Jeppesen's JSUM being phased out

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azure

Final Approach
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This is more of a rant than a question. I just read in this thread on the Red Board that JSUM, Jeppesen's long-standing application for updating database cards, is being phased out at the end of the year. In its place will be a new app called JDM that has been out on Mac OS X for nearly a year now. When I first heard about this I was thrilled, until I learned that the app can't be used to update the database in a number of devices including the GNS 480. So I haven't bothered to download the thing, since it would be useless to me.

I've kept a dual-boot Linux/Windows system around for my updates since I bought the airplane and I guess I can continue to use it. The problem is - the Windows version of JDM isn't going to be available until the end of September and JSUM will go away at the end of the year. So it seems those of us who are stuck with Windows are going to be doing our database updates using a v 1.0 release that's almost certainly going to be full of bugs. Will 3 months be enough for Jepp to iron out the bugs? Will they even bother? Their track record so far isn't very good - I've had problems from the start with JSUM and have refused all recent in-app updates for that reason.

I went to their Mac download page today just to see if anything had changed and found a feedback form asking if "this information" had been helpful. I tried to put "Add support for the GNS 480" but when I hit send, it just said "Error! Error recording data"

Would you trust a company with your database that can't even design a feedback form that actually works?

Why can't they support the GNS 480 on the Mac? Is it really rocket science or is their software development in the hands of total incompetents?
 
JSUM is an usupportable piece of crap and is full of bugs. It needs replacing.

I once again got royally SCREWED by JSUM trying to load my cards yesterday. There was a CHARTVIEW download from July that didn't think it was written to the card and for some reason JSUM refused to "REFRESH SERVICES" to the current one. Then in the process of updating the 480 card the mx20 navdata info just disappeared from the disk.

I asked about the 480. Apparently, the code to process the 480 stuff is some obscure piece of unportable code (or possibly lost I couldn't quite get an accurate description out of the Jepp person I tried to pin down) and they'll never get it ported they claim. This is annoying as the MX20 and GNS480 are DIRT SIMPLE software updates. All there is is a standard NT filesystem with the unit serial number encoded in the volume header on standard CF cards. You can use any CF drive that you want as long as it shows the filesystem to windows. THe updates are just standard windows files.


Generally in 35 years of aviation experience, I've found that Jeppesen's software offerings (across the board) have always sucked horrendously. The only thing is some of the very recent iOS offerings. Perhaps they're finally contracting out to someone with a clue about software engineering.
 
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I'll just keep my JSUM for as long as I can. It's a simple program, always done the job for me, I'm not seeing the advantage for me to be changing working things at this time.
 
James331 said:
I'll just keep my JSUM for as long as I can. It's a simple program, always done the job for me, I'm not seeing the advantage for me to be changing working things at this time.
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Same here. I am using it on Windows through Parallels on a Mac. No issues with it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Jeppesen has the absolute lousiest customer-facing presence of any company I've ever dealt with other than cable and telephone companies.

Their products are fine. However, the mechanisms they use to present their products for purchase, the way they deliver their products, and the way they bill for those products are ridiculously horrible.

I'm still confused by their website(s). Are there two? I have two userIDs/passwords. I never know which one I'm supposed to use for what.

It took them about a year to get their Avidyne data packages figured out.

When I transitioned from my GNS430 data subscription to an Avidyne data subscription, I was warned that I would get THREE invoices, because they couldn't manage to combine all the transactions onto a single invoice.

I will say that every time I've spoken with a human being for Jepp customer service, they've been the friendliest and most helpful they could be.

But the accounting and IT infrastructure they're surrounded by is simply awful.
 
azure said:
This is more of a rant than a question. I just read in this thread on the Red Board that JSUM, Jeppesen's long-standing application for updating database cards, is being phased out at the end of the year. In its place will be a new app called JDM that has been out on Mac OS X for nearly a year now. When I first heard about this I was thrilled, until I learned that the app can't be used to update the database in a number of devices including the GNS 480. So I haven't bothered to download the thing, since it would be useless to me.


I share your concerns with the 480, but I read that the WINDOWS version WOULD support the 480.

From the Mac JDM PDF.....

