Tack Tick Wireless Issues

[James W]

Evening all.

I'm having a few issues with my Tack Tick Mn100 wireless kit. I inherited it with the boat but am having trouble getting anything to work. I can't tell whether or not the hull transmitter is sending out any data as nothing is being picked up when the displays are scanning for data. There's power there, but how can I tell if it's working with no lights or indicators?

So, what to do? I want to go sailing asap but have no depth that works. The batteries might be an issue as they need to be of sufficient strength to link up with the transmitter apparently.......but they are £60 a pop and I need three sets. I know there aren't many fans of this kit around, am I throwing good money after bad by trying to get this lot working?

Thanks and any helpful tips are much appreciated.

 

[lpdsn]

I used to race on a couple of boats with these. A few suggestions, which you may already have tried.

1) Make sure the displays are charged. If they've been left down below for a long time by the previous owner then they could've got pretty flat so let them see the sun (assuming it comes out occassionally round your neck of the woods).

2) Try taking the displays off and getting them closer to the transmitter to see if that works.

3) Finally turn off any mobile phones. I had a theory that the Tac Tics may have used a Bluetooth-like protocol but I was never able to confirm it. Phones left on board during a race certainly used to have a negative effect so we eneded up having a rule that they were to be turned off.

It might be worthwhile trying to reset the displays and re-do the linking to the transmitters. It's so long ago I'd have to read the manual, so don't ask me how to do it.

 

[ex-Gladys]

It sounds like the network has been lost. It's worth ensuring the hull transmitter is connected to your domestic batteries, and that the heads are fully charged. When I installed mine, over 10 years back, I also picked up power behind the instrument heads (previous instrument lighting) to ensure that I could put 12v to those as well. Auto networking isn't difficult, but you need the hull, wind and one instrument head within about 3ft of each other... I did lose the wind once and managed to re-network it by placing an instrument head in a bag tied to the main halyard (with a retrieval line as well!), set up the Auto Network process, and haul it smartly up the mast (you only have about 60 seconds or so), so if your wind isn't easily accessible do the hull and the instrument head, and then separately using the same instrument head do the wind...

PS Auto networking instructions are available on the Raymarine site, and once you get that bit done, you can go through the Setup menus to Health, page to Hull, and the display will show the state of the hull battery - ditto for wind...

 

[James W]

Two brilliant responses, thanks for those.

 

[RupertW]

It sounds like the network has been lost. It's worth ensuring the hull transmitter is connected to your domestic batteries, and that the heads are fully charged. When I installed mine, over 10 years back, I also picked up power behind the instrument heads (previous instrument lighting) to ensure that I could put 12v to those as well. Auto networking isn't difficult, but you need the hull, wind and one instrument head within about 3ft of each other... I did lose the wind once and managed to re-network it by placing an instrument head in a bag tied to the main halyard (with a retrieval line as well!), set up the Auto Network process, and haul it smartly up the mast (you only have about 60 seconds or so), so if your wind isn't easily accessible do the hull and the instrument head, and then separately using the same instrument head do the wind...

PS Auto networking instructions are available on the Raymarine site, and once you get that bit done, you can go through the Setup menus to Health, page to Hull, and the display will show the state of the hull battery - ditto for wind...

I wish I could find that thread from a year or two back which was like something out of Some Mother's do 'ave Em, with the poster taking each instruction on autonetworking at face value with hilarious results and a special rant at the end.

 

[Daverw]

+1 for checking health levels, this will tell you what is on the network, signal strengths for each node and battery strength. We’ve had no real issues with them, have wind, speed and depth and networked both 0183 and 2k.

 

[ottow]

Note that some radar sets can jam the signal too, causing (for me at least) the wind unit to lose connection.

Re the actual frequencies, from the Raymarine FAQ:
Tacktick Micronet products operate on 2 frequencies:
916MHz - USA, Canada, South America, Australasia, Japan.
869MHz - UK, Europe, Africa.

I spoke with a Raymarine rep last year re the max distance allowed between the wind unit and the display, as mine is at the very limit.
He said one of the things Raymarine did when they took over the product line was to redesign the antenna in the wind unit.
Previously it had a omindirectional antenna but with the Raymarine-branded units the antenna is instead (quite sensibly) directional, and aimed down.
Apparently that fixes a lot of the connectivity issues. But there's no way to replace the antenna in a old unit, I had to buy a new one he said...

 

[Daverw]

It’s worth noting that when I had an issue early on with the wind signal that raymarine technical advised that I move the hull transmitter around and also the nmea interface as this will also act as nodes and retransmit a weak signal from the mast head. I found that the wind head was forward of the mast and in the shadow to the cockpit instruments, moving the hull transmitter forward although down below fixed the issue.

 

[ex-Gladys]

The other thing that can interfere with Tacktick is background strong EM interference... A few years ago we went into St Katz, and the wind packed up as soon as we were inside the inner lock gate... Tried re-pairing etc, but when we came back out as soon as we were in the lock, it all came back to life.

 

[pvb]

Call me old-fashioned, but reading this thread makes me glad I've always trusted the simplicity of a piece of wire linking the various bits!

 

[lpdsn]

Call me old-fashioned, but reading this thread makes me glad I've always trusted the simplicity of a piece of wire linking the various bits!

At least you'll have a pretty good idea why it's failed.

 

[pvb]

At least you'll have a pretty good idea why it's failed.

It hasn't yet! But I've only been boating for 40+ years, so I guess there's still time...

 

[ex-Gladys]

My experience is that it's very reliable...

 

[Triassic]

My experience is that it's very reliable...

Mine to. When I bought Triassic she had been laid up for some seven or eight years. The heads were taken out of their little cases, shown some sunlight for a while and worked fine. Unfortunately the base unit hadn't seen 12v in all that time and couldn't be made to work, had to send it off to Raymarine for a new battery (expensive) but it's been faultless ever since.