GPS Antenna

[Slider]

I have a Beneteau 37 with Simrad NSS8 and Auto pilot. I am unable to find the GPS antenna, it is not on exterior of the boat. I have looked in many small spaces and followed wires, but no luck! You sailors always seem to come up with the answers. So help me find it.

 

[Davidasailor26]

The NSS8 itself has a built-in antenna. I'd be pretty surprised if someone added another external antenna, but you can check in the settings of the NSS to confirm. There should be a setting for a Sources List, possibly in the Network Settings. In there you can see everything that's connected to your NMEA network. My guess is that you'll see the chartplotter itself identified a few times (for the various types of data it provides), but no other external GPS source.

 

[Slider]

OK, I thought that might be the case. I can't get correct local time on NSS and date is incorrect,but get correct GMT. We called simrad and got the answer you need new GPS! We get correct time on the VHS radio and I have a watch, so no big deal. Thanks for your response.

 

[Brian D]

As davidasailor26 said, the unit has a built in GPS. If you are not getting time updates or position updates, it might be turned off. Again, as davidasailor26 indicated. You do have a input for Video/NMEA0183 Data if you want to add you own GPS. If you have a powered GPS unit that sends NMEA0183 or NMEA2000 data sentences then you can connect that to the back of the NSS8. Many options.

 

[jssailem]

Does the NSS8 have it's own clock and need to be set? Does the clock display use the GPS as a data time source? Is this a new occurrence or has it been an issue for some time?

 

[Davidasailor26]

I can't get correct local time on NSS and date is incorrect,but get correct GMT. We called simrad and got the answer you need new GPS! We get correct time on the VHS radio

That's very strange. If the GMT is right then I'd assume the GPS is working properly. Also the VHF gets its time from the GPS over the network, so it must be getting the right data somehow. Is the NSS showing the time off by some number of hours, as if it's showing the wrong time zone, or is it just a random time?

 

[jssailem]

Also the VHF gets its time from the GPS over the network

Unless the VHF has it's own GPS antenna.

 

[Davidasailor26]

Unless the VHF has it's own GPS antenna.

True. I'm assuming that his Beneteau 37 has the same setup as mine, with a Simrad RS35 VHF getting it's data over NMEA 2000 from the plotter.

 

[jssailem]

I guessed as much. While it is a definite possibility is is not a certainty. That is unless every Beneteau owner always lived within the Beneteau family and only used what they were given and programed by the manufacturer.
While it is easy to assume, it would cause me to wonder how the some of the time sources are correct and others are not. Failure of a Beneteau system? possible.
More data is needed to identify what is happening.

 

[Slider]

Yes , we have RS35. Local time shows ---- on NSS8. You can set the time offset but not the date. If you hold your finger on the time on top line it gives the choice of GMT or local and will not let you set the date. This is something that happened in last 30 days. Thanks for all the intrest!

 

[jssailem]

It would appear that the internal chartploter system is getting and supplying the time on your NMEA 2000 backbone. That this is internal to the chartplotter. The manual indicates little about the source. It implies you can convert it to Local or use GMT. From your comments it sounds like the GMT is ok but the Local is off. How Much?

 

[Slider]

IT JUST COMES UP BLANK

 

[jssailem]

Can you enter the time offset? Is it needed to get a time display?

 

[Slider]

Yes, Offset is 8 hours

 

[jssailem]

You enter it and still nothing?
It is like the system is not reading it's own data signal.

 

[Davidasailor26]

So, to add to the puzzlement, I just took out my NSS8 that had been lightning damaged last summer. As far as we know the NMEA interface was damaged but everything else on it was fine. I waited for good GPS fix with an accurate location, then went into Pages -> Tools -> Satellites and saw that where I live it's apparently 6:23 PM on August 17th 2099.

It is correct that it's 6:23 PM here, but unless I lost track of time I don't think it's 2099.

@Slider is that the same place that you see dashes for the time? One other thing you can check to confirm is that you're not in Simulate mode. It seems that simulate provides a position but not time. If you're in that satellite screen the GPS source on the bottom right should be something like NR8 iGPS (this device), not Simulate.

I know there is a GPS clock rollover coming up that could cause confusion on some GPS devices, but I thought that was older devices, and not until next week. I wonder why both of ours are acting strangely. What software version do you have? Mine is 3.0.

 

[Davidasailor26]

To add to my observations - I did find the option to show the time as a data element on-screen outside of the Satellite screen. When I do that I get the same thing as Slider - UTC time is correct, but local time is dashes. That's especially strange since the time in the Satellite screen is the correct local time.

All in all I'd say Navico has some explaining to do. I know the NSS is no longer supported but that seems like a pretty notable fault. I also don't know if/how ETA calculations would be affected.

I assume the Zeus3 that replaced our NSS won't be affected but I'll need to check that this weekend.

 

[Davidasailor26]

Ok, so it does appear that this is related to the GPS rollover that will be occuring next week. It looks like Simrad's GPS implementation was affected by the rollover before it actually occurs. See https://www.orolia.com/resources/blog/lisa-perdue/2018/gps-2019-week-rollover-what-you-need-know and https://www.thehulltruth.com/marine...ss12-stopped-showing-time-instrument-bar.html for more info.

Evidently when Simrad told Slider he needed a new GPS they didn't mean because it's broken, but because it's just not supported anymore. Looks like a poor job on Simrad's part. The NSS line was released on 2011 as far as I can tell, newer than the 10-15 years I've seen as the danger ranges in most articles on the topic. And the latest firmware update was less than 5 years ago. That feels a little premature to tell people just to go buy a new plotter.

 

[Brian D]

Sounds like Simrad purchased a bunch of old GPS chips to save money. Now it is biting them in the buttt-tocks. If I had a Simrad system that is 8 years old and went bonkers as described, I would never buy Simrad ever again. I am still waiting to see if my two older Garmin GPS units will lose their time. This should be interesting.

 

[Davidasailor26]

Evidently when Simrad told Slider he needed a new GPS they didn't mean because it's broken, but because it's just not supported anymore. Looks like a poor job on Simrad's part. The NSS line was released on 2011 as far as I can tell, newer than the 10-15 years I've seen as the danger ranges in most articles on the topic. And the latest firmware update was less than 5 years ago. That feels a little premature to tell people just to go buy a new plotter.

Apparently I might stand corrected. There is an NSS software update available for download at http://downloads.simrad-yachting.com/software/index.html?r=1002 which claims to fix the GPS issue. I hadn't noticed it before because it's still just listed as version 3.0, even though it has fixes beyond the previous 3.0 build. @Slider should try applying this to see if the time returns. If that works my only gripe would be with Navico support not knowing their own release notes.