I had the boat out of the water just before Easter. I replaced another seacock, pressure washed and touched up anti fouling. Also I've had a brand new triducer sitting in a box for over a year now, as it needed a slightly larger thru-hull where it was replacing a log instrument I needed the boat out of the water to install it. So I took the opportunity and installed the new thru-hull and the triducer. I didn't wire it back to the Raymarine converter box (ITC-5 analogue to digital converter that connects it to the network) because I ran out of time and we were heading off on a 5 day trip for Easter (we have an existing depth sensor and analogue head, so having the new one working for the trip wasn't essential). The converter box also has the wind sensor wired to it. A couple of weeks later I had some time and I routed the triducer cable back to the converter box and wired it up. It worked! I now had depth, speed through water and water temp working on the i70 head and plotter, however the wind speed wasn't working at all anymore (wind angle was working ok though).

So I called the Raymarine help line and we went through some tests with a multi meter. While doing this there were some inconsistent readings, and then the wind speed started working (I was poking my multimeter into the crimp fitting on each of the wires). Great! so the tech guy thought it was likely a bad connection in one of push on fittings crimp and I'd disturbed it while wiring in the triducer. On the day we did the tests the wind was pretty light so I didn't pay much attention to the actual speed that was indicated. Next trip out, all the wind readings are way out, at 20knts or so, the readout is only showing 4-5 knts apparent when the boat is sitting still. The wind sensor looks intact and is spinning fast. Ok fine I thought, that bad connection is the issue, once I redo the connections it should be ok.

Week or so on, I replaced all the wind sensor push on fittings with new ones and soldered, rather than crimped them, and I'm still seeing the same problem. I've tested as per Raymarine specs for voltages on each of the wires at two different locations; at the converter box, and at a junction box inbetween the box and mast. And all seem to be within the correct parameters. The yellow wind speed wire should read between 0 and 5 Volts depending on wind speed, higher wind speed = higher volts. Unfortunately they don't give any voltage to wind speed scale. When I tested the other day (at anchor) it was gusting 20-25 knts and the voltage was fluctuating between say 1.5 V and 1.85 V And I only had 5-6.5 knts apparent on the readout. I have no idea if this is correct or not.

I think my next step will be to climb the mast and check the connection up there, check for continuity on the mast cable etc. before I get in touch with Raymarine again. Has anyone else experienced an issue like this, or any other ideas from the brains trust? Maybe there's something obvious that I'm missing that will save me a mast climb?












r

lydia said..
You called Raymarine for help!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Sounds like you've had a less than great experience with them? To be fair, the guy who helped me seemed good, gave me lots of time and I'm happy with the service to date.

I had a misbehaving tiller pilot and the Raymarine guys at Frenchies Forrest replaced it for me five minutes before the three year warranty ran out.
I can only speak of their service in the highest terms.

Craig, you must have had a horror run with them being so negative?

Does one need a wind instrument to sail a yacht?
Really?