garmin 496 wx failure

Flying on Saturday, my 496 wasn't displaying any weather information. I
understand others had the same problem over the weekend. Anyone know what
happened and how it will be fixed?

--
Best Regards,
Mike.

http://flickr.com/photos/mikenoel/

http://photoshow.comcast.net/mikenoel

On 01/05/09 06:30, Mike Noel wrote:
Flying on Saturday, my 496 wasn't displaying any weather information. I
understand others had the same problem over the weekend. Anyone know what
happened and how it will be fixed?


AVWeb had the following in their "On the Fly" section of their newsletter today:

The XM weather feature on some Garmin handheld GPS units reportedly failed over the
weekend. We weren't able to reach anyone from either company but will have more details
Monday ...

So perhpas more news is on the way.


--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane, USUA Ultralight Pilot
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

"Mike Noel" wrote in message
...

Flying on Saturday, my 496 wasn't displaying any weather information. I
understand others had the same problem over the weekend. Anyone know
what
happened and how it will be fixed?


See: http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum...ad.php?t=26496

Quote:

From the chief engineer at XM:

I have been talking/emailing a lot of you regarding the 396/496
problems-- thanks to all for both your time and patience. I regret that I
haven't been able to fix everything. For now, I don't have any answers,
just questions that some of you might be able to help with.

I would appreciate it if anyone can DISPROVE any of the following:

1) The only units affected are Garmin

2) Specifically, only the Garmin "hockey puck" units are affected (i.e,
396/496--- what does the 696 have?)

3) A refresh (refresh.xmradio.com) fixes things EXCEPT for people who DO
NOT subscribe to the audio channels.

4) For those who subscribe to weather ONLY (no audio), neither a refresh or
activate/deactivate works, all you see is a blank audio screen and/or
"waiting for data" in the subscription level box.

5) The problems first started occurring New Year's Day.

How you can further help: I am trying to pinpoint the start time of the
"anomaly". Please let me know (offlist is fine) when your box last worked
and when you first noticed it not working. Paul Safran says his worked
until 5pm-ish New Years Day. Anyone have their box crap out earlier?
Anybody have their box crap out mid-flight? And by "crap out"
I don't mean you lost winds aloft for a couple hours, or the METARs went
missing, etc.---these are Garmin bugs I already know about---I mean the
problems where you are not geting WX data AT ALL, possibly accompanied by a
funky subscription level message.

Also, if anyone has a 396/496 that has NOT been affected, please let me
know the software version number if you can (displays lower right corner on
startup).

Wish I had better information. All I can say is the certified units and
most (maybe all, hard to prove a negative) non-Garmin units are fine.
Otherwise, the XM system is fine; the XMWX system is fine. So far, this
appears to be related to Garmin 396/496 software only.

End Quote



--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

Thanks...and this was on the Avweb site...

Owners of Garmin weatherlink-capable portable navigators found themselves
flying blind over the weekend because of an as-yet-to-be diagnosed technical
fault that may be days away from a solution. Spokespersons for both Garmin
and WxWorx, which massages the weather data for delivery through the XM
Radio system, told AVweb on Monday morning that no one seems to know why the
failure occurred or when it will be fixed. Evidently, the failure affects
only some GPSmap396, 496 and 696 models, but not the panel-mounted G1000
system. Also, Garmin's marine portables, which receive marine-related
weather datalink, are similarly unaffected. One possible fix, says Garmin,
is to refresh the XM receiver, which you can do by typing
www.xmradio/refresh into a Web browser and then entering your receiver code.
(It's on the back of the puck-type Smart Antennas.) Make sure the antenna
has a view of the sky for at least 30 minutes. Garmin says it doesn't expect
a solution before the middle of this week.
Jan 5, 7:40pm UTC

....I don't subscribe to the audio channels so I guess I'm SOL until Garmin
makes a fix available.

--
Best Regards,
Mike.

http://flickr.com/photos/mikenoel/

http://photoshow.comcast.net/mikenoel


"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk @See My Sig.com wrote in message
...
"Mike Noel" wrote in message
...

Flying on Saturday, my 496 wasn't displaying any weather information. I
understand others had the same problem over the weekend. Anyone know
what
happened and how it will be fixed?


See: http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum...ad.php?t=26496

Quote:

From the chief engineer at XM:

I have been talking/emailing a lot of you regarding the 396/496
problems-- thanks to all for both your time and patience. I regret that I
haven't been able to fix everything. For now, I don't have any answers,
just questions that some of you might be able to help with.

I would appreciate it if anyone can DISPROVE any of the following:

1) The only units affected are Garmin

2) Specifically, only the Garmin "hockey puck" units are affected (i.e,
396/496--- what does the 696 have?)

3) A refresh (refresh.xmradio.com) fixes things EXCEPT for people who DO
NOT subscribe to the audio channels.

4) For those who subscribe to weather ONLY (no audio), neither a refresh
or activate/deactivate works, all you see is a blank audio screen and/or
"waiting for data" in the subscription level box.

