash panel. Its magnetic and its supposed to be mounted to a piece of metal that is glued to a plywood board. Our metal plate was not glued so the antenna finally fell down way behind the dash and lost its signal. I'll see if I can find the post that talked about it long ago... Here it is:

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/gps...on-350464.html

1atom12 · 06-08-2020, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic-carpet

The antenna is located behind the dash panel. Its magnetic and its supposed to be mounted to a piece of metal that is glued to a plywood board. Our metal plate was not glued so the antenna finally fell down way behind the dash and lost its signal. I'll see if I can find the post that talked about it long ago... Here it is:

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/gps...on-350464.html

Perfect! Thank you so much for this... Any idea how I can access this area to find the antenna? Do I pull out the two screens? I would hate to dive in the wrong way and break something... Thanks again

creativepart · 06-08-2020, 10:53 AM

You might want to wait and see if this is a continuing issue. We've lost GPS signal 3 maybe 4 times in 3 years. It's always temporary and seems location / weather related.

Magic-carpet · 06-08-2020, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1atom12

Perfect! Thank you so much for this... Any idea how I can access this area to find the antenna? Do I pull out the two screens? I would hate to dive in the wrong way and break something... Thanks again

I believe you can get to it by removing the panel directly in front of the steering wheel. Five or six screws in that panel. Just pull it towards you gently and you should be able to get into the area with the antenna. It’s been a few years since I was into that panel so I don’t remember all the specifics.

1atom12 · 06-13-2020, 01:59 PM

Welp, as is always my luck, the antenna was not in any of the previous locations mentioned by others. I finally found it stuck to a metal plate which they mounted underneath the DVD player and Rand GPS in the upper left cabinet. Literally under two major electronic components. No wonder it was struggling for signal. Inside our storage building, I was getting no GPS signal. I relocated it in the cap area above the GPS unit and now the signal reads high with 14 satellites inside the building. Picture of the factory location attached

Magic-carpet · 06-14-2020, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1atom12

Welp, as is always my luck, the antenna was not in any of the previous locations mentioned by others. I finally found it stuck to a metal plate which they mounted underneath the DVD player and Rand GPS in the upper left cabinet. Literally under two major electronic components. No wonder it was struggling for signal. Inside our storage building, I was getting no GPS signal. I relocated it in the cap area above the GPS unit and now the signal reads high with 14 satellites inside the building. Picture of the factory location attached

Thanks for the update. I'm surprised that you found it up there. Did you buy the coach new? And you are correct, getting some fresh cooler air to that head unit in the 17's would be good.

1atom12 · 06-14-2020, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic-carpet

Thanks for the update. I'm surprised that you found it up there. Did you buy the coach new? And you are correct, getting some fresh cooler air to that head unit in the 17's would be good.

We did not buy the coach new. One owner used from NIRVC. However, I can say for sure that is where the factory mounted the antenna. The plate was screwed down to the wooden cabinet. No way to get it out of there unless I pulled the DVD player and GPS out to get to the screw. Just glad I now how awesome signal in the new location.

Lasmck · 08-02-2020, 05:43 PM

Plenty of threads on this topic, but I have never been able to find the antenna in my unit. Tried all the obvious in the wiring rats-nest under the faux wood panel, any other suggestions?