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Salty_Dog
03-01-2010, 11:19 AM
I have 3 friends that all have Navman Tracker GPS units.

All colour and all suffering one or 2 common issues.

1. Trouble acquiring sats on boot up or losing sats while under anchor

2. The back lit light that iluminates the screen has failed. Causing either a dark area in the middle or complete no screen operation.


I see from reading lots of Google searches, others have suffered similar issues, yet answers have been few and far between.
And worse, it seems dealing with Northstar/Navman is painful to useless at best.

Has anyone here suffered similar issues and found a solution?
Or is it a case of gather up all your marks and buy another brand GPS?

For such a common series of GPS units, i am amazed there aren't fixes around.
All i have seen is replace the internal battery or do a full default reset.
Neither of these are going to help the person with a stuffed back lit screen though.... can they be repaired? parts bought for them?

Oh yeah, all 3 units just use the internal GPS antenna, so chance of a poor connection with an external antenna.

Thanks for any help.

Crunchy
06-01-2010, 11:10 AM
Hey Salty

Have you searched the posts on Ausfish? There was a bloke who manged to open one up and replace the bulb...(see below you can have my old B&W and see if the bulb is the same)

But the bottom line is there are a LOT of complaints on here about the quality of Navman units...as for my experience, well I'll never own another navman product again...in fact that won't be hard as they will no longer be produced (Under Navman or Northstar brands)....after months of frustration of an itermittant problem and nearly losing all my marks I bought a Garmin and sat down and hand entered all the marks from the navman to the garmin....best choice you could make....

PS I have the B&W version (5430i) I'm about to biff it...anyone want it for parts? (Cable, mounting bracket, module for parts) let me know.

Salty_Dog
06-01-2010, 11:19 AM
Thank you Crunchy.

Members on this site are so helpful forthgiving.
I will look for that thread you mentioned. And nice to hear from another person that has had first hand experience with the failing Navman units, seems its time for a change.

My good friend i fish with (one of the chaps i am trying to help) is thinking of a Furuno GPS, but i have seen some great Garmin units out there.

Being an electrician, i might have a go at getting my mates unit apart to see if i can replace that lamp... nothing to lose at this point i guess.

Thank you for the heads up and the offer of parts, i'll call my mate and see where he is at with his failed unit.

Cheers

Salty_Dog
11-02-2010, 11:17 AM
An update.

The mate with the failed backlight, is getting a replacement head unit for $930 AUD (ouch!)

With the other units, we are going to try the Factory Reset idea. It has been suggested to help on a few forums around the net.

Question: Does anyone know how to preform a Factory Reset on a Navman Tracker?
Is it with in the Menu as an option or a combination of keys held down for a certain time?

Many Thanks

lampuki
11-02-2010, 11:50 AM
Hi.

With regard to the light issue, if setting the brightness does not resolve your problem, you are more than likely looking at a hardware issue.


With regard to not picking up sats... if you go to the satelitte page, how many sats, if any, are being picked up? and at what strength?

If you are picking up satelittes...how long was it since the unit was last powered on.....had it travelled a long distance > 350 km whilst turned off?

The reason why I ask is because I have a navman thats playing up......BTW a factory reset may not be what you need to perform....there is actually a GPS reset that I would suggest trying - as the factory reset did not solve my issue, and I was previously unaware of the gps reset function.

If me unit plays up again, I will try the GPS reset function, if that doesn't work, there might be a new shiny Garmin on my dash!

Salty_Dog
11-02-2010, 12:17 PM
Hey lampuki,

The unit with the failing back light was deffinately hardware related mate, as it first lost the edges and was just a poorly lit circle in the center of the screen, then it finally died altogether.

We have been through all the sat pages, it picks up Sats, some not GPS and you can watch it slowly picking up GPS sats, it just takes forever, and it seems to come good when you point the boat North???

The unit doesn't travel far when turned off, 3k's max... in fact, we turn the unit on at home so it hopefully has come good by the time we launch. Most times it does, sometimes it doesn't.

This GPS Reset you mention... where abouts is that in the Menu?

I have just read the manual and can't see it anywhere.

The other thing the unit does is loose position once under anchor for long periods.. Units starts Beeping and you have to go and hit ENT then it is ok again for a few minutes longer until it does it again.

