[CA] [CA11] eS78 freezing after upgrade to LH III, charts not showing after downgrading

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I recently purchased an eS78 (new) and an eS97 (“used”, but in original box, and all cables were still in bags), both running Lighthouse II. I intend to use these with a Quantum 2 radar, which I understand requires Lighthouse III to give the Doppler features. I’m getting everything set up on our dining room table using a 12V power supply and fuse block, before installing on the boat.

Following Chuck’s very useful directions, I upgraded to LH III by putting raymarine_atom-3.8.105.upgrade.iso on a card, and going through the Maintenance menu to upgrade. This worked well. I then tried to upgrade the cartography by putting the ray_mfd_AtomCartographyRX5v1_22.upgrade.iso on the microSD card. I’m not sure what you are supposed to do after this, since I went through the menus and did not see any option for updating cartography. Anyway, LH III came up and all looked good.

But, after scrolling around and zooming a bit with the Lighthouse charts, the display update seemed very slow, and then the eS78 froze, not responding to any touches or control inputs. After a minute or so, the unit rebooted. Repeat, same thing several times.

So I downgraded to LH II again using Chuck’s excellent instructions. The upgrade seemed to go well, however the chart app just displays either all black, or blue squares containing “Level: 8”, “Longitude: x” and Latitude: y”. But, I have not had it freeze now that its back on LH II.

More data: I swapped the Navionics chart card from the eS97 to the eS78, and it seems to scroll and zoom OK. Also, if I connect the with RayNet, they both display Navionics OK. Finally, the eS97 displays the Lighthouse charts just fine, so the problem is not a corrupt Lighthouse chart microSD.

I would really like to be able to upgrade/downgrade these units without fear of making them useless!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Gregg

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Gregg,

After populating the microSD memory card with the raymarine_atom-3.8.105.upgrade.iso file and then updating the MFD's software, this microSD memory card should be removed from the MFD's memory card reader, the raymarine_atom-3.8.105.upgrade.iso file should be deletedfrom the microSD memory card, the ray_mfd_AtomCartographyRX5v1_22.upgrade.iso file (contains the base word maps for Navionics, C-Map, LightHouse, and Weather) should be copied to the microSD memroy card, the microSD memory card should be inserted into the MFD's memory card reader, and finally the MFD should be commanded to check the card for updates. After the updates have been completed, it would be recommended that the MFD be commanded to perform a Factory Reset (HOME->SETTINGS->THIS DISPLAY->FACTORY RESET).

Finally, should one not find the performance of LightHouse 3 on an eS/gS-Series MFD, then the MFDs software may be downgraded to LightHouse II v19.03 as long as the system does not additionally feature an Axiom/Axiom Pro/Axiom XL MFD. As with the recommendation to perform a Factory Reset when upgrading from LightHouse II to LightHouse 3, it is similarly recommended that a System Settings & Data Reset be performed if downgrading from LightHouse 3 to LightHouse II.

BTW - the release of LightHouse 3 v3.9.x may occur as early as Monday or Tuesday of next week. Accordingly, should you not be using the boat this weekend, then you may want to wait for this update rather continuing with this process.

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Chuck,

Thanks for the heads up about LH III version 3.9! I did download it today and repeated your instructions with the new version. I have upgraded/downgraded at least a half a dozen times by now, at least twice today with 3.9.46, and I have been very careful to follow your instructions. LightHouse II always works just fine. However, with LH III, my eS78 still freezes and reboots after a short period of time scrolling around in the NOAA West Coast charts. It could be a few seconds, or a minute or so, but will not stay running. When frozen, it does not respond to any touches or control inputs, and reboots after about a minute. Then I repeat the process. I’m beginning to question my sanity, as I keep doing the same things but expect a different result!

Any suggestions on how to proceed from here? I did go ahead and order the Quantum 2 radar, so I really need LH III to work.

Thanks for your help,

Gregg

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Gregg,

I have been unable to duplicate this problem on my own eS-Series MFD when running LightHouse 3 v3.9.46 software.

When this software was installed onto your eS-Series MFD, did you do it in the following manner:
- extract only the raymarine_atom-3.9.46.upgrade.iso file to the microSD card and perform the software update; and then
- delete the raymarine_atom-3.9.46.upgrade.iso file from the microSD card, extract only the ray_mfd_AtomCartographyRX5v1_22.upgrade.iso to the microSD card, and then once again perform the software update.

Should the above procedure have been performed to update the MFD's software and should the problem persist, then please respond with the following information:
- Was the problem observed with the LightHouse US NOAA Vector West Charts or with the US NOAA Raster West Charts?
- What is the publication date of the problematic charts ... this may be determined from within the Chart application (MENU->SETTINGS->CARTOGRAPHY ... examine the chart description field to the right LightHouse Charts icon?

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Chuck,

Yes, I did install the LH update and cartography separately. In fact, I've done this so many times now I bought a second uSD card so I can keep them on their own card. I also have done a factory reset after each LH update and each cartography update. The charts are

Lighthouse Charts - NOAA Vector West Coast US - 10/01/2016

Also, here is the directory listing from the chart uSD card:

Code:

Lighthouse Navigation Charts EULA 84231-1-EN.PDF
Lighthouse Navigation Charts.md5
Lighthouse_id.txt
NOAA-Vector-East-2016-10-06.rx6
NOAA-Vector-West-2016-10-06.rx6
Theyr-Weather
US-Inland-ENC_2016-10-01.rx6
config.xml
index.txt

Thanks again,

Gregg

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Gregg,

As I have been unable to duplicate the problem using the latest available LightHouse US NOAA Vector Charts (January 2019) using an eS-Series MFD, it would be recommended that the current microSD card containing your 2016 LightHouse US NOAA Vector Charts be tested within another microSD memory card reader slot of one of the eS-Series MFD to ensure that the reported issue is not potentially indicative of an intermittent microSD reader / reader slot. Should the problem persist when so tested, then your 2016 LightHouse US NOAA Vector Charts would be deemed to be incompatible with LightHouse 3 software and it would be recommended that problem be corrected by updating your LightHouse US NOAA Vector West charts:

1) the microSD card containing your LightHouse Charts be inserted into your computer's memory card reader,

2) that the the NOAA-Vector-West-2016-10-06.rx6 file be deleted from your microSD memory,

3) that the latest version of the LightHouse Manager software/url] be downloaded and installed onto your computer,

4) that you log into the [url=https://charts.raymarine.com/]Raymarine Charts Store,

5) that the NOAA Vector - West charts be purchased (they cost about as much as a lunch for one at McDonalds), and

6) that these newly purchased NOAA Vector - West charts be downloaded to your microSD memory card using the LightHouse Manager program.

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Chuck,

Well that was the answer. I upgraded my NOAA West charts, and it looks like the freezing has stopped, at least it did not appear in the time I spent panning and zooming, which was a lot longer than it had survived before. So I’m considering this problem solved!

My brand new Quantum 2 came today, and it was ridiculously easy to get everything up and running on my dining room table. I have the radar connected to the eS97 via WiFi, with the eS97 and eS78 connected by RayNet. I have the eS97 showing the charts installed in the eS78, and the eS78 showing the radar display. Very nice! Looking forward to installing on the boat.

Thanks for all your help.

Gregg

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

You're welcome.