Hi Jani,
That could be the solution!
I was out this weekend and it was pretty rough weather. Hard wind, light
fog and hard rain. At one stage the fog was getting worse and so did the
waves. That was when the error message came. I pressed CLR and expected
everything to work again (usally 30 seconds to 2 minutes) but was
surpised to see that the GPS coordinates where blinking.
At that stage being without GPS was worse than radar. I turned off the
radar and 1-2 minutes later I had GPS connection again.
I guess I have to disasemble everything and check cables etc.
Thanks for the tip
I just as well might take some time to describe the problem a litle bit
more. When the problem occur I can see the radar starting to spread out
over the screen as it moves. Its like the radar info is frozen but the
spinning indicator continues to move. When it has gone one rotation on
the screen I see the exact same info everywhere on the radar screen,
repeated around the full circle. A second or two later the error message
pops up and I have to press CLR. Very shortly after pressing CLR
everything is working, including the radar. Often just a couple of
seconds after pressing CLR.
I guess this indicates that the radar is not moving OR that the radar is
moving but the GPS is not feeding cords and thus the radar hickups and
fail..
What do people think about how sturdy a radar mount needs to be? Is my
assumption correct that it could cause a problem with instability or is
it a fact that radomes are constructed to work under rough conditions
and therefore do not really care if the mount is a little "loose".
Might it be the case that the bouncing of the boat prevents the radar
from turning properly? In that case I can use the radome as a table or a
frisbie or something else not realted to marine activities during rough
sea.
Cheers
david
flying sailor wrote:
David Rinnan kirjoitti:
Hi all,
I have a problem with my simrad 2kw radome. I tend to get a message
along the lines of "heading lost connection" or similar. I have to
press "CLR" to get back to receiving mode.
The problem only occur when the sea is rough and this is why I am
considering the mount being the faulty parameter. I had a quick email
correspondance with Simrad but they did not seem to be on top of
things and suggested I send in the units for software upgrade. Could
this be the problem?
Considering how important the radar is I have been very close to just
throwing the simrad over board and bying something else (i got the
simrad stuff with my boat).
I would however be very sad if I buy a new radar just to discover that
the mounting is the problem.
I should add that the boat is a Nordstar Patrol 28. You can see an
image from the manufacturer via this link.
http://www.nordstar.fi/img/ns28patrol/1.jpg
My radar is mounted on the port side of the pole next to the port
lantern. The pole is heavy duty BUT it can be tilted for the boat to
pass under bridges or during winter storage. This is why you can see
the ropes (pardon my french here but im from sweden and my
boat-english is crap) from the roof to the pole. The ropes can be
tightened pretty hard but it is impossible to tighten so much that the
pole dont move. The "ropes" on the sides are similar to what you see
on a sail boat with very good tightening screws and its metal wires
with plastic on the outside. The forward rope is actually just a
rope.. but the rope goes trough a wheel making it possible to tighten
pretty hard. I am considering changing the rope to a wire with a
similar tightening mechanism as on the sides (might have to add a
sturdier mount on the roof for that to work though).
Saying that the pole moves is bit of an exageration.. but I guess it
"moves" more than if it couldnt be tilted.
I dont know what I am getting at here.. but my thinking is that given
the bouncing and jumping arround with a boat in heavy sea - shouldnt
the radar be able to cope with that without loosing its bearing or
connection? The pole might not be as sturdy as if it was fixed but
that litle extra movement should be able to create this much problem, or?
3rd option. can it be that the GPS signal is somewhat lossy and this
is the cause for the problem. the error message does state that it
looses bearing. I dont have a separate electronic compass installed
yet so the radar is relying on the GPS for bearing.
Ok friends, 3 options available - which one do you think is the cause
for my problems?
I have Simrad CR34 as the main unit and a slave station DS44 indoors.
A separate power box for the radar, a 2kw radome.
I just found a place where I could upload my own pic where you can see
my mounting of the radome.
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/694...657copyyp0.jpg
Thanks and safe boating to you all
regards
david
PS note the outside "flybridge" driving possition that is possible on
this boat. That is why the radome is not mounted on the roof. Ds
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lost Bearing, bearing pulse error etc. sounds to me like loose
connection with the cable connecting transmitter and display unit. I
would check the cable connections inside the radome at first.
Secondly it could also refer to power outage at the transmitter, I have
encountered this problem with both Raymarine and Simrad radars. Mostly
it occurs in sailing boats when battery level is getting lower but is
still enough to power the display. Only thing you get is the lost
bearing pulse which means that antenna is not rotating.
But back in to your case, with rough seas loose cables inside connectors
can cause this problem. Try to pull each wire separately to see wheter
they come out, but better if there is warranty you can let others do it.
/Jani