nav kit how good

[MapisM]

It could be bust Roy. Mine was

Interesting. What symptoms did your show, exactly?
On the new to me boat I've got a 2004 vintage RL80C attached to the 2kW/24Nm radome below, and I've yet to understand if it doesn't work as well as it should, or simply doesn't hold a candle to the 36Nm Furuno I was used to, even if that was almost 10 years older.

Oh, and in case also mine would indeed be bust, am I right in understanding that:
a) there's no need to change anything if I should replace it with a 4kW/48Nm of the same generation, and
b) also the next generation immediately following mine - i.e. the one in the OP boat above - is fully compatible (again, both 2kW/24Nm and 4kW/48Nm)?
Before anyone suggest that, I'm not interested in an open array, because it wouldn't be worth redesigning the mast support (with its navlights, aerial, etc.) to accomodate it.

 

[[165042]]

yes the boat does have one of those ,I know what a gps mushroom is ,it is just the boat has a dome but the broker does not say it has a radar .thanks for the answers exept disco as if you can not give good feed back please don't bother has you spoilt my thread

Sorry I didn’t realise your thread wasn’t open to critique on a public forum

 

[[165042]]

Interesting. What symptoms did your show, exactly?
On the new to me boat I've got a 2004 vintage RL80C attached to the 2kW/24Nm radome below, and I've yet to understand if it doesn't work as well as it should, or simply doesn't hold a candle to the 36Nm Furuno I was used to, even if that was almost 10 years older.

Oh, and in case also mine would indeed be bust, am I right in understanding that:
a) there's no need to change anything if I should replace it with a 4kW/48Nm of the same generation, and
b) also the next generation immediately following mine - i.e. the one in the OP boat above - is fully compatible (again, both 2kW/24Nm and 4kW/48Nm)?
Before anyone suggest that, I'm not interested in an open array, because it wouldn't be worth redesigning the mast support (with its navlights, aerial, etc.) to accomodate it.

If you change to a 4kw dome you will need a heavy duty cable with dual power supply. You may already have this if you have a 15m cable installed to avoid voltage drop. RD218 & RD424 are both compatible with your RL80C.

 

[MapisM]

Thanks, good to know that the RD424 is compatible. Considering that there are some used units for sale at decent prices, I might as well replace the existing radome even if in doubt about whether it's working well or not, just to get the additional range.
I'm afraid I have no clue about which cable I've got though - and snaking a new one would surely be a proper pita!
The boat is a 56' flybridge (24V), and the existing cable goes from the p/house to the top of the radar arch, so the length is bound to be fairly above 10 meters, at a guess. But guesses aside, do you possibly know how I could check what I've got?

I'd still be curious to hear from BruceK (or anyone else who knows!) how to diagnose a faulty radome, anyway.
In mine, the automatic gain for instance doesn't seem to work properly, and also the overall image quality/stability is pretty poor, though in this respect I might be spoilt after many years with my previous Furuno, which was razor sharp in spite of its stone age green CRT screen...

 

[[165042]]

The heavy duty cable is thicker than the normal one so you could check what goes into the back of the plotter or into the radome itself. I can measure one later if need be.

The RL80C has on-board diagnostics to check function which might help. I suspect if you upgraded the plotter to one with better resolution you would be happier - a C120 for example. You’d also benefit from better maps from Navionics rather than the older C-Map cards.

 

[BruceK]

Interesting. What symptoms did your show, exactly?

I have an old Furuno radome and cabling. The monitor / display unit was broken and it is irreplaceable unless 2nd hand. The problem being even 2nd hand it is both rare and expensive and there is no guarantee that the radome is still functional. So the boat was sold sans radar but came with the old radome still attached.


as shown

 

[MapisM]

I have an old Furuno radome and cabling.

Ops, when you said "It could be bust, mine was" I assumed you had the same Raymarine stuff as the OP.
That Furuno thing is what I was prasing...

 

[MapisM]

The RL80C has on-board diagnostics to check function which might help.

Do you mean help to understand the type of cable, or diagnose the radome faults (if any)?

The cable attached to the display is pretty substantial, by heart I would say an 8mm or so diameter, but I can't check atm.
Ref. upgrading to the C120, it would be very tricky for space reasons, because both the two 80 displays in the p/house and the upper one fit precisely into the dashboard.
And overall, the system is still good enough for me (also the charts). It's just the radar that doesn't impress me, to the point of suspecting a fault...

 

[[165042]]

H/D cable is 13mm.

The diagnostics are for checking the radar functionality - course tune / fine tune etc. Often if the radar image is poor then the IF board has gone - usually seen by the CT/FT values varying wildly. They should only change when you adjust the radar range. I have a service manual in pdf for your unit if you PM me your email address.

 

[MapisM]

H/D cable is 13mm

Wow, that's thick!
IIRC, mine is not THAT thick, but I'll re-check asap anyway, thanks!
TIA also for the manual, I really appreciate.
Mailbox will follow in a min via pm. :encouragement: