Sorry to add to the broken record. I've been using a GW-60 happily with a mac for the last nine months; today, it decided it no longer wants to connect. I've tried making sure all the contacts were clean. I've tried on two different macs. Each time, I get the UMS graphic on the screen like everything is normal. But there is no LOCOSYS disk showing up as it normally does. It worked perfectly well last week last time I use it and there have been no changes to the watch or the mac since that time. Everything else about the watch appears to be OK and normal.
More worrying, I then tried to connect it to my son's PC laptop, also using the UMS because he doesn't have the LOCOSYS software installed obviously. The PC wanted to "reformat" the drive, but wouldn't mount it. Any ideas? Is it worth downloading the LOCOSYS software on his machine and trying the COM connection.
Warranty claim?
Cheers
It is normal behavior for the GW-60 to not connect to Macs every now and then. Sometimes, it takes a few minutes or even an hour for the disk to mount; other times, it does not mount at all. I found that just switching the GPS on to record a few more points usually fixes this problem.
The message on the PC is a bit more worrisome, and could indicate a more serious problem (or it could just be something with the Windows version on your son's PC).
You'll definitely need to install the Locosys software on the PC, and try connecting through the COM connections. If that also does not work, then it will be time to contact the dealer and/or Locosys.
Thanks for the answer, but I've never experienced the delays that you describe; it worked well for several months without a problem, now it just doesn't work. For a device that is at least nominally compatible with mac, randomly having to be waiting up to an hour to connect, or not connecting at all, being "normal behaviour" is basically not fit for purpose by any definition--so if yours is doing that, I'd be wanting to know why. Do you think it is satisfactory? Think I'm going back to base with this one and see what the dealer can do with it.
Cheers anyway,
No, of course it's not satisfactory. But it's a fact of life. I have three GW-60s, and the all have problems on the Mac from time to time, with different Mac OS versions. The most common one is a mere annoyance - the Mac showing a dialog "the disk cannot be repaired", which can safely be ignored.
I looked into this a bit. The Mac does some file system checks when a USB drive is inserted. It sometimes does not get the expected answers from the drive, so things just hang. I'm sure Locosys is blaming the Mac, but I have never had any similar problems with dozens of other USB devices. Part of the problem may be that they chose an ancient file system from the DOS area for the USB drive (FAT8, IIRC). Compared to the GT-31, they have taken quite a few steps back with the GW-60 firmware.
Good news, downloaded the firmware update onto my son's PC and updated the firmware, and now back in business on the mac. Seems like this was the issue in my case.
