Old Navman GPS plotter

[PETERHAM]

When I bought Duchess 4 years ago, aboard was a Navman GPS plotter which is mearly 20 years old (as far as I can tell). It has performed well until recently. Whereas it used to take only a minute to acquire the satellites and compute the boat's location and speed, now it is taking anything between 5 minutes and 60 minutes to do that. Sometimes it stops calculating position -- presumably because it has lost some satellites.
Can anyone advise me on why its performance should have declined, and whether I can do anything to restore it? Might it be as simple as poor connection(s) between the antenna and the unit?
Grateful for your thoughts.
Peter

[AedanC]

Does it have a battery inside it that keeps a clock going? If so try replacing it.

[Dsanduril]

Could also be the GPS clock rollover that occurred on 6 April 2019? GPS satellites send time as a week from 0 to 1024 (about 20 years), then roll over to 0 again. Older devices can lose the almanac and otherwise fail because they don't know it's 2020 rather than 2000. Might be worth talking with Navman to see if they have a firmware update (even for a very old unit).

[PETERHAM]

Thank you for those thoughts. The unit's calendar did cope with last April's rollover. Shall check for battery. Peter

[Jim Cate]

Might be worth talking with Navman to see if they have a firmware update (even for a very old unit).

Even when they were operational, NavMan's customer support was abysmal... and they've been out of biz for a decade or more now. Too bad for those of us who bought their gear.

Jim

[David B]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Even when they were operational, NavMan's customer support was abysmal... and they've been out of biz for a decade or more now. Too bad for those of us who bought their gear.

Jim

Understood they were acquired by another company Jim. I am thinking Plastimo, but may be wrong on the name.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by David B

Understood they were acquired by another company Jim. I am thinking Plastimo, but may be wrong on the name.

IIRC it was Navico who bought them, but they don't exist as an entity these days. I'd love to get some support for my Navman a/p, but neither parts nor advice seem to be available.

Jim

[David B]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

IIRC it was Navico who bought them, but they don't exist as an entity these days. I'd love to get some support for my Navman a/p, but neither parts nor advice seem to be available.

Jim

Yes - that's the name, but then Navico were acquried by the Simrad group?