Raymarine oddity

Wiggo

Wiggo

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Sorry if this one's a bit geeky, but there you go...

I have two old Raymarine RL70's running HSB2 - one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs one controls the radar, the downstairs one has the chart cartridge, and they happily share data and repeat displays.

Or they did, for years. Now for some reason, the upstairs one will only show chart data down to the 1Nm range - anything below that and I get a grey screen and 'No Chart Data Available', while the one downstairs will happily go all the way down to 1/8 Nm.

Can't find anything in the manual or menus. Any ideas, folks?
 
Wiggo said:
Sorry if this one's a bit geeky, but there you go...

I have two old Raymarine RL70's running HSB2 - one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs one controls the radar, the downstairs one has the chart cartridge, and they happily share data and repeat displays.

Or they did, for years. Now for some reason, the upstairs one will only show chart data down to the 1Nm range - anything below that and I get a grey screen and 'No Chart Data Available', while the one downstairs will happily go all the way down to 1/8 Nm.

Can't find anything in the manual or menus. Any ideas, folks?
Click to expand...


Hmmm
I fear you have what I had. My 2004 sq58 was supplied with 2x RL80, and i added a third, no problem. Then I added a RL70. I'm fully familiar with the HSB2 wiring architecture and Y connectors and termination resistors, etc.

The new RL70 wouldn't network the chart chip image, just like yours so i couldn't zoom in beyond base map level on the RL70. The RL80s worked fine. I tried everything wiggo: I bought new Y connectors and HSB 2 leads; I swapped the positions of my 3 RL80s, but nothing worked. Raymarine helped but couldn't cure it. We uploaded latest issue software to all machines, but no good. I became obsessed and bought a whole new RL70 to swap for the first one but that showed the same problem. Then I bought a new RL80 and swapped that (in turn) for each of my existing RL80s, but no good. Erm, I ended up selling lots of kit on for sale forum :). During all this, if I put the chart chip in the RL70, that would zoom in to the chip charts, but then one of the RL80s wouldn't network. Very frustrating.

There was bit of software I wanted to upload into the RL70 and i forget the detial but I had to buy it, from JD technologies who are very knowledgeable. I ordered "Software for RL70 CRC part number xxxxxx" but I mistakenly quoted the part number for RL80 not 70 (as given to me by Raymaine Tech Help, who were advising me all along) so JD supplied the RL80 software not RL70. JD were then hugely unhelpful in refunding, and didn't, saying the fault was mine. Life is too short to pursue them for £40 or whatever so i didn't; I just vowed not to buy from them and since then I have bought about £75k in nav kit and probably have another £75k to go so it's their loss, But I digress: my point is there was one software upgrade I wanted to do but never did, and I don't know if this would have fixed things

Raymarine reckoned there must be a software bug and said they'd look for it but by then E120 was big seller and they lost interest in supporting RL70/80. I sold the boat without ever finding a cure, but believing there is a bug in the software that can lurk then get you.

I bet if you put the chart chip in the upper plotter you will get the exact opposite of the problem you have now - upper plotter will zoom and lower one will show the grid and not zoom beyone base map level

I very much hope I'm wrong, but I don't hold out much hope...
 
Last edited:
Just to muddy the water,have the same set up but in a single display.Have had the same problem being unable to go below a certain scale and with the message No chart data against a grey hatched background,curiously Tracks are still visiable.
This normally occurred below 3 miles or something.Idleness resulted in nothing being done for six months.However being at a loose end on Sunday started to fiddle with the options with the result that the thing now displays perfectly down to 1/8 of a mile.

"corse" due to rubbish memory have no idea at all which buttons were pushed and in what sequence,so unable to offer much help,other than the fact that the random alteration of assorted menus and options did result in fixing the problem.

As to if it is properly " fixed" no idea until go back on boat.Somehow doubt it. !
 
oldgit said:
Just to muddy the water,have the same set up but in a single display.Have had the same problem being unable to go below a certain scale and with the message No chart data against a grey hatched background,curiously Tracks are still visiable.
This normally occurred below 3 miles or something.Idleness resulted in nothing being done for six months.However being at a loose end on Sunday started to fiddle with the options with the result that the thing now displays perfectly down to 1/8 of a mile.

"corse" due to rubbish memory have no idea at all which buttons were pushed and in what sequence,so unable to offer much help,other than the fact that the random alteration of assorted menus and options did result in fixing the problem.

As to if it is properly " fixed" no idea until go back on boat.Somehow doubt it. !
Click to expand...

^^^^^What he said! There is a setting somewhere that has changed.........sadly my memory is pretty poor as well. Do not think the setiing was obvious either! Play and you will I am sure get the plotter back to where it was.

Regards

Chris
 
Oldgit,

I think you have been suffering from a bout of PLOTTER MODE!!!
From Raymarine site:-

Unable to see chart detail on a Pathfinder chartplotter.
Answer ID 354 | Published 08/22/2001 10:08 AM | Updated 03/17/2004 11:32 AM
I am not able see any C-MAP NT+ chart detail on my Pathfinder series chartplotter display. The world map disappears at a certain level, and then all I am left with is a white screen with some cross-hatch lines, and the words NO CHART DATA. What is the problem?
The Pathfinder series of chartplotters, chart/radar, and chart/sonar displays have a feature in them called PLOTTER MODE. Plotter Mode is a feature that allows you to zoom the chartplotter through it's full range of available chart scales, without having to have a map cartridge inserted. This is most frequently used on occasions where you might be in an area for which you do not have a map cartridge. Plotter Mode allows you to zoom in tight on your plotted waypoints and route line even though there is no map data available.

