GPS date problem

[dvarley]

My Comand 2 has suddenly started to show the date 14 Dec 1998. I cannot change the date, as it is greyed out. It apparently has something to do with the gps signal. I reset the date while the car was in the garage, as it could not receive a gps signal. As soon as I reversed outside the garage, it went back to 14 Dec 1998.

Has anybody else had this problem and can I resolve it. My car is an E320 cdi W210 model.

 

[Botus]

does the nav work (regardless of the date) ? its "normal" for merc's Nav antenna to die
they can be swapped fairly cheapy

 

[dvarley]

Nav works fine, I replaced the GPS receiver a couple of years ago. It’s just the date that is wrong.

 

[LostKiwi]

Sounds like a Comand issue. The GPS time signal must be correct to a nanosecond for location purposes.

 

[dvarley]

The time is spot on, it’s the date that’s wrong. I googled it and it does seem that it may be a satellite issue. Something to do with rollover weeks and binary clocks.

 

[L John]

As Kiwi says, clock including date has to be spot on to get the location right.
If you are shown in the correct location the clock is right, it's just displaying the year incorrectly on the screen.
Unless you reversed out of the garage at 88mph.

 

[LostKiwi]

I strongly doubt it's a satellite issue.
The satellites transmit their times (including date) and locations to a receiver. Based on the time offset of the satellite signals received the receiver can calculate where it is from each satellite and by triangulation of the offsets from each satellite of the time the signal was sent calculate it's location. If the time (including date) from the satellite is wrong the whole system fails. A satellite time error of 1 year would put you outside the orbit of Pluto!

What's far more likely is the Comand unit has forgotten how to derive the time in human readable form.

 

[dvarley]

Factory reset then and start again.

 

[John Laidlaw]

You have the rare Delorean special edition, this issue was often a problem when driving especially close to town clocks...

 

[John Laidlaw]

As Kiwi says, clock including date has to be spot on to get the location right.
If you are shown in the correct location the clock is right, it's just displaying the year incorrectly on the screen.
Unless you reversed out of the garage at 88mph.

I got it by the way....

 

[dvarley]

I have been known to leave nothing but burning tyre marks!

 

[Blobcat]

It's the millennium bug (at last...)

 

[dvarley]

Factory reset done. No difference. Date is 19.7 years behind. Does anyone know if it is the gps unit attached to the Comand unit which decodes the date signal or is it the Comand unit itself. The GPS receiver is two years old and only cost a tenner from eBay.

 

[dvarley]

This is a know problem in Europe. I found many people in Germany with the same problem. I’m surprised nobody else on here has the same problem. It’s seems the 20 year old Comand 2.0 is only good for a limited period.

 

[Botus]

the bit that intrigued me all along is where are you reading the date ?
and
if it navigates correctly who cares ?

 

[dvarley]

On the sys screen. However, you are right, it navigates fine, some it doesn’t really matter. I just wondered why it has done this.

 

[Botus]

what's a sys screen?

on NTG1 unit a secret eng menu isn't there if you run the latest firmware.... but need to check my father's car as one guy here suggests it kills CD units ability to play back MP3

By the way I was reading the owners manual and I didn't spot anything about the optional multichanger having MP3 ability at all

 

[stuboy]

I have the same problem, i'm back in 1998! have you managed to find a fix? GPS working correctly, just time is an hour out!

 

[dvarley]

No, problem not yet solved. My date is Feb 1999. Are you based in uk or Europe. It seems to be more of a problem in Europe. I have read many posts from Germany. It must be a software problem, but there are no updates for the software.

 

[stuboy]

Yes am in London, my date is Feb 99 as well!