Monthly Archives: October 2019

Spectra just (Tuesday Morning, 9:00 am MST 8 October 2019) released this update notice for users of Legacy Spectra and Ashtech equipment:

Legacy Spectra Geospatial GNSS Receiver Firmware Upgrades
Recently, we have received some reports of positioning issues with Spectra Geospatial legacy receivers encountering an inability to report a position. This is caused by the GLONASS almanac providing some out-of-tolerance data for one of the GLONASS satellites, and the positioning engine in the receiver treating the almanac as accurate.
This issue has been resolved with firmware fixes which you can download through the links below. This should be distributed immediately to all affected users, as it will resolve the issue with the GLONASS almanac.

• ProMark 800
• ProFlex 800
• ProMark 100/200
• ProMark 120/220
• MobileMapper 100/120

In addition to the above, we have received some reports of positioning issues with the ProMark 500. We are currently developing a fix for the ProMark 500, and should have a fix available soon.

In addition to the Spectra location, I have mirrored the firmware at this web location for users who have difficulties getting the downloads:

https://ashgps.com/2/2019GloUpdates/index.htm

Spectra Geospatial has released a notification that these receivers:

SP80, PM500, PM800, PF500, PF800, PM120, MM120

are unable to report positions because of an errant GLONASS ephemeris issue.

A firmware fix for the SP80 is available now. You can download it with this link: [ Version 3.45 ]

A fix for the remaining legacy devices is planned and should be available soon.

If you have an affected receiver you probably noticed problems beginning last Friday. There is a chance that the SP60 and SP20 are also affected as they share a common engine with the SP80, however the factory has not confirmed this.

Please note that this is not an official notice from the factory, this is a courtesy ‘heads up’.

Several reports of anomalies yesterday (Monday 30 Sept 2019)  and today (Tuesday 1 October 2019).

1. SP80: these receivers track, then loose tracking, then reset engines if running firmware prior to 3.39. So firmware update is mandatory.
2. Some Trimble Engines: we have observed BD970 engines with older (~5.25) not floating or fixing. An engine reset with new ephemeris download appears to fix.
3. ProMark 500’s are seeing a ‘215’ error after booting. There is a chance that turning off GLONASS tracking (in SurvCE see ‘Equip: GPS Rover: Receiver (tab): Advanced’) will fix this issue.
4. ORGN and INCORS (and probably all Spider based servers) are reporting GLONASS related issues.

I can’t find any buzz online, but enough complaints to know there is an issue.