Seeking Raymarine Raystart RS125 GPS owners in Fernandina Beach FL to
Brunswick GA

Our RS125 GPS is no longer communicating with any of our instruments. We
are trying to work through the Raymarine forum, to little effect, to
troubleshoot this device.

If you have a pole, rail, or other accessible-mount (all you have to do is
twist to remove) RS125, I'd love to be able to bring my unit to your boat to
see if it works. Replacing yours with ours and lighting up your gear would
define whether our problem was in the sensor or elsewhere - and we've not
had any success in defining as bad an "elsewhere" in our system.

If you do, and you'd be willing, drop me a line

Thanks!

L8R

Skip, still trapped in St. Marys GA

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
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When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land.
- Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
Seeking Raymarine Raystart RS125 GPS owners in Fernandina Beach FL to
Brunswick GA

Our RS125 GPS is no longer communicating with any of our instruments. We
are trying to work through the Raymarine forum, to little effect, to
troubleshoot this device.

If you have a pole, rail, or other accessible-mount (all you have to do is
twist to remove) RS125, I'd love to be able to bring my unit to your boat to
see if it works. Replacing yours with ours and lighting up your gear would
define whether our problem was in the sensor or elsewhere - and we've not
had any success in defining as bad an "elsewhere" in our system.


What communication interface does it use? The usual NMEA 0183?

If so you could hook it up to a laptop that has that connector and see if
the laptop receives any output from it. I suspect your NMEA 0183
com port has failed. Might even be a software failure and not a hardware
failure.

Have you upgraded the instrument's O/S lately. If so roll it back to
see if the com port works again.

--
Sir Gregory

----- Original Message -----
From: " Sir Gregory Hall, Esq·" åke
Newsgroups: rec.boats.cruising
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 2:38 PM
Subject: Seeking Raymarine Raystart RS125 GPS owners in Fernandina Beach
FL to Brunswick GA



What communication interface does it use? The usual NMEA 0183?

If so you could hook it up to a laptop that has that connector and see if
the laptop receives any output from it. I suspect your NMEA 0183
com port has failed. Might even be a software failure and not a hardware
failure.

Have you upgraded the instrument's O/S lately. If so roll it back to
see if the com port works again.

--
Sir Gregory


Hi, Neal,

The unit is either SeaTalk or NMEA capable. It's connected to NMEA because
my prior setup was, and it became plug-n-play for all the instruments and my
computer's serial connection by attaching to the plotter's NMEA cable.

There's no SW to this unit; it used to talk to my plotter, autopilot, and
computer; now it speaks to none of them.

I pinned out the connections between the GPS and NMEA (to the plotter,
thence onward) cables and all is as it should be between those points, but
no talking to the plotter.

There have been no changes to SW or hardware in years. The "no fix" message
happened on the way back from a sailing trip with my son and his family a
few weeks ago, and I've been wrestling with this ever since.

L8R

Skip


Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land.
- Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
----- Original Message -----
From: " Sir Gregory Hall, Esq·" åke
Newsgroups: rec.boats.cruising
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 2:38 PM
Subject: Seeking Raymarine Raystart RS125 GPS owners in Fernandina Beach
FL to Brunswick GA



What communication interface does it use? The usual NMEA 0183?

If so you could hook it up to a laptop that has that connector and see if
the laptop receives any output from it. I suspect your NMEA 0183
com port has failed. Might even be a software failure and not a hardware
failure.

Have you upgraded the instrument's O/S lately. If so roll it back to
see if the com port works again.

--
Sir Gregory


Hi, Neal,

The unit is either SeaTalk or NMEA capable. It's connected to NMEA because
my prior setup was, and it became plug-n-play for all the instruments and my
computer's serial connection by attaching to the plotter's NMEA cable.

There's no SW to this unit; it used to talk to my plotter, autopilot, and
computer; now it speaks to none of them.

I pinned out the connections between the GPS and NMEA (to the plotter,
thence onward) cables and all is as it should be between those points, but
no talking to the plotter.

