Simrad 3G Radar & MFD - stopped showing targets just interference

Pleinmont

Pleinmont

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My Simrad Go9 and 3G radome suddenly stopped displaying any targets yesterday.
Working fine one minute, turned it off, restarted an hour later now just a ring of interference and some noise.
Has worked brilliantly until now and the units are only 4 yrs old.

I've not changed any settings - the screen just stopped showing any land or boats at any range.
The radome still makes a whirring noise so assume it's going round up on the roof but something's not right.

Not tried factory reset yet in case something else (not sure if they need calibration afterwards).
Any ideas?
Thanks!

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I did read on the Simrad FB page that the 3G/4G radars have a fairly short inbuilt obsolescence. I also have the 3G, second season and I’m getting some spurious returns from time to time. Spoke to my local dealer who said they have a 3 year warranty but you have to pay to send the unit back after the first 12 months. No good for you though, hope you sort it.
 
Thanks Jamie ?
In built obsolescence on a £1500 piece of safety equipment is taking the Michael somewhat!!

You see old radars still going 15yrs + on many boats.
I called the installer who said he's not seen this before but gave me a few pointers.
Will try shortly and see if can coax it back into action but not holding out much hope.

By the way do you switch off your units on the device or the 12v rocker? I try to do on the device but sometimes accidentally hit the 12v switch when using the windscreen wipers!
The installer said never use the mains power switch (bad for the units) always power down the device properly.
 
Pleinmont said:
Thanks Jamie ?
In built obsolescence on a £1500 piece of safety equipment is taking the Michael somewhat!!

You see old radars still going 15yrs + on many boats.
I called the installer who said he's not seen this before but gave me a few pointers.
Will try shortly and see if can coax it back into action but not holding out much hope.

By the way do you switch off your units on the device or the 12v rocker? I try to do on the device but sometimes accidentally hit the 12v switch when using the windscreen wipers!
The installer said never use the mains power switch (bad for the units) always power down the device properly.
Click to expand...
I only use the rocker switch for a 12v socket, nothing else. I installed a separate fuse box for all the nav gear etc running directly from the house battery via a dedicated battery switch. I therefore power everything down before turning off the switch, the radar is slave to the evo3 and powers up/closes down as the evo3 does.

70D1EBA2-5001-48B6-9E26-458F7E43030C.jpeg
 
Tidy job ? and the switch makes sense. I need to sort my wiring out - looks a lot messier than that.

Had a look on Facebook earlier - yes there seem to be a few people reporting sudden death of their 3 and 4G domes after only a few years or less :poop:
I went down at lunch and updated the software, reset the radar and checked the R10 unit etc but nothing out of order. Cables are connected and the little green light is flashing on the R10 interface.
Still shagged.

Just replaced the dinghy so wasn't looking to buy anything like a new radar any time soon! :mad:
 
Pleinmont said:
the little green light is flashing on the R10 interface.
Click to expand...
Should be solid green IIRC?

Looking at the (typically sketchy) Simrad installation manual, all I can find re the lights is this ‘Green LED indicates power is supplied to the RI10 and indicates SimNet state. A sequence of three rapid flashes indicates no SimNet connection was made at time of power up and a solid light means SimNet connection was lost after power up’. Next time I'm on the boat I’ll check what mine shows, but I’m sure it’s solid green. Connected via ethernet.
 
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Did you resolve the issue with your simrad 3g not showing any returns. What did you have to do to fix the issue. I'm having the same problem and about the same time as you first post.
Any info would be appreciated. Thanks
 
Sterls said:
Did you resolve the issue with your simrad 3g not showing any returns. What did you have to do to fix the issue. I'm having the same problem and about the same time as you first post.
Any info would be appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi, no I didn't manage to fix the faulty radar whilst on the boat unfortunately. Has been a bit of a saga.
I managed to speak to one of the tech blokes at Navionics UK (and a local installer) back in the summer who said that this fault is seen from time to time. Small chance it might be the cable (installer can check this for you on the boat with a spare cable) but more likely a fault in the radome.
If it's not the cable then nothing you can do other than remove the radome off the boat, parcel up and send back to them for an inspection which is what I did.

Navionics checked it and confirmed broken but not fixable which I guess is like most electronics these days! I seem to have been unlucky as still see lots of those 3G radars in use - hopefully the new one lasts longer.

They offered me a new 3G radome on a service replacement basis (half new cost as out of warranty). So I paid £700 back in October for one to be sent out as and when they came back in stock (usual covid shortages and those models have been superceded by the HALOs).

Delivery of new stock was supposed to be early Dec but still waiting :)
Will let you know when it arrives!
 
My 3G also went tits up on the last day of last season, 2 weeks out of warranty ? I’m now waiting for a cut price Halo+ after sending dead unit to Navico although there doesn’t seem to be any sign of stock anytime soon. My dealer has been told no new VHFs before 2024! The 3/4G units have a reputation for giving up just out of warranty, built in obsolescence…
 
Sorry to hear that, I remember you saying yours was starting to play up.
Hopefully your new HALO one proves more robust.
I did consider one as a replacement but couldn't stretch to the higher cost so gambled on the 3G. I did think that if the second one breaks again just out of warranty I will have irrefutable proof of a corporate rip off so I'm interested in it as a long term experiment!

