Raymarine C series plotter - Lost GPS Fix

[bonny]

I have a Raymarine C80 plotter and a Raystar 120 Seatalk GPS.
Occasionally for no apparent reason It looses GPS fix. It's not due to loss of GPS signal or obstruction of the antenna because it does not re-gain a fix until powered down and back up again. I've tried to re-start the GPS from the menu but all options are greyed out when it happens.
I know of 3 friends who also have C80's who have the same problem, however, unlike me, they use Raystar 120 NMEA GPS receivers and these seem to recover after a few minutes. One of these people had no problems for about 15 months until they installed the lastest software version (2.14) into their C80 and is now having problems.

Is anyone else having similar problems and if so is this only with Raystar 120 GPS's?

 

[Steve Clayton]

Brian,

it's most likely to be the antenna. They are "active" antenna's; ie take a voltage from the host system. I'm advised that it is quite common for these antennas to fail after a period of time (>a year) with the symptoms you describe.

We too had a Raymarine software upgrade just prior to the same problem starting. I was convinced it was a software problem but was proved wrong when the antenna was replaced (under warranty)

 

[oilyrag]

I have been having a similar problem with a Navman 5500 for the last 3 years. Each time I return it to Navimo UK they send it back stating they have updated the software and there is nothing wrong with it. I have tried it for an extended period on a friends boat using his antenna (suspected most likely culprit) but the problem persists; he does not have the same problem with his own 5600. The service unit they sent me worked perfectly but because they insist my unit is ok they would like the service unit back.
Would be very interested to hear from anyone else, especailly Navman owners or owners of other units using the Sirfstar II GPS, who has experienced a simililar problem and if/how it was resolved.

 

[Freebee]

I had this problem when using original NMea raystar aerial, I assumed that NMEA was not the preferred option, so I changed to seatalk, in haste I jury rigged the aerial near the windscreen and found it happened again. it only restarts when the power is removed from the aerial. To prove a point a I have rerigged the aerial to the radar arch but not had a chance for a trail run as yet.

 

[bonny]

Thanks for some of the responses guys, hoping for more info yet.

Steve_clayton,
I am aware that these are active antennas in that they have the GPS receiver built into them rather than just being an ariel. I had not mentioned the age of the unit, all my equipment was fitted new in March this year (with the new boat) and the first lost fix occurred in a couple of weeks, the next time happened a month or so later. In total I have had about 6-7 outages, 2 on one 6 hour passage. Keep meaning to try to isolate the power to the gps unit from the rest of the nav gear to confirm that it is the GPS. One of my friends who has the NMEA version has told me that he also uses it to send NMEA pos data to his DSC radio and legacy garmin plotter and that when his goes of he still gets valid pos data on both other units, however I suspect he is still using his Garmin GPS unit.

Oilyrag,
I fitted a Navman 5600 plotter to my previous boat, I believe this is the same 5500 but the colour version. This came with its own external antenna (passive rather than active) and I never had any problems at all. In fact I preferred it to the Raymarine, the display was brighter (albeit smaller) and you could select your own items to display in the data page (your stuck with what raymarine give you in C series) and you can see an ETA to a waypoint or completion of route, Raymarine only provide you with TTG to next waypoint. Having said that, Navionics XL3 does give better value for money than CMAP-NT. Anyone want to buy a SW Scotland NT+ cartridge (Feb 2003)?

Mikehorrill,
From what I can gather the Raystar 120 seatalk locks up and does not recover until power removal, whereas the NMEA version does re-cover after a few minutes, not sure what the benefits of the seatalk version are but it came with the Nav pack in my boat.

Going to Southampton show on Wed and will seek out Raymarine for some answers, have e-mailed them and they deny all knowledge of any problem but I have seen many such postings on a US forum!!!

 

[andyball]

A friend with full raymarine gear lost all data incl. gps fix occasionally. I traced it to a poorly fitted outside compass allowing water past it & into a raymarine repeater just below. All raymarine stuff was seatalked together & this one wet repeater caused everything to show no data - depth,compass,gps,speed,wind - the lot.

 

[Marmalade]

I too have this problem - C80 with a seatalk GPS - but an old one (replaced a Navcentre with the C80 this year and kept the old GPS antenna). It's a pita if you're following a route because it then resets and you have to set it up again.

I also encountered a strange phenomenon - fortunately when I knew where I was... The GPS / plotter showed me parked in the middle of a local town when I was at anchor off Osea Island. I thought nothing of it (just re-booted the lot) until it happened again a couple f weeks later. After much faffing I found that the datum was being re-set to a default datum (which surprised me as I didn't think it would put me out by that far) but by re setting the datum on the C80 all became well...

also software v 2.14

 

[bonny]

Latest info I have from one friend who has this problem. His C80 was one of the first (fitted spring 2004) and has the Raystar 120 NMEA. He never had any problems until he installed the latest 2.14 software in July 2005, he now has lost fix problems, interestingly, the NMEA from his Raystar also feeds his DSC radio (Simrad RD68) and when the plotter looses the GPS fix the radio still receives updated position data. This would tend to indicate that the problem is not with the GPS itself but the software version. Others have had lost fixes prior to loading 2.14 but their C80's (including mine) had a later software build to start with than the early model, unfortunately can't remember original versions but Raymarine should know what they were shipped with give the serial no's.

 

[Freebee]

just a little further explanation I upgraded and the NMEA aerial was part of the old installation. I called Raymarine and found it could be used in conjunction with the NMEA port, I did this in an attempt to save money but when I encountered the problems I decided to go the seatalk route, by a bit of ebaying managed to swap them at about £10 cost.

 

[bonny]

Hi Guys,
Sorry to resurect an old thread but here goes.

Did visit Raymarine at southampton (last year!) and had a good discussion with one of their technical guys.

There is a problem with the raystar 120 seatalk (not the nmea version) which seems to be related to a buffer overflow problem. Basically when it wants to talk on the seatalk bus, like all other instruments it has to wait until everyone else has stopped talking. If the seatalk bus is very busy then it has to wait a lot longer and goes into sulk mode! Powering down is the only way of re-setting it.

Raymarine sent me a replacement GPS (Raystar 125), free of charge (under warranty) which can be configured as either seatalk or nmea which I fitted last October (configured as Seatalk) and have not had a single loss this season.

One of my friends who also had the 120 seatalk has had the same result.

The other friend who had the 120 nmea needed to get his ST60 log software updated because this repeats the position data on the seatalk bus for some reason, cost him money as over 2 years old. No problems this year.

I've aslo loaded the latest software into my C80 (3.18) and this has many improved features. You can now modify data pages to display your own selection of data. They've fixed the route deatils display which now gives ETA at each waypoint and end of route from your current position in route (used to calculate it as going back to start of route!). You can now display current information graphically from tidal diamonds. Plus a pile of other info like displaying AIS data and navtex (need AIS and navtex engine).

A big thanks to Raymarine for sorting this out.