Raymarine SL72

[SteveA]

I've a Raymarine SL72 combined radar and chartplotter where the screen lighting has failed making it very difficult to read.
Does anyone know if this can be repaired easily or would I need to replace the whole screen?

 

[CLB]

Not sure about the SL series, but there is quite a bit on the net about repairing c and e series backlighting problems.

 

[john_q]

The screen went and I bought one on ebay and fitted it myself, then the back light went so , I took it to the Service centre and they fixed it

 

[pvb]

You might try the Service Centre - http://theservicecentre.eu/

 

[Yngmar]

Yes, this is fixable, and no, you do not need to replace the screen, just the backlight strips (one top, one bottom) and maybe the inverter that drives it, unless you can find and repair the fault itself. Generic backlight strips are available, or you can bodge something with hot glue and LED strips.

I've had mine apart a couple times to fix various issues, including the backlight. Turned out to be just a broken wire on a larger inductor on the small inverter board, so was able to repair it without needing parts.

 

[SteveA]

Many thanks for all your help - I'll have a look myself but if there's nothing obvious off to the service centre it will go!

 

[SteveA]

I've had a look and there's nothing obvious so contacted the service centre to see if they could fix it and got this reply - Thank you for your enquiry, unfortunately spares are no longer available for your equipment and we no longer support it,
Bugger!

 

[Yngmar]

I've had a look and there's nothing obvious so contacted the service centre to see if they could fix it and got this reply - Thank you for your enquiry, unfortunately spares are no longer available for your equipment and we no longer support it,
Bugger!

Good, you're back in PBO territory now!

Couple simple checks:
- Is there power to the inverter board?
- If yes, is there power from the inverter board to the backlights? Fairly high voltage as the backlights are CCFL, so try not to lick it.
- If so, your CCFL tubes are dead. These have limited lifespan. Find a matching replacement: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/?_nkw=ccfl+backlight
- You could also fit lower power LED replacement, although I haven't looked into how that would work with the software controlled brightness. CCFL like-for-like is easier.

Service manuals with circuit diagrams available on Google, if you search for "sl72" "pathfinder" "service manual"

 

[SteveA]

Yngmar - many thanks for your advice.
I was able to get an exact replacement CCFL off ebay (from Italy!) for 20 quid and it only took me about an hour to change.
There's just the one CCFL which fits into an ali flanged tube that bolts onto a white plastic sheet which slides behind the lcd screen.
It's now working as it should!
Once again thanks for the help

 

[Yngmar]

Splendid, well done! That's the PBO spirit