GPS Tracking 101

GPS Signal: GPS trackers determine their location by receiving signals from GPS satellites in the sky.  When out driving the trackers can usually see a dozen or more satellites and report a very accurate location.  The GPS signals will be hard for the tracker to receive if the vehicle is indoors or up against a tall building, and can completely disappear if the vehicle is underground. When this happens, the tracker will often report its last known location. So, once in a while your vehicle might show ‘moving’ just outside of the parking garage where it is parked, as the ‘moving’ event was the last event with good GPS lock.

Viewing GPS Strength: Clicking on a trackpoint will display the number of satellites the tracker can see.   

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  • Good Strength: Anything over 10 satellites (#Sats 10), should be a good location lock
  • Weak Strength: 6-9 satellites is low
  • No signal: 5 or less is essentially not seeing any satellites 

Improving GPS Signal: If your vehicle has poor GPS signal when out driving, the tracker might need to be relocated to a better position. For example, if your OBD port is very low, we have extension cables to allow you to move the tracker up higher in the vehicle for better GPS signal.  If your hardwired device is receiving poor GPS signal, it might need to be relocated to somewhere higher up, or away from metal. Contact our support team for installation/mounting options at support@clearpathgps.com

Communicating with our software: The trackers do not communicate with the GPS satellites, they only receive their coordinates from them. The trackers send their location, speed, heading, etc. to our software over the cell phone network (AT&T or Verizon, depending on your area).  If a tracker is in an area with poor or no cellular signal, the device will continue to track its location from the GPS satellites, and as soon as the vehicle returns to an area with cell reception the device will upload all of its stored data to our software.  This means that you will have the full tracking history of the trip, but it might be delayed in updating in the portal until the vehicle returns to civilization.