That infernal clock in my CL500

[Botus]

I'm sure nav units can be programmed to cope. But very few will ever have a suitable update available. TomTom have already stated the nav features on some will work, traffic and time will lose the plot. I posted info about theirs on the 5 month old time and date post 2 weeks ago

as for devices or satellites being the offender, it doesn't really matter which. One of them got their maths wrong and the time has become erratic before the date it should have done. In fact having written that, surely its the satellites, as every two weeks or so since mine lost the plot (5 months back) the date is correct for a few days. If the comand was wrong it would always be wrong ?

 

[Botus]

as for the OP asking the fix, for the next month untick daylight saving. The analogue clock will eventually get over the confusion and work out how to match the digital one, albeit 3 mins wrong. This slip started about 3 years ago with roughly 1 minute a year. Its now obvious, the digital one is about right and the analogue one 3 mins late.

No amount of twiddling of the date works, as soon as you exit from manual adjustment it is already back to the garbage its seeing from the satellite signal. The issue with the NTG 3, is there is no option to stop the time / date derived from the satellites its that only.

It needs a comand unit software update, I don't think we will get one.

 

[LostKiwi]

If the comand was wrong it would always be wrong ?

I've already told you why that is. See my post above regarding newer satellites that have a different Epoch (over 100 years in the latest version of GPS data streams).
The issue is wholly a Comand one.

 

[C16RKC]

Well I've unchecked auto daylight... It's still wrong time at the moment but hopefully it will correct itself eventually.

The date thinks it's August, but when I correct it, the command just puts it back to August again... guess I'll have to live with that!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[LostKiwi]

Well I've unchecked auto daylight... It's still wrong time at the moment but hopefully it will correct itself eventually.

The date thinks it's August, but when I correct it, the command just puts it back to August again... guess I'll have to live with that!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

And that's exactly what I meant by the crossover in summer/winter times. August would be summer time so an hour ahead.

 

[Botus]

check now and then, some mornings it will show the correct date

 

[ajlsl600]

check now and then, some mornings it will show the correct date

even a stopped clock will eventually be right.!!! just reading on how to get to the bottom of this has given me a headache, wot a crap scheme ,whoever came up with it .if one cant get a clock to behave wot chance with the rest of todays cars ??????????

 

[Submariner1]

Mine went wrong last year after a service at a main dealer.
The time on comand is right but the clock is one hour out!

MBS sorted it ... had lots of updates done for other things as well.

When summer time came this year , oops analogue clock is an hour out again , And looking at the date its 22/10/2018!

Best bodge for me is to have the Comand time correct, so sat nav arrivals times are correct. But the clock in the centre of the dash is wrong. I cant move that at all!

During the MOT at MB Guildford , they said there was a bug fix for it, but even with their old car 40% disc it would cost £200- £250 in labour!

Huh when the good weather returns I shall pop back to see MBS.

I got a bit lost with this thread ... are you guys saying there is actually no fix?

 

[Botus]

I'll be shocked if there really is an update for these cars.

move comand settings to any CET region and ensure you untick daylight saving. When it next sees the right date, the two clocks will align. I'm on Belgium (during BST) and that gets the hours right.
Allegedly be ready at noon (or midnight if you're like that) and having dropped the power to the analogue clock, it will spin to midday and match second for second the comand time - which removes the 4 minute lag showing on most.

Only fun is the nav time of arrival, this shows one or two hours wrong (forget which, minutes are correct) with an L or something for local time.... but local to what I don't know …. GMT ?

 

[Submariner1]

I'll be shocked if there really is an update for these cars.

move comand settings to any CET region and ensure you untick daylight saving. When it next sees the right date, the two clocks will align. I'm on Belgium (during BST) and that gets the hours right.
Allegedly be ready at noon (or midnight if you're like that) and having dropped the power to the analogue clock, it will spin to midday and match second for second the comand time - which removes the 4 minute lag showing on most.

Only fun is the nav time of arrival, this shows one or two hours wrong (forget which, minutes are correct) with an L or something for local time.... but local to what I don't know …. GMT ?

