Raymarine GPS Reciver batteries

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Bathdave

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Our recently acquired Southerly has a Raymarine set up that i think was pretty close to top of the range when she was new in 2002.

Recently started getting 'no fix' messages on plotter, which my research points me towards probably being the battery in the GPC receiver, a RayStar 112LP

This officially is a non serviceable item and accroding to Raymarine needs to be thrown away and replaced. My on line research suggests it's simply needs a CR 2032 lithium battery (£2 from any shop) which will then give it another 10 years of life.

The battery seems to be soldered in place and I am a bit paranoid about damaging something in trying to either force it or waving a soldering iron around.

Apart from fact I think it is very naughty of Raymarine to market an expensive product as disposable when the battery runs out,

1 has anyone else had this issue ?

2 am I on right track and do i need to just be brave and de-solder the battery and solder in a new one?
 
Thanks to all ..I will have a go at levering it off the plate so the connection to the PCB is (hopefully) unaffected.

Do others agree with me it is rather naughty of raymarine to build them this way and force you to buy a new unit when the battery expires?
 
Be brave! The same thing afflicted my ancient Navcenter 600 chart plotter last year. RM advised me on the phone that the fault was terminal (!) and the whole unit should be replaced (which would have meant either an eyewateringly expensive large screen unit or a new panel door - plus, of course, replacing the tridata, the wind instrument and the autopilot with STng units) but even I, an electrical ignoramus with two left thumbs, managed to replace the battery. I did find a solder sucker very helpful when removing the dead battery from the PCB. A local electronics guy in Plymouth advised me to replace it and would have done it for me at little cost but was too busy to do the job that week, so I took a deep breath and got on with it.
 
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Bathdave said:
Thanks to all ..I will have a go at levering it off the plate so the connection to the PCB is (hopefully) unaffected.

Do others agree with me it is rather naughty of raymarine to build them this way and force you to buy a new unit when the battery expires?
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Yes, should be flogged.

I have a similar problem with an older plotter. I put up with it because it still works but will not retain settings or waypoints.
 
doug748 said:
Yes, should be flogged.

I have a similar problem with an older plotter. I put up with it because it still works but will not retain settings or waypoints.
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That was my problem too. While I had the thing apart I cleaned the inside of the front window and the screen itself, which transformed the ease of use.
 
Weren't the early Raystars glued together to ensure watertight operation? If so, I guess you can understand Raymarine not wanting to recommend taking them apart.
 
pvb said:
Weren't the early Raystars glued together to ensure watertight operation? If so, I guess you can understand Raymarine not wanting to recommend taking them apart.
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Not convinced that's much of an excuse - mine is held together with 6 very small cross head screws, and the two halves are seated against a rubber o ring
 
The battery lasts about 7 or 8 years before starting to give trouble. On my 125 It was easy to take the receiver apart and just slot in a new one. However in some earlier versions the battery was soldered or spot welded into the holder. Those are much more problematic but a bit of judicious grinding should get the old battery out and given that many have worked well for years without being soldered in I wouldn't try to resolder the replacement (heat and lithium batterries don't go well together). Raymarine main agents don't seem to even know there is a battery in there let alone that it is possible to replace it.
 
It's very common for all sorts of stuff to have tagged lithium cells.
Very common in laptops.
They are easily available, RS, Farnell, Ebay.
Don't try soldering directly to the cell, it might work, but the cell may not last long.
You can get holders, or solder wires to any 3V tagged cell if you can't find the right footprint.
 
Grumpybear said:
Be brave! The same thing afflicted my ancient Navcenter 600 chart plotter last year. RM advised me on the phone that the fault was terminal (!) and the whole unit should be replaced (which would have meant either an eyewateringly expensive large screen unit or a new panel door - plus, of course, replacing the tridata, the wind instrument and the autopilot with STng units)
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Regardless of the propriety or otherwise of a non-replaceable battery in a GPS receiver, it's nonsense to suggest that you would have to replace the whole system right down to speed and depth. If the GPS couldn't have been revived with a new battery, all you would have needed is a new Seatalk GPS, or an NMEA GPS and a converter.

Pete
 
I had the same problem. I took it apart and used a Dremel with a diamond blade, after covering the electronics, and sliced through the two battery welded legs. I then soldered a wire from a battery holder on to the remainder of each leg, sticking through the pc board. The battery holder and battery were from eBay and fitted into the space inside the GPS. I held the battery holder in place with bluetack. It has worked fine for the last 2 years.
Incidentally, when the problem first started on day 1 of our 10 week cruise, I found out on returning home in the boat that a fix was obtained if the GPS was left on for long enough. I then found out on the internet that it was most likely a battery problem. We therefore set off again and I left the instruments powered up for the 10 weeks and 1500 miles and never lost the fix!
 
TonyS said:
Incidentally, when the problem first started on day 1 of our 10 week cruise, I found out on returning home in the boat that a fix was obtained if the GPS was left on for long enough. I then found out on the internet that it was most likely a battery problem. We therefore set off again and I left the instruments powered up for the 10 weeks and 1500 miles and never lost the fix!
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Yes, it doesn't stop it working, just means it takes a long time to first fix.
 
prv said:
Regardless of the propriety or otherwise of a non-replaceable battery in a GPS receiver, it's nonsense to suggest that you would have to replace the whole system right down to speed and depth. If the GPS couldn't have been revived with a new battery, all you would have needed is a new Seatalk GPS, or an NMEA GPS and a converter.

Pete
Click to expand...

In my case it was the plotter battery that failed, not the GPS. A new plotter using STng would not have been compatible (according to RM tech support) with a full set of instruments and AP using original ST; I concluded that the cost and complexity of getting the two systems to talk to one another would have pushed me towards replacing the instruments some years before they were likely to fall over by themselves.

In the event I fixed the original problem easily and cheaply on a device which I have found quite satisfactory despite being seriously obsolete. I still resent the tenor of the advice I was given, which in my view stretched the truth in order to con me into buying new. Ironically, I would have simply done without the plotter and resurrected my trusty Yeoman and Garmin GPS combo which I will do anyway when the existing kit finally dies. That kind of money would force us to lay up the boat until it was paid for, which is self defeating.
 
Grumpybear said:
In my case it was the plotter battery that failed, not the GPS. A new plotter using STng would not have been compatible (according to RM tech support) with a full set of instruments and AP using original ST; I concluded that the cost and complexity of getting the two systems to talk to one another would have pushed me towards replacing the instruments some years before they were likely to fall over by themselves.
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There is a Seatalk / Seatalk NG converter; I don't know what it costs but it must be cheaper than a new instrument fitout!

Alternatively, it's not mandatory to have everything chatting to each other anyway. You'd lose things like the ship's head line on the plotter (if the old NavCenter even had that) and the ability to drop a mark on the chart and tell the autopilot to steer to it, but each bit of kit's core functions would still work.

Grumpybear said:
resurrected my trusty Yeoman and Garmin GPS combo
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Good kit :encouragement:

Ariam came with the usual integrated Raymarine setup, but I still devoted some time and effort to getting hold of a working Garmin 128 and fitting a Yeoman to the underneath of the chart table.

Pete
 
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