Garmin Edge 500 vs. Trees
 

Has anyone else had trouble with trees'? When first trying to get the satellite for your ride to be recorded.

I live in a small town(Pop. 500), that has lots of trees'. When I am outside of town in the city that surrounds the town. The satellite has no problem.

Generally, no, and I live near a very tree-dense state park, although it does have a normal road that cuts through it. The rule of thumb is let the Garmin come on completely, go to the main computer screen showing the speed, time, etc. and you should be synched to satellites by then. This process takes longer when you're in an area where you've never ridden.

The improvement that occurs once you leave the trees could be due to either the absence of the trees or the fact that your unit has locked on to more satellites by that time.

I have that problem in NYC with lots of tall buildings. It sometimes takes a few minutes. I'm using a Garmin Edge 200.

A couple of years ago I read something online where a biker did an extensive comparison of a Garmin 305 on a tree covered route versus a less or no cover route. His findings agree with what you are experiencing. I use a Garmin 510 with a ANT distance/cadence sensor. I think this helps to counter the tree problem also there have been a couple of firmware updates of the GPS radio. Have you installed the firmware updates for the 500? I use to have one and I think the last 1 or 2 updates addressed the GPS radio.

I live in an area with very dense deciduous tree cover and have little problem with my 500 and 705. I sometimes use the 500 mtbing in the woods and except for decreased positional accuracy haven't had an issue.

If you're having trouble getting and initial lock it may be helpful to reset the device as follows. Save or upload any data on the device and make a note of your setting as you'll have to redo them after the reset.

Master reset: All settings, activities, and satellite data may be erased

1. Power device off
2. Press and hold Page/Menu, Start/Stop and Power simultaneously
3. Release buttons when the word "Garmin" disappears

After the Edge 500 is reset, it will walk through the initial setup. After completing this, leave the device outside with a clear view of the sky for approximately 15 minutes to acquire satellite data.