A little update on this ongoing
GPS issue.
It started on October 22, 2018 when the "week code" cycled from 999 to 1000. This code is broadcast as a 10 digit binary number, but the calculations to turn it into a human readable date are done in decimal. Apparently the manufacturer of the
GPS engine did not allocate enough memory to handle a week number of >999.
This affects several different makers of
instruments, none of whom make their own GPS chips. I haven't seen the name of the offending party yet. If you are a clever lawyer looking for a class action lawsuit this might be an opportunity for you!
In my case, the malfunctioning device is a
B&G Zeus Touch, T12.
I was able to partially fix the issue by installing a ZG100 standalone GPS on my NMEA2000
network and set the "GPS Source" to that device.
Unfortunately, the T12 still insists on sending out what it thinks is the correct time on the
network. Today (Dec 4, 2018) it is broadcasting the date as April 21, 99. Some devices on the network interpret this as "1999," some as "2099," and others recognize it as invalid and ignore it. Depending in what the device is this varies from a minor annoyance, to incapacitating. For example, I use
software on my computer to log sailing data, and it relies on the network time stamp to sort the data. When it rejects the time as invalid, it can not longer time stamp the data.
I did call Navico Tech Support today. As I expected, "Engineering is working on it." But what I really wanted to do was find a way to turn off the GPS
engine inside the T12 so it would stop contaminating the network with invalid dates. Unfortunately, that can not be done.
There is another one of these vulnerabilities to poor coding coming up in April 2019 when the 10 digit binary code for the date goes from 1024 to 0000. That one actually is more widely anticipated, so MAYBE has been better addressed...
We were lucky--this time. The
software error did not affect the reported position--only the date output. Another kind of mistake could easily be waiting for us that will disable some, most or all of our GPS devices.
If you are one of those who thinks that paper
charts and traditional
navigation skills are archaic and irrelevant, maybe you should think again.