Garmin 496/XM Weather Data MIA

[L.Adamson]

Originally Posted by Chino Tom

No XM on my 496 today in SoCal. Cannot all of a sudden be a antenna problem.

It's a covert operation to sell 696's.

Mine has worked everytime I've tried it today.

L.Adamson -- RV6A

[turbo]

496 has been out for 3 days. i am showing an xm signal but no wx data or xm music coming in. the wx in florida has been good though. glad i found this post. i was about to make some calls.

[Ironflight]

Louise and I left Big Bear Lake (SOCAL) at sunrise this morning and flew all the way back to Houston, with the 396/30A combo on th left side of the airplane, and the 696/40A on the right. Both of them worked perfectly all day - we weren't aware of any problems at all. After we landed at home, one of my neighbors says he didn't get any XM data or voice today. I don't' know what I can add except the data point that both our systems worked normally all day.

Paul

[KPmarc]

I'm having the same problem: No XM on a 496. In fact, I know it's not an XM antenna problem, as in the failure of the antenna, because I have a spare sent to me when I had an early 496 problem; Garmin just sent a whole new package, leaving me with an extra GXM30A. It exhibits the same problems I have had for the last couple of days with the old antenna.

I first noticed this around Dec 30, when I was getting poor signal quality on the XM in the same location (hangar, door partly open) that it used to pull in three bars and download the WX in short order.

Clearly someone has a problem here, and I'm willing to bet it's XM, which has had, in my experience, absolutely the worst customer service around.

[ArjanPlomp]

Aerophoto,

I have exactly the same problems with our 396 as you are experiencing. Rather than the terrain warning, the demo channel turns on! Also, the Mute XM radio option is no longer available. However, I did do an upgrade to the latest firmware, could it be that?

It is either XM or Garmin's firmware upgrade, but if the latest firmware upgrade used the work for others in 2008, you bet it will either be a Y2K type of bug in the garmin software or XM receiver, or it is a XM problem.

Alexander Plomp
RV-8

[94kb]

I flew from Waco, Texas to Minneapolis on 2 Jan and had no XM WX at any time on my 496. My 300mw APRS system worked great. //http://aprs.fi/?call=WY0S-1&mt=m&z=11&timerange=259200

[aerophoto]

Originally Posted by ArjanPlomp

However, I did do an upgrade to the latest firmware, could it be that?

The firmware update shouldn't have anything to do with it. The latest 496 update came out in June and my 496 has been perfect until a couple of days ago.

A little more data on the problem:

• I pulled out 396/gxm30 (not an "a") out of our C-310 and it immediately showed the XM audio page as perfect, full signal strength. I had it on only long enough to see that screen
• I put the 396's gxm30 antenna on my 496 - the 496 had the same problem it's been having (ie: the audio page didn't work and it showed "waiting for data" without changing).
• I put my 496'a gxm-30a on the 396 and it showed the audio page perfectly for about 10 seconds (it also said "www.sirius.com" above the xm web address, which I hadn't seen before), then the program information disappeared piece by piece until it finally looked just as dead as the 496 has. Nothing changed after several minutes, and no wx data.
• I put the gxm-30 back on the 396 and it also was "dead", no audio page, no wx
• Just FYI, the gxm-30 is activated with the top-end wx service (whatever they call it), the gxm-30a is activated with the $29/month package
• neither antenna has the music package added to it

[Ironflight]

I'm wondering if there is some sort of subscriber database problem at XM/Sirius? I flew again a little while ago with the GXM40/696 in the Val, and I got both weather and music.

I also powered up Mikey's 396/30A again, just to make sure it was still OK, and both Weather and Audio were fine as well - so it isn't affecting ALL 396/496's.

With all the problems people are having, I can't figure out why we're unique here. We have different subscriptions on our two units, so it's not like they are linked. Weird!

Paul

[leroy]

Hi, I just registered to discuss this. I was stuck in Oregon with no weather as well, I have a GPSmap396, I have called xm support about 10 times now, no one seems to know what is going on, they say its a known problem with the ant that the 396/496 uses, but they have no fix. The last call they directed me to call an out of service phone # for Weather Works. I also called, and emailed Garmin, but they are all out for the weekend, no reply. This is very frustrating, and I just got the $149 bill for XM weather on my credit card bill!!!

Does anyone have any updates?

Thanks,

Leland

[AlexPeterson]

Anywhere Map xm wx worked today. Go figure.