ST60 Wind playing up

[Bathdave]

I have an ST 60 from 2002

I had it down and replaced the cups and direction pointer last year and it seemed fine

I noticed last month that the direction seemed to be reading off by about 20 degrees so I thought it needed to recalibrate ...I followed the instructions, I had trouble getting it to linearise but it seemed to work out ok, even though not all the sequence of button pressing had the expected results as per the manual.

Last time out it seemed to be a bit ' confused', and having come to boat today now the needle is just spinning round and round. Wind speed looks about right

I can't see anything in the fault finding in the manual to cover this.

I can see a few threads on this and scuttle but over the years, with a range of different suggestions.

I am thinking possibly corrosion on one of the pins, but it's not clear to me that this can be fixed, or possibly that the transducer has gone and I'll need a new MHU

Any suggestions ?

 

[ctva]

I had the same a few years back. Sold the whole Raymarine system on ebay (two displays, transducers, cables and masthead unit) for about £600 and bought a new B&G NMEA 2K system for £1200. You are throwing good money after bad for a system that old in my opinion.

 

[Yngmar]

Most likely just faulty contact. Clean the pins/connectors with some fine sandpaper or crimp on new connectors if the wire has gone green, then apply silicone grease to halt further decay.

Mine also had a broken hall effect sensor, which was a £20 part from RS. I've also done the bearing replacement (instructions somewhere on here). Works reliable ever since (third year now).

The ST60 generation units are very well made and maintainable (thanks to a helpful service engineer leaking the service manuals) and easy to keep going with minimal investment, which is why they fetch such good prices on eBay.

 

[Bathdave]

Well I went up mast this afternoon, removed MHU and cleaned and checked for signs of corrosion. All looked clean as a whistle, I greased and fiddled about with it and put it back together, but it's still doing the same.

What I noticed (well, I didn't as I was up the mast, my friend down below did) was that when the MHU was removed, the wind dial was still swinging round and round on the display, although (as I would have expected) the wind speed reading was blank.

As the MHU was refitted, and the instrumet turned off then on, the wind speed reading came back and the dial continued to spin round.

This caused me to ponder whether the issue may be in the cable rather than the MHU or connector.

What does the panel think?

 

[Slipstream 34]

Disconnect the cables from the display head. Power it up - If the symptoms are still present it would suggest the display head is at fault.

 

[earlybird]

Have you checked the MHU electrically as per Raymarine FAQ's?http://www.raymarine.co.uk/knowledgebase/index.cfm?view=4274

 

[Ricd]

I had similar issue some 5 or 6 years back. The needle seemed to have a mind of its own. Did the linearization step a few times, got the two beeps to indicate success but problem came back. Solved with new new cpu board and still working You could send the unit off to The Service Centre (marine electronic servicing). For a price they will diagnose problem and quote final repair cost. They are quite reasonable and very quick and they hold a lot of spares for legacy Raymarine stuff. Raymarine will not touch anything over 10 years old.

 

[Hydrozoan]

I had similar issue some 5 or 6 years back. The needle seemed to have a mind of its own. Did the linearization step a few times, got the two beeps to indicate success but problem came back. Solved with new new cpu board and still working You could send the unit off to The Service Centre (marine electronic servicing). For a price they will diagnose problem and quote final repair cost. They are quite reasonable and very quick and they hold a lot of spares for legacy Raymarine stuff. Raymarine will not touch anything over 10 years old.

This company I presume? http://www.marineelectronicservice.com/ Thanks for the suggestion, which may come in handy.

 

[Ricd]

Yes that is them.. I used them earlier this years when my 11years old C80 MFD went wrong, I was very please. needed a new video board as connector. They gave rest of system a full MOT . total cost including shipment was £230 which I thought was great value. The alternative was scrap the unit and work through the nightmare of integrating all my legacy electronic equipment to a new technology MFD .
good luck

 

[Bathdave]

Disconnect the cables from the display head. Power it up - If the symptoms are still present it would suggest the display head is at fault.

Good tip...I have done and it is still spinning, so I guess I know it's the unit..if I'd thought of this I could have saved myself a trip up !!

I need to work out whether it's worth sending it to The Service centre in Wareham , or take my chances and buy a second hand one on eBay

It's a bugger as I was about to go off cruising for three weeks

 

[Ricd]

If it’s urgent I would contact the service centre by phone. From memory they offer a que jumping service for extra cost. My standard service on the mfd took only a week from them receiving it to it being returned repaired.