Meade LX 90 wrong date

[S.A.M]

Hello SGL,

Hopefully somebody will be able to help me out about wrong date?

I went out last night to do some viewing, going thru my usual set ups (after getting GPS fix) I went to first star align (Arcturus, after putting scope in home position), telescope should have gone left but for some reason it went right!  I re did set up on another two tries and both times the scope went right, er?   Next time I let the scope go thru whole set up and decided to manually check date, time etc.  Time was okay but for some reason date was 25 Aug 2099, time travel for the scope?  I did have a viewing session after I did a manual input to change date.  Any way I tried to set up again this morning, time was fine but for some reason date was reading 26th Aug 2099?  Is there a problem with GPS system or do I have a problem with the hand controller or something else within the scope?

If anybody has seen this before or has an idea of what is wrong I would be most grateful for an answer as I am at a total lost for ideas.

Thank you in advance.

Peter

[gajjer]

Is this related to the week number roll over ( WNRO ) with the satellites. I know it affected my satnav.  Google satnav WNRO. The last time this happened was 1999. The rollover was due to happen on 6th April.

HTH

Gaj

 

[AstroFin]

Hi Peter!

I think Gaj is correct, it is most likely due to the recent GPS epoch. This has affected Celestron telescopes as well. From now on you need to manually set the time and date. Check this thread on Cloudy Nights forum for more info: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/656941-party-like-its-1999-gps-gets-wrong-date/#entry9284685

Clear skies,

Tomi

[S.A.M]

Hi Tom and Gaj,

Thank you for that, I will look into the thread and see what that can help me?

Peter

[michael8554]

For the moment, this from the guru's on the yahoo LX200 GPS forum, should include the 497 Autostar firmware used on the LX90:

 if you are "aligning" vs "unparking"

just let it fix, manually change the date only and then align,

It should work OK

Meanwhile, we are working on a patch to cover it.

[michael8554]

The Autostar II fix is imminent, then the 497 Autostar, then the AudioStar

Michael

[michael8554]

The fix will be:

All it will do is say

If YY < 19 or YY > 50, add 1024weeks to the YY data

Any working GPS's will return YY = 19 or greater for the next 19 years

so the code fix will get bypassed and the actual returned

date will get used.

[conspicuity]

Quote

This thread is SO useful. After nine days changing button cells, resetting firmware, aligning and re-aligning... what a relief! Thank you!

 

[michael8554]

The fix has been issued.

Look for an April 2019 date

Gday All

Just a heads up, the GPS Rollover patches for the LX200s and 497 "Autostars"

are now up on the StarPatch ( many site thanks to Chris Carson )

http://www.stargps.ca/downloads.htm

The patch works in the same way as all others, but the new "Rollover"

option is not selected by default.

If you need that specific fix, just select the default patch options

as per usual, then select the GPS rollover option

and any others you might "like" to have.

I have tested best i can with both with my failing GPS lumps 

but have no ideas if there are any other oddballs out there , 

so all feed back on anything odd is welcome

Have fun

 

Andrew Johansen Melbourne Australia

[michael8554]

You can fix your scope's GPS problems by downloading and installing our free patch kit for the Autostar's firmware.

 

It requires a PC-to-scope connector cable and (depending upon your PC) perhaps a USB-to-serial adapter.

 

Then visit http://www.stargps.ca/starpatch.htm  to pick up the free (for this purpose) StarPatch program.

 

If you can have your PC attached to the scope and, at the same time, connected to the internet, it becomes a case of:

(a) hook it up, turn on the scope.

(b) fire up StarPatch and tell it what kind of Autostar/scope you have

(c) it will offer to fetch the newest patch kit (v21 for v4.2g in the Autostar) and firmware,  let it do so.

(d) you will be presented with a "tick list" of features in the patch ... scroll to the bottom of that and tick the 

[Fix GPS Rollover bug]                  choice.

(e) then tell it to proceed with the process ... it has a progress bar, and takes about 15 minutes.

(half of it goes very quickly, and half at "Meade speed" (paid-for copies of StarPatch do it all quickly).

(f) when it tells you it's done, you may exit StarPatch, turn off the scope and disconnect everything.

 

That's it.   The patch adds 1024 weeks to the (wrong) date it gets from the GPS receiver.

The receiver will properly work out your position.

 

have fun

--dick

p.s. "GPS Problem"?  No ... it was a known design compromise in the old GPS signal.  Some receivers (such as the Sony that Meade used in the early LX200GPS in 2002) handle it properly.   There are many work-arounds, and the Autostar's updateable firmware makes it relatively easy to address.

Our patch will also handle the problem if the Sony should mess up within the next few years.

[S.A.M]

Thanks Mike,

I will have to link my scope to the computer and hopefully get the problem solved, currently I am using the old version of putting everything manually.

Peter

[michael8554]

Meade have issued a fix for most  of their mounts but not yet for the LX90 / ETX version of Autostar.

But reports are the fix is flaky, so hold off until they have fixed the fix !

Michael