When Qualcomm Navigation system fails, rebooting Qualcomm

This is information for drivers that may experience failure of the Qualcomm navigation system. It is disconcerting when you are in the thick of getting to a customer and all of a sudden QC's Nav goes bonkers or freezes up. I've had a few experiences with this, and the first time I called my DM and she gave me the phone number for the QC "guru" in Phoenix.

Here are two prime examples of QC Nav failure I've had, and I'm sure many of you have also had:

1. QC Nav simply freezes in place and the map doesn't move.

2. QC Nav suddenly "ports" you to a completely different location, sometimes with a spinning map.

Now it may be well and good to simply continue to your destination and disregard the QC nav, but this can lead to problems with your e-Logs. If you continue driving and your location stays the same for a period of time and especially if you have duty status changes between periods of driving and your location remains the same, then you may well get the dreaded warning that you have to start paper logs. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

First, you need to know where the Qualcomm "black box" is located. In the Cascadia it is under the bottom bunk on the passenger's side. When I drove a KW T660 it was in the driver's side tool box (which is a very difficult place to work on the black box and it get's very dirty).

Check to make sure that all cables are attached to the box properly. In one of my Type 2 (see above) incident's in the KW T660 the antenna cable had come completely off! Simply reattaching the antenna cable solved the problem, but it kept coming out.

If all cables are attached properly, then you will need to do a "cold reboot". I've found this is best in two steps. First, turn the electrical kill switch to the off position. This is the switch you turn off if you are going to park the truck for a period of time. In the Cascadia it is located on the floor on the left side of the driver's seat. Then disconnect the power cable from the QC black box, it is the cable at the top of the box as installed in the Cascadia and looks like the cable the goes into the back of a printer...

... wait for at least 60 seconds. Preferably a couple of minutes. It takes that long for the "cold boot" to take effect with the black box.

Now turn on the electrical kill switch and reattach the power cable to the black box. Turn on the truck or turn the key to the on position and the QC screen should begin a fresh reboot.

I had my most recent episode with a Type 2 event today, and fortunately caught it quickly enough to avoid having to do paper logs.

If anyone has further advise or comments let's share.

 

True, but then your e-logs may get flagged and you may need to go on paper logs.

 

Actually, that was the 3rd level of reboot the QC guru had me do on the first occasion. First was the traditional Cntrl-Alt-Del, which didn't work. Second was pressing the power button for a few seconds, with no effect. That's when he had me go to the complete cold boot by unplugging the power and turning off the electric kill switch. Today I had to go to the cold boot, and then plugged in and turned it back on after about 60 seconds, only to have the QC come back on the same screen as before (with the current nav position off by miles)... so I unplugged the power cord and turned off the kill switch and then smoked a cigarette. That worked like a charm...

... maybe it was the cigarette?

... perhaps sacrificing a chicken on the hood will do?

 

The RM is on my wish list, but until then...