COMAND SatNav issue

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

markjay

MB Master
SUPPORTER
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
Messages
45,230
Location
London
Car
2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5 RWD / 2016 Suzuki Vitara AWD
My retrofitted NTG2.5 seems to have an intermittent issue.

On occasion, it will show my position as being parallel to the road I am actually driving on - e.g. around 100 yards to the left on the road, in the middle of a field.

As I move, my position is still updated correctly on the other axis, i.e. it is showing the current position as progressing alongside the main road in the correct direction of travel, so when that happens I can still navigate using the map display, but the navigation program obviously does not work because it keeps thinking I am off-road and all it does is simply trying to get me back onto the nearest road (e.g. 'turn sharp right' or 'proceed to the nearest road') rather than offer the way forward as it should.

This used to happen on my old TomTom, but only when driving in the city on narrow streets between tall buildings, presumably because there was direct no-line-of-sight with some of the satellites.

But with COMAND this happens when I drive out of town, for example on the A30 going east toward the M25. It will stay like that for anything from 10 minutes to half an hour, and them COMAND will miraculously find itself again and will work correctly from that point on.

I tried switching off and back on both COMAND and the car, but this does not seem to help. It first happened some 6 months ago, but seems to have become more frequent recently.

I am fairly certain the issue is with the unit in my car, not with the satellites, because when this happens I can still use my Nokia phone SatNav or the iPad, and both work flawlessly when COMAND looses its bearings. Could it be an issue with the GPS antenna, or perhaps it's a 'known issue' and there is some sort of software/firmware upgrade to resolve this?
 
Last edited:
This is what I have now:

comandversion.jpg
 
* Bump? *
 


Just an update... I was going to see Alfie anyway, so I was putting this off...

What seems to happen is that the unit looses the satellites for no apparent reason, then after a while they just come back.

Here it is with 0 satellites...
 

Attachments

  • r1.jpg
    r1.jpg
    226.4 KB · Views: 155
A couple of minutes later, while parked at the same location, the satellites start coming back for no obvious reason, here it is with 4 satellites (which is still not enough for the GPS, showing as 'Off Road').
 

Attachments

  • r2.jpg
    r2.jpg
    94.3 KB · Views: 153
I think I've read about this happening when the antenna is suspect.
 
It will eventually find more satellites and start working properly again, but this can take anything from a few minutes to half an hour.
 
POP over and see us and we will look into it for you.

I presume you are not using an SD card in the Sd slot? As there is a known issue with this causing satellites to be 'forgotten'. My guess is its the antenna in which case we can swap it easily for you.
 
Ah yes forgot about the above bug. I take it still no news of a firmware upgrade for the NTG2.5 Mark?
 
No SD in the slot (as can be seen in the pics :)).

Thanks Alfie, will arrange to come and see you sometime soon. :thumb:
 
Many thanks Alfie for accommodating me at such short notice.

The car is now in the capable hands of Alfie and Richard, and the issue is being dealt with (while I am having a coffee nearby...).

Incidentally, Lightwater is a very nice and welcoming place.
 
There is a good fish and chips shop opposite the BP if you fancy some lunch later on. ;)

Edit: Just saw you posted at 10.28 so I guess you wont be there much longer.
 
Many thanks to Alfie and Richard for a great service. :thumb:

Richard that he re-routed the GPS antenna wire to prevent interference, and updated the device's firmware. :bannana:
 
So the antenna wasnt faulty? Where was the interference from? Thanks.
 
So the antenna wasnt faulty? Where was the interference from? Thanks.

As for the first part, I do not know if the antenna is faulty or not - time will tell... Richard didn't feel it needed replacing, he thought that a firmware update was the better bet here,and I trust him completely on this.

As for the interference - again, I do not know, but I suppose modern engines have enough electronics going on to cause interference? Or could it be mine (and passengers) mobile phones? No idea.
 
As for the first part, I do not know if the antenna is faulty or not - time will tell... Richard didn't feel it needed replacing, he thought that a firmware update was the better bet here,and I trust him completely on this.

As for the interference - again, I do not know, but I suppose modern engines have enough electronics going on to cause interference? Or could it be mine (and passengers) mobile phones? No idea.

I popped the cluster out and re-routed the antenna cables elsewhere in case it was that. The antenna was showing between 8 and 9 satellites sat behind the shop so should be fine.
 
...I do not know if the antenna is faulty or not - time will tell... ..

Just to clarify, I was not suggesting that I suspect there might be an issue with the antenna, and indeed as Alfie said it was correctly picking up the satellites at the shop. What I meant to say was that due to the intermittent nature of the original fault, it might be some time before I can say with confidence that it has indeed been cured once and for all. But for now, I am happy... :)
 
Just to clarify, I was not suggesting that I suspect there might be an issue with the antenna, and indeed as Alfie said it was correctly picking up the satellites at the shop. What I meant to say was that due to the intermittent nature of the original fault, it might be some time before I can say with confidence that it has indeed been cured once and for all. But for now, I am happy... :)

Did this problem disappear for good? My NTG 2.5 has started to display these symptoms after nine months of working perfectly, I'm puzzled. Like you it can take ages to find my correct position despite the compass showing 5 or 6 satellites. I'm often only 100-200 meters out, but this is enough to show me driving down local roads or off-road when I'm actually driving on a motorway!:dk:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom