Furuno GPS Rollover issues many Furuno gps’s effected

[chouliha]

I just saw this notice regarding Furuno GPS problems on Jan 1.

https://support.furuno.co.uk/en_US/n...QNJBwRyWbrRnJ0

[Jim Cate]

Hmmm.... a lot of instant junk has been created. The things they don't tell you at the boat show!

Thanks for the heads-up, Chuck, and Happy New and all that.

Jim

[Nord Sal]

Thanks for the warning. I found my unit on the list. "No remedy available." Ouch.

[chouliha]

Originally Posted by Nord Sal

Thanks for the warning. I found my unit on the list. "No remedy available." Ouch.

But the article does say something about a hard start. Not sure if that eliminates the problem ? It goes onto say it does not correct the date…..

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by chouliha

But the article does say something about a hard start. Not sure if that eliminates the problem ? It goes onto say it does not correct the date…..

My read is that the cold start fixes the position but not the date. Since the last time I used my GPS to figure out the date was........oh that's right, never...... I'm not too worried about it.

[CarCode]

Some GPS devices may stopp at midnight the 2nd January 2022. See e.g. here:
https://support.furuno.co.uk/en_US/n...r-january-2022
It is not a Furuno specific problem, but rather related to the week counter system on the GPS system, which is only 10 binary digits. That means at 1024, it goes back to zero. Unless the manufacturer anticipates this, your device will either lose position, show a date 19.7 years in the past or both. So please check your devices.

[muttnik]

Originally Posted by CarCode

It is not a Furuno specific problem, but rather related to the week counter system on the GPS system, which is only 10 binary digits. That means at 1024, it goes back to zero. Unless the manufacturer anticipates this, your device will either lose position, show a date 19.7 years in the past or both. So please check your devices.

The fact that for Furuno the “rollover” is happening now rather than in 2019 suggests they did anticipate it: I’m guessing they developed the firmware in 2002 and have some logic along the lines of “if week < 143 week = week + 2048 else week = week + 1024”.

If my guess is not flawed (contrary opinions welcomed :-) the question is whether customers should thank them for extending the life of their products by a couple of years or feel aggrieved that there was unadvertised built-in obsolescence with no facility to cope with an (anticipated) rollover.

Of course I don’t know until when they carried on flogging kit with this firmware in but how long should a consumer expect marine electronics to last? Personally I concede my autohelm ST50s are due an upgrade :-)

[deblen]

It also happened in 1999. Several models-including the original GP-30? became obsolete at that time.
Every 19.6 yrs.-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_week_number_rollover

[hoolie]

Does this week roll-over occur with Galileo, Glonass and BeiDou? Most modern GPS units seem to be able to handle at least one of these, so could possibly determine the correct week number for GPS.

[CarCode]

Here is a link to a list of all the affected Furuno devices with links also to informations, tools and updates of several Furuno devices:
https://amelyachtowners.groups.io/g/main/message/61662


Anyone has a list of other manufacturers?

[sailmaryann]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

My read is that the cold start fixes the position but not the date. Since the last time I used my GPS to figure out the date was........oh that's right, never...... I'm not too worried about it.

Has there been anything new on this topic? It looks like Furuno really screwed their customers, as the roduct was still up for sale 4 or 5 years ago, so having no update possibility is very uncommercial.
Has anyone found a way 'round it?

I don't much care about the date part, except that I have routes and waypoints that I'd hate to lose, plus my AIS is linked to my Furuno 32 (and I have a spare one, so possiby 2 obsolete units...).

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by sailmaryann

Has there been anything new on this topic? It looks like Furuno really screwed their customers, as the roduct was still up for sale 4 or 5 years ago, so having no update possibility is very uncommercial.
Has anyone found a way 'round it?

I don't much care about the date part, except that I have routes and waypoints that I'd hate to lose, plus my AIS is linked to my Furuno 32 (and I have a spare one, so possiby 2 obsolete units...).

Since it only actually impacts the date, I would recommend using one of the hundreds of other proven methods to determine date besides extracting it from your GPS and just move on. This is a tempest in a teapot that has zero actual impact on anyone besides the minor inconvenience of having to do a one time reset.

Here is a $10 calendar solution for the next 50 years if you're especially concerned about calendar obsolescence https://www.amazon.com/Walfront-Cale...s%2C198&sr=8-7.