GPS V Blanks whenever WAAS is enabled

[kr...@qsl.net]

Haven't turned on my GPS V for about a week but when I did it behaved
normally until it acquired the WAAS satellites. The screen went blank
and the power switch would not turn it off. Experimenting I disabled
WAAS and then it behaved normally. This happened on both GPS V units.
What is going on?

[arthur...@gmail.com]

I've had a similar problem with mine, lately. Earlier in the year,
the GPS would do this maybe once every 20 times I turned it on, but
this last week or so I've been unable to use the thing at all without
it blanking out. I just tried disabling WAAS, and as you describe, it
seems to be stable.

[Jack Yeazel]

I see nobody has attempted to answer this, so I dug out my G-V (which
hadn't been turned on for two years) and tried to get a fix... First I
discovered it wouldn't search for Sats unless I turned WAAS off...

It eventually gained some locks and started 'navigating', but as it found
WAAS Sats 48 and 51, the unit locked up like you described...

I tried various combinations of WAAS on and off, and EVENTUALLY the unit
DID stay locked onto the WAAS Sats! I'm running firmware ver. 2.50

JY

[Peter Bennett]

I have a GPS72 that hung like that. An email to Garmin Support got a
suggestion to upgrade to the latest software - it seems that something
in the original software in the 72 didn't like the new WAAS
satellites. The newer software seems to have fixed the problem.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

[arthur...@gmail.com]

On Oct 7, 11:11 am, Jack Yeazel <j...@finalapproach.net> wrote:

> I tried various combinations of WAAS on and off, and EVENTUALLY the unit
> DID stay locked onto the WAAS Sats!  I'm running firmware ver. 2.50
>
> JY

Thanks for following up on this. I'm using v. 2.50 as well, and that
appears to be the last version that Garmin released 5 years ago
tomorrow, coincidentally.
I'm not doing anything that requires the WAAS enhancement, so I guess
I'll just disable it for the time being.

[Jack Silver]

From Garmin tech support:
Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I would be happy to help you
with this.

The symptom you have described confirms the issue is due to a communication
error between the device and the satellites; specifically regarding the WAAS
capability.

Last Fall the FAA updated the WAAS satellites, changing the broadcast signal
the satellites transmitted at. With this update in effect, it affected how
they communicated with some of our devices that are enabled with the WAAS
feature.

Our software engineers are working on software updates to fix this issues in
our devices and have released some updates fixing the issue with certain
devices. Regarding the GPS V, they are still working on getting that update
and we do not have a definite release date at this time.

Until then, we recommend keeping the WAAS feature disabled until the update
is available.

With Best Regards,

Matt S

Product Support Specialist

Garmin International

<kr...@qsl.net> wrote in message
news:45362b31-39f7-4624...@l62g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

[arthur...@gmail.com]

> Regarding the GPS V, they are still working on getting that update
> and we do not have a definite release date at this time.
>

Wow, I'm surprised, and very pleased, that they're working on a
firmware update.

--AN

[kr...@qsl.net]

I did a hard reset to both units (Press Out while turning it on). One
GPSV worked OK after that, the other still blanked out. I did several
hard resets and it started working in WAAS mode. Haven't had them
blank out now for a while. I noticed on the satellite screen that PRN
48 is sometimes grayed out so they must be doing something with that
signal. The other WAAS satellite locks solid every time.