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So is the calendar correct now? Anyone with an RL been able to fix their clock yet?
A second related issue just started in my 2005 RL on Sunday July 3 - when I started the car the NAV display was a checkerboard pattern. Got breakfast, restarted the car, it worked normally. Today (7/5) same thing happened - restarted the car in the driveway and the NAV worked normally, but I was using the address book to guide me to my destination and the car icon stopped moving halfway there, time to arrival was stuck at 19 mins. When I left that appt., got a crazy criss-cross pattern on the display, turned it off, restarted, and it worked fine all the way home. Checked for the problem here, discovered some horrible things - NOTHING WORKS if the NAV unit in the trunk goes wonky - cannot access radio or AC screens, voice command button on the wheel doesn't work - basically you can't change ANYTHING if the NAV DVD unit goes on the fritz - what an idiotic design! Looks like only option is to try a used unit from Ebay - anyone have any luck with doing a used NAV DVD unit swap in their RL? A new one is $3k - that ain't happening. Worried about breaking the plastic clips that hold the carpet to the trunk - they're 17 yrs old and brittle - have to remove the top carpet to get to the mounting screws and cables. This almost sounds like a loose connector or a chafed wire - if it was really fried it would just stop working, period, right?
Checkered pattern is your Alpine Trunk DVD deck doing out. There are a couple thread on ideas to fix it.
I found one thread with detailed step by step directions with photos for removing the NAV unit from the trunk, but the account that held the pix doesn't exist anymore - the photos are missing, which makes that post useless because not enough text was written. I bought a used one on Ebay, don't know if it's the correct part # or not (I found something like 10 part numbers for the 2005-2008 units online, and a couple threads here said any 2005-2008 unit will work, not sure that's true). I found a couple videos of how to remove the unit on YouTube but they're not exactly great either - they both start halfway thru the job, and one says rip out half the carpet, the other one says don't bother - won't know who is right until I get in there. My back is really not looking forward to this!
BTW, I contacted Alpine and ShortCircuit.com via contact forms on their websites last week asking about how to send my unit to them for repair and estimate costs - Alpine has not replied, don't even know if they still repair them - but ShortCircuit called me back that same night, said cost to repair the unit will run from $300-$750 depending on what is on the fritz - I'll likely pay to fix it even if the used one works, because it's almost as old as mine and will likely fail in a few years too. The guy I talked to say they usually go bad at 12 yrs or so and I was lucky mine lasted 17 yrs. Only thing I don't like about them is they said I need to send it to them with the current DVD inside the unit - it's a brand new 2021 disk, no way I'm giving them that, and I'll need it for the used unit if it works - I'll send them the old disk I had from 2016.
We're still over a month out... it won't fix itself until August 17th.
Originally Posted by Mizouse
@DogP Is there anything special we need to do come August for those of us that did the patch?
do we need to reload the stock firmware that’s on our the Nav discs?
im assuming the calendar will always be off right, just the time will be correct?
No need to do anything, though you can reload the stock firmware if you want. With the patched firmware, it'll think it's January 2023... with the stock firmware it'll think it's January 2003. The time will be correct with either one, but yeah, neither date is technically correct.
Thanks. I'll keep the patched firmware. I'm one of those weirdos that actually uses the calendar of the Nav system. Jan 2023 much closer to scroll back to the current date than 2003
What is this patched firmware vs. stock firmware you're talking about? Where do you get the patch? I'm one of the few that occasionally uses the calendar and I do NOT want it to show 2003!
DogP posted 2 pages back a guide on how to patch the firmware so the calendar advances 20 years so the Navi will sync again. The date will always be ahead by about 5 months but the time will be right.
Ugh. I used to create programs and write code in a different life, but man that does not seem as easy as some folks make it appear to be - am I reading this correctly that it will fix the time problem right now, but the calendar will never be correct again? Worried about messing with the NAV system - installed a used NAV unit yesterday to replace mine, which was failing, took quite some time for everything to update, then the unit couldn't find a GPS signal - it gave up trying after 15 mins and showed the "I give up" msg on the screen. Said to drive somewhere with an unobstructed view of the satellites, but I've never had a problem with this before when I updated the NAV DVD, which goes thru the same process. Worried I may not have gotten the antenna cable pushed in all the way - I don't know which one it is, and reinstalling the four connectors to the back of the unit was a nightmare, had to do it blind by feel - there's zero slack in the cables. Does anyone know if there's a diagram or photo that shows the back of the NAV unit that indicates what each cable harness is for? I need to know which cable to try to pull and reinstall - do not want to go thru the PITA of pulling and reinstalling all four again, access to them is almost zero.
With the Navi firmware hack, yes... currently it just adds 20 years, which is close, but not quite correct. The hardware hack I did ( https://github.com/pdaderko/PIC-Proj...vi_Clock_Fix.X ) adds 1024 weeks, giving the correct date and time (though obviously significantly more difficult to install than popping in a new firmware update disc).
