IS your GPS ready the 20 year rollover?

[mikeo16]

I have a 1998 Northstar GPS which has been fantastic. You still see these on a lot of boats. I am wondering if anyone has located a site which lists GPS units impacted?
Since Northstar is out of business, I can't contact them and would like to find out before I launch at the end of May

[CarinaPDX]

Contact Simrad - they are the successor to Northstar.


Greg

[mikeo16]

Thanks - I hadn't realized that - much appreciated!

[CapnBazza]

Originally Posted by Pete7

A good thing?

Definitely a good thing. My Lowrance units have recently been fixed by an update to correct a date/time issue. Fortunately my ipad had no problems during the period it took to design and release the update.

[Maka]

This is news to me. How do I determine if I will be impacted?
GPS came with the boat when I got it.....no telling how old it is.

[Argyle38]

Originally Posted by rramsden

Newer devices already handle this. At least for this rollover. If it's more than 5 years old, worry. Some older devices can be updated.
If your device can't/won't be updated, it's worthless, except for charts.
I know, sucks.
Given the recent changes in magnetic north, anything that can't be updated is in trouble.

What happened five years ago that made it more likely to be an issue for devices built before that? It doesn't sound like this was an unknown issue.


Do you have insider knowledge of GPS firmware programming practices?

[CapnBazza]

Originally Posted by Maka

This is news to me. How do I determine if I will be impacted?
GPS came with the boat when I got it.....no telling how old it is.

My Globalmap5200C did not have the date problem. I bought that in 2009. My HDS7 Gen 2 did have the problem but Navico released a patch which fixed it. Navico should be able to tell us if their models will be affected. They did not, as far as I know, do that last time.

[sagablu]

Originally Posted by Gruz

Does not bother me, My Tamaya Jupiter, Patek Phillipe pocket watch (manual winding) and paper charts will still be working after all humanity is gone let alone GPS.

Who will wind the watch if all humanity is gone?

[Brian.D]

This from the GPS.GOV

"Navigation solution should be OK since GPS time is internally self consistent, but associated time tags could be incorrect thus corrupting navigation data at the system level."

From what I am reading, the main issue is the timestamp of your fix. It might be off by 20 years. The actual Lat/Long should be fine. With this being the second epoch of the roll over, I would think only those GPS units that were first developed before the end of the first epoch (1999) would be affected. Maybe the next epoch in 2029 will affect units made during the first epoch (between 1980 and 1999). JMHO

[Emouchet]

The epoch is actually every 1024 week, so 1024/52=19 years and 36 weeks.
Not every 5 years...

[Brian.D]

Did I error?

[guyrj33]

Originally Posted by Emouchet

The epoch is actually every 1024 week, so 1024/52=19 years and 36 weeks.
Not every 5 years...

Also Shrew wrote "Epoch time stores the week number using ten binary bits. That means the week number can have 210 or 1,024 integer values, counting from zero to 1,023 in this case. Every 1,024 weeks, or roughly every 20 years, the counter rolls over from 1,023 to zero."

The GPS time system has absolutely nothing to do with UNIX epoch time.
Ignore what Shrew and Emouchet wrote. They have it wrong.

The GPS time system does use a 10 bit (1024) week number and it will rollover in April. This has nothing to do with UNIX time.

[guyrj33]

ep·och

/ˈepək/Submit
noun
a period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics.
"the Victorian epoch"
synonyms: era, age, period, time, eon, span; More
the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something.
"welfare reform was an epoch in the history of U.S. social policy"
synonyms: era, age, period, time, eon, span; More
GEOLOGY
a division of time that is a subdivision of a period and is itself subdivided into ages, corresponding to a series in chronostratigraphy.
"the Pliocene epoch"

[hellosailor]

Yes, this was big news the first time it happened--twenty years ago. At this point in time, all the equipment that wasn't THROWN OUT 20 YEARS AGO should continue working with no problem.

If there's some junk around that has an issue...I think most folks know how to deal with a dead GPS. If not, they'll figure it out.

[mathiasben]

hmmm.. anyone willing to speculate if my beloved Uniden Mystic GPS/VHF will continue to work?