Another possible use of Plotter Mode is for precision navigation drills such as anchoring, finding a precise dive spot/wreck, or performing search and rescue type maneuvers. With plotter mode enabled, most Pathfinder series chartplotters can zoom in to a range of 1/64 nautical mile. This gives you a very "magnified" view of a waypoint to allow you to precisely position your boat on or near it.

For normal day-to-day navigation Plotter Mode should normally be turned off. this restricts the chartplotter to only those range scales that actually are present on the C-MAP NT+ electronic chart cartridge. In highly detailed areas you may be able to range into 1/32 or 1/64 NM range scale. In less detailed areas, the maximum zoom may be restricted to 3, 6, or 12 miles (such as in open-ocean areas.) If you find that the system is not allowing you a close enough view of your plotted track or waypoint, simply enabling Plotter Mode will allow you to zoom closer, however, the map detail will be switched off. This is to prevent a condition called OVERZOOM, where the map data is over magnified, and stretched to fit a scale it was not intended for. This condition could cause serious distortion and inaccuracy of the electronic chart, hence the reason the chart itself disappears when Plotter Mode is enabled, and an unsupported range is selected.

Plotter Mode is enabled or disabled as follows:

1.Press the MENU key.
2.Select the CHART SETUP soft key.
3.Scroll down to PLOTTER MODE in the chart setup menu.
4.Select the OFF or ON soft key to enable or disable the setting.
5.Press the CLEAR key 3 times to exit the menu system, and return to normal operation.
 
jfm said:
jimg looks like he has the answer. Excellent stuff

Pity I didn't know this 3 years ago :-)
Click to expand...

John, its a shame raymarine didnt tell you that in the first place.

I heard Raymarine are moving out of there big fancy building into a smaller place at Segensworth, staff are not happy as most are Pompey staff who will have to travel to get to work.

In my opinon the RL series was pants, they then did the hsb2 series making the old kit useless as it wouldnt talk without major upgrading.
 
This was one of those silly options that caught lots of people out.

I must have "fixed" half a dozen or more RL sysrems when they were flavour of the month.
 
volvopaul said:
John, its a shame raymarine didnt tell you that in the first place.
Click to expand...

Yup, but never mind, it all seems a long time ago now. I'm kinda done with Raymarine now. I liked it then but having now done 200hours on Garmin I don't see myself ever buying Raymarine again

Thanks anyway jimg - it's good to know. Proves that this forum knows more than the manufacturer's own tech desk, which of course I should have known back then, silly me :-)
 
Just got to nip to the boat dear,wont be long.

Thanks jimg for your explanation.Will of course print that out.
Now have a perfect excuse to nip down to the boat for an quiet hour or two to "fix some navigation equipment" vital to safety of the boat and all who sail in her.
Providing of course remember to remember to take print out with me .:)
 
Plotter mode issue again

Jimg's analysis is extremely interesting and may be our problem. Boat in Italy now so can't check till next year but I suspect we would have set it to plotter mode ON, since the thing is a plotter ...
We'd be very grateful if someone could confirm that ours looks like the same problem.
Patches of chart appear in grey, hatched, track and boat visible "no chart data" mode.
This isn't a response to zooming in, it's just that certain whole areas seem to be missing, and the best you can get is by zooming right out to a fairly useless scale. We had this happen a lot when we got to Italy. Alassio harbour for example.
So you are following a route and you sail into a blank area, and have to zoom right out. We anchor a lot and often this happened in areas where we were anchoring and the detail would have been particularly useful. It's certainly not just in open ocean areas, far from it.
I was about to fire off a complaint to Jeppesen, but checked the forum first.
Is this exactly the same issue?
We're new to chart plotters and this "feature" means we have very limited enthusiasm for it at the moment. But maybe turning plotter mode off will solve the problem ?? Fingers crossed, and thanks for any response.
 
My machine has on couple of instances gone into that hatched gray sulk mode again :)
Not sure if its something am doing when powering down or what.
Anywho going into the menu and switching the command off and then on agin or vice versa seems to fixit.
 
I'm not sure if the issus you decribe are the same as mine but this is what i have found several times............

i have two card slots.

one of my cards in a general big scale channel area that isnt very detailed but has chartlets of popular areas.

while in a populr chartlet area I can zoom in to 1/8 mile.
as soon as I run off the chartlet the plotter shows a grey area.
All I need to do is zoom out and the big scale chart detail is shown again.

in my other slot I have the detailed local area I am in which allowes me to zoom in to 1/64.

Sometimes the plotter seems to be using the big scale chart when i want it to use the local chart, all i need to do is zoom a long way out and zoom back in and the plotter wirks out the best chart to use , but once it has choosen it seems too lazy to select a better one as i move on.

all the charts have sparse detail on the fringes so all you have to do is either zoom out a long way and then zoom back in or take the inapropriate chart out so the plotter cant use the wrong one.
 
Yup....found that as well .....and ...bit technical this..........removing card and plugging it back in seems to sort problem.
 
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