Trimble 250 not colouring in!

[bovrill]

I'd best say up front that modern technology isn't my thing, so I might be a bit out of my depth describing what's going on here. But I'll try my best!

I have a Trimble 250, with the dome antenna, and it's appearing to work fine, except the satellite picture in the top left isn't lighting up green, and therefore it won't do mapping. And most importantly, doesn't do the colouring in to show where I've been, and hence my missed bits and overlaps!

It's showing that I'm logged into 11 satellites, which I thought would be enough

And the GPS numbers are there,

so why does it say there's no GPS signal when I try and set an A-B line?

Any assistance would be gratefully received!
(But don't forget I'm a technological numpty, so short words please!!)

 

[PJ Walker @ RTK Farming]

When was the last time you used it. There have been some changes to the Egnos satellites so that could be it.

 

[bovrill]

When was the last time you used it. There have been some changes to the Egnos satellites so that could be it.

Last autumn I think. Possibly earlier than that since I tried mapping with it.
Mowing is the time I really use it.
How can I check if I'm up to date? And Assuming I'm not, how do I bring the little box into the 2020s with us?!

 

[PJ Walker @ RTK Farming]

I'll try and look it up for you it's quite simple on most systems but they are newer.

 

[bovrill]

I'll try and look it up for you it's quite simple on most systems but they are newer.

That would be lovely, thank you.
I suppose I've had this quite a few years now, I don't think they'd been out all that long when I got it.
I used to make a lot more use of it, but I don't do the contract work that I used to, and I think I know my own fields too well to go to the bother of swapping it between tractors each time I could use it.

 

[PJ Walker @ RTK Farming]

There is another thread here someone else had a similar issue:

EZ Guide 250 loosing signal

I have an EZ Guide 250. It's worked perfectly until today. What happened today is it would work perfectly, then it would lose the 'correction' signal. Normally it would be 3 or 4 seconds old, today it stopped updating after 10 / 15 minutes use. If I reboot the unit it works perfectly again...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I suspect the issue is the bottom of your third picture where it says "Uncorrected". There is someone on here from AS Communications but I can't recall their user name now. They would be able to talk you through it.

 

[bovrill]

There is another thread here someone else had a similar issue:

EZ Guide 250 loosing signal

I have an EZ Guide 250. It's worked perfectly until today. What happened today is it would work perfectly, then it would lose the 'correction' signal. Normally it would be 3 or 4 seconds old, today it stopped updating after 10 / 15 minutes use. If I reboot the unit it works perfectly again...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Thank you.
It looked a bit of a complicated thread to understand on my phone bumping up the field in the tractor, but I've brought the USB stick thing out the back of it indoors, and I'll see if I can figure it out on the laptop this evening.

 

[bovrill]

I suspect the issue is the bottom of your third picture where it says "Uncorrected". There is someone on here from AS Communications but I can't recall their user name now. They would be able to talk you through it.

That's who I got it off all those years ago.
To my shame, I never made it up to any of their update days. It always seemed to clash with something, and then I stopped getting invited

 

[AS_Comms]

Your Trimble EZ-Guide 250 Lightbar needs to be upgraded to firmware v3.12 in order to pick up new EGNOS 123 & 136 satellites which EGNOS correction is now being broadcast over, these satellites are not available on earlier versions like you are currently running.

In order to upgrade your system we will need to send you the latest upgrade file to download onto the root drive of a 2GB USB memory stick, this upgrade file will automatically be recognised when the stick is then loaded into the port on the back of your lightbar.

The Trimble EZ-Guide 250 Lightbar can be temperamental with certain brands and sizes of USB memory sticks, we do have some compatible drives in stock if this is a problem.

Please PM us your contact details or call our head office on (01480) 861824 and we will get the new upgrade file e-mailed across with some instructions, we can alternatively carry out this upgrade for you at a cost if you send us your system.

In the meantime you can still continue to use your Trimble EZ-Guide 250 Lightbar using uncorrected satellites, these would not give the same accuracy as EGNOS correction but would give a position for coverage mapping, you can change to uncorrected satellites through the following menus from the run screen: ‘Settings (Spanner) > System > GPS > GPS Setup > WAAS/EGNOS to Uncorrected'.