Infrared does not work

[pocci]

The Infrared Port of my Neptune (Rel. 2.6.0 D) does not work anymore.
It once worked, I could send jumps to paralog and communicate with the Neptune Maintenance Utility (NMU), but could not update the firmware.

No I can't get contact to paralog or the NMU.
When I film the Neptune with my camcorder in night mode, I can't see anything flashing at the IR-port. (This works with all my other IR-ports (IR-Port of PC, PDA, cellphone, all remote controls for TV, stereo, DVD-player). All of these emit flashes visible in camcorder nightmode, the Neptune not.).

So I guess, the IR-Port of the Neptune is dead.

Any Ideas how to reactivate it?

Other weird things:
The minute after midnight is shown from 24:00:00 to 24:00:59.
After that it switches to 0:01:00.

After letting the Neptune search for an IR-connection to download the logbook, it switches to an "Error Code Timeout" display.
After going out of this display via any key and going back to the main screen the clock had changed. If kept in the "Error..." screen for some minutes, the clock error is quite big.

Blue skies, Armin

[Matze]

I usually don't have problems with my IR-Connection, but when a timeout occurs , I also noticed that the internal clock seems to stop while displaying the timeout error screen.

BlueS
Matze

[Tim Henderson]

We are aware of the time-loss problem and are dealing with it in Neptune 2. There shouldn't be any time loss because you are in an IR session.

For 2.6.2 and earlier, by using NMU instead of Control Panel the time can be updated just before disconnection, leaving the current time accurate to the nearest minute. Just navigate to the Set Date and Time screen, verify you have the correct value on the screen, and click Send. When the transmission finishes, click Disconnect. Your Neptune returns to the menu, and once you retreat to the ground screen you can compare the clock with the PC time. If you are more than a minute apart, you should try this procedure again.

We tested this workaround with 2.6.2 units on all hardware versions. Please let us know how it works for you.

[JeremyDG]

In terms of the IR problem, there are a few troubleshooting steps you can preform to help resolve the issue.

1. Shut down all programs that use the IR adapter.
2. Clean the window of the Neptune IR.
3. Take the Neptune into IR connect mode and simply place it in front of the IR adapter.

If the system tray icon informing you that a IR device is within range does not appear, it will be necessary to return the unit to Alti-2.

[Tim Henderson]

We are getting reports that Vista does not always show you the IR tray icon.

NMU is being changed so that it does the work of the IR tray icon, and puts up appropriate messages. These changes began to appear in the 2.9.12 Beta NMU and should be complete by the time 3.0.0 is released.

Meanwhile, if you are using NMU on Vista, and your patches are up to date, you might not see an IR tray icon. If you wait 20 seconds or so after putting the Neptune in view of the IR adaptor window, you are far more likely to get a successful connect.