Furuno buid quality? Squint RADAR beter than no RADAR?

[Uricanejack]

When I bought my boat it had a RADAR. Unfortunately at survey time we found it didn’t work. Screen turned on no picture.
No big deal we found other minor problems price was adjusted.

I Took the RADAR mast down today to get to the scanner was intending to unplug and take to repair shop.
Found there is no plug the wire goes straight into the dome.
So took dome of the pedestal and took cover off. Wiring looked to complicated for me to disconnect.
found the belt was off and small wheel on motor fell off.

It’s a Furuno.
I was quite surprised by the quality of the bits inside. I’ve seen better parts on a cheep RC car from china. I suppose it why warranties are usually void if you use a screwdriver on anything.

I put belt back on and used Allen key to tighten Allen screw for drive motor wheel. After finding it in the bottom of the cockpit.

You would think they if couldn’t have a key on the shaft they could have a shaft with half round and a flat section so the shaft would not just spin inside the gear wheel.

Put mast back up to see what would happen. RADAR works now.

Not 100% sure but I think I may have screwed up the heading alignment.
Boat sitting in dock so lots of targets. Hard to tell where it is right now.

I don’t have an installation manual.

Dome has two small arrow’s which were only external markings apart from green mildew.
Placed them forward.
Mast is back in position I think aligned as before. Unfortunately it’s a home made carbon mast not a pro install.

The belt has notches, both the motor wheel and scanner wheel have teeth. Is it possible they should be in a specific alignment?

Well I guess a squint RADAR is better than no RADAR.

I will check its alignment next time I am out. Hope I don’t have to take it all down again.
In any event it looks like a problem highly likely to happen again.

I think if I was going to by a RADAR I would give Furuno a wide berth.

 

[prv]

The belt has notches, both the motor wheel and scanner wheel have teeth. Is it possible they should be in a specific alignment?

Unlikely. Instead I would expect the scanner to emit a timing pulse each time it reached a specific point in its rotation.

Unless it's truly ancient, there may well be a software adjustment to align the heading, somewhere in the settings menu. Have a poke about.

Can you not find a manual online, if you know the model number?

Pete

 

[Boathook]

When I bought my boat it had a RADAR. Unfortunately at survey time we found it didn’t work. Screen turned on no picture.
No big deal we found other minor problems price was adjusted. ......................

I don’t have an installation manual..................

I think if I was going to by a RADAR I would give Furuno a wide berth.

When I purchased my Furuno a few years back all the fishing boats had furuno radar. Have you looked on line for a instruction manual? Mine did not have any plug up on the dome and is hard wired in, something that I did when installing it but it was only pluging in a connector.

 

[cryan]

I think quite a few manufacturers change their quality for the leisure market. When it comes to commercial sets Furuno is among the very best but away from a market where they have to be surveyed by the likes of Lloyds Register they may well drop the quality.

 

[srm]

Easy way to check radar alignment. Find a point target such as a navigation buoy at about 2 mile range. Head towards it, keeping it on the boat's centre line. If radar aligned correctly target should be under the heading marker (which is why there should be a way of temporarily turning the heading marker off). If target to the side of heading marker the radar is misaligned.

Two ways to correct misalignment. There is a switch in the scanner that triggers the heading marker on each sweep, this may be adjustable on older sets but unlikely with a dome. It was usuallygood for +/- 5 degrees. More modern sets should have electronic adjustment. If all else fails is there a way you can rotate the scanner assembly to correct it?

Misalignment can cause misleading results if using the radar for navigation or collision avoidance as bearings on the screen are measured from the heading marker, but given the wide beamwidth of the short scanners common in leisure radars we can probably ignore a smallish squint.

 

[Uricanejack]

Just back from a very wet weekend sailing.

RADAR appears to be ok only very slightly out of alignment. Checked out ok once clear of docks and other boats. 2 or 3 degrees out probably due to the round carbon pole not quite lined up I just have to loosen and adjust slightly.
Spent a while playing with it at anchor. Kind of like a kid with a new toy. Pictures not bad and I can even work the EBL and VRM.
Found an on line manual.

Its down on the chart table. My GPS is right beside it. Must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
I found I never got a chance to use it while underway. Ended up just finding my way about the same old way I always did. I might try and move it so I can see from the cockpit.

 

[geem]

Just back from a very wet weekend sailing.

RADAR appears to be ok only very slightly out of alignment. Checked out ok once clear of docks and other boats. 2 or 3 degrees out probably due to the round carbon pole not quite lined up I just have to loosen and adjust slightly.
Spent a while playing with it at anchor. Kind of like a kid with a new toy. Pictures not bad and I can even work the EBL and VRM.


Found an on line manual.

Its down on the chart table. My GPS is right beside it. Must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
I found I never got a chance to use it while underway. Ended up just finding my way about the same old way I always did. I might try and move it so I can see from the cockpit.

T
I used to have a Furuno radar. Was an excellent bit of kit. We located it in the cockpit and used to take below when not using.
We generally found when you really needed it there was no substitute for having in front of you rather than down below