Northstar 550 chart plotter

[archie]

Hi

I have a Northstar 550 chart plotter that is driving me up the wall!

A little while ago it stopped turning on, so I packed it off to www.theservicecentre.eu for them to cast their eyes over it. They tested it and found no fault.

Today I am back on the boat with the unit which worked fine until I fitted it. Now it won't turn on again. I have checked the power supply to the unit and there is power coming out of the end of the female plug.

I'm at a loss as to what to do now. Do I send it back to the service centre again for them to charge another £45 to look at it or do I just replace it? Unfortunately the unit is now discontinued so a replacement is unlikely to fit the hole already cut in the bulkhead for the Northstar.

Grrrrr!

Any advice gratefully received.

 

[pvb]

Today I am back on the boat with the unit which worked fine until I fitted it. Now it won't turn on again. I have checked the power supply to the unit and there is power coming out of the end of the female plug.

How were you powering it when it "worked fine"? With the same cable?

 

[Caer Urfa]

Hi

I have a Northstar 550 chart plotter that is driving me up the wall!

A little while ago it stopped turning on, so I packed it off to www.theservicecentre.eu for them to cast their eyes over it. They tested it and found no fault.

Today I am back on the boat with the unit which worked fine until I fitted it. Now it won't turn on again. I have checked the power supply to the unit and there is power coming out of the end of the female plug.

I'm at a loss as to what to do now. Do I send it back to the service centre again for them to charge another £45 to look at it or do I just replace it? Unfortunately the unit is now discontinued so a replacement is unlikely to fit the hole already cut in the bulkhead for the Northstar.

Grrrrr!

Any advice gratefully received.

Sounds like you are not turning it on correctly, are you holding the 'on' button down ??

The Northstar 550 chart plotter is almost identical to the Navman 5500, Northstar bought out Navmam some years ago.

 

[Cloven]

I have found theservicecentre very good, repaired my Navman 5500i which is basically the same plotter no problems. If they say its Ok then I expect it is. Have to agree with pvb that it sounds like a cable or supply issue. I used to power mine up at home using a spare cable with a fixed cable on the boat. Is that what you are doing? If so, then as pvb suggests, maybe your boat cable is faulty. I seem to remember that on that model, the yellow cable had to be connected in to the red power cable: This from the manual:

The unit requires 12 V DC power. This power supply must be protected with a fuse or circuit breaker of between 2 and 3 A. If it does not
have this, fit a 2 A fuse in the power supply line.
To enable auto power (see section 2-1), connect the yellow Power/data cable wire to the positive power supply as shown.
To disable auto power, leave the wire disconnected; make sure it can not touch any other conductor.


Have you done the same to both cables (assuming you are using two cables) or if the yellow cable is not connected, could it be touching something on the boat?

Hope this helps

 

[archie]

Thanks for your comments.

The Northstar is a replacement unit that was supplied by the service centre (TSC) when they couldn't repair my Navman 5500 which had the screen damaged when some oaf accidentally hit with a winch handle during a tack. Both the Navman and Northstar functioned without fault with the current wiring on the boat for several years. There has been no alterations to the wiring on the boat.

When I received the Northstar back from TSC after its recent holiday there I tested it and it powered up as expected, I then fixed it in place with the power on. It was during the fixing in place that it went back to its 'broken' status, probably during the tightening of the fixing bolts.

I tested the plug that connects to the back of the unit and there is power there so it should still turn on.

My suspicion is that there is a connection fault inside the unit that is 'activated' when the fixings are tightened, but may have deactivated itself during transit to TSC. Does this sound plausible to anyone?

 

[pvb]

My suspicion is that there is a connection fault inside the unit that is 'activated' when the fixings are tightened, but may have deactivated itself during transit to TSC. Does this sound plausible to anyone?

Very plausible. Are you mounting it on a flat surface? Or is it being distorted slightly?

 

[G12]

Also symptoms of a poor connection. It is quite possible to have 12v at the plug end when tested with a meter but the moment you ask it to carry any current it can fall over. I have first hand experience of this and it can be a bit of a bugger to find.
Check and clean all connections and then test again.

 

[philip_stevens]

Hi

I have a Northstar 550 chart plotter that is driving me up the wall!

A little while ago it stopped turning on, so I packed it off to www.theservicecentre.eu for them to cast their eyes over it. They tested it and found no fault.

Today I am back on the boat with the unit which worked fine until I fitted it. Now it won't turn on again. I have checked the power supply to the unit and there is power coming out of the end of the female plug.

I'm at a loss as to what to do now. Do I send it back to the service centre again for them to charge another £45 to look at it or do I just replace it? Unfortunately the unit is now discontinued so a replacement is unlikely to fit the hole already cut in the bulkhead for the Northstar.

Grrrrr!

Any advice gratefully received.

If you are testing the voltage with a digital meter, you can often get a voltage shown, that is coming through a bad connection - like a rusty, damp terminal block, corroded wire, or suchlike - but once you put a load on it (your 550), the voltage disappears. Check the voltage at the nearest connection to the 550 before and after switching on.

 

[pvb]

Also symptoms of a poor connection. It is quite possible to have 12v at the plug end when tested with a meter but the moment you ask it to carry any current it can fall over. I have first hand experience of this and it can be a bit of a bugger to find.
Check and clean all connections and then test again.

If you are testing the voltage with a digital meter, you can often get a voltage shown, that is coming through a bad connection - like a rusty, damp terminal block, corroded wire, or suchlike - but once you put a load on it (your 550), the voltage disappears. Check the voltage at the nearest connection to the 550 before and after switching on.

The OP says it worked fine until the fixing bolts were tightened. "I tested it and it powered up as expected, I then fixed it in place with the power on. It was during the fixing in place that it went back to its 'broken' status, probably during the tightening of the fixing bolts."

 

[Cloven]

o

My suspicion is that there is a connection fault inside the unit that is 'activated' when the fixings are tightened, but may have deactivated itself during transit to TSC. Does this sound plausible to anyone?

Very plausible, and assuming that the 12v power supply is good, it sounds like you may have a dodgy connection inside the unit that as you say "disconnects" when the the unit is fixed in place, maybe placing a strain on the connection concerned. My Navman had a similar problem but with the intenal aerial that worked intermittently. TSC found one or two dry solder joints and that fixed the problem.

Have you taken the unit out of its fixing and tested it again, if it works OK, then at least you have found that it is a problem with some strain being put on a connection or component when you fix it in.

Other than opening it up and having a look, then only you can make a decision as to whether it is worth returning it to TSC with the additional info you now have. Bear in mind that if you replace it with a different unit, then is is very possible that you will have to also add in the cost of a new or reprogrammed chart card. When I finally replaced my Navman with a Standard Horizon unit, although they both use Cmap cards, the Navman card was incompatible with the SH unit and had to be changed.

Sorry can't be more helpful.

 

[philip_stevens]

The OP says it worked fine until the fixing bolts were tightened. "I tested it and it powered up as expected, I then fixed it in place with the power on. It was during the fixing in place that it went back to its 'broken' status, probably during the tightening of the fixing bolts."

Didn't read it properly.

Now sounds like a pc board fault - being slightly twisted on tightening the bolts.