Hello all,

?

After performing a recent firmware update on a Gemini II mini-controller on a GM811 (received new from Losmandy in early 2022), I noticed that the Hand Controller is displaying February 29th in the lower right corner, regardless of the actual date. With my time zone offset (-7) this only occurs between the civil hours of 17:00:00 to 23:59:59 for any date in February and the year is 2025 or three year increments thereof (i.e. 2028, 2031, etc.). If the HC's 'Menu / Time' screen -and/or- the web page 'Time' are displayed while the incorrect date is shown, the date setting boxes show the correct date! With other time zones, the abnormality start time changes accordingly but the end time remains the same. In addition, the initial GOTO pointing accuracy after a 'CWD / Cold Start' is within the expected error even with the Feb. 29th date being shown.

?

Hopefully this can be duplicated, and is not an isolated issue with my controllers. To confirm this - on the HC set the time zone offset to any valid negative value (AFAIK the problem does not appear with positive offsets), set the civil date to any day in February with a year as mentioned above, and set the civil time to (23:59:50 + time zone) and hit 'Set' at the bottom of the screen. After the display returns to the Home Screen, watch the date in the lower right corner jump from the set one to Feb.29th when the time rolls over to the next whole hour. If the year is set to anything other than mentioned, the date remains correct. It appears that the UTC 23:59:59 to 00:00:00 roll over triggers the Feb.29th date, and the civil 23:59:59 to 00:00:00 roll over corrects it.

?

I have used GFU V1.0.0.32 to reload both the mainboard and HC firmware several times. The current firmware shown on the HC 'Menu / HC / Info' is :

Mainboard ? ? ? ? - Level 6.10, Built Nov.5, 2024

HC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?- V1.63, Build Oct.14, 2024

RA / DEC Servo - V3.0

(Dumb question : why does one say 'Built' and the other say 'Build'?)

?

I have performed the 'Reset HGM Defaults' and 'SRAM Reset' then reload from file, and have cleaned the contacts and reseated both micro SD cards, all without any improvement. By the way the micro SD cards are from Losmandy as part of their 'Level 6 Upgrade Kit' that I purchased last summer. The backup battery voltage is 3.01V, with the main battery reporting 14.98V.

?

Other than what appears to be a 'cosmetic abnormality / annoyance', this mount and controllers perform flawlessly!?

?

I know it's late in February 2025, but I didn't want to get caught off guard in February 2028....

?

Clear skies,

Ed

?