Navman / Northstar Wind Instrument.

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Wandering Star

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I purchased a Navman W3150 wind system about 3 years ago. It worked for 5 minutes and then the display became difficult to read and erratic until it finally stopped working. I've not bothered to do anything about it.

I think a company called Northstar took over productio of the Navman instruments. I just noticed a Singaporean company offerrng new Northstar display heads for #150. I don't want to throw good money after bad and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of Northstar wind display heads? Is it worth the upgrade or should I cut my losses and fit something completely different?

Also I suppose I should ask for an opinion on the wind transducer, is there some way of checking this is working (I believe it is) before I treat it to a new display?

Thanks

Cheers, Brian.
 
flobbergob said:
I purchased a Navman W3150 wind system about 3 years ago. It worked for 5 minutes and then the display became difficult to read and erratic until it finally stopped working. I've not bothered to do anything about it.

I think a company called Northstar took over productio of the Navman instruments. I just noticed a Singaporean company offerrng new Northstar display heads for #150. I don't want to throw good money after bad and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of Northstar wind display heads? Is it worth the upgrade or should I cut my losses and fit something completely different?

Also I suppose I should ask for an opinion on the wind transducer, is there some way of checking this is working (I believe it is) before I treat it to a new display?
Thanks

Cheers, Brian.
Click to expand...


Hi Brian

I wanted some information about my Northstar Plotter last year and I contacted them here http://www.northstarnav.com/en/ and to be fair they did reply with answers.

Maybe I am alone but I have had my Northstar plotter for 6 years now and it still works from the day I installed it.

Maybe worth droping them a line and yes Northstar did take over Navman a few years ago.

I also have a Navman VHF DSC radio and again it has worked for years ok even in poor weather, I would think (hope) you have a technical problem rather than a duff wind system


Mike
 
Might be worth looking to Simrad. I have just been trying to source a direct replacement for a Navman radio, it was subsequently rebadged as a Northstar and has now been rebadged as a Simrad.
 
The original Navman instruments were seriously flawed, and if you were lucky were replaced under warranty by Navman S series or Northstar.

AFAIK, the Northstar replacements are OK, well I hope so as that is what I've now got.

This applies to the external instrument heads, my VHF radio ( and 2 others to my knowledge) continues to work satisfactorily.
 
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I had 3 complete sets of replacemnt Navman 3100 series.

I was fortunate in holding them to a European Warranty where I established a latent design defect, 100% eventual failure.

Northstar took over just as my last set were into Plastimo for another warranty.
They fixed the LCD edge connector and water ingress issues with a robust tooling and design change. Although my wind instrument underreads, it still works for true and apparent. I will get round to recalibrating it.
My Northstar set are entering their 3rd season.

I would think twice about buying another at £150 , but I guess as I have a unit already, it would be OK to buy.
 
Agree that original Navman instruments were poor (radio and plotters OK) got mine upgraded to the S series before Northstar took over.

Northstar still list the 310 series instruments but check out with Plastimo their Advansea instruments because I believe they can be a direct plug in replacement - even got the same large securing nut on the back.

Plastimo were the distributors for Navman so needed a replacement range.
 
Bought some Navman stuff, but only fitted the log and changed that after a season. When I contacted Advansea was told the Log and depth used the same transducer but the wind unit needed a different masthead unit ie a whole new system. So stuck with the 20yr old Stowe. No idea about Northstar stuff.
 
FullCircle said:
I had 3 complete sets of replacemnt Navman 3100 series.

I was fortunate in holding them to a European Warranty where I established a latent design defect, 100% eventual failure.

Northstar took over just as my last set were into Plastimo for another warranty.
They fixed the LCD edge connector and water ingress issues with a robust tooling and design change. Although my wind instrument underreads, it still works for true and apparent. I will get round to recalibrating it.
My Northstar set are entering their 3rd season.

I would think twice about buying another at £150 , but I guess as I have a unit already, it would be OK to buy.
Click to expand...

ditto everything above and still working
 
I wasn't quite as lucky as Full Circle, but I did get a replacement head unit for my three year old 3100 Navman wind indicator at a discount after pestering Plastimo who were looking to wash their hands of them. The LCD displays were the villains of the piece, losing parts of the digits until finally going blank.
In our experience the plotters were fine, but the instruments has both design and manufacturing flaws. The depth and log display are now suffering amputated digits and condensation problems ( which can be temporarily cured by gentle heat ( some people put the whole instrument in a warm oven for a bit.
When it comes to replacement I'll not be buying Northstar , even though they are supposed to be better. The question is what should I buy? Tacktick appeals because of the wireless arrangement but a full set is a hell of an outlay.
The original Navicos that were on the boat when we bought it, were still working after over 12 years and the only reason were changed was that UV degredation (covers left off too often by the previous owner) rendered the display very hard to read.
 
My experience was the same as Samwise above. Over a period of 3-4 years I had a replacement Navman 315 on warranty and then another on a discount, and finally a Northstar with no warranty, none of them lasting a whole season. Although I suppose I could have argued, when the Northstar went the same way, I gave up and bought a Tacktick last Spring. So far no problems.
 
Sheesh! Not sure all this advice and experience reassures me that buying the Northstar display head is going to be worthwhile - but it still might be! My other instruments are Raymarine (ST40) so I'm leaning toward removing the Navman Wind thingy and raiding my wifes bank account to buy a ST60+ wind system.

At the moment my masts down, so it would make sense to replace the whole system now rather than take a chance on the Northstar head and then discover the sytem is still rubbish. Decisions, decisions, who'd be a sailor? Certainly not my wife.

Cheers, Brian.
 
Having the mast down last Spring to replace the shrouds, gave me the opportunity to replace the masthead wind fitting for a different make. All in all, it was quite an expensive operation. What I didn't do was also to change the masthead light bulb which no longer works. It was probably shaken up during the mast lowering and raising. I still have to go up the mast or talk my crew into doing it.
 
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