That infernal clock in my CL500

[C16RKC]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help!

I have a 2009 CL500, which I have just taken delivery of. I noticed the clock was wrong, and have tried to correct it, but for some reason even though the command time is now right, the clock on the dash is still 1 hour fast.

The time zone is set to UK, and it is set for auto daylight time saving.

I have googled and found lots of people have this problem on W221 and C216 models, but no-one seems to have found (or posted) a solution.... does anyone know what solves this?

Kind regards
Chris

 

[McDonald]

BST (for the next six months)

 

[RhodieBill]

Turn off Auto-Daylight....

 

[C16RKC]

Thanks guys!

OK - I'll try turning off Auto daylight saving and try setting the clock again.

As a thought, perhaps I should try setting it to a crazy different time too....?

I'll see what happens!

 

[tode]

Just an idea: I had a similar problem on my 221 - couldn't get to read the correct French time (even though "France" was selected).

I ended up setting it to German time and no more problems !

Can you set German time - 1 hour ?

 

[Craiglxviii]

The problem is the Auto DST. Check the date too...

 

[LostKiwi]

The problem is the Auto DST. Check the date too...

Troublemaker......

 

[C16RKC]

Had not thought to change the date.

I've tried setting to a different country yesterday, and it made no difference... which is odd!

 

[Craiglxviii]

Had not thought to change the date.

I've tried setting to a different country yesterday, and it made no difference... which is odd!

Mine is partying like it’s 1999 still...

 

[Wighty]

Does the car get any time updates from leaving it on BBC radio 4 . Because both my cars update at the clock change ?

 

[LostKiwi]

Mine is partying like it’s 1999 still...

And you know exactly why...

 

[LostKiwi]

Does the car get any time updates from leaving it on BBC radio 4 . Because both my cars update at the clock change ?

If a car has Comand and Sat Nav then it will get it's time from GPS and not from radio.
And this is where the issue comes about ...

Fundamentally the GPS system works on an offset from "day 1". The offset is a 10 bit binary number that increments and eventually rolls over back to zero. This interval is called an Epoch and is just shy 19 years in length.
What happens at the rollover is entirely down to the software in the GPS receiver.
Some will reset to the beginning of the last Epoch (typical Mercedes behaviour) and some will roll into the new Epoch.

Manufacturers can specify their own (day one) as an offset. This effectively offsets the start and end of the Epoch by that offset, hence not everyone will be affected by the official end of the GPS Epoch.

So ok that screws up the date. Why does it affect the time?
Well if you have auto daylight saving time enabled the date will affect the time as well as the Epoch is not an exact year when it ends. This means it will set the date a few months out and if that then pushes it over a summer time/winter time boundary the time will be out by an hour too.

Later GPS protocols have increased the number of bits in the data stream used to count the Epoch so with later hardware able to receive and interpret the later data streams broadcast from later satellites the date and time may well be correct sometimes (when it gets its time from newer satellites) and incorrect other times (when it gets its signal from older satellites).

What can you do about it?
Nothing. There is no firmware update from MB to fix it.

 

[Wighty]

If a car has Comand and Sat Nav then it will get it's time from GPS and not from radio.
And this is where the issue comes about ...

Fundamentally the GPS system works on an offset from "day 1". The offset is a 10 bit binary number that increments and eventually rolls over back to zero. This interval is called an Epoch and is just shy 19 years in length.
What happens at the rollover is entirely down to the software in the GPS receiver.
Some will reset to the beginning of the last Epoch (typical Mercedes behaviour) and some will roll into the new Epoch.

Manufacturers can specify their own (day one) as an offset. This effectively offsets the start and end of the Epoch by that offset, hence not everyone will be affected by the official end of the GPS Epoch.

So ok that screws up the date. Why does it affect the time?
Well if you have auto daylight saving time enabled the date will affect the time as well as the Epoch is not an exact year when it ends. This means it will set the date a few months out and if that then pushes it over a summer time/winter time boundary the time will be out by an hour too.