Just went out and checked, er clock was right!
Checked Comand time ... now perfectly in sync with clock!
Checked it was on summer time option bullet. (New option since Command update).
Couldn’t find the older check box for daylight savings ??? Was there yesterday when the clocks were wrong by 1 hr 4 mins.
Looked at date and I think it was 8 june 19, but as I moved off it flicked to 24 Oct 2019!!
Luckily the clock is still correct!

Only thing I did to correct it was park really close to the wall ... could that have sheilded it from a dodgy satellite?

Anyway delighted the clock is correct!
Beyond me.....

Just a thought when I set the new date, there doesnt seem to be a save the date option, I just move off it.
Or should one push down the rotary knob? As a sort of “OK” command.

 

[Botus]

(day light saving) when you change region it asks (if that country has it) if you want to use it

I think it was STAR mentioned when you first turn the car on, it looks for an instant for the time, if it finds ( I think ) a more modern satellite it might get the right time and date, before more old ones start telling it its wrong and messing up the calendar

you can't save anything, your can input the right info and if the satellites disagree with you (as soon and you move menus) then it changes to their view of the world

 

[peterws1957]

Just went out and checked, er clock was right!
Checked Comand time ... now perfectly in sync with clock!
Checked it was on summer time option bullet. (New option since Command update).
Couldn’t find the older check box for daylight savings ??? Was there yesterday when the clocks were wrong by 1 hr 4 mins.
Looked at date and I think it was 8 june 19, but as I moved off it flicked to 24 Oct 2019!!
Luckily the clock is still correct!

Only thing I did to correct it was park really close to the wall ... could that have sheilded it from a dodgy satellite?

Anyway delighted the clock is correct!
Beyond me.....

Just a thought when I set the new date, there doesnt seem to be a save the date option, I just move off it.
Or should one push down the rotary knob? As a sort of “OK” command.

Exactly the same happened with my CL! Suddenly everything moved to correct time without any input from me, on a totally random date. Defeats me, all this electrickery.

 

[steve.link]

MB Bridgend fixed mine (W221) by following the TIPS document. Time is correct on the clock and COMAND but the date is always wrong. I can live with this. When the clocks change they will need to carry out the procedure again

 

[Botus]

you can't fix it.

You can only work around the issue

on the correct post all the info to DIY is there. This thread should be closed and the main post which has far more detail ought to be used

https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/...nd-date-adjustment.171750/page-7#post-1748115

 

[SNN-1752]

It seems a fix has been put together that resolves the whole thing. Apparently a firmware update for NTG 3s and 3.5s.

 

[Kev555]

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.

That went like clean right over my head

 

[Botus]

that's very interesting

the fact he went back in and the date was 29 Oct means something happened

interested how he got in that engineering menu? comonadonline don't know how....
that video is from a guy on USA site who was hacking his device and found there is an engineering mode but couldn't work out how to get at it. A few weeks on and we see this from him

 

[SNN-1752]

that's very interesting

the fact he went back in and the date was 29 Oct means something happened

interested how he got in that engineering menu? comonadonline and the USA guys don't know how

I downloaded the file in the description and there is a pdf and ISO. The pdf says how to open that screen but it sounds like one must be a contortionist to do it! If that works it’s worth a shot!

 

[Botus]

so its a home made fix not official Mercedes

on USA forum he's saying it will work for other regions

Here is a link to the instructions and the file needed to update your NTG 3.0. Read the instructions carefully, and good luck. This is the work of several people and is their contribution to the W221 community. Enjoy!

https://resources.mbdx.us/files/telematics/NTG_3_GPS_DATE_TIME_FIX.zip

I guess they looked at official Merc changes for the epoch issue and did some magic

 

[Botus]

wow its got the comand part number of mine buried in the info on the disc (and lots of others), there's a lot going on for a tiny file.

#Hardware-ASachnummer;
[2218201426-XXX];

….
sat_almanac_update : Almanac time epoch %d %d diff %d
sat_almanac_update : Almanac time ok epoch %d %d
sat_almanac_update : ERROR SAT EXTRAPOLATION
Ephemeris updated (new iod): sat %d