Unit uses internal antenna, so its unlikely to be an antenna connection

Ultimately i like to load new firmware on the unit and see if that resolves the problems.
Being the kind of priority type unit it is, i doubt i will be able to do this.
And Navman/Northstar offer about as much support as Red Symons ;)

You'd think with both company's folding out of the market, someone from the Tech Dept would of posted some ROMS.... although it's probably just easier to buy another unit.

lampuki
11-02-2010, 04:53 PM
Hi.

My navman is a 6600, so maybe our options are different?

I think it might be new GPS unit time???....but as a last resort...

Have you tried leaving the unit on, whist the boat has been perfectly still (in the drive way would be ideal) for a period of an hour?

Google GPS almanac and you will see why I am sugeesting it.

Its my understanding that if a gps unit is turned off for a long period of time, or moves large distances without being turned on, the unit will stuggle to pick up a signal as its almanac will be out of date.

The units should automatically download this information, as long as the unit is still. The broadcasts happen every 30 minutes?

Someone with more experince than I might be able to provide more information, but this might be worth a go?



As I said before, if my unit plays up one more time, it will be replaced with a new unit.....its just not worth the hassle!

Salty_Dog
12-02-2010, 05:28 AM
Yes mate, we turn it on in the driveway every time now.
It just sits there trying to get a lock. Boat not moving at all.
We leave it on the GPS screen that shows how many sats are in range.


I just read about this "almanac" thing.... Well i can't imagine moving 3k's turned off is going to upset things too much.
But it sure does sound like a problem related to almanac data.
Although that doesn't really explain why it stops out at sea after it has been working.

Anyway, where is the GPS reset you talk about???
Has to be worth a try?

lampuki
12-02-2010, 07:47 AM
Hi salty dog.

My Boat is in for service...so i am running from memory....but the gps reset option was one of the options in the gps menu....again, the 6600 might be different to the 5505. When I get it back I will provide instructions.

If you cant wait that long, ring olbis communications.

Travelling 3 kms is definetly not the issue....i think you need to travel 100 s of ks before there is an issue....

Has the unit sat still for longer than 1 hr?

It might be new unit time?

Salty_Dog
15-02-2010, 10:39 AM
Thanks lampuki,

I will just look through the OSD Menu.
Yeah, i guess it is after an hour of sitting still or under anchor when it starts to complain.

Yes, new unit it is, just trying to hold it off a bit longer.
All data has already been removed in case it completely dies

SatNav
15-02-2010, 01:32 PM
1. IF there are numbers of similar make GPS receivers exhibiting similar problems since Jan 11, 2010 or Jan 25, 2010 (14 days latter) then this could be (and I say could be) due to ground control software updates implemented Jan 11, 2010 ???

2. What has occured with some civilian (and military) receivers that have worked perfectly for years have now suddenly failed due to the new control software being more tightly aligned with the systems specifications

3. This has highlighted latent receiver bugs due to some manufacturers short cutting and failing to totally adhere to the Interface Control Document

4. Note: This might not be your problem but there is already a confirmed list of affected receivers which manufacturers are currently in the process of fixing.

Salty_Dog
16-02-2010, 07:26 AM
Interesting info SatNav....

Our problems have been happening for 10 months, so perhaps not an issue with the units in question, but a nice share all the same.

So you are talking about software used at the Sat end? Not some kind of Software that is downloaded to each GPS unit in the form of an "Over the air update?"

Wouldn't be the first time a broadcaster has changed digital formats and the cheap Digital TV manufactures like LG start having locking issues.
But thats another story.

All interesting and i good bit of learning.... I think most people just turn their units on and watch them working, but its a different story if you need to force them to work ;)

SatNav
17-02-2010, 07:48 PM
"So you are talking about software used at the Sat end? Not some kind of Software that is downloaded to each GPS unit in the form of an "Over the air update?"

1. Yes with regards ground control software and NO it is not any form of over the air download. Nothing to do with changing digital formats.

2. System upgrades that confirm more closely with the Interface Control Document that will also force manufacturers to adhere more closely to the same specifications and not cut corners.

3. If this has been happening for 10 months then probably a different issue but could still be one of the other non compliant manufacturer issues that has happenned during this time.