5) The problems first started occurring New Year's Day.

How you can further help: I am trying to pinpoint the start time of the
"anomaly". Please let me know (offlist is fine) when your box last worked
and when you first noticed it not working. Paul Safran says his worked
until 5pm-ish New Years Day. Anyone have their box crap out earlier?
Anybody have their box crap out mid-flight? And by "crap out"
I don't mean you lost winds aloft for a couple hours, or the METARs went
missing, etc.---these are Garmin bugs I already know about---I mean the
problems where you are not geting WX data AT ALL, possibly accompanied by
a funky subscription level message.

Also, if anyone has a 396/496 that has NOT been affected, please let me
know the software version number if you can (displays lower right corner
on startup).

Wish I had better information. All I can say is the certified units and
most (maybe all, hard to prove a negative) non-Garmin units are fine.
Otherwise, the XM system is fine; the XMWX system is fine. So far, this
appears to be related to Garmin 396/496 software only.

End Quote



--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

I wonder if this is similar to the MS Zune problem of the leap second.
Really questionable code on the Zune - hardcoded the year.

But -- I'm thinking that it shouldn't matter if the timing is downloaded
from the GPS satellites.

Baffles me, but a number of people on another private list are having
the same problems.

"Mike Noel" wrote in message
...
Thanks...and this was on the Avweb site...

Owners of Garmin weatherlink-capable portable navigators found themselves
flying blind over the weekend because of an as-yet-to-be diagnosed
technical
fault that may be days away from a solution. Spokespersons for both
Garmin
and WxWorx, which massages the weather data for delivery through the XM
Radio system, told AVweb on Monday morning that no one seems to know why
the
failure occurred or when it will be fixed. Evidently, the failure affects
only some GPSmap396, 496 and 696 models, but not the panel-mounted G1000
system. Also, Garmin's marine portables, which receive marine-related
weather datalink, are similarly unaffected. One possible fix, says
Garmin,
is to refresh the XM receiver, which you can do by typing
www.xmradio/refresh into a Web browser and then entering your receiver
code.
(It's on the back of the puck-type Smart Antennas.) Make sure the antenna
has a view of the sky for at least 30 minutes. Garmin says it doesn't
expect
a solution before the middle of this week.
Jan 5, 7:40pm UTC

...I don't subscribe to the audio channels so I guess I'm SOL until
Garmin
makes a fix available.



More info / possible temporary fix from PilotsOfAmerica:

"Garmin 396 and 496 radios appear to be the only ones affected,
starting January 2. Those with an additional audio subscription are
still working, but those with only a weather subscription are not.
Nobody knows the cause of the problem, but they are definitely working
on it.

If yours is out, you can add an audio subscription free for one month
by calling the XM aviation number at 1-800-985-9200 and give them the
promo code MARINE1MO. You will need to cancel the audio subscription
within a month to avoid a charge (about $7)--assuming they have a fix
by then."

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

Mike Noel wrote:


...I don't subscribe to the audio channels so I guess I'm SOL until Garmin
makes a fix available.


If you need the x96 to do a flight it seems you could subscribe to the
music and then unsubscribe once it is working.

Guys, thanks for the information...

--
Best Regards,
Mike.

http://flickr.com/photos/mikenoel/

http://photoshow.comcast.net/mikenoel


"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk @See My Sig.com wrote in message
...
"Mike Noel" wrote in message
...
Thanks...and this was on the Avweb site...

Owners of Garmin weatherlink-capable portable navigators found themselves
flying blind over the weekend because of an as-yet-to-be diagnosed
technical
fault that may be days away from a solution. Spokespersons for both
Garmin
and WxWorx, which massages the weather data for delivery through the XM
Radio system, told AVweb on Monday morning that no one seems to know why
the
failure occurred or when it will be fixed. Evidently, the failure affects
only some GPSmap396, 496 and 696 models, but not the panel-mounted G1000
system. Also, Garmin's marine portables, which receive marine-related
weather datalink, are similarly unaffected. One possible fix, says
Garmin,
is to refresh the XM receiver, which you can do by typing
www.xmradio/refresh into a Web browser and then entering your receiver
code.
(It's on the back of the puck-type Smart Antennas.) Make sure the antenna
has a view of the sky for at least 30 minutes. Garmin says it doesn't
expect
a solution before the middle of this week.
Jan 5, 7:40pm UTC

...I don't subscribe to the audio channels so I guess I'm SOL until
Garmin
makes a fix available.



More info / possible temporary fix from PilotsOfAmerica:

"Garmin 396 and 496 radios appear to be the only ones affected,
starting January 2. Those with an additional audio subscription are
still working, but those with only a weather subscription are not.
Nobody knows the cause of the problem, but they are definitely working
on it.

If yours is out, you can add an audio subscription free for one month
by calling the XM aviation number at 1-800-985-9200 and give them the
promo code MARINE1MO. You will need to cancel the audio subscription
within a month to avoid a charge (about $7)--assuming they have a fix
by then."

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.