Morning folks,
Let's go back to the basics here for a minute. I have a K5IIs and the O-GPS1 external unit which is a bit different than the K3II implementation, but they essentially work the in same way. There are TWO types of calibration and they MUST be done serially - one after the other. Let me explain.
- When you turn on or enable the GPS functionality (however you do it - K3II or through the O-GPS1), the GPS functionality goes out and locks on the signals from the GPS satellites. So, you really need to be outside. If you are indoors, the signals will be at best degraded and things will not go so well. Now, it tries to determine its current location. If the unit has been turned off for a long time (weeks/months), the internal clock has drifted and does not have the same EXACT time as the satellites (which each have very accurate Atomic Clocks). The satellite information is stale and will need to be required from the satellites. This takes a minute or so. If say you used GPS in the morning, got on a plane and flew a very long distance (cross country, across an ocean, etc.), landed and tried the GPS, it will be confused - since it will be assuming that you are in the same location as in the morning. It will need to get a fair amount of satellite data in order to find that you have moved. This can take up to several months (say the GPS was used several months ago in Japan and you are now in the US). Essentially, determining your current location and time. You can determine if this has been successful by looking at the GPS navigation page - and seeing if it has the time and location, along with the compass direction that the camera is pointing. If it has all of this, you are good to go to the next step.
- Once the GPS system has its current location and time, is synced up with the satellites, then you can do the CALIBRATION step. If you are trying to do this calibration while the GPS system is in the process of determining its current location, the Calibration is going to fail. See the above discussion. The Calibration step essentially ties the movement of the camera to the compass and the GPS unit. As you rotate the camera around each of the axis, it is watching the movement of the compass and GPS so that it will be able to understand how to move the sensor for your particular location and how the camera is pointed to the stars. So, if you are standing next to a large piece of metal - your car or truck, the compass may point to it - and become confused. Step about 10 feet away and try it again. Once the GPS understands its location and how the compass is slewing as things move around it, Calibration is finished and successful - you are ready to track and take pictures of the stars.
I believe that you will find that once you have synced up the GPS unit with the satellites, turned it off/disabled it and then a while later tuned it on again for use - you will find that its good to use very quickly - almost instantaneously. It is when you introduce a large change in something (location or time), where it's going to take a while to figure it out and get things setup correctly.