Raymarine Instrument Trouble Shooting

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smth448

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At the end of last year the Raymarine instruments on my boat were all showing a bit of water ingress problems.
I had a ST40 GPS repeater at the start of the chain which died completely, the others all ST60s were looking a bit foggy.
I took them all off the boat and brought them home to dry out in the airing cupboard.
I re-fitted them last week with all new connectors. I replaced the broken GPS repeater with a ST60+ Graphic display repeater
The Seatalk chain is now
1. ST60+ Graphic repeater with GPS connected to the NMEA in
2. ST60 repeater
3. ST60 Wind analogue display
4. ST60 log / depth display
5. ST40 compass
Now when I switch on everything powers up but the wind and water instruments display -- instead of any useful information and teh wind direction points resolutely ahead.
The boat is out of the water so I would expect depth to be confused but I find it hard to believe that both instrument heads would have packed up or all transducers.
Does anyone have any idea how best to troubleshoot this? I asked raymarine tech support and they simply said to borrow a known working instrument head or transducer from someone else and try to see if that works.
I expected them to tell me what the voltages should be across the various connections but no such luck.
 
I think but wouldn't guarantee it....

Are you displaying apparent wind or true wind?
A log is needed in order to calculate true wind. Without one you should still be able to display apparent wind
 
You could disconnect the seatalk chain and power the displays one at a time, hopefully you could isolate the problem. May just be the relative position of the power input in the chain.
 
smth448 said:
Does anyone have any idea how best to troubleshoot this? I asked raymarine tech support and they simply said to borrow a known working instrument head or transducer from someone else and try to see if that works.
I expected them to tell me what the voltages should be across the various connections but no such luck.
Click to expand...

I find it odd that Raymarine didn't tell you how to test. It's simple to test the wind transducer with a multimeter. Follow these instructions on the Raymarine website...
http://www.raymarine.co.uk/knowledgebase/index.cfm?view=4254

If the transducer is OK, you'll know that there's a wiring or display fault. The depth won't read with the boat out of the water, although you can check this by holding a piece of drainpipe (with one end closed off) over the transducer, perpendicular to the hull, you should get a reading about 4 times the length of the pipe.
 
I recently had the ST60 windhead off.
When I reconnected it, the display did what you say. I think it reverts it to as new state, maybe only if it gets powered up while the windhead is off. You need to go through the linearisation and calibration, 2 slow circles etc.
After that mine behaved.
 
Troubadour said:
I recently had the ST60 windhead off.
When I reconnected it, the display did what you say. I think it reverts it to as new state, maybe only if it gets powered up while the windhead is off. You need to go through the linearisation and calibration, 2 slow circles etc.
After that mine behaved.
Click to expand...

Even when new, the unit has factory default settings and will work. The calibration process is fine-tuning, surely?
 
you may have a simple bad connection to the wind transducer...
The socket at the end of the transducer arm seems prone to verdigris... It took me ages to clean mine ... then it worked..
 
pvb said:
Even when new, the unit has factory default settings and will work. The calibration process is fine-tuning, surely?
Click to expand...

Until you linearise it you get the two dashes then it bleeps and starts working.

You can find instructions on Raymsrine website on how to test the masthead unit isolated from the display. You can power with a 9v battery (or with the 8V from the indicator) and check outputs with a voltmeter. You really need access to it though to turn the vane and rotate the anemometer slowly.

Oops sorry you already linked to that!
 
Last edited:
Having thought back let me elaborate a bit.

When I took the MHU off for rebuild I deliberately reset the instrument to factory default condition - instructions are in the book - to start afresh.
I made up a short cable and plugged into the instrument locally. As far as I remember, it displayed 2 dashes and pointed north until I had slowly rotated the vane twice as per linearisation instructions in book, when it bleeped and worked normally and I zeroed the pointer.
I switched off, refitted it at the masthead and someone below turned it on and said it was fine. However I then had to remove it again and did so without switching off.
When I plugged it in again a minute later, still switched on, he called up to say the instrument showed 2 dashes and pointed north.
However switching it off then on again it worked OK without doing the linearisation again.
So not quite as I said, sorry, but if switching off and on again hasn't fixed it, try the linearisation procedure.
Probably not a good idea to unplug the MHU switched on as I did.
 
Thanks for the replies. The problem I have is more widespread than just the wind instuments. Speed and depth are both showing as --. This makes me think it is a more general problem. Intend to try powering up the instrument heads independantly in case the two repeaters are fighting to be the primary and are dragging the Seatalk down in some way and preventing the instruments themselves working.
 
Well I have been able to get the wind instruments and compass working perfectly now. However the Tridata is still showing -- for both depth and speed. I asked the so called Raymarine technical support what voltages I shoudl expect to see across the inputs from teh transducers and got the usual useless reply that it is probably a wiring fault or a fault witht he instrument or transducers. Does anyone have any practical ideas for how to troubleshoot this and find out where the fault lies?
 
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