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Old 23-12-2018, 16:24   #1
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Furuno FI-50x no data

I thought this would be an easy fix, but not so much.

I have a 10 year old boat, with the original instruments, but I think the plotter was replaced. The Furuno FI-50 Multi, and FI-503 digital instrument only show dashed lines for all readings. Wind, speed, depth, temp, all dashes. The boat also has a Furuno GP-32 GPS unit that used to feed the Raymarine C80 plotter. The plotter no longer receives GPS data. I believe the GPS output and the C80 plotter run on 0183, and there is a Simrad AT10 NMEA 2000/0183 bridge installed. The only thing that works is the FI-501 wind instrument, as it has the transducer connected directly to it, and only requires power.

Unfortunately nothing is marked and all cables seem to head down into the abyss.

I've been trying to isolate the problem by eliminating variables. First was the lever-lock terminals they used instead of micro-c connectors. I installed field service connectors on two cables, one of which I believe is the DST-800 transducer. I replaced the short cable from the FI-50 at the nav station with a proper cable. Then I connected (nothing is installed, just temporarily connected until I find the problem) a power cable/tee to a 4 gang backbone connector, with a terminating resistor on one end. Then a cable from the tee to the helm with the FI-501 and FI-503. No joy. Then I eliminated the helm instruments and hooked up the speed/depth transducer and the appropriate terminating resistor to the FI-50 at the nav station. No joy. And so on. I've tried every combination I can think of, and nothing is working. If I can get just one of them working I can build on it from there, but so far I'm stumped. A also tried turning off the internal resistors in the instruments, and using terminating resistors on the backbone tee, as required for whatever configuration I was trying to make work.

Ideas?
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Old 24-12-2018, 00:32   #2
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Re: Furuno FI-50x no data

Create a seperate nmea 2k bus between dst800 and the fi50. Power it seperately with a temporary setup. Terminate each end of the bus. Go to the setup on the fi50 and see if it sees the dst.
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Old 24-12-2018, 06:49   #3
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Re: Furuno FI-50x no data

Thought I did that before, but I did it again just in case. No dice.

Then I set it up as a stand alone unit with no bus. Power in one port, DST800 in the other. Nothing. Tried various terminator configurations, both with the internal (what the book shows for stand alone) and external. I also tried having the internal terminator turned on, and the external terminator in line. Nothing.
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Old 24-12-2018, 12:36   #4
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Re: Furuno FI-50x no data

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tornadosailing View Post
Thought I did that before, but I did it again just in case. No dice.

Then I set it up as a stand alone unit with no bus. Power in one port, DST800 in the other. Nothing. Tried various terminator configurations, both with the internal (what the book shows for stand alone) and external. I also tried having the internal terminator turned on, and the external terminator in line. Nothing.
There are two terminators on an n2k bus. One at each end. The instruments are then drop lines off the main bus.
If the Fi50 powers on, then the bus is getting power, as it gets its power from the bus. Is the dst800 in the water?
Is the fi50 set to display STW, not SOG? Pull the dst800 and manually spin the wheel.
Maybe the cable is bad on the dst800. Unlikely that all 3 functions are dead. The temperature on these are flaky.
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Old 24-12-2018, 13:50   #5
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Re: Furuno FI-50x no data

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul L View Post
There are two terminators on an n2k bus. One at each end. The instruments are then drop lines off the main bus.
If the Fi50 powers on, then the bus is getting power, as it gets its power from the bus. Is the dst800 in the water?
Is the fi50 set to display STW, not SOG? Pull the dst800 and manually spin the wheel.
Maybe the cable is bad on the dst800. Unlikely that all 3 functions are dead. The temperature on these are flaky.
The DST800 is in the water. I haven't pulled it yet. Not sure how much good that will do since removing it from the network doesn't cause the rest of the system to come alive. I have cycled through all functions on the FI-503 and FI-504, and all functions have dashed lines indicating no data for that function.

The instruments have an internal terminator that can be switched on or off in the setup. I have tried using the internal terminators as they were, and switching them off and using an external terminator. This has to be a communication problem, not a sensor issue, as I have lost all three functions of the DST, wind readings other than on the FI-501 wind instrument, and GPS data to the plotter. I tried eliminating the DST as a sensor, and I tried using it as the only sensor. I tried to communicate wind data between the FI-501 at the helm and the FI-503 right next to it, and between either helm instrument and the FI-504 at the nav station, and with various terminator configurations, internal or external, and the external terminators both attached at the backbone, or the external at the other terminal of the FI-501.

One thing that I found odd is that there was a 120 ohm resistor going from the terminal block from the blue wires to the white wires. This would act as a termination resistor, which is fine, except that the internal resistors were turned on at the FI-503 at the helm and at the FI-504 at the nav station. This would have given me 3 terminators in the system. With nothing to lose, I tried that as well, putting together a combination of 3 terminators between the internal and external, and tried this with various combinations of the three instruments. Still, the only thing that works is the FI-501 which gets direct input from the wind transducer.
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Old 24-12-2018, 15:10   #6
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Re: Furuno FI-50x no data

Termination on an n2k network is not a random process. The ends of the backbone each need 1 terminator. If the instrument drop is the end of the backbone then it can use an internal terminator, if not then no internal terminator. Download the nmea2000 guide at furunousa.com for info.
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Old 24-12-2018, 15:33   #7
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Re: Furuno FI-50x no data

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul L View Post
Termination on an n2k network is not a random process. The ends of the backbone each need 1 terminator. If the instrument drop is the end of the backbone then it can use an internal terminator, if not then no internal terminator. Download the nmea2000 guide at furunousa.com for info.
I realize where the terminations are supposed to go, which is why I was surprised to see terminators activated on two instruments as well as the resistor at the terminal blocks. The system was working this way, until it wasn't.

I had a look at the Furuno network guide. Good info, unfortunately nothing I didn't already get from the instruction manuals, but it was much easier to understand.
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Old 26-12-2018, 13:44   #8
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Re: Furuno FI-50x no data

I also had data display issues on an FI-30 based system (displaying dashes only). I eventually found that the server was getting very hot on a small section of the circuit board. If I blew on the circuit board to cool it the data would display again. Typical voltage at the server when the batteries were charging was 14v and although this is well within the range of tolerance for the server I installed a DC - DC voltage regulator so that only 12v would be presented to the server ... problem solved for around $20. I've not had any issues at all since.



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