There have been no changes to SW or hardware in years. The "no fix" message
happened on the way back from a sailing trip with my son and his family a
few weeks ago, and I've been wrestling with this ever since.


Sounds like you have two problems. "No fix" usually means the unit can't
find the satellites enough to get a position. This shouldn't affect the
com port. But, perhaps the com port sends nothing until a fix is obtained?

Many GPS units work that way. In lieu of sending bad info they send no
info.

If so I would examine your GPS antenna and connections. A friend of mine
had a similar problem with a Garmin unit and it tuned out to be the external
antenna had failed where the co-ax cable entered. Seems salt water corrosion
got to it. Unfortunately it was not a screw connector but hard-wired. So he
bought a new antenna and it cured the problem.

--
Sir Gregory

" Sir Gregory Hall, Esq·" åke wrote in message
...

Sounds like you have two problems. "No fix" usually means the unit can't
find the satellites enough to get a position. This shouldn't affect the
com port. But, perhaps the com port sends nothing until a fix is obtained?

Many GPS units work that way. In lieu of sending bad info they send no
info.

If so I would examine your GPS antenna and connections. A friend of mine
had a similar problem with a Garmin unit and it tuned out to be the
external
antenna had failed where the co-ax cable entered. Seems salt water
corrosion
got to it. Unfortunately it was not a screw connector but hard-wired. So
he
bought a new antenna and it cured the problem.

--
Sir Gregory


I actually misspoke. "Lost fix" is more like it. The sensor, despite it
blinking in a format which Raymarine says has it with acquired satellites,
and communicating over NMEA, isn't talking to any of my gear; it quit about
10 minutes from the dock, and hasn't been in communication since.

It seems like it must be a wiring issue, though there's nothing whatsoever
to suggest it should be that way; nothing dramatic happened which might
explain an electrical difference. Worse, at least as far as the
GPS-NMEA-plotter cable is concerned, it pins out and should be working.

Anyway, if there is anyone who responds to this (also out in all the mailing
lists and forums I'm on), we can confirm the sensor itself but swapping for
a known good installation.

L8R

Skip


--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land.
- Dr. Samuel Johnson

We believe that the unit has bitten the dust - or there's some problem which
makes it intermittent.

Yesterday, doing some other debugging suggested by RM, I had an instance of
it running NMEA sentences in and out, as seen in the diagnostics screen on
my plotter. However, by the time I'd gotten downstairs and into Terminal to
see if it was echoing down there, I had an alarm saying I'd lost position in
the plotter, and data stopped flowing.

It refused to reaquire satellites, something it's never done in our viewing
of it (green blink) so far, and took a long time to acquire after yet
another power cycle. However, that acquisition didn't lead to any input on
the diagnostics, nor reception in Terminal below. Sounds like it's dead...

But I'd still love to pop it onto someone else' setup for confirmation.
I've got RM's suggested replacement, a GPS105 from Digital Yacht (bought
through Bethel Marine in FL, great folks to work with), on the way for
tomorrow arrival. That will involve rewiring (well, making new connections
to) the NMEA inputs to the plotter and onward to the computer/autopilot, but
that's trivial.

L8R, y'all

Skip

--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land.
- Dr. Samuel Johnson
"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
Seeking Raymarine Raystart RS125 GPS owners in Fernandina Beach FL to
Brunswick GA

Our RS125 GPS is no longer communicating with any of our instruments. We
are trying to work through the Raymarine forum, to little effect, to
troubleshoot this device.

If you have a pole, rail, or other accessible-mount (all you have to do is
twist to remove) RS125, I'd love to be able to bring my unit to your boat
to see if it works. Replacing yours with ours and lighting up your gear
would define whether our problem was in the sensor or elsewhere - and
we've not had any success in defining as bad an "elsewhere" in our system.

If you do, and you'd be willing, drop me a line

Thanks!