Some of the old Furuno, Koden and Raytheon units I see down the harbour must be 25yrs plus if not more. I presume some of them are still working..
Fingers crossed the new one lasts part way towards that.
If it ever arrives :ROFLMAO::rolleyes:
 
Pleinmont said:
Sorry to hear that, I remember you saying yours was starting to play up.
Hopefully your new HALO one proves more robust.
I did consider one as a replacement but couldn't stretch to the higher cost so gambled on the 3G. I did think that if the second one breaks again just out of warranty I will have irrefutable proof of a corporate rip off so I'm interested in it as a long term experiment!

Some of the old Furuno, Koden and Raytheon units I see down the harbour must be 25yrs plus if not more. I presume some of them are still working..
Fingers crossed the new one lasts part way towards that.
If it ever arrives :ROFLMAO::rolleyes:
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Trouble is I’ve been told that no new 3/4G units are being made, the factory apparently was destroyed in a fire and the Halo superseded them. My dealer has a Halo+ on the shelf I’m pushing him to let me have, apparently swapping stock back to Navico is complicated so I dangled a future purchase of a 12” MFD to ‘encourage’ him.
 
Ah that's interesting... Might explain the lack of anything in the post.

Yes I knew they had been discontinued but the Navico chap said they were still able to get some as service items/spares stock - maybe that has now changed permanently.
Why didn't I buy Garmin or Raymarine :mad: It's annoying as I really like the Simrad interface, Navionics+ charts etc - it all just looked and felt better to me in 2017. Now Garmin run Navionics+ charts the gap has closed.
I seem to remember Raymarine was a fair bit more at the time for the same spec.
Shame the Simrad radars ended up a shambles.

I've resurrected my service ticket and awaiting an email as I hadn't chased them until now.
Bet I end up being coerced into laying out another £500 for HALO on top of the £700 already down on the non-existent 3G to replace the £1500 original 3G I bought in 2017!
 
Thanks for the reply. I was on the phone with simrad tech for an hour and a half, we went through their trouble shooting and you are correct, it has to go back to simrad for service, which, I had to pay upfront. Customer service told me; it would be replaced with a halo 20 if it could not be repaired since my 4g was obsolete. After awhile of holding, she came back on and told me, the halo 20 was also obsolete,and, I would have to go with halo 24. It was offered at a discount but I have not committed to it,and, won't till I hear if my unit can be fixed. After reading the threads, i don't have my hope's up.

Shame, I've hardly used the radar in 3 years and now it's inoperative and obsolete. I expected better from Simrad!
 
Sterls said:
Thanks for the reply. I was on the phone with simrad tech for an hour and a half, we went through their trouble shooting and you are correct, it has to go back to simrad for service, which, I had to pay upfront. Customer service told me; it would be replaced with a halo 20 if it could not be repaired since my 4g was obsolete. After awhile of holding, she came back on and told me, the halo 20 was also obsolete,and, I would have to go with halo 24. It was offered at a discount but I have not committed to it,and, won't till I hear if my unit can be fixed. After reading the threads, i don't have my hope's up.

Shame, I've hardly used the radar in 3 years and now it's inoperative and obsolete. I expected better from Simrad!
Click to expand...
I don’t think the Halo 20/20+ are obsolete, there just isn’t any stock. Check out the dealers’ websites, none to be had anywhere.
 
Sterls said:
Thanks for the reply. I was on the phone with simrad tech for an hour and a half, we went through their trouble shooting and you are correct, it has to go back to simrad for service, which, I had to pay upfront. Customer service told me; it would be replaced with a halo 20 if it could not be repaired since my 4g was obsolete. After awhile of holding, she came back on and told me, the halo 20 was also obsolete,and, I would have to go with halo 24. It was offered at a discount but I have not committed to it,and, won't till I hear if my unit can be fixed. After reading the threads, i don't have my hope's up.

Shame, I've hardly used the radar in 3 years and now it's inoperative and obsolete. I expected better from Simrad!
Click to expand...

Yeah I've been less than impressed! Not only to have had to pay out for the replacement so soon after the warranty ended but also the lack of stock. Nothing you can do though... I work in supply chain management so learnt to live with these situations over the last couple years.
Thankfully the MFD works fine - can generally live without the radar for now until something eventually turns up.
 
Pleinmont said:
Bet I end up being coerced into laying out another £500 for HALO on top of the £700 already down on the non-existent 3G to replace the £1500 original 3G I bought in 2017!
Click to expand...
I was given a price of £1200 to ‘upgrade’ to the Halo. Just wish I’d sent it back last July when it first started doing odd things. Any future radar will be straight off the boat and back to Navico at the first sign of trouble.
 
Was just going by what Simrad told me; Halo 20 is obsolete. So if some one is waiting on the 20, they may have to go with the Halo 24. Hope someone doesn't get stuck like I did. Buy a radar and find out its obsolete in 3 years ,and, possibly unrepairable.
 
Update on this. The replacement radars Navico are offering on their ‘out of warranty warranty’ are not guaranteed to be new and come with no warranty of their own. Could be a new radome with damaged/unbranded packaging, a returned item, a refurbished item etc. I was lucky and got a factory new Halo+ from my local dealer and wangled a 1 year warranty on it as it was brand new. Cost me £1800 on a £2500rrp but at least I know it’s new…

Just to add, May looks like the earliest any replacements will be forthcoming. I wouldn’t hold my breath!
 
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