GPS Programming ??

[silverghost]

My late father had an old Trimble Navigation Ensign hand-style GPS Model 17319-12 in a closet.
It was bought in the early 90s (91) for over $1000. at that time. It was one of the very first hand style GPS units.

A neighbor's son down the block is going on a two week long Boy Scout summer camp/hiking treck in early Aug and I wanted to give him this GPS for some point-to-point mapping & hiking trecks they have planned.

Dad bought this yellow curved very early hand-style GPS in the very early 1990s for over $1000.

I put in new Nickle Metal Hydride rechargable batteries and fired the unit up.
It took over an hour to re-set it's memory and do a new cold start & acquire six satellites .
It also filled it's internal memory with brand new satellite data.
There were only 24 GPS satellites in those early GPS days~Now there are approx 36.
It is now reading satellites numbers in the 30s along wih the lower older Satellite numbers.
It now does a cold start in only a few min.

My problem ?
The dates & time that will now stamp on all new waypoint & route data is Tuesday Dec 10 1991 !
I went through the ENTIRE manual and see no way to re-program the proper date, time & year. It seems to think it is looking at a 1991 sky ??

I Called Trimble Navigation & they no longer support this unit and offered NO HELP at all.
They now only build & sell very high priced commercial & military GPS units.

Does anyone here know how to re-set the Time,Date & Year ?
Is there a hidden program menue somewhere ?

I want to GIVE this to this great Boy Scout Kid as a gift; Along with several batches of AA rechargable batteries.~
I was, after all, once an Eagle Scout !
But I need to school him on it's proper operation first .
He & his family cannot afford a new GPS .

Any & all help greatly appreciated.
Thank's

[silverghost]

After six hours constant running in my back yard the actual Eastern Daylight Savings Time is now correct.

The problem remains~
The GPS still thinks it is December 10, 1991 however~~~
And I see no manual over-ride way to change the month, year, or date ?

[mattyboy]

Y2K patch, still have some very old phone systems that aren't Y2K compatible they work the clocks are stuck in the 90's. the answer would be to get a handheld garmin for around 100 bucks and give it to the kid.

[zelatore]

Sad to say, but the old Trimble is pretty much a throw-away at this point. It's like an old cell phone- probably better built than anything you can buy on the recreational market these days but also hopelessly obsolete. Trimble pretty much only markets to the high-end professional user today, so you won't find a lot of support for it I wouldn't think.

Seriously, for $79 you can pick up a decent Garmin hand held that'll out perform it and weigh 1/4 as much.

If you want, I've got a Garmin GPS76 sitting here doing nothing...check it out on Garmin's website for details.

[silverghost]

Guys~ Thank's for the info.
The Y2K date issue sounds very possible.

Here's the situation.
I offered to buy this boy a NEW hand held GPS for his summer camping trip..
It seems all the other kids in his troop have them.
His family cannot afford to buy him one.
They have seven young kids in the family and this Boy Scout is the oldest.
His father was laid off and is searhing for work.
This Scout has been doing grass cutting & yard work in my area to pay his own way to his Boy Scout Sumer Camp.
He has paid-off the camp fees but does not have enough for a new GPS.
He is also helping with money for his family.
I offered this very old Trimble GPS because we have not used it in years.
I have several Mapping & plotting fixed mount GPS units on my boats.

Since it is old, outdted, & was made in 1991 they have ageed to accept it .
There is a BIG family pride situation at work here.

I also bought three packs of 8, new Rechargable AA batteries.
The old unit needs 4 to work for 10 hours.
I am charging them as he will not be near any AC power.
I figure 24 AA batteries will last him for the entire two week camping /hiking trip if used in power saving mode.
I told him I had these sitting around along with the old Trimble GPS.
This old Trimble GPS is very power hungry .
This unit is out of date & has no plotting/mapping function ~~but still works very well for what it does.
The NEW units today do 20 times what this unit does for 10% of the cost.

I just could not stand around and see him going on this trip and being the only Scout in his troop without his own hand heald GPS.
I also gave him my old 1960s official Boy Scout Silva pathfinder mapping compass.
I figured this GPS & Compass would work for him and get around the family pride issues .
With them he would not be left out of the fun & feel bad without having his own GPS.

Everyone seems to know the old Boy Scout Motto~
"Be Prepared" .

But there is also an old Boy Scout Slogan that is not as well known~

"Do a good turn daily"

That's what I am trying to do here for a really good young boy .

[silverghost]

Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico. is where this scout is going for his Camping & Hiking treck .

It's possibly the most famous scout reservation in the country.
When I was in The Boy Scouts I went every year to Tresure Island Scout Camp & Reservation. (Now sadly Closed due to lack of funds & For Sale)

I had always dreamed as a scout of going to the Philmont Scout Reservation.
Never got to go myself~
About 25,000 scouts attend every summer.
This kid had worked all Spring & summer long and~~~hard enough to pay for his own air flights both ways and the Scout Camp & treck/hike fees.
All while also helping his own family !