Garmin Nuvi 200 - setting the clock?

Thoie

My satnav has recently decided that it's sometime in 1999 (1am on Sunday, August 22nd, to be precise). It's not a big deal, just slightly irksome. I can't figure out how to change the time and date - all I can find are the settings for daylight savings, 24/12 hour clock format etc.

The only thing I've done recently is updated the maps. Anyone know how I can change the clock? Should it be picking up the time and date from the satellites or something?

Alun

You can't change it manually, it derives it's time from the satellite signal.

However, when the unit is switched off, or not receiving a satellite signal, it has an internal clock that is powered by a small backup battery or ultra-capacitor. In time these can degrade and lose their charge completely if switched off for long periods meaning if you don't use it for a while it'll lose it's internal time reference. When it;s switched on and then re-acquires it's satellites it will then set the time again automatically. However when you attempt to re-acquire satellites in that state it has no idea of what the real time is, and therefore no idea where the satellites are in the sky, and which ones to look for, so goes into a mode that is the same as when it does it's very first acquisition, which can take some time, especially if it's view of the sky isn't too great.

I've seen some older handheld Garmin GPS's that allow you to both set the date and time manually as well as an approximate position to make that initial first-fix acquisition process quicker, but AFAIK the nuvi's don't have that.

How old is the GPS, by the way?

Thoie

A bit late, but thanks for the response. The unit is about 2 years old, and I'd say you're right about the internal battery by the sounds of it. It only gets used about once a month maybe (as I can usually manage to find my own way home ), and it might not have been used since Christmas. I had it turned on indoors updating a few new locations that I was heading to, and had tried getting satellites on the window sill a few times but had obviously given up too soon.

On the day I needed it it took ages to find itself, and for the first few minutes even though it had the location right it still wasn't sure of the time. At some stage in the first 15 minutes it obviously corrected itself. Do you know if I can change the backup battery?

Rkinner

I had a similar probelm after updating my nuvi 200. The date is now June 10, 2031, which is 1024 weeks ahead. The date info on the satellite is made up of 10 bits (1024 values) that represent WEEKS since Jan. 1, 1980, that rollover every 20 years or so. It appears that the update is adding those 20 years to my display so the day/night switch presently occurs at roughly 8 PM and 4:30 AM local time.

I have contacted Garmin about this but I don't have a lot of confidence that they can fix it.

Alun

It's strange that this issue should crop up now, seeing as the week number roll over issue first reared it's ugly head in 1999 and the nuvi 200 series was introduced in 2007.

When you said you updated the unit, was that a s/w update or a map update? There hasn't been a s/w update for some time for the 200 series (2008 I think), and I can't imagine a map update having any influence on something like the displayed date.

Having said that, Google suggests you're not the only one with a similar problem .. hope you get it sorted. I imagine it may well involve doing a soft or hard reset on the unit, so make sure you have a backup of any favourites / POI's etc. first.

Rkinner

Thanks Alun for the reply... I did update to 5.5 firmware and the latest map 2012.2. I did try to revert back to an earlier version of rhe firmware but that didn't seem to either download properly or solve the problem, can't be sure which it is. The nuvi does show the 5.5 update and that is why I am not sure ti downloaded correctly.

It is something I can live with but the brightness early in the morning is distracting if I don't manually turn it down by selecting nighttime mode. I'll kee my eye on Google searches to see if anyone figures it out.

gbee

I suspect your init has reset to it's original 'home' which I understand is Washington, USA.

If this is your particular issue you need to set it up again and pick your location ~ I think though that you may need to do a complete reset * not sure on that * but if you have to do a complete reset any way points, route etc will be lost.

You should only have to do this once, further update should not effect it. As a routine you could use the unit more often and even do a satellite reset as outlined above ~ this I'd do as a routine every now and again.

Routinely you need to keep the battery charged ~ not fully charged, just don't let it run down to nothing.