L8R

Skip, still trapped in St. Marys GA

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land.
- Dr. Samuel Johnson

On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 11:11:46 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

It refused to reaquire satellites, something it's never done in our viewing
of it (green blink) so far, and took a long time to acquire after yet
another power cycle. However, that acquisition didn't lead to any input on
the diagnostics, nor reception in Terminal below. Sounds like it's dead...

===

Most GPS antennas these days, the ones that look like white mushrooms,
have all of the satellite circuitry built into the antenna assembly.
They receive power through the cable and transmit NMEA183 sentences
back to the plotter. I strongly suspect that your GPS antenna unit
or the cable or the connector has failed.

On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 11:11:46 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

We believe that the unit has bitten the dust - or there's some problem which
makes it intermittent.

Yesterday, doing some other debugging suggested by RM, I had an instance of
it running NMEA sentences in and out, as seen in the diagnostics screen on
my plotter. However, by the time I'd gotten downstairs and into Terminal to
see if it was echoing down there, I had an alarm saying I'd lost position in
the plotter, and data stopped flowing.

It refused to reaquire satellites, something it's never done in our viewing
of it (green blink) so far, and took a long time to acquire after yet
another power cycle. However, that acquisition didn't lead to any input on
the diagnostics, nor reception in Terminal below. Sounds like it's dead...

But I'd still love to pop it onto someone else' setup for confirmation.
I've got RM's suggested replacement, a GPS105 from Digital Yacht (bought
through Bethel Marine in FL, great folks to work with), on the way for
tomorrow arrival. That will involve rewiring (well, making new connections
to) the NMEA inputs to the plotter and onward to the computer/autopilot, but
that's trivial.

L8R, y'all

Skip

Skip,

I wonder whether you have given any consideration to what happens if
you are at sea and your gps system dies. Perhaps a small gps that
reads lat. and Lon. and a large scale chart might be a useful thing to
have if all else fails.
--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

"Bruce in bangkok" wrote in message
...

Skip,

I wonder whether you have given any consideration to what happens if
you are at sea and your gps system dies. Perhaps a small gps that
reads lat. and Lon. and a large scale chart might be a useful thing to
have if all else fails.
--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

Hi,

We have a handheld Garmin eTrex Venture with a serial cord, and the
ubiquitous usb (prolific usb-to-serial) puck and both work on the computer(s
in the case of the puck - the laptop doesn't have any serial ports).

We always use paper charts as well as electronic (in whatever form) and
could easily (well, tediously easy) mark our locations as we went. Indeed,
that's what we did when we bought the boat in FTL and moved it to St.
Petersburg, around Key West, with an ancient Garmin 75.

So, we're set up for that. Today, as long as I have to cut them anyway, I'm
going to remake the connections on the current RS125, JUST in case there's
an issue there. That it doesn't talk to our downstairs computer serial AS
WELL AS our chartplotter suggests that it's the sensor; failure to acquire,
then acquistion and sudden comms followed by failure, and another acquistion
without comms amplifies the deduction.

Indeed, in my reading (beyond the RM recommendation) I found that these (and
the sister 120s) units seem to be failing at a great rate. Since there are
many who used them in non-RM applications (so SeaTalk wasn't of use), as RM
didn't want to make a replacement, they've referred folks off to where I got
mine (well, to the unit, not the vendor - but, FYI, it's Bethel Marine, in
FL, with great prices and a great attitude to boot) - which I think is very
good customer service. Best, it's about half or less than the RS125,
wherever you can find NOS, and way less than I paid in an open-box eBay
purchase several years ago.

Thanks for the concern.

L8R

Skip

--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land.
- Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 11:11:46 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

It refused to reaquire satellites, something it's never done in our viewing
of it (green blink) so far, and took a long time to acquire after yet
another power cycle. However, that acquisition didn't lead to any input on
the diagnostics, nor reception in Terminal below. Sounds like it's dead...

===

Most GPS antennas these days, the ones that look like white mushrooms,
have all of the satellite circuitry built into the antenna assembly.
They receive power through the cable and transmit NMEA183 sentences
back to the plotter. I strongly suspect that your GPS antenna unit
or the cable or the connector has failed.



Copy cat!!!