Regarding the GPS cable, the antenna is the small coaxial cable in the corner with a gray connector (circled in this pic grabbed from an ebay auction).
OMG - you just saved me so much trouble it's not funny! When I put the used Ebay NAV unit into the car (multiple times), I could not get it to pick up a GPS signal, moved car to multiple places and no joy. I forgot to hook up the antenna cable! I remember when I unplugged an original a cable it snapped out of sight (didn't know what it was for), so I never saw it to know I was missing a cable hookup. The antenna cable is wrapped in a spring of sorts, so it retracts to a place you can't clearly see it - found it behind a different bundle of wires after reading your lifesaving post with the antenna port circled, plugged everything back into the used NAV unit, and boom, everything works now! Well, sort of.......the damn address book is stored in the NAV unit, so it's empty. Now I have to put the original failing one back in, start the car multiple times until the unit starts working (have no clue why multiple starts get it working again temporarily), then take photos of pages of my address book and hope one of my OCR apps can translate the addresses to text, else I'll be writing down 100 addresses by hand and entering them into the NAV by hand - ugh.
Found one OCR app that sort of works - MS Photo Scan - all the other OCR apps I tried failed, even Photo Scan failed on some photos. Also realized I don't just need to photograph the address book list, I need to photograph every individual entry that shows name/address/phone number. Looks like my address book is going to shrink by about 90% - crap.
Can't edit my last post - discovered something that works like magic - upload an image to your GoogleDrive, right-click "Open with", choose Google Docs, then click on "View/Mode/Viewing" to see the OCR result - here's one of an error message I got that Google OCR'd perfectly - MS Photo Scan could not read more than the first line:
Which leads to one more question, if I may - when I talked to the guy from ShortCircuit.com about repairing my old unit to have a spare, he said I'd have to send the current 2021 DVD inside it - obviously that's not going to work - as you can see in that error message, it appears you can't go back to an older NAV DVD once you've upgraded to a newer one - I can't believe that Acura designed the system this way. Any idea on how to revert my original NAV unit back to the 2016 DVD? I didn't have to run the setup disk for the 2021 DVD, but perhaps if I stick the one that came with the 2016 DVD into the old drive and start the car it will load the old software so the 2016 disk would work? Also wondering whether pulling the battery cable off for 30 mins would be necessary. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this. Also just realized fixing the original unit is almost certainly going to wipe out the address book, unless that info is stored in a memory chip that isn't part of the repair.
Dang someone actually uses the address book? That’s probably more rare than someone that uses the calendar
That was my thought too!
Originally Posted by ex_hacker202
it appears you can't go back to an older NAV DVD once you've upgraded to a newer one - I can't believe that Acura designed the system this way. Any idea on how to revert my original NAV unit back to the 2016 DVD?
You can force it to reload through the diagnostic menu (same as uploading hacks)... with the old disc inserted (at that error shown), press and hold Map, Menu, and Cancel buttons for 5 seconds. Then click the "Version" button, then "DownLoad". That will reflash the firmware with whatever disc is inserted. It may be risky to do if your disc drive is failing though... if the drive fails while it's in the middle of flashing, it might brick the unit (I don't know if there's any failsafe for this). That might be why the guy says you need to supply the same disc that's loaded.
Originally Posted by ex_hacker202
Also just realized fixing the original unit is almost certainly going to wipe out the address book, unless that info is stored in a memory chip that isn't part of the repair.
It likely wouldn't get wiped... most likely the guy will be repairing the disc drive, not the system's flash storage.
BTW, IIRC, there's a way to back up all your contacts, address book, etc. to transfer to another unit. I haven't personally done it (since I don't use that stuff), but it's also in the diagnostic menu. You need a PC card disk drive inserted, then one of the options backs up all the personal data to the card. And I think there's a button to restore the data as well.
August 17th is when the GPS unit will roll over from (what it thinks is) Dec. 31 2002 to Jan. 1 2003, which is required for the clock to update (Honda/Acura/Alpine prevents the clock from updating if it reports 2002). The reason for this whole issue is because GPS only has a 1024 week counter, which is roughly 19.6 years. So, unless the true offset is hardcoded in the firmware, or gets updated sometime during its life, the GPS receiver has no way of knowing whether it is Aug. 17, 2022, Jan. 1 2003, or even May 18, 1983.
Furuno (the GPS manufacturer) set the date offset to sometime in 2002, and has no way to update the offset, which makes its date loop between 2002 and 2021 (and I think it also shows Jan. 1 2022 before going back to 2002).
Here's a quick howto for modifying your own Navi disc to add 20 years, in effect allowing the dash clock to update correctly. Note that this adds exactly 20 years, not 1024 weeks, so the date is close, but not 100% correct. [...]
I wanted to say thanks for the easy to follow instructions, this worked for me with no trouble!
