Problem with my new HP-33A AIS transponder

[BlueChip]

I'm not very happy.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a HP-33A AIS transponder from China, communications with the company were good and it arrived in very good time.
I tested it at home using my bench power supply and all was well. It's a very nice unit.

Last night with a few hours to spare I got it out again and started to work my way through the menus with the manual, however after about 15 minutes use the screen went blank and no matter what I do I cannot get any display. The manual suggests toggling the power/brilliance button if this happens but this doesn't sort it. The keys are lit up and its drawing about 250mA at 12V, the power switch works ok so I think its just the display that's the problem.

I've written to the supplier but as its their New Year I expect they are closed all week, in the meantime does anyone know if there is a master reset key combination to reset the unit to factory conditions?

I'm hoping the supplier will be as efficient in sorting this problem out as they were in supplying it.

 

[TSB240]

I'm not very happy.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a HP-33A AIS transponder from China, communications with the company were good and it arrived in very good time.
I tested it at home using my bench power supply and all was well. It's a very nice unit.

Last night with a few hours to spare I got it out again and started to work my way through the menus with the manual, however after about 15 minutes use the screen went blank and no matter what I do I cannot get any display. The manual suggests toggling the power/brilliance button if this happens but this doesn't sort it. The keys are lit up and its drawing about 250mA at 12V, the power switch works ok so I think its just the display that's the problem.

I've written to the supplier but as its their New Year I expect they are closed all week, in the meantime does anyone know if there is a master reset key combination to reset the unit to factory conditions?

I'm hoping the supplier will be as efficient in sorting this problem out as they were in supplying it.

Chinese new year!

Hope you get it sorted. Is it possible the LCD brilliance has been turned right down to give a blackout? Section 1.3 in the manual press the brill key and then the right arrow to increase. You could do the same with the up down keys to see if the key illumination changes?

 

[BlueChip]

Chinese new year!

Hope you get it sorted. Is it possible the LCD brilliance has been turned right down to give a blackout? Section 1.3 in the manual press the brill key and then the right arrow to increase. You could do the same with the up down keys to see if the key illumination changes?

I can toggle the key illumination up and down but nothing on the LCD.
I'll wait and see what the Chinese have to say next week. Hope it doesn't have to go back to them, I hate to think what the carriage cost will be.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

I can toggle the key illumination up and down but nothing on the LCD.
I'll wait and see what the Chinese have to say next week. Hope it doesn't have to go back to them, I hate to think what the carriage cost will be.

Without a display, how do you know you're toggling the brilliance? It rocks two ways and I forget which one is brilliance, from memory it's not the obvious direction. Fully low the screen is completely black.

 

[BlueChip]

Without a display, how do you know you're toggling the brilliance? It rocks two ways and I forget which one is brilliance, from memory it's not the obvious direction. Fully low the screen is completely black.

From memory, the up & down arrows toggle the keyboard brightness and left & right arrows the screen brightness. I can adjust the keyboard but not the screen.
Maybe someone can provide the exact sequence of key presses from startup to maximum brightness that I can follow?

 

[theoldsalt]

The manual states that by short presses of the BRILL button the screen brilliance changes from 0 thro' 7 then back to 0 in steps. As the BRILL button is also the power button maybe the screen went to '0' when you turned the unit on. It appears similar to the way the backlight is controlled on my Garmin GPS but on the HP it contols the screen brilliance.

 

[BlueChip]

The manual states that by short presses of the BRILL button the screen brilliance changes from 0 thro' 7 then back to 0 in steps. As the BRILL button is also the power button maybe the screen went to '0' when you turned the unit on. It appears similar to the way the backlight is controlled on my Garmin GPS but on the HP it contols the screen brilliance.

Here is the latest
I finally heard back from the Chinese after they agree that there is a problem with the unit.
They want me to send it back to China by sea, I'm looking now for a carrier which will send it on a boat, but without much luck.
Looks like its going to cost me ~£60 to send it back.
This low cost bargain AIS may turn out to be an expensive mistake.

 

[pvb]

Check the Royal Mail website. You should be able to send it as a small parcel by International Signed for about £20, with £250 compensation.