Plotter power leads (Navman Tracker)

[wombat88]

I recently bought a boat and amongst the junk (inventory) I inside is a Navman Tracker 5505 without leads. OK so it must be ten years old (?) but possibly worth giving it a go, it might work, it might not.

Seeing this as something of a project I turned to Ebay in search of leads. The antenna lead seems to sell for a fiver which I am happy to risk bit the power leads are priced at £25-35...which is surely just not worth the bother.

Any reason why? They look fairly straightforward to me. Anyone got a dead unit with leads? Is there a way of making one up?

Whatever happens it is likely that I will need to get inside to replace the internal battery, this looks fairly straightforward

Any suggestions or is it for the tip?

 

[Robin]

I had 2 navman trackers years back, one with internal aerial one external, and they were excellent so worth a try if you also have the C-Map chart cartridges for it, if not, probably not worth the time and effort?

 

[wombat88]

I have the relevant chart cartridges for it and assume it is one that requires the external aerial since there is a socket for it. I'm hoping I'm half way there...?

 

[Robin]

IIRC the internal aerial one has a little like 20mm stub sticking up on top but still has a connection for an external aerial, mine worked just fine below decks, on internal antenna, at the chart table used to plan on it below and use the other under the sprayhood mostly on displaying BTW/COG/SOG/VMG TO WPT/ XTRACK ERROR etc. only switching to chart display viewpoint close in, I transferred routes etc from one to other via an empty user cartridge but beware there are different capacity ones and the wrong ones don't work in all plotters ( i had an old Raymarine one running too, backup for backup for backup)...

 

[wombat88]

Thanks, will let you know how I get on. I am told that JG Technologies of Weymouth bought the remaining stocks of Navman parts...so we'll see.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I recently bought a boat and amongst the junk (inventory) I inside is a Navman Tracker 5505 without leads. OK so it must be ten years old (?) but possibly worth giving it a go, it might work, it might not.

Seeing this as something of a project I turned to Ebay in search of leads. The antenna lead seems to sell for a fiver which I am happy to risk bit the power leads are priced at £25-35...which is surely just not worth the bother.

Any reason why? They look fairly straightforward to me. Anyone got a dead unit with leads? Is there a way of making one up?

Whatever happens it is likely that I will need to get inside to replace the internal battery, this looks fairly straightforward

Any suggestions or is it for the tip?

I have the Navman 5500, the early model. I had to change leads as mine had a nick in the cable, strained and damaged. I just bought a new GPS antenna and cable with the correct end fitting for the GPS unit. I find it has worked very well for me. I spent £300 some years later on updating my cards (Chartco at Bookharbour), the issue being that the data had changed so much that coverage per card was different and new cards were needed i.e. they could not just update my older cards (the card was fine). Mine only inter faces with the VHF and send the lat long to the DSC function, other interfaces are possible. I don't believe yours has the stub antenna built in, so it needs the external GPS antenna. A word of caution, the screens can fade. Mine was nice and bright and after recommissioning after winter layup, the screen was very dim to look at in daytime, at night, it is okay. It has improved slightly with use this year. A google search on solutions suggested that some have experienced this issue, but I don't think it is common, also yours is a newer model.

My recommendation, is that it is a good plotter, does the job, robust (mine is about +15 years old). If it was me, I would buy the leads unless the item was obviously damaged. At £25-30 quid, its a good punt to have a working plotter.

Now, I may have the old power lead and it looks the same as the one in the 5505 manual. It is damaged and I had it working, but the fix was bodge, hence why I replaced it. I should be at the boat next weekend, I will check for you and can send it down if it is still onboard.

 

[Robin]

I seem to remember the 'power' lead also contained the data lead (one wire plus shield ?) NMEA 0183 for linking up to other gubbins, like DSC VHF Ours also fed data to a chart table fixed mount Yeoman plotter and an ancient R20X(?) RATHEON radar where it displayed a waypoint position on screen. BTW I had the external antenna mounted internally anyway, did it initially out of laziness as a test but it worked so well it never got plumbed in outside. Good luck with your lucky find!

 

[wombat88]

Robin, thanks, I won't be using any other 'gubbins' to start so hopefully things should be reasonably straightforward.

BlowingOldBoots, very kind, yes please if you still have it!

Have checked the manual and yes 5505 needs an external antenna as you say. The side of the box says that the kit included antenna 1330 which I assume is a white mushroom.

The only date I can find on the thing is 2006 when I assume it was new. The PO bought the boat in 2003 and installed a new engine that to date has done less than 200 hours (motor boat). One can assume that the plotter has also spent most of its life doing nothing (which is not necessarily a good thing).

 

[pvb]

Have checked the manual and yes 5505 needs an external antenna as you say. The side of the box says that the kit included antenna 1330 which I assume is a white mushroom.

The 1330 was indeed a white mushroom, with an SMA connector. You can buy one for still for about £80. However, if you Google for navman 1330 you'll find quite a lot of cheap GPS antennae which should do the job.

 

[MikeCC]

The workaround to just power it up is to solder +/- wires to small pins/sockets depending on connection gender. You should be able find pinouts online.

 

[wombat88]

The workaround to just power it up is to solder +/- wires to small pins/sockets depending on connection gender. You should be able find pinouts online.

I have searched but cannot find pinouts. They would certainly get me going. I have the wire colours in the manual but the plug on the unit is male, 8 pins, so offers no clues.

Regarding antenna, yes, I was hoping a cheapie would do the trick, something like this?

GPS Antenna Cable 1575.42MHz Right Angle for Navman Tracker 5505 AA002961U | eBay

 

[ithet]

The workaround to just power it up is to solder +/- wires to small pins/sockets depending on connection gender. You should be able find pinouts online.

Another option is to solder a power fly-lead direct to the circuit board then drill a hole in the case to take the lead through (with grommet if going outside). Obviously requires a bit more intervention.

For GPS antenna search eBay for "gps antenna sma" or "gps mushroom sma", but these days I do not think it necessary to fit the external mushroom type (although I have used one of the cheap Chinese ones successfully on a Garmin GPS). Wombat88's suggestion looks as good as any.

 

[superheat6k]

Navman is the same as the old Northstar. I had one on my boat before last and needed to hook up a Nasa AIS engine. AFter much pushing they sent me the wiring drawings for the leads.

These might be of use to you.

The manual for your model is at this Dropbox link ...

Navman Tracker T5505-5605.pdf

Excellent plotter so if you do decide to sell it I would be interested as I need to replace my old backup black and white Garmin 235.

 

[wombat88]

Thanks for that, very helpful, I'll see how I get on.