MAX-BR1-Mini - GPS issue?

Received this from a customer

“Are there any known issues with MAX BR1 Minis not finding GPS? Or have people reported issues with those puck antennas? We seem to be having a lot of issues with them finding GPS lately. Any info or insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated.”

I bought a Max Transit in March of 2021 and mounted the GPS puck outside. Last Month, Feb 2024 it gave up the ghost. It became unreliable for a couple of weeks and then would not get a GPS lock at all. I bought a Peplink branded one off eBay for $7… I’m sure there are lots of folks out there that simply never use the GPS part and are glad to get the $7 for it. Anyway, the new to me / used one is working great. So evidently these things have a lifespan, especially true if out in the sunlight and weather :slight_smile:

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I have a MAX BR1 Mini and the GPS stops working an hour or two after boot. It comes back after reboot (for an hour or two, then fails)

This happened right after a firmware update to 8.3.0. I tried downgrading to 8.2.1, same result, but 8.1.3 has been working for 8+ hours now. I don’t have physical access to the unit so I’m going to leave it alone. Cell access and wifi still work, and GPS forwarding still sends sentences to the server, but the NMEA data shows an invalid lock. Position on incontrol2 doesn’t update either.

It could be a antenna, cabling, or just a loose connector, but I would think the firmware level wouldn’t matter… maybe I haven’t waited long enough and it will fail again. However I did about 9 or 10 reboots before downgrading to 8.1.3 and never waited more than an hour or two before experiencing the failure.