Raymarine C90W CF card agro...

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steve jones

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I have a Raymarine C90W MFD. It struggles to get a fix some times. I've been advised that updating the software will help so I got a CF card, downloaded the software and put it in the slot on the front of the display. It seemed to go in correctly... but... the card is not recognised. The card I have is a 4GB Kingston. There is some stuff on Raymarine's website saying it has to be a Sandisk card.....

Has anyone got any experience with this?


Thanks.
 
I'm not sure the make matters, but apparently they struggle with modern larger cards (remember the thing dates from the beginning of the century). It's recommended to find an old 128MB or 256MB card for upgrades.

Pete
 
It's sometimes better with a Sandisk card, but there's surely no real reason for that. But the C90W doesn't have a GPS receiver, it's dependent on an external receiver. So struggling to get a fix is more likely to be a problem with the GPS.
 
From memory the upgrade software for my C80 classic had to be on a Sandisk card and I'm sure it had to be a small one - less than 256MB formatted to FAT16. This worked for me when I upgraded mine. I would try and follow whatever in says on the Raymarine website for your model.

Having said that, your problem sounds like the small lithium battery in the GPS mushroom is running out, assuming you have a Raystar 125 or similar.
You can replace this with a CR2032 if you have the RS125. I had to replace mine last summer.

Richard
 
The C90W does have an internal GPS. If I did use a sandisk it would have been a coincidence: it shouldn't matter. The instructions on upgrading say not to use a card larger than 128MB but "you can try" up to 2GB. Pretty sure I used a 2GB on my C90W. I'm guessing their software can't cope with file systems which can't be addressed with a signed 4 byte integer. Try with a 2GB CF card from any manufacturer.
 
RichardS said:
From memory the upgrade software for my C80 classic had to be on a Sandisk card and I'm sure it had to be a small one - less than 256MB formatted to FAT16. This worked for me when I upgraded mine. I would try and follow whatever in says on the Raymarine website for your model.

Having said that, your problem sounds like the small lithium battery in the GPS mushroom is running out, assuming you have a Raystar 125 or similar.
You can replace this with a CR2032 if you have the RS125. I had to replace mine last summer.

Richard
Click to expand...

Pretty certain you are 100% correct about card as I seem to remember reading this before (but a 2GB card I already had was recognised). Also correct about GPS battery and I'd also suggest OP looks at GPS first.

I also replaced the battery on mine last year. It's a well known issue and some people even reported that Raymarine said the whole GPS had to be replaced as it couldn't be repaired. Others reported finding that the battery was soldered in place and they had to put in a new tagged one. No problems with mine, just a matter of opening the GPS and popping a new battery into the holder.

C90W has an internal GPS but it is probably switched off if you have an external Raystar 125 GPS. My C90W started to give some position problems after about 5 years use. When it reached 6 years it took ages to get an initial position. I worked around this by turning the internal GPS on for 5 minutes and then it off again. Everything was fine with this fudge and convinced me it was a GPS battery problem. Subsequent Web searches threw up the information I've already mentioned.

I think that I have some pictures of the GPS internals. I dug out a link I found when researching the issue.
http://raymarine.ning.com/forum/top...92755:Comment:219375&x=1#6492755Comment219375
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies.

I don't have an external sensor. It's currently using the internal GPS sensor. It works nearly all the time but occasionally looses its fix.

It may be that fitting an external sensor would be the answer but I'd like to be able to get a card working anyway so I can back up data etc...

So. I've ordered another card. I'll post the results.
 
Just incase anyone is interested in the outcome.

I got a Sandisk card. No luck in my plotter.

I tried it in a friends boat with a very similar plotter and it worked fine.

Conclusion is that card reader on my plotter is no good.

Apparently I can send it to Raymarine and have it fixed for a fixed price of about £250

Mulling it over as it works fine nearly all the time.
 
Before you send it off for repair ...

If your mates plotter has a later version of the OS it may well read the larger CF cards quite happily whereas yours with an earlier version won't

Getting hold of sub-1gb cards these days is next to impossible but before spending any money out I'd try and borrow one and upgrade to the latest OS after which you'll probably find it will handle 4GB cards OK
 
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