LX5000 Repair Info???

My LX5000 is starting to freak out. It gives "BAD GPS' messages with
frequency, has given up on the initialization process entirely because
it thinks it's always in flight. And the traces, when there are traces
are a scribble of zigs and zags, although the general directions and
positions are surprisingly correct. Flying a task, it tries to send me
off on impossibly random courses, probably because it thinks it's in a
different location.

Clearly, this is a bad situation, especially at the start of a
promising soaring season. Everyone I've consulted advises me to send
the logger back to Slovenia for repairs, but I'm also advised that
it's likely to stay there for the entire season.

I tried replacing the antenna, but that did no good. And then I heard
from a Swiss pilot who flies with an LX5000 that there's a small
battery somewhere within the GPS, and when this battery starts to
fail, all manner of strange events ensue. I thought maybe replacing
this battery might get me back in the air, but nobody seems to know
anything about it.

This forum is my last resort.

Could someone please tell me (1) whether there is a repair facility
somewhere in the US that might handle this (the Canadian distributor
says "go back to Slovenia where you came from") (2) is the bad battery
solution a real possibility or just an old pilots tale (3) if I have
to send the logger away, what's the best/cost effective temporary
replacement that would output a certified IGC file?

Help!

Have you even *asked* the factory how long it would take for them to
repair it?

I sent my LX5000 to them in June 2004 and had it back in time for the
Region 9 contest a month later. The unit I got back had the same
serial number but appeared to be a brand new unit. I was very pleased
with that service and have stuck with the LX line ever since.

~ted/2NO

I sent an LX-16 back this winter, got it back in a month, although
they did not fix the problem. I ended up selling it for a loss.

Hope I don't have problems with the new Colibri I bought

aerodyne

Tuno wrote:
Have you even *asked* the factory how long it would take for them to
repair it?

I sent my LX5000 to them in June 2004 and had it back in time for the
Region 9 contest a month later. The unit I got back had the same
serial number but appeared to be a brand new unit. I was very pleased
with that service and have stuck with the LX line ever since.

~ted/2NO
It is probably the internal battery - which will break the electronic seal to
replace - but the 5000 may be different to the Colibri and LX20 which I am
familiar with. I suggest you send a message to support at LXnavigation .si and
ask Crtomir and company.

Never had the LX guys take longer than three days to repair anything for me.

I also had the experience of getting the same casing back with a brand new
innards. That was on a 1998 LX20 that they could reasonably have told me was
obsolete... They charged me 100 euros for the repair!.

The biggest cost and time was the airfreight courier service (about USD100).
It's EEPROM died on Sunday, had it back the next Friday. Effectively brand new,
can't have been in their possession longer than a day.

Cheers
Bruce