Where can I guy a PC card to save the address book? Searching online doesn't show what kind of memory card or disk it takes - I need to buy a blank one of whatever it is, formatted so the NAV unit can read it.
Is this what I need to use the PC-card slot as memory? I have a spare 32GB CF card for my digital camera, so if this is the adapter that works I'm set - well, would have been if I'd known how to copy my address book to the PC-card slot before my old NAV unit croaked - this will help recover things if it works when my used NAV unit gives up the ghost:
That adapter should work, though I don't know whether your 32GB card will work. IIRC, the service manual says it only works with a maximum card size of 2GB. So you might need to track down an old (small) CF card.
Thanks - 2 GB is like nothing, even back in 2005 - didn't see that limit in a 2008 RL NAV manual I found online, but a 2008 Acura CSX NAV manual says "only cards up to 2GB have been tested" - might get the adapter, try my 32GB card, if it doesn't work buy a 2 GB CF card, which costs almost as much as the 256GB card I just bought for my camera - sheesh!
Just found something online in a 2007 RL's manual - the PCMCIA card slot can handle CF cards up to 64 MB to 2 GB, so yes, I need to buy a 2GB CF card - I've never seen this info anywhere online, maybe it should be sticky'd in the RL and TL electronics/NAV forum? Tells you exactly how to save driver settings and address book using the PCMCIA slot and transfer them to another NAV unit:
Can we move the client's data to different models (like moving Civic navi data to a Pilot)?
No, the files are model specific and will only load into a navi ECU with the same part number.
I don't think they mean you couldn't replace a 39540-SJA-A010-M1 with 39540-SJA-A310-M1 like I did in my 2005 RL, and the first used NAV unit I tried was from a 2008, 39540-SJA-A610-M1, it mostly worked, just wouldn't save addresses, memory chip was bad, but otherwise everything else worked. What I'm saying is any 2005-2008 NAV unit should be able to save data to the CF card, it's just that you can't save data from a Honda NAV unit (and likely 2009-on RL NAV units) and try to restore it in an 05-08 RL.
Parts I'm buying to use the PCMIA slot to save my data - first link is the CF adapter for $10, second one is for a $11.50 2 GB CF card:
Forgive me, but this thread is super long and am just looking for a simple answer: on 8/17 is this going to just magically fix itself or do we have to disconnect battery to initialize a GPS sync?
Forgive me, but this thread is super long and am just looking for a simple answer: on 8/17 is this going to just magically fix itself or do we have to disconnect battery to initialize a GPS sync?
According to the TSB publish by Honda/ Acura. You must disconnect the battery at 12:45 p.m and reconnect at 1:00 PM in order time to be corrected on 8/17.
According to the TSB publish by Honda/ Acura. You must disconnect the battery at 12:45 p.m and reconnect at 1:00 PM in order time to be corrected on 8/17.
I think that was the workaround procedure for how to "sort of" get the time corrected between 1/1/2022 and 8/16/2022, but the TSB doesn't say one has to actually do something on or after 8/17/2022:
It only says, "...when the system's internal calendar recalibrates, the GPS time signal becomes valid again," but doesn't say when that actually occurs or if you can (or need to) force it to recalibrate.
We're still over a month out... it won't fix itself until August 17th.
No need to do anything, though you can reload the stock firmware if you want. With the patched firmware, it'll think it's January 2023... with the stock firmware it'll think it's January 2003. The time will be correct with either one, but yeah, neither date is technically correct.
Does it autocorrect at midnight, the crossover between 8/16 and 8/17, or noon on 8/17, or midnite on 8/17? Not a dumb question - I tried DogP's CD trick to update the calendar and failed - inserted the modified CD, and got the "downloading software" msg, then the NAV screen went black, couldn't get anything to display at all. I shut off the car, restarted, and again saw the "downloading software" msg, then NAV booted as usual, but calendar still stuck at Jan 2002. I did a file compare of the copied files and the new ones his method created and they were identical - so I need to figure out this calendar thing before the clock resets just in case I screw something up again. Because yes, I occasionally use the calendar!
I just checked mine and it thinks it's 2002.12.27 21:19:00 (time appears to be UTC/GMT). So next Weds (8/17) at 00:00:00 UTC (or 17:00:00 PDT on 8/16) should be when the Navi system thinks is Happy New Years circa 2003! <insert bad "Back to the Future" joke here>
So next Weds (8/17) at 00:00:00 UTC (or 17:00:00 PDT on 8/16) should be when the Navi system thinks is Happy New Years circa 2003! <insert bad "Back to the Future" joke here>
You guys see the new TL that Acura is coming out with in 2004? Probably won't sell very well, and the dashes look prone to cracking.
Ok I'll stop...
Last edited by jeffstlnote; Aug 12, 2022 at 04:41 PM.
My clock is still basically busted if I use the default settings (Auto/Auto/Mar.-Nov.). Still have to manually add an hour. At this point, whatever. Nothing else I can do about it.
