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Compass gimbal lock

My compass sometimes goes into gimbal lock. Usually when it is most inconvenient, either before the dive or when in the water.
Only a reboot of the device seems to fix this, the re-calibration fails every time. I find this issue very concerning.
The Compass is set to magnetic north and the firmware was updated to 2.50
There is no interference from other magnets or steel/iron in the vicinity.

0 profunditas over 6 years ago

I had the same issue once and it caught me off guard. Contacted Garmin support, was requested to send the system dump, fixed the problem in the meantime by resetting the device and Garmin happily disengaged. Compass in default mode, true north.

Requested compass pre-dive auto check from Garmin, no reply. Put it into my pre-dive check if I expect to use compass on a dive. Let's see if anyone else is facing this problem.

0 Arne over 6 years ago

Here is a video of the issue.ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1358594.gif

0 Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago

Arne We need a little more information from you on this issue and would invite you to contact us directly. If using email, please include the subject line 'Outdoor – Descent MK1 – Compass’.

If you could provide us with detailed steps on how you reproduce this issue and, we would like to have a copy of your Garmin folder from your Descent MK1 so that we can get even more data from the files. (To do this, the steps are listed here.)

0 pprimoz over 6 years ago

Arne
If you could provide us with detailed steps on how you reproduce this issue and, we would like to have a copy of your Garmin folder from your Descent MK1 so that we can get even more data from the files. (To do this, the steps are listed here.)

8. Drag any files with names that begin with gmap to the Recycle Bin

After maps update (Descent MK1, European version) few days ago, in the Garmin folder there are also files (4GB of maps):

D4713060C.gma
D4713060C.img
D4713060C.unl
D6019000A.gma
D6019000A.img
D6019000A.unl

which (I think) should be also deleted before zipping!

0 Volker over 6 years ago

Edit

0 0321tony over 6 years ago

I have this problem but only when in dive mode. About half of my dives my compass is completely useless and I have stopped using it as my primary compass because I cant trust it. it has gotten me lost twice now. When it works it works great and is an awesome feature to set headings recips and 90's left and right but if I can't trust it it does me no good. Hopefully this is a software error and can be fixed with an update but for now I am relying on the old standby analog tried and true compass.

0 Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago

0321tony, We would like to get more data on this issue, could you please email us too so that we can look at your data?

We need a little more information from you on this issue we would invite you to contact us directly. If using email, please include the subject line 'Outdoor – Descent MK1 – Compass’.

If you could provide us with detailed steps on how you reproduce this issue and, we would like to have a copy of your Garmin folder from your Descent MK1 so that we can get even more data from the files. (To do this, the steps are listed here.)

0 profunditas over 6 years ago

I'd like to report issue occurring again UW with same symptoms. What has been done on this so far?

0 Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago

profunditas We have not had anyone email us directly, so we have not been able to get files off their devices to report this issue. We have also tried to reproduce this in-house so we could use the files off our devices but were not able too. Could you please contact us directly with the above information so that we can work with you direct on this?

0 Arne over 6 years ago

Have you tried putting a magnet close to the device, turning and rotating magnet and or device and than putting the magnet away again?