bloody electronics

[cherod]

Famous last words ... "it's brand new, it can't possibly be faulty".

If I had a quid for every time I've heard that from a client I'd be sailing a brand new Sirius 40DS instead of a 40 odd year old Westerly!

In reality, it's far more likely to be faulty when it's brand new than when it's several years old, just as likely, in fact, as when it's nearing the end of its useful life (it's called the "bathtub" effect because if you plot mean failures of a component or device over time, the curve looks just like a section through a bathtub)

This is fault finding 101 and the cause of much grief and angst to those who don't grasp the concept. Never assume a component or device is working just because. If you can't prove beyond doubt that, in this instance, the GPS *is* working, you have to work on the assumption that it *may* be faulty, Ditto the plotter

And if you've checked and double checked all the wiring and checked and double checked all the config settings and you're certain that it's correctly connected and setup, by far the most likely explanation for it not working is that something is faulty (either the GPS or the plotter and once again don't assume. The only way to know is to test one or the other using known working equipment to either feed a GPS signal to the plotter or read the output from the GPS. Any competent marine electronics tech should have the means to do that)

I was not going to bother replying tonthis as it is neither helpful nor constructive , but hey ho ,,,,,, so , because it “ may “ be faulty i wont bother checking all other possabilities , get a grip man . Of course ( stating the obvious ) component parts maybe faulty but in my experience of buying new items very few do not work , it us the exception rather than the rule , maybe i am just very lucky or perhaps you are just very unlucky .

 

[PaulRainbow]

I was not going to bother replying tonthis as it is neither helpful nor constructive , but hey ho ,,,,,, so , because it “ may “ be faulty i wont bother checking all other possabilities , get a grip man . Of course ( stating the obvious ) component parts maybe faulty but in my experience of buying new items very few do not work , it us the exception rather than the rule , maybe i am just very lucky or perhaps you are just very unlucky .

Bru is, like myself, a marine electrician. Where you might buy a handful of marine electrical devices in a lifetime we will handle more than that in a typical month. As a consequence, we will see more dead in the box equipment than you'd hope to see in 10 lifetimes. Just yesterday, i spent some time checking and double checking the various components on a VHF/Ram mic installation, before i found the faulty, brand new component that the customer had supplied.

As i said previously, you double check the wiring is correct, double check the setting are correct and if they both are, something is broken. Some time ago, i would have had your GPS connected to a laptop to see if it's outputting GPS data, something that was recently suggested. If you don't have the facility to do that (most end users don't) you could send it to me and i'll test it free of charge.

 

[cherod]

Bru is, like myself, a marine electrician. Where you might buy a handful of marine electrical devices in a lifetime we will handle more than that in a typical month. As a consequence, we will see more dead in the box equipment than you'd hope to see in 10 lifetimes. Just yesterday, i spent some time checking and double checking the various components on a VHF/Ram mic installation, before i found the faulty, brand new component that the customer had supplied.

As i said previously, you double check the wiring is correct, double check the setting are correct and if they both are, something is broken. Some time ago, i would have had your GPS connected to a laptop to see if it's outputting GPS data, something that was recently suggested. If you don't have the facility to do that (most end users don't) you could send it to me and i'll test it free of charge.

paul you are a star .... but i have the " tech " coming over nxt week , ( when he is visiting the marina on another job anyway ) prob cost me around 50£ but that will be money well spent , hopefully he will have the relevant equipment to test the components ,
iam disapointed and surprised to hear that so much marine equipment is faulty out of the box , i bow to your greater experience in that , however without the experience and or the equipment to chech them i must carry on checking what is within my scope ,,,, i do feel that there is something on the screen / set up that i am not getting ,, eg ,, after all the set up , intigration and then the port setting ( at 4800 ) there is no " save " or even exit or something to finalise , just left on the last page ,, can that be right ???

 

[Bru]

Your reaction is understandable Cherod, and neither surprises nor upsets ... but as Paul said, I've worked as a marine electrical and electronics engineer and before that as an IT technician / engineer / consultant and before *that* as a machine control electronics technician / engineer

Before that I spent large chunks of four years at college learning, amongst other things, fault finding techniques and the theory and practice of component failure

My advice not to assume that just because it's new it must be working is based on professional knowledge and hard won practical experience. I've seen, all too often, people waste an awful lot of time and sometimes an awful lot of money because the one thing they assumed couldn't possibly be the cause of the problem ... was!

