Another T120 windvane Connection Issues thread

[BMP_Express]

Sorry this topic comes up often but we're having trouble connecting a Tacktick T102 T120 Wind vane to our network on the boat.

The unit we have is from 2013 & appears to be unused. We bought it as part of a job lot of instruments which were all new and the rest are working.

First thought was the battery in the unit, so we've taken the unit apart and changed that out, however we still can't get it to connect. The voltage from the new battery pack was ~2.8 V when we installed it.

We've since left the unit in the sun on a window sill and tried connecting it to one of the displays from the boat but it won't connect.

I have a workshop power supply which I can turn down to 3 V DC so my next thought was to try powering using that and then trying to connect it to the network to see if it's a battery issue.

I've got two questions:

1) Does anyone know what the voltage from the batteries should be? (3 V or 6 V would be my guess).
2) Does anyone have any other ideas what else could be the issue, and if there's anythnig else we can try short of sending it back to Raymarine?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we're trying to convert a boat from cruising to JOG racing on a budget!

 

[XDC]

Hi and welcome.

Are you sure you mean T102?

Raymarine Wind Transmitter - T120 - Hudson Marine Electronics

I am selling my MN30 display and T120 transmitter due to a complete system upgrade.

It has always worked faultlessly so I’m sorry to read you’re having a frustrating problem.

I have the installation booklet with a fault finding section e.g. data is shown as dashes or network alarm etc.

What transmitter do you actually have and what is the display actually showing?

Even if you don’t have a connection the display should still power up.

 

[BMP_Express]

Hi XDC - you're correct I do indeed mean T120. I updated the thread title there.

The display unit is working fine, and connected fine to the rest of the instruments in the boat as well. It powers up when we try to connect, but when we go through the autonetworking function it does not find / locate the wind transmitter "node".

I'll have a look for the fault finding document online and see if it has any further ideas!

 

[XDC]

Not sure if this would help but you could always send me just the transmitter head and I could let you know if my MN30 sees it. Then go from there.

My boat is at Haslar, I've just spoken to them, they are happy to bring it over if you can get it to East Cowes

 

[BMP_Express]

Thanks for the offer. I'll try to connect it to one of the other boats in the marina next weekend when I'm back at it. Good idea!

 

[MrMan]

Thanks for the offer. I'll try to connect it to one of the other boats in the marina next weekend when I'm back at it. Good idea!

I am having a similar issue. Did you ever get this resolved?

 

[Daverw]

They do have to be within 300mm of each to pair.

 

[MrMan]

They do have to be within 300mm of each to pair.

They are paired fine but lose their connection after being about 4m away. So your issue was pairing and now work ok?

 

[Daverw]

I had to send the wind head back for testing as it kept losing comms, it tested fine, the issue found when back on boat was the mast was causing weak signal as it was in the line of sight and wind head close to range limit. This was 6 years ago, solved problem by moving depth unit as raymarine tech told me that all units on board act as receivers into network. They have all worked perfectly ever since. Also the tech told me about pairing by pulling up the display to the top of the mast in a bag to pair again, you have 2 minutes to get it close if I recall.

also just to add I have both displays on 12v power

 

[MrMan]

I had to send the wind head back for testing as it kept losing comms, it tested fine, the issue found when back on boat was the mast was causing weak signal as it was in the line of sight and wind head close to range limit. This was 6 years ago, solved problem by moving depth unit as raymarine tech told me that all units on board act as receivers into network. They have all worked perfectly ever since. Also the tech told me about pairing by pulling up the display to the top of the mast in a bag to pair again, you have 2 minutes to get it close if I recall.

also just to add I have both displays on 12v power

Thanks for the info

 

[Quester]

Another cause of poor/no connection. I have a T120 which works fine away from the marina ( at least it did until I dropped it). Works fine when testing at deck level but fails to connect from the masthead . Turns out that there's a cellnet mast about 150 yds away in line of sight from the mast head which interferes with the connection. Tested at home within line of sight of a cellnet mast and get the same failure. As a result I re-boot my Tacktick system when 1/2 mile down river - no problem.