Raymarine help needed. RL80C and RL70C stopped talking to each other

[tudorsailor]

I have a 2001 setup with a RL80C at the chart table and a RL70C in the cockpit. At the end of last season the RL70 would not receive the chart from the RL80 and was unhappy when turned on, with repeating self-restarting.

As an experiment, I took the card reader from the RL80 and put it into the RL70. This reversed the problem. Now the RL70 worked perfectly with chart display etc. Now the RL80 would not show chart data and also occasionally restarted itself. When it is on, it received the nmea data so shows GPS etc

I wondered if the problem was the HSB cable so bought a new cable (not cheap!). I have now connected the cable to the two plotters and the problem is unchanged.

I did try changing the cards to a different area.

One solution is to buy a second card reader and another NT+ card. But that seems a costly way to circumvent the problem

Any suggestions????

TudorSailor

 

[TeamSpirit]

It sounds like a cabling issue? but you have swopped plotters cards around and replaced cable. You could try sending and receiving a waypoint between plotters to see if it transfers correctly backwards and forwards if it does it sound like it may be a card reader issue? raymarine may be able to shed some light they've been helpful to me in the past.

 

[sailinglegend420]

I had the same constant restarting issue until finally the RL70C failed to restart. Sent it back to Raymarine and they said motherboard problem £600 / board. 4 days later it was fixed, but when I picked it up it only cost £90 - the firmware memory was faulty and they zapped it and reinstalled the software. Guaranteed for 12 months, but next time it will be £600!!!

My cockpit screen is a RC631 with 3 different intermittent faults. If that's 3 different boards to fix that's £1800 - so I have bitten the bullet and will be replacing my 14 year old system with a new Digital HD all singing all dancing system.

 

[dunedin]

I had a similar problem with the two units stopping speaking on HSB (kit from 2000). Local agent tried all the settings, software update, different cable (not installed, just used temporarily) but drew a blank.
I bought another b&w device cheap on eBay and tried that - but seemed to show the fault was with the colour RL70C in the cockpit.
Ran out of patience / money with the fiddling so got card reader from the eBay unit fitted in my second plotter, and bought extra NT+ cards on eBay. This has worked fine, and only real issue is cannot bulk send waypoints between devices via HSB, but can use Go To Waypoint etc as these sent by other cable (Seatalk or NMEA?)

 

[tudorsailor]

Discovered that things seem to work if I only have one card in the card reader and not two

I then went onto the Raymarine forum and got this lengthy explanation

The problem which you are experiencing is based in the fact that you have Pathfinder Series Displays featuring different types of communications circuitry and memory as detailed within the paragraph found at the end of this response. In short the RL80 features hsb2 communications circuitry while the RL70 features hsb communications circuitry. While the v5.50 (hsb 1/2) software would have permitted hsb Pathfinder Series RL70 to be interfaced to a hsb2 Pathfinders Series Display, it would not have permitted use of NT+ cartography. Systems featuring a hsb Pathfinder Series Display are restricted to use of NT cartography. Attempting to use NT+ cartography within a system featuring a hsb Pathifnder Series Display may result in system instability. Use of more than one chart card will almost assuredly overwhelm the capabilities of a hsb Pathfinder Series Display.

The product names RL80 and RL70 were produced with either hsb or hsb2 communications circuitry. Raymarine used to be a division of Raytheon and while owned by Raytheon, its recreational marine electronics bore the Raytheon brand name. After the recreational marine electronics division was sold, its products now bare Raymarine the name. The Pathfinder Series display in question was produced under the brand name Raytheon as well as Raymarine. When manufactured under the Raytheon brand name, the Pathfinder Series displays were manufactured with hsb (also referred to as hsb1) communications circuitry. When manufactured under the Raymarine brand name, the Pathfinder Series displays were manufactured with hsb2 communications circuitry. Products manufactured with hsb communications circuitry are not compatible with those manufactured with hsb2 communications circuitry. As many Pathfinder Series displays with hsb communications circuitry were upgraded by their owners with hsb2 communication circuitry via Raymarine's Product Repair Centers, the only way to be certain whether a second hand Pathfinder Series display features hsb or hsb2 communications circuitry is by examining the splash screen image that is displayed while the Pathfinder Series Display display is booting. Should the splash screen image reference Raytheon, then the display feature hsb communications circuitry and would be capable of being interfaced with one other display featuring hsb communications circuitry to share radar/chartplotting/fishfinding features. The currently installed software version will be specified within the Navigational Warning message that must be acknowledged each time that the display is powered on. Should the splash screen image reference Raymarine (as yours does), then the display features hsb2 communications circuitry and would be capable of being interfaced with up to 7 displays featuring hsb2 communications circuitry to share radar/chartplotting/fishfinding features. Pathfinder Series Displays featuring hsb2 circuitry may also be interfaced to a DSM250, DSM30, or DSM300 which in turn may be interfaced to a compatible fishfinder transducer to add digital fishfinding capability to Pathfinder Series Radar, Chartplotter, and Fishfinder Displays. Pathfinder Series Displays featuring hsb2 communications circuitry also feature the ability to transfer waypoint/route data between displays via hsb2. This feature is not supported by hsb Pathfinder Series Displays. Hsb Pathfinder Series Displays may not be interfaced with hsb2 Pathfinder Series Displays for the purpose of sharing graphical radar, cartographic, or fishfinder high speed data. With the exception of Pathfinder Series Fishfinder Displays, Raymarine's Factory Repair Center can presently upgrade hsb Pathfinder Series Display with hsb2 communications circuitry to make them compatible with other hsb2 Pathfinder Series Displays and C-Map NT+ cartography.

Looks like I might need to upgrade the older RL70

TS