The majority of data services are available on the Mac with the following exceptions:
• Garmin GNS480
• Garmin CNX80
• Garmin GX50/60
• Garmin MX20
• FreeFlight Approach+
• Trimble TNL
• Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion • Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21
• Thales

Garmin GNS480, CNX80, and GX50/60 services will be available with the release of Jeppesen Distribution Manager for Windows. There is currently no driver for these services on the Mac.
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The driver comment is bullpoop. There is no "driver" required for the GNS480, CNX80, MX20, etc... The standard OS/X driver will work just fine. What is missing is the file that knows how to handle Jepp's rights management. As far as the memory card, these devices use a industry standard CF card with NT filesystem and the serial # is just stuffed in the volume id (or some similar field on the fs). All of this is easily accessed on OS/X.

The biggest problem is Jepp's software configuration management is even worse than their ability to ship the right paper charts to customers.

JSUM is riddled with bugs. It fails about 50% of the time as of late.
 
So.....since y'all know a lot more about this than I (who is only on the cusp of IR training and therefore NavData updates).....what's your take on this...Bad Elf Wombat:
http://bad-elf.com/pages/wombat

Will this totally sidestep JSUM and other interaction w Jeppesen?
 
flyingron said:
The driver comment is bullpoop. There is no "driver" required for the GNS480, CNX80, MX20, etc... The standard OS/X driver will work just fine. What is missing is the file that knows how to handle Jepp's rights management. As far as the memory card, these devices use a industry standard CF card with NT filesystem and the serial # is just stuffed in the volume id (or some similar field on the fs). All of this is easily accessed on OS/X.

The biggest problem is Jepp's software configuration management is even worse than their ability to ship the right paper charts to customers.

JSUM is riddled with bugs. It fails about 50% of the time as of late.
Click to expand...


Used JSUM on different machines, blue USB sky connect, GNS updates, different windows versions, even on a virtual machine running on Suse, never had it fail.
 
I use JSUM to keep our customer's planes updated. This had better be a smooth transition.
 
BillyBH said:
I share your concerns with the 480, but I read that the WINDOWS version WOULD support the 480.
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Just to clarify: I read the same thing and my concern isn't that the Windows version won't support the 480, it's that we'll be required to use the bleeding edge bug-ridden horror that the initial release of the Windows version will be, unlike folks with other hardware who've been using the better-tested Mac version for the better part of a year.

If you're an AOPA member and read the thread I linked to, you'll find at least a couple of very satisfied JDM for Mac customers. I'd have few qualms about making the switch to JDM now - IF I could do my 480 updates with the Mac version.

Releasing replacement software and then phasing out the software it replaces 3 months later is ambitious for a decent software company; for Jeppesen, which has proven themselves to be totally incompetent at writing and maintaining software, at least Windows-based software, it's monumentally stupid. I can only hope they will reconsider after users bury them in bug reports come the first couple weeks in October.
 
azure said:
Just to clarify: I read the same thing and my concern isn't that the Windows version won't support the 480, it's that we'll be required to use the bleeding edge bug-ridden horror that the initial release of the Windows version will be, unlike folks with other hardware who've been using the better-tested Mac version for the better part of a year.
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Doubtful. I don't even think Jepp likely has Windows 10. If you are using one of their iOS packages you'll find you can't upgrade your iOS because they aren't even attempting to track iOS versions.
 
James331 said:
Used JSUM on different machines, blue USB sky connect, GNS updates, different windows versions, even on a virtual machine running on Suse, never had it fail.
Click to expand...

You've been lucky. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to call Jepp to get them to authorize extra downloads on the software after it failed and decided I'd already used up mine. It's fragile. VERY fragile.
 
flyingron said:
Doubtful. I don't even think Jepp likely has Windows 10. If you are using one of their iOS packages you'll find you can't upgrade your iOS because they aren't even attempting to track iOS versions.
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What is doubtful? That the Windows version will be released by the end of the month or that Mac users have been using JDM for the better part of a year? (Note that the Mac runs OS/X, not iOS.)

The Windows release end of September was announced in an email to current JSUM users that has been posted in several places including the Red Board.
 
I wonder if they are going to try to force folks to "upgrade"?
 
James331 said:
I wonder if they are going to try to force folks to "upgrade"?
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I'm thinking that the first release is going to be so buggy that they'll WANT to "upgrade".

Or do you mean "upgrade" from JSUM to JDM? By killing JSUM by year's end, what they're doing will have pretty much that effect, don't you think?
 
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