Later GPS protocols have increased the number of bits in the data stream used to count the Epoch so with later hardware able to receive and interpret the later data streams broadcast from later satellites the date and time may well be correct sometimes (when it gets its time from newer satellites) and incorrect other times (when it gets its signal from older satellites).

What can you do about it?
Nothing. There is no firmware update from MB to fix it.

Is this why older MB's are called timeless classics ?

 

[C16RKC]

Ouch... no easy fix then!

 

[Craiglxviii]

And you know exactly why...

Because it’s eaten it’s Hankooks since ****** November, that’s why...

 

[LostKiwi]

Because it’s eaten it’s Hankooks since ****** November, that’s why...

Ouch!

 

[ajlsl600]

If a car has Comand and Sat Nav then it will get it's time from GPS and not from radio.
And this is where the issue comes about ...

Fundamentally the GPS system works on an offset from "day 1". The offset is a 10 bit binary number that increments and eventually rolls over back to zero. This interval is called an Epoch and is just shy 19 years in length.
What happens at the rollover is entirely down to the software in the GPS receiver.
Some will reset to the beginning of the last Epoch (typical Mercedes behaviour) and some will roll into the new Epoch.

Manufacturers can specify their own (day one) as an offset. This effectively offsets the start and end of the Epoch by that offset, hence not everyone will be affected by the official end of the GPS Epoch.

So ok that screws up the date. Why does it affect the time?
Well if you have auto daylight saving time enabled the date will affect the time as well as the Epoch is not an exact year when it ends. This means it will set the date a few months out and if that then pushes it over a summer time/winter time boundary the time will be out by an hour too.

Later GPS protocols have increased the number of bits in the data stream used to count the Epoch so with later hardware able to receive and interpret the later data streams broadcast from later satellites the date and time may well be correct sometimes (when it gets its time from newer satellites) and incorrect other times (when it gets its signal from older satellites).

What can you do about it?
Nothing. There is no firmware update from MB to fix it.

another P.I.T.A fd by tech again wot happened to that little knob in the middle of the clock,2 secs job done . no asprin ..progress.!

 

[ajlsl600]

Ouch... no easy fix then!

cud try parking car till clocks change,and hope the damn thing dont decide to move another hr...aint tech fun.

 

[Botus]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help!

I have a 2009 CL500, which I have just taken delivery of. I noticed the clock was wrong, and have tried to correct it, but for some reason even though the command time is now right, the clock on the dash is still 1 hour fast.

The time zone is set to UK, and it is set for auto daylight time saving.

I have googled and found lots of people have this problem on W221 and C216 models, but no-one seems to have found (or posted) a solution.... does anyone know what solves this?

Kind regards
Chris

its a KNOWN issue with the epoch settings of the car and badly made satellites.... because they don't last long most satellites work on an odd 19 year cycle... and if still spinning round the world reset to 0 every 19 years. The current 19 year cycle comes to an end shortly, so your clock and sat nav will soon go properly wrong.

However it seems that some satellites clocks were build even more strangely than that and a few rouge ones changed to year 0 a year early in 2018. It became noticeable on cars running the NTG 3 comand system in October last year (a few others models went mad in May last year)

On currently supported cars there is a very recent software update, updated cars now have a hidden 19 year epoch selection option... hold comand knob to the left for 5 seconds and pick the next 19 year cycle there's are 6 choices.

But that's on new stuff yours will probably just have a broken clock and no traffic on the sat nav for ever more... a TIPS document suggests to reset the comand unit for the NTG3. But it will do nothing other than delete your previous nav addresses and phone book so don't do it

https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threads/time-and-date-adjustment.171750/

 

[LostKiwi]

badly made satellites

Really?
The 19 year Epoch is a function of the GPS standard, a standard originally designed for navigation, not for timekeeping.
As stated earlier the Epoch is a result of a 10 bit data stream used for elapsed time since Epoch start. I've never heard of rogue satellites changing a year ahead? Are you sure it wasn't a version of software with an offset programmed differently in some say Nav units? GPS units can be programmed with an offset which will give them a different rollover date to other GPS units running different software.

The current Epoch ends on 6th April 2019. I'd expect a few glitches to appear in older units.