Garmin 196 repair

[Petrodactyl]

Hi All

My 196 has lost its ability to locate satellites - making it into a very expensive lump of plastic.

Try going online to find out where and how you can get it repaired in South Africa - If the information is out there I haven't been able to find it.

Can anyone help me?

I have been running it for 2 years without hitch using 2300mAh rechargable AA batteries - which somebody suggested could be a cause - but using the 12v lead or replacing with standard AA's seems to make no difference. Also, the manual seems to suggest that the unit is very tolerant of varying voltages.

Occasionally - once in every 30 times I turn it on, maybe - it finds the satellites and functions perfectly. But after switching off and on again it is likely that it won't work.

I would greatly appreciate any assistance

Christian

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Check your aerial connection or try a external one. I know when mine was in storage for 3 months a while back it took forever to find the sats first time out then was 100% again.... if plugged into a 12V supply the batteries make no difference....

[Petrodactyl]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the aerial. Otherwise, who can repair it?

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Am sure any of the avionics shops - Dart or Clifton at Rand for eg? If they can't do it they will be able to point you in right direction.

[Stephan van Tonder]

There has been a lot of 276 296 etc that in the last while had initial locate trouble. Try a cold start - so basically take the option for start that says stored without batteries and then leave it for a while. Should pick them up again.

[Petrodactyl]

I wondered if it could be a weather, interference or sunspot problem, but my nuvii still works fine and a friends etrex that I borrowed as a backup also found the satellites instantly. Is this something that has only been happening with the 196, 296...etc?

I am in Jo'burg next week so I'll try to get it looked at at Rand.

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Maybe take a pic of the screen after you turned it on. The process described by Stephan below has worked for me in past.

[Stephan van Tonder]

There was a whole bundle of reports on 276's on the Landcruiser club with the same problem and my own did the same early in December a couple of times. It seems ok now. I don't know if maybe they flashed the satellites with new ephemeris data or something and yes it seems to have mostly affected 196 276 296 series. There really doesn't seem to be a good explanation forthcoming from anywhere.

[RV4ker (RIP)]

I ahve 196 & 296 and niether have missed a beat in last 6 months? I fly almost every week?

[Stephan van Tonder]

That is why I said I think they might have flashed data. Guys that have constantly or regularly used them didn't have trouble as they had very recent data. Machines that has been off for a while seemed to struggle to come back up and you had to do a cold start so it requests all the satellite data from scratch.
Ephemeris data is a data set that is stored on your GPS and it tells the GPS which satellites should be where at which time - that means that if you do a hot re-start it uses this data and looks for the satellites that it thinks should be in the sky at that time/position. If they are not there or their numbers have maybe changed or something such then it simply seems to fall over. When you then say - OK do a cold start it will go into aquisition mode and say - OK scan the sky and see which ones you can pick up and it then updates the ephemeris data on the machine again. That is why the machines like 276/296 /196 has a fast hot start because it uses this stored data. If not it would have to go through a full sky scan everytime. Now if something changed in that data set while your machine was off that could explain why it could not re-aquire satellites that it thinks should be there. If your machine was on while they flashed data well it would simply have recieved and stored that and had no re-start problems. That is my theory anyway

[Petrodactyl]

Okay - I don't have a spare aerial or an external aerial to use, so I didn't try that, but I did try the cold start - the 'Stored without batteries' option on the menu after it had failed to aquire the satellites. It takes a while - about 9 mins or so, but it does then find the satellites and runs fine. However, after switching off, it is back to square one on the next startup.

I suppose I can always switch the thing on as soon as I get to the airfield, do my preflighting, push the plane out and it should be ready. Just strange that it never used to do this. Could it be a software problem? If so, how would I fix it?

[Mogas]

Maybe your internal battery which needs power to store data is simply flat, my very old Garmin GPS3 does that if left unused for a while and I know its memory battery is shot.

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Maybe your internal battery which needs power to store data is simply flat, my very old Garmin GPS3 does that if left unused for a while and I know its memory battery is shot.

Yip that sounds like the problem. I had a GIII and can confirm once replaced the battery (internal) it was 100% again.

[Petrodactyl]

Thanks Guys

A #*%$ed internal battery sounds like the answer. I notice that when you do a cold start /autolocate, the satellite positions on the sky view change position - as if the GPS thinks it is in a different part of the world.

Will any of the avionics shops replace the internal battery for me? Can I do it myself? If so, where can I get one?

I want to start training for the nationals and want to use the GPS as a logger.

[Stephan van Tonder]

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/s ... hp?t=32265
Check out particularly post no 13 on that thread.