ST60 masthead wind transducer

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santavey

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The spinning bit no longer spins. Not even in a F6. So no wind strength readout. Wind direction still OK.
Fed up with repeated trips to top mast to free up as it only works for a short time. Cost of replacement astronomical. £300 quoted!
Suggestions to keep it spinning please.
thanks
JHT
 
I have got exactly the same problem and just sent the transducer back to Raymarine for a service. I'm not sure what they will do with it, as I'm still waiting for them to get back to me. I'm hoping that a service will be cheaper than a replacement unit...

Frankly, I'm not sure that there is a lot else you can do - I don't think any of the other brands are better. In fact I was chatting with a fellow sailor today at work, and his NASA unit has packed up twice in as many years. The new Garmin GM10 looks nice, but pricey.
 
Mine did much the same.
The windspeed transducer bit (basically a little dynamo or perhaps alternator) is a replaceable part, you need to be able to solder 3 or 4 wires, not difficult, and the part should be sourceable from a Raymarine agent if not from Raymarine themselves. Cost was about 50 quid a couple of years ago when I asked.
HOWEVER when mine (almost) stopped spinning I found it was simply gunge on the shaft where it enters the bearing, I was able to winkle bits of rubbish out of it, added a dash of WD40 and, 2 years on, it still works perfectly. Worth a try.
 
I'm another with similar problems but have yet to attempt to go up and have a look see.
We have 2 problems,
The apparent wind reading is fine but a lot of the time we get no true wind reading at all.
The second is that its is about 15 deg out. When going to wind the best we can get is about 50 deg on one tack and and the other 20 deg?

Is there a good website anywhere on wind transducer DIY? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
I'll have a wager on this.

You will be told it is unrepairable/uneconomic to repair but they can give you 25% . trade-in,off the RRP of a new one /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
I mounted a redundant Lucas made anemometer/vane on the roof of our apartment in the south of France five years ago. "Blessed" with the Tramontane and showing speeds up to force 10 not infrequently it still happily spins.

What happened to Lucas Marine?
 
[ QUOTE ]
I'm another with similar problems but have yet to attempt to go up and have a look see.
We have 2 problems,
The apparent wind reading is fine but a lot of the time we get no true wind reading at all.
The second is that its is about 15 deg out. When going to wind the best we can get is about 50 deg on one tack and and the other 20 deg?


[/ QUOTE ]

Your problems seem different to me. The transducer itself can only ever record Apparent Wind, to get True wind the instruments compute Wind Direction, Wind Speed and Boatspeed so maybe there is an intermittent breakdown in the Seatalk data going between the various instruments? You could try remaking every connection (usually plugs) on the back of the heads.

The Wind Angle is adjustable at the instrument head so you can correct any masthead misalignment. Not sure how you do it on ST60s as we have ST50s but it will be in the manual and very easy. If you have an error favouring one tack by 15degs you will need to recalibrate using +/- to move the pointer 15degs in the right direction.
 
I noticed my ST50 vanes spun more slowly than other yachts so I thoroughly flushed the bearings with WD40 and used some bearing lubricant before refitting. It whizzes around quite happily now.
 
Robin

Thanks for the reply.

It looks like you are probably right about an iffy connection as we have been getting other various faults such as the plotter displaying the boat pointing 90 deg to the direction we are actually going /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif The system uses Seatalk NG and we have had software issues since it was installed.

I will have to have a read on the calibration procedure when I get back to the boat as we have the new ST70's and although nice to use they can get very complicated to set-up.

Thanks again
 
[ QUOTE ]
I'll have a wager on this.

You will be told it is unrepairable/uneconomic to repair but they can give you 25% . trade-in,off the RRP of a new one /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I won't take your bet!! I've just had EXACTLY this reply vis-a-vis my ST60 display head! Funnily enough, a 'possible' repair would cost a few pounds less than the 25% discount cost offered for a new replacement! 'Short and curlies' spring to mind! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
I just calibrated all mine with ST70s last week. Fairly easy, the manual is ok and the menu is intuitive enough. You can calibrate both direction and speed.

Let me know (PM) if you run out of any ST70 network bits. I bought what I thought I needed, then when the boxes of ST70s arrived they had some cables in them together with backbone nodes, then it turns out out you only connect ONE of your E series to the backbone not all of them... Upshot is I have loads left over so I'll happily put the odd bits n pieces to you in a jiffy bag FOC if you are missing anything. Otherwise I'm going to have to open a small Raymarine store...
 
Jfm

Thanks for the offer but I also have a load of spare Raymarine cables and even a brand new ST70 autopilot head that I found in a box of spares when I collected the boat.
I found the calibration manual on line yesterday and I agree the wind sea trial set up doesn't look too bad. We only did the autopilot set up a few weeks ago which was a bit of a pain. Due to software gliches in September last year we had a temporary ST60 fitted in place of the ST70 for the delivery trip. It was only last month that we finally got Raymarine to come and swap them over and sort out the software issues with both the ST70 and E series.
Thanks again for everyones help
 
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