webcraft
Well-Known Member
Our Garmin GPS128 was working perfectly apart from regularly forgetting where it was when switched off and having to be re-initialised the next time it was switched on.
It still remembered all the waypoints, trip mileage etc.
For shorter passages we use the GPS repeater as a primary steering and passage planning tool, so we wanted to get it fixed in case it was a developing problem. Many people had suggested the internal battery might be on the way out.
We put the set into the Garmin dealers in Las Palmas. It was away about 24 hours and came back with upgraded software and a new internal battery for E60 - not too bad for what is now almost a new set.
However, they had not even tested it - teh set had not been initialised, the default lat/long was the Garmin factory inteh USA, so I had to initialise the set. You would have thought they might have actually checked it was working.
Of course, the set had none of our data (including over 200 waypoints) in it any more - we were told it had been lost when the battery was changed. How long would it have taken them to download the waypoints when they already had the machine plugged into the computer to update the software?
The set was also set to the factory defaults, which means the NMEA interface wasn;t set up and the set would no longer talk to the radio or the repeater. Again, I wonder how difficult it would have been to give us the set back with the same settings it had when we put it in to them. After all, if I offer to upgrade the operating system on someone's PC I don't delete all their documents and settings in the process.
I think the thing that annoyed me most was that they hadn't even bothered to change the operating language back to English - which IS the default after all.
So - be warned and if you are contemplating a similar upgrade from a Garmin dealer try to download your waypoints first and take a note of all the settings.
- Nick
It still remembered all the waypoints, trip mileage etc.
For shorter passages we use the GPS repeater as a primary steering and passage planning tool, so we wanted to get it fixed in case it was a developing problem. Many people had suggested the internal battery might be on the way out.
We put the set into the Garmin dealers in Las Palmas. It was away about 24 hours and came back with upgraded software and a new internal battery for E60 - not too bad for what is now almost a new set.
However, they had not even tested it - teh set had not been initialised, the default lat/long was the Garmin factory inteh USA, so I had to initialise the set. You would have thought they might have actually checked it was working.
Of course, the set had none of our data (including over 200 waypoints) in it any more - we were told it had been lost when the battery was changed. How long would it have taken them to download the waypoints when they already had the machine plugged into the computer to update the software?
The set was also set to the factory defaults, which means the NMEA interface wasn;t set up and the set would no longer talk to the radio or the repeater. Again, I wonder how difficult it would have been to give us the set back with the same settings it had when we put it in to them. After all, if I offer to upgrade the operating system on someone's PC I don't delete all their documents and settings in the process.
I think the thing that annoyed me most was that they hadn't even bothered to change the operating language back to English - which IS the default after all.
So - be warned and if you are contemplating a similar upgrade from a Garmin dealer try to download your waypoints first and take a note of all the settings.
- Nick
please wait'. They went off backed it up and gave me a newer one FOC. 
