raymarine C80 problems

[homer]

In all innocence, I recently updated the software in my C80. I now find that I cannot change the orientation of the radar. It is stuck on Head up. I can change it via the buttons and it shows North Up on the top of the screen but still actually displays Head Up. Also, the button to set radar overlay on maps ir greyed out and so I cannot set overlay. Is there some trick to this - or some bug in the new software? Any help much appreciated!

 

[stuarta]

Its part of the v5.04 software 'upgrade' - see here: http://www.raymarine.com/knowledgebase/index.cfm?view=3751

You'll need a separate heading source to get it to work (no longer bases it on COG). Progress eh?!

 

[prv]

Presumably you don't have a fluxgate compass fitted? Or if you do, it may not be working correctly.

In earlier versions of the firmware, it fell back to using COG instead, but this could give a misleading picture in the case of a slow vessel in a strong tide. They decided this was potentially dangerous, and disabled it in a later firmware fix.

For anything except head-up radar, you need a compass to detect which way the boat, and hence the radar scanner, is facing.

Pete

 

[SimonD]

Pardon me for butting in, but is the compass heading transmitted on the seatalk bus? I assume it must be.

 

[prv]

Pardon me for butting in, but is the compass heading transmitted on the seatalk bus? I assume it must be.

Yes, it is. With this generation of kit you need either a compass instrument or, more usually, an autopilot brain to bridge the analogue compass signals to Seatalk.

Pete

 

[pvb]

Pardon me for butting in, but is the compass heading transmitted on the seatalk bus? I assume it must be.

It rather depends. I fitted a Smart Heading System (rate gyro) to my old C120 to improve the radar overlay. As I recall, the high speed heading data (10Hz) was only transmitted via NMEA, although a slower data stream was sent on SeaTalk.

 

[Lucky Duck]

My old installation had the rate gyro information also going to the C120 via NMEA although the gyro was part of the autopilot rather than a stand alone unit.

 

[homer]

Thanks for the tip. I do have a compass connected to the seatalk. The puzzling thing is that the heading data was not getting to the plotter although everything else was - and the heading data was getting to all the other instruments! So, turned it off and on again and it's working - a bit weird - and I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

 

[prv]

Thanks for the tip. I do have a compass connected to the seatalk. The puzzling thing is that the heading data was not getting to the plotter

OK, well, it's the absence of heading that will have caused the changed radar behaviour with the new firmware. Can't help with why the heading isn't getting through though

Pete