[CA] [CA11] New Raymarine system & questions . . .

[Martin35]

Chuck,

1. The i50 depth, i50 speed/temp, and i60 are all set as repeaters. I did that on the day of the initial install. And although you didn’t mention it, I am making sure that the boat batteries are fully charged. I’ve been running the battery charger periodically as I would expect low voltage could cause problems. But I wanted you to know that is not an issue. Plus when testing/using the Ray system I keep shore power turned off as it would be when sailing and to eliminate potential interference as an issue.

2. The wind transducer does not appear to be the problem. Today I am getting wind speed and direction consistently on the Axiom 7 and i70s and the data appears accurate. If the wind transducer was defective I would not be getting any data at either instrument, correct? The problem, I think, is elsewhere.

3. Today I had wind speed and direction, plus depth, data on the i70s and Axiom 7. But Initially no data on the i60 or i50 speed/temp instruments. There was data on the i50 depth, but not initially. Then it kicked in after a while.

4. Per your recommendation, I reconnected every connection on the backbone and spurs. Third time this has been done. Including all transducer connections on the ITC5. Also checked to make sure no stray wires, not even a strand, touching anything else on the ITC5. Re the blue backbone terminators, two are installed correctly, one at each end of the backbone. And I checked all backbone cables, no visible signs of damage, plenty of length for strain relief. The Beneteau is set up with internal conduits and routing for cables as built so I was able to follow existing cable routes and didn’t have to force fit the backbone cables through any tight openings or tug on them.

After doing all of this there was no change, same problems.

5. Troubleshooting, I thought to check software. I inserted the microSd card and ran the update. The only item the Axiom automatically selected was the ITC5. Remember that yesterday I had already updated everything including the ITC5. The reason I decided to check software again was that the ITC5 LEDs for wind and speed were blinking now, previously they were steady after the software update yesterday. After updating the ITC5 again, a system restart, I had analog data again on i60 wind, i50 speed, i50 depth. LEDs are now steady. Turned everything off, went to lunch thinking problems solved. Then, turned back on again in about an hour and there was only data on Axiom, i70s and i50 depth. No data on i60 wind or i50 speed/temp. But LEDs were steady on the ITC5 for all 3 analog instruments.

Would it make sense to try daisy-chaining the i60 and the 2 i50s to see if that produces a different result? I followed your earlier recommendation so that each now is on its own spur.

6. It seems to me that the ITC5 is erratic. I refresh the software for it and then things work for a while. I turn the system off, and then the problems reappear when I turn it back on. It’s as if the ITC5 prom memory disappears or is corrupted when powered off. That is the second time that has happened.

I need to move the boat in the next few days about 30 miles to it’s permanent slip so can’t deal with removing the ITC5 and sending it away for a couple of weeks to be “tested”. I will probably end up buying a new ITC5 locally instead to see if that solves the problem.


Martin