Digital Radom reboots but only when gain is in offshore mode

[jscname]

I have a digital 4K radome connected through seatalk hs to two E120 (2008) and the radar was constantly shutting down and giving me “no data source” or another error like no array (can’t remember the exact error message) and then would restart the warmup process and the crash right after I turned it to transmit. So I put the vessel on shore power charged up the batteries and even replaced them, and still the same issue. Checked all the connections and voltage and everything was up to spec. I was messing with the settings and changed the gain to auto and put in harbor mode from offshore and it be became stable. I used for a few days and no issues. I went out fishing last night and changed to offshore and it started crashing and rebooting. I then changed the gain back to harbor mode and it ran fine... so I am at a loss where the gremlin is on this? I am also not convinced running it in harbor mode is the answer or that it will not show up there at some point.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Jon

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Jon,

We have to rule out power via a more specific method. Please click here to view a FAQ addressing this subject. Should the problem be duplicated under the conditions specified within the FAQ with the radar configured to OFFSHORE, then the radome has suffered a circuitry failure necessitating that it be Raymarine’s Product Repair Center to be bench checked / serviced.

[jscname]

thanks Chuck, I will check it out this weekend. In the meantime I ran the boat in Harbour mode only and after about two hours it crashed and I got the “no data source” and it would randomly restart and crash and finally gave up the ghost and would not restart...then I let it sit for a couple of hours and it ran fine until I had to leave, so not exclusive to mode. A few other things I checked and the results below if it changes your recommendation at all:

1. I ran the systems diagnostics and under devices the radar did not show up, but on the seatalk HS switch the data light for the radar was blinking and under radar setup menu it still showed the 4kw radar.
2. Ran the scanner self test and the cables test data showed a failure but then the radar started to warm up on its own and once it was warmed up it switched to pass. Then after it crashed again a shp sensor failure showed but again after it warmed up then switched back to pass. At one point both were showing as failure and then changed to pass after warmup (might have been after I pressed transmit).

So let’s assume I don’t get the right voltage at the array, is it as simple as replacing the cable? If I do get the right voltage it’s off to the bench.

Thanks,

Jon

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Jon,

Digital Radar Cable failures are a rare occurrence unless the cable has been modified. The communications protocol between the MFD and Digital/HD Digital Radomes is Ethernet and may be verified using common Ethernet testers or by performing a test bypass of the Ethernet portion of the cable. This would be accomplished by obtaining an appropriate length of Ethernet Cable an then connecting the cable between the SeaTalkhs Network Switch and the female RJ45 socket inside of the radome. The most common failure points are:
- power
- communications ... as the system feature a SeaTalkhs Network Switch, it is recommended that the switch's female sockets for signs of corrosion and to then replace the switch with a HS5 RayNet Network Switch (cables will need to be adapted) should corrosion be found.