Odds are you've got some esoteric config problem but I will say again, don't dismiss out of hand the possibility of a fault in the new equipment. As Paul says, it happens more often than you'd expect

 

[coopec]

Well can someone explain this?

After blowing up my PWM Solar Charge Controller (Sold as a MPPT Controller) I installed a new one. In an effort to avoid having the same thing happen again I installed two ON/OFF switches on the cables coming from the panels.

With both switches in the "OFF" position I still get a 25V (?) on the PWM controller. (It can't be a battery reading because I disconnected the + & - cables from the controller)

How can that happen? Up to now I thought I had a basic understanding of electronics but now.....Geeez

 

[Bru]

Well can someone explain this?

After blowing up my PWM Solar Charge Controller (Sold as a MPPT Controller) I installed a new one. In an effort to avoid having the same thing happen again I installed two ON/OFF switches on the cables coming from the panels.

With both switches in the "OFF" position I still get a 25V (?) on the PWM controller. (It can't be a battery reading because I disconnected the + & - cables from the controller)

How can that happen?

In a word - capacitance

In more words there'll likely be one or more capacitors internally across the outputs of the PWM controller. A capacitor will act as a short term battery. Bigger capacitors can store enough energy to give you a nasty surprise if you short them out.

Ever noticed how when you unplug a charger or similar, the power on indicator often fades away rather than going off instantly ? Capacitance, that's the reason

(please, no clever dick responses from electronics experts - I KNOW alright, this is putting it in laymans terms! )

 

[LadyInBed]

Just a thought, I have read all the posts but not looked at any manuals.
Some devices have a setup to enable / disable ports. Does this one, and if so are they enabled?

 

[cherod]

Your reaction is understandable Cherod, and neither surprises nor upsets ... but as Paul said, I've worked as a marine electrical and electronics engineer and before that as an IT technician / engineer / consultant and before *that* as a machine control electronics technician / engineer

Before that I spent large chunks of four years at college learning, amongst other things, fault finding techniques and the theory and practice of component failure

My advice not to assume that just because it's new it must be working is based on professional knowledge and hard won practical experience. I've seen, all too often, people waste an awful lot of time and sometimes an awful lot of money because the one thing they assumed couldn't possibly be the cause of the problem ... was!

Odds are you've got some esoteric config problem but I will say again, don't dismiss out of hand the possibility of a fault in the new equipment. As Paul says, it happens more often than you'd expect

T Y Bru , ( apologies for my rather hasty reply ) ,, i dont doubt your relevant knowledge and experience , i wish i had some of it !
i have not dismissed out of hand that either component is faulty , but without the facilities or knowledge to test either i have to continue with what i can check . it may well transpire that i do have a faulty part ( as you and paul have suggested ) .. i wont be most happy ,, ty again

 

[cherod]

Just a thought, I have read all the posts but not looked at any manuals.
Some devices have a setup to enable / disable ports. Does this one, and if so are they enabled?

i have no idea .. ( but will try to find out )

 

[coopec]

In a word - capacitance

In more words there'll likely be one or more capacitors internally across the outputs of the PWM controller. A capacitor will act as a short term battery. Bigger capacitors can store enough energy to give you a nasty surprise if you short them out.

Ever noticed how when you unplug a charger or similar, the power on indicator often fades away rather than going off instantly ? Capacitance, that's the reason

(please, no clever dick responses from electronics experts - I KNOW alright, this is putting it in laymans terms! )

Thank you so much for that and putting it in such simple terms. It brings back memories of my Dad (who was a radio buff) charging up capacitors and giving us electric shocks (just for fun)?

 

[Bru]

Thank you so much for that and putting it in such simple terms. It brings back memories of my Dad (who was a radio buff) charging up capacitors and giving us electric shocks (just for fun)?

I'd never do a thing like that. I certainly wouldn't do it with a bloomin' great big electrolytic can to a yoof opportunities trainee who was getting right up my nose sideways

 

[cherod]

SUCCESS


the tech came today and sorted it ,
apparently it was that the + ( pos ) and the - ( neg ) are the other / wrong way round . , he couldnt say whither the prob is with the gps or with the chartplotter itself , although he did say he has seen similar prob before ,,,, anyway , hey ho ,, all good !!!
( and a big thanks to Paul , Baggy etc who offered so much assistance when needed . )