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[OleCuss]

April 6/7 is a GPS roll-over date and my question is whether anyone knows if this will be a problem for our LS-6 and LS-8 units.

 

For those who do not know, the GPS satellites transmit date and time information to our GPS receivers and the provision for the week information is 10-bits of information.  That means that every 1024 weeks you run out of space in the data to specify a new week.  Effectively that means that your GPS unit is supposed to roll-over and start counting the weeks all over again beginning April 6/7.

 

But some older GPS units may not have firmware which will interpret things correctly and might kick out information indicating instead that the date is in the August 21/22, 1999 range which is when the last GPS roll-over occurred.

 

If the GPS receiver has been updated to the GPS ICD standard then this should not be an issue.  The week should be properly interpreted and we should not have issues.

 

But if our LS receivers are not set up to handle this, we may have some interesting issues?  So I'm curious as to whether anyone knows if we are going to have problems.

 

 

BTW, the newer standard is to use 13 bits for the information and it will be a very long time before we have this issue arise once again.  We had it 19.7 years ago and we have it now, but none of us are likely to be alive when 13 bits aren't enough. . .

 

 

 

And yes, I've not been doing much with my LS-8.  I got it, did first light, and my eyes went bad in a manner which is incompatible with the eyepiece.  That will likely get resolved but it may be a while.

[MistrBadgr]

I have sent an email to Luis in Customer Service, copying your post.  He did not readily have an answer, but he did remember some discussion about it at some point in the past.  He will see what he can do to get us a definitive answer.

 

Bill Steen

 

PS.  I am running a bit slow on things right now.  Had a disagreement with some black ice in my driveway a week and a half ago.  I now have a new stainless steel top to my right femer and a new ball for the right socket in my hip.  Did not see your post until just now.

[RickScofield]

WOW Bill you take it easy. I am sure you don’t have much choice right now. I hope you get up to speed soon.

Rick

[MistrBadgr]

Thanks, Rick!

[MistrBadgr]

I received a reply from Meade on the subject of the GPS satellite date number rollover.  Naturally, when I saw it I was a bit sleepy, and did not manage to save it properly.  Here is the gist of what Luis said:  Meade is aware of the issue and believes the software in the scopes will work properly.  They have not issued an official statement, but are working one one now.

 

Hope this helps and is accurate!

 

Bill

[OleCuss]

My apologies for responding rather late.  The effort and information is greatly appreciated!

 

I hope you have a relatively speedy recovery.  It's never fast enough. . .

[MistrBadgr]

Thanks for the well wishes!

 

Bill

[gfamily]

I had mine out on Wednesday evening - didn't really think about the GPS issue before switching it on - to be honest, it was still pretty light, so I didn't expect it to be able to get alignment as I didn't expect any stars to be captured by the camera. 

 

While it buzzed away to itself, I was busy manually setting up my other kit, so when I turned back to it. it came as a surprise to see it was claiming to be aligned.

To confirm that it was good, I told it to GOTO the Moon, it being the only object worth looking at - spot on. 

 

I didn't specifically check the date it was using, but I expect it to be good. 

[MistrBadgr]

Sounds like the LS can make it past that particular time barrier.

 

Thanks for the information!

 

Bill

[gfamily]

Sounds like the LS can make it past that particular time barrier.

 

Thanks for the information!

 

Bill

Yes, I'm hearing that at least one early version of the Celestron Nexstar GPS systems is reverting to a date in 1999, and there's no specific fix. Users are being given the 'options' of either buying a new handset or setting the date manually. 

[Marco]

Good day,
I haven't used my LS6 in a while, and after reading this thread, I gave it a try this evening...
It was like switching on a time machine and I was back in 1999 (

Anybody has a fix for this problem?

Thanks and happy Easter
Marco

[MistrBadgr]

Hi Marco,

 

I will give customer support a call tomorrow.  I am not sure if your time is set in the scope with a battery powered timer or if it picks up its time from satellites. If there is a timer, the battery for it may have gone bad.  I am not sure where such a battery would be located, if it exists.

 

Bill

[Marco]

Thanks Bill,

I do not recall being a backup battery on the bord...

I use it with external power supply.

[MistrBadgr]

Hi Marco,

 

You should be receiving a copy of my email to Meade.  They have a questionnaire that was mentioned that they should send you that can help them.  Verbally, I was told they are working on fixes for several scopes but do not have them ready yet.  Hopefully, we can get you in the loop for a fix as soon as they have one.  I am not sure why some LS scopes seem to be working and others not.  Possibly there was a chip or bios change somewhere along the timeline that allows newer ones to work correctly.

 

Best Regards,

 

Bill

[MistrBadgr]

Marco,

 

They sent me the list of questions to forward on to you.  I am not sure if your email in the file here is the one you currently use, so I thought I would copy the response I received from Chuck in customer support.

 

Hello Bill,

Thank you for forwarding this to me. Here are a list of questions that our engineering is asking customer having GPS problems to fill out:

We also would like to know what model  telescope, approximate purchase date, and the following:

• Does it get a GPS fix?

• Is the date after the fix set correctly?

• Is the time after the fix set correctly?

• Is the location after the fix set correctly?

• If the GPS did get a fix, but date/time/location is incorrect, have the customer go into the handbox and adjust the date/time/location manually to the correct values.  We have heard a report that if they then do an alignment afterwards, it may reset the clocks properly . They can then try the GPS again. It’s worth a shot.

 

Thanks Bill. If you are able  to forward this to the member who emailed you originally and get his response please forward it to me and I will pass it on to the engineering department. They are working on a fix as I type this.

 

Thank you!

Sincerely,

 

Chuck Word

[fjhdavid]

In the LS6, there is no way to adjust date time and location...

 

I didn't find it in the manual

[MistrBadgr]

Let me check with customer support and see if there is a hidden way.

 

Bill

[MistrBadgr]

I asked about an update for the LS.  I received a reply that it is not ready y et, but should be soon, and that in the mean time, the date/time/location can be set manually.  (which infers that there is a way to do it)  I replied back about fjhdavid not being able to find a way to set those, but have not received a reply back yet.  I am wondering if a manual setting option shows up if the GPS is turned off.  I will post an answer for sure whenever I receive one.

 

Bill

[MistrBadgr]

Here is the answer I received for manually entering date/time/location on an LS:

 

The customer can enter the date/time/location manually by pressing the MODE key when the telescope starts looking for GPS. This will happen shortly after the telescope boots up and before any night sky alignment takes place. They can also turn off the search for GPS in the SETUP/PREFERENCES menu.

 

Please post if this works for you.

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[fjhdavid]

thanks Bill;

 

very very intresting!

 

For the moment, I use the LS at the same place and I turned off the GPS (with the right GPS position and time stored). Nevertheless, I think that the time will become wrong after several weeks...

 

But, I am afraid to enter GPS routine and to be back to 1999...and that this trick doesn't work on my ls6