why would a maker....

[C08]

Build a bit of electronics kit without any sort of light/neon/LED to indicate it has power to it.

I have a Mk 1 NASA AIS and I am trying to get it to connect to the laptop navigation software (TIKI Navigator PRO) and I cannot get a peep out of it. It may well be that up a creek at Salcome there is no AIS nearby but previously I have received AIS generally up to 16 miles distance. It is quite hard to tell if it is working or there is just no AIS in range. It must be about 12 months since I used it but ti was ok. Still probably have afew days to sort it out in this weather!

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Build a bit of electronics kit without any sort of light/neon/LED to indicate it has power to it?

To save 3p.

 

[Frayed Knot]

To save 3p.

And cos it's NASA

 

[elton]

It may well have small led on the pcb.

 

[Burnham Bob]

I imagine that with things that have a visual output, no output means 'not working'. My gps, plotter, radar and radio don't have leds but they all have a visual output so you can tell if they are not working by the fact that they don't if you see what I mean...............

does this conect with usb? if it does then surely Windows should tell you when the unit is connected by loading the drivers. try loading it without the plotter software running and see if windows detects it. if it does, then its possible your navigation software (or windows) has decided to upgrade (?) itself in such a way as to knock out the ais input setting.

don't know the unit but if it's powered by 12 volt (as opposed to usb connection) have you tried the 12 volt supply with a meter to see its working? no inline fuses anywhere? and have you tried another cable? probably you have tried all these things but having just installed a new surround sound system and having been convinced it wasn't working, when all else failed i read the instructions and the answer was obvious - the way it worked was not the way i expected. lots of these things are not as intuitive as they should be and the manuals are